Latest Conference Articles

Committees for Via Oncology meet frequently to update pathway platforms and support the growing needs of physicians, according to Kathleen Lokay.

Dan Klein, president and CEO of the Patient Access Network (PAN) Foundation, lists possible policy changes that would strengthen the safety net.

It’s important to emphasize that this is not an opioid crisis, it’s a prescription opioid crisis, said Sean C. Dowdy, MD, chair, division of gynecologic surgery, department of obstetrics and gynecology, Mayo Clinic.

Government programs, especially Medicare, are stuck in the past and are not designed to accommodate advancements in modern technology, said Ed F. Haislmaier, the Preston A. Wells Jr senior research fellow at the Institute for Family Community, and Opportunity at The Heritage Foundation.

Physicians using molecular therapies need to be educated on where the therapies are best used during treatment, and patients need to understand that the radiation is safe for those around them, said Joe O'Sullivan, MD, FRCR, clinical professor, School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences, Queen's University Belfast.

All members of the care team can get burned out, not just the physicians, explained Tom Gallo, president of the Association of Community Cancer Centers.

Gail Wilensky PhD, senior fellow at Project HOPE, addresses the shift to value-based care over the years and what can be done to keep moving forward.

Thomas LeBlanc, MD, of the Duke Cancer Institute, discusses how palliative care has evolved over the past decade for patients with blood cancers.

Children's healthcare is more than just the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). The area of children's health policy is one that is largely misunderstood, said Sara Rosenbaum, JD, the Harold and Jane Hirsh Professor of Health Law and Policy and founding chair of the Department of Health Policy at the Milken Institute School of Public Health, George Washington University.

Leigh Purvis, director of Health Services Research at AARP Public Policy Institute, discusses future policies that will relieve Medicare beneficiaries from some of their expensive out-of-pocket costs.

A clear majority of patients with cancer experience some sort of financial hardship, and the cost of care is something that weighs on the minds of patients and their families right from the moment of diagnosis, said Todd Yezefski, MD, senior fellow in the Clinical Research Division at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and Division of Medical Oncology at the University of Washington.

Patients benefiting from federally qualified health centers tend to be sicker than the general population, but there are also disparities by state, explained M. Kristina Wharton, MPH, of the Department of Global Health Management and Policy at Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine.

With more oncology patients receiving oral therapies, the pharmacist plays an important role in patient education and follow-up, said Stacey McCullough, PharmD, senior vice president of pharmacy at Tennessee Oncology.

mTOR is a very promising pathway because it’s so central in growth, migration, and survival of bladder cancer cells, explained Donna Hansel, MD, PhD, chief, anatomic pathology, UC San Diego.

On the closing day of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) 23rd Annual Conference in Orlando, Florida, Bijal Shah, MD, of Moffitt Cancer Center, presented on acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), and on the lessons learned from the application of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy in this indication.

High costs in cancer care not only affects treatment outcomes for patients, but also their overall quality of life, explained Michele McCourt, senior director of the CancerCare Co-Payment Assistance Foundation.

Dan Klein, President and CEO, Patient Access Network Foundation, discusses how the lack of a limit on cost sharing in Medicare affects patient outcomes and disease states that PAN Foundation is keeping an eye on.

At the Society of Gynecologic Oncology’s 2018 Annual Meeting on Women’s Cancer, 1 abstract found Patient-Centered Oncology Payment model would yield savings if hospitalizations were reduced, while another abstract piloted a scoring system for financial toxicity in gynecological cancers.

The lead researcher said the study could lead to women being given a statin as soon as they are diagnosed with endometrial cancer.

Oliver Dorigo, MD, PhD, associate professor, obstetrics and gynecology, Stanford University Medical Center, discusses the use of PARP inhibitors and immunotherapy in gynecologic cancers.

William Cliby, MD, consultant, division of gynecologic surgery, department of obstetrics & gynecology, Mayo Clinic, discusses predictors of overall outcomes and survival in patients with ovarian cancer.

The use of immune checkpoint inhibitors has revolutionized the treatment of cancer, said John A. Thompson, MD, of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, but “With this good news has come some not so good news”: immune-related adverse events can cause serious harm to patients receiving these drugs.

Much about using PARP inhibitors is open to debate, starting with what kind of genetic test to give before using them. Combination therapies are the next frontier, according to an expert panel.

Jim Schwartz, RPh, president of the National Community Oncology Dispensing Association and executive director of pharmacy operations for Texas Oncology, discusses how his practice will handle using CAR T-cell therapies to treat patients.

One in 5 parents of boys said the main reason that they haven’t vaccinated their sons for HPV was because they didn’t receive a recommendation for the vaccination, compared with 1 in 10 girls, said Anna Beavis, MD, MPH, a gynecologic oncologist fellow at Johns Hopkins University.

Approximately 60% of patients with endometrial cancer are obese, explained Victoria Bae-Jump, MD, PhD, associate professor, gynecologic oncology, University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Uptake for the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination has never reached CDC targets. Minority children from lower-income households are more likely to get the vaccination than white children from higher-income households, according to the study author.

An educational session helps oncologists understand the decision-making process for selecting treatments for recurrent ovarian cancer.

Having healthcare professionals with different sets of experiences or different training can help create better solutions and improve patient outcomes, explained Scott Page, PhD, the Leonid Hurwicz Collegiate Professor of Complex Systems, Political Science, and Economics at the University of Michigan.

Clinical trials, and offering patients support to take part in them, can extend lives of patients with ovarian cancer, according to a researcher from the Medical College of Georgia. But another analysis finds that gynecologial cancers are low on the government's funding priority list.