During this one-on-one interview, a part of the Oncology Stakeholders Summit, Spring 2015 series, Richard W. Joseph, MD, notes that the armamentarium of agents for the treatment of cancers such as metastatic melanoma is growing. Dr Joseph also explains the rationale for getting patients with melanoma on immunotherapy.
Dr Joseph, an assistant professor in the division of medical oncology at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, discusses the difference in treatment outcomes for immunotherapies versus targeted therapies and explains that while targeted therapies and immunotherapies are both main options in metastatic melanoma, most medical oncologists prefer to treat their patients with immunotherapy.
“Immunotherapies are the only therapies that are going to cause long, durable remissions,” he says.
Unfortunately, due to a lack of data, healthcare professionals do not have much guidance on whether to begin treatment with immunotherapy or a targeted therapy, explains Dr Joseph. Currently, clinicians make treatment decisions based on disease severity. Patients with less symptomatic disease start with immunotherapy, whereas patients with bulky disease start with a targeted agent, then transition to immunotherapy.
Dr Joseph further discusses the potential of immunotherapy in the treatment of bulky disease, and expressed the hope that newer agents that work more rapidly, and the use of combination therapy, may be more effective in treating bulky disease.
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
STEER Data Open Door to SMA Gene Therapy for Wider Age Range of Children
March 19th 2025Delivery of onasemnogene abeparvovec into the intrathecal space was safe and effective for children with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) aged 2 to 17 years, who had previously been shut out of receiving gene therapy.
Read More