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Investment in research on viral vectors to deliver anticancer agents is providing returns, the CEO of Oncolytics will affirm. However, the road is treacherous.

The buzz words, wherever you turn to in healthcare today, are "value," "patient-centered," "quality." The question remains, how are these elements being incorporated in practice by the healthcare industry, and is the patient engaged in these discussions?

Incentives in employee wellness programs, especially penalties, can hurt morale and lead to legal action. But without incentives, there's no guarantee the employer will see healthcare savings and return on investment.

In a related commentary in the same issue, Mark S. Talamonti, MD, of the NorthShore University HealthSystem, wrote, "With an aging population, this most formidable of human cancers will only increase in incidence and frequency. There is a clear and unequivocal need for affordable screening strategies based on reliable biomarkers and efficient imaging modalities."

A neurooncology research team identified that the transcription factor Id4 can suppressor glioblastoma invasion by preventing the expression of a matrix degrading enzyme.

Although the Affordable Care Act has helped more people gain access to healthcare coverage, including those with pre-existing conditions such as cancer, the survey by the Cancer Support Community found that the cost of care is still too high for many cancer patients.

The study found that the greater the gap between high-income individuals and low-income individuals within a community, the larger the gap in testing.

The amount of care provided in California emergency departments for non-injuries, like complex, chronic conditions has increased, according to a study led by the University of California, San Francisco.

The study, presented at the Society of Surgical Oncology Cancer Symposium, found that palliative surgery in patients with advanced cancers can relieve pain with minimal morbidity.

The study's lead author said delays in melanoma surgery were more common than expected, and the team at Yale School of Medicine is looking into explanations. Right now, there is no "gold standard" for how long it should take between a diagnosis and excision.

While the Canadian health authorities acted swiftly to pull some of these supplements off the shelf, the FDA has been slow to react over the years. This article in The New York Times digs deep to understand why.

The study authors say their findings indicate that the cost of breast cancer overtreatment appears to be much higher than previously estimated. Their $4 billion figure is the midpoint of a range that depends upon assumptions about the rates of false-positive mammograms and breast cancer overdiagnosis.

With 6 million people enrolling in their benefits on a private health insurance, the market has seen annual growth in excess of 100% since 2013, and forecasts don't show the trend slowing, according Accenture.

The proposed mental health parity rule will strengthen access to mental health and substance use disorder benefits for low-income Americans.

Instead of the original 0.95% rate cut for the Medicare Advantage (MA) program proposed in February, CMS announced on Monday that the MA pay rate for 2016 would be a 1.25% increase.

In a large study conducted at the University of Pennsylvania in more than 31,000 women, scientists identified regions of both BRCA1 and BRCA2 that, when mutated, confer higher risks of ovarian cancer, and other regions that confer higher risk of breast cancer.

Texas Health Resources says that because nurse Nina Pham became ill on the job, her claim is a worker's compensation matter, not one for civil court.

The retrospective study evaluated data collected between 1975 and 2011 from 2 large cancer studies that included 26 cancer centers in North America.

A test that uses gold nanoparticles to detect early-stage prostate cancer costs less than $1, returns results in minutes and is more accurate than standard PSA screening, pilot studies show.

Accountable care organizations can leverage health information technology to improve patient safety without creating alert fatigue among providers, according to a study in the Journal of Managed Care & Specialty Pharmacy.

Authors say until now, no one has reported on the discrepancies that arise when applying pediatric vs adult guidelines on young people transitioning to adulthood.

By combining, in a liposome, magnetic nanoparticles and photosensitizers that are simultaneously and remotely activated by a magnetic field and light, scientists obtained total tumor regression in mice.

The Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange sent a letter to HHS Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell on March 31 explaining that the 1-year delay for implementation of the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision may have done more harm than good.

The trial, whose results were published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, found that circulating tumor cells and lactose dehydrogenase are ideal surrogates to predict overall survival in patients with advanced prostate cancer.

Democratic-led efforts to ban vaccine exemptions in Oregon and Washington state toppled one after the other last month. Now it's California's turn to try.

Implementing a value-based drug formulary that uses cost-effectiveness analyses after safety and efficacy decreased pharmacy costs by 3% in the first year, according to a study published in the Journal of Managed Care & Specialty Pharmacy.

One day, cancer treatment regimens might include vaccines specially tailored to each patient. In a small preliminary study published in Science, researchers report successful use of these vaccines in 3 patients.

New analysis from Avalere finds that while exchanges have succeeded in enrolling very low-income individuals, they continue to struggle to attract middle and higher income enrollees.

Shigella sonnei is a strain of bacteria that causes severe diarrhea in about half a million people in the US each year. Most of the time, it's treated effectively with an antibiotic called Cipro. But that's changing, and it's bad news.

A one-minute look at managed care news during the week of March 30, 2015, including a Supreme Court ruling regarding Medicaid reimbursement and UnitedHealth buys Catamaran.