- Center on Health Equity & Access
- Clinical
- Health Care Cost
- Health Care Delivery
- Insurance
- Policy
- Technology
- Value-Based Care
Most Common Treatment for Prostate Cancer Not Best Value
External beam radiation is the most toxic and expensive among common prostate cancer treatments over the long-term, a national registry study suggested.
Although it's one of the most common treatments for Medicare patients with prostate cancer, external beam radiation had the highest 16-year cumulative risk of serious gastrointestinal and genitourinary problems compared with surgery and brachytherapy, Jay Ciezki, MD, of the Cleveland Clinic, and colleagues found.
External beam radiation also cost twice as much as either of the other treatments when adding up initial treatment plus management of complications, he reported at a press briefing ahead of presentation at the Genitourinary Cancers Symposium here.
The average cost per patient-year was $6,412 with external radiation versus $3,206 with open prostatectomy and $2,557 for brachytherapy (P<0.0001).
Read more about this study at: http://tinyurl.com/83qzpsx
Source: MedPage Today
NCCN Data Find Racial, Socioeconomic Disparities in Quality of Care for Metastatic Pancreatic Cancer
April 9th 2025New data from the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) reveal that socially vulnerable and minority patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer are less likely to receive recommended treatments and achieve longer survival.
Read More
Varied Access: The Pharmacogenetic Testing Coverage Divide
February 18th 2025On this episode of Managed Care Cast, we speak with the author of a study published in the February 2025 issue of The American Journal of Managed Care® to uncover significant differences in coverage decisions for pharmacogenetic tests across major US health insurers.
Listen
Comparing Breast Cancer Treatment Outcomes Between Fee-for-Service and Medicare Advantage
April 4th 2025This study examined postdiagnosis breast cancer treatment outcomes for Medicare Advantage vs fee-for-service (FFS) Medicare in Ohio and found no significant differences overall but disparities for Black patients with FFS Medicare.
Read More
