Tony Hagen

Comprehensive genomic testing is not yet widespread, but a French study presented at the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting suggested that DNA profiling can be of important value in advancing personalized medicine. Patients who received molecularly targeted agents based on genomic profiles had longer 3-year and 5-year overall survival than those who did not.

IBM’s Watson for Oncology, which interprets patient data and provides treatment guidance, and Cota, which provides real-world patient data for large cohort analysis and individualized treatment guidance, will be combined in a pilot study with Hackensack Meridian Health to help oncologists make improved evidence- and outcomes-based clinical decisions for their cancer patients.

Researchers at Vanderbilt University and the University of Leeds in England have successfully performed autonomous retroflexion of a robotic capsule during colonoscopy in a subject animal.

With a vote of 217 to 213, House Republicans have passed a revised version of the American Health Care Act (AHCA), without any Democratic support, and despite strenuous opposition from the healthcare community.

Keeping patients on their oral oncology medications involves a combination of active management, record keeping, and coordination among healthcare workers, pharmacy professionals explained during a panel discussion.

Speakers at the 2017 Community Oncology Alliance (COA) annual meeting in National Harbor, Maryland, reflect on challenges in the first year of the OCM.

An April report from COA stated that PBMs have been calling patients and urging them to get their drugs from PBM-owned pharmacy networks, rather than through physician dispensaries. At this year’s Community Oncology Conference, presentations and discussions focused on this report.

Fresh concern has been ignited in the oncology community due to a set of draft recommendations for controlling price escalation in the Medicare Part B program, which covers injectable and infusion drugs. 

 According to the results of a phase I study of single agent anti-PD-L1 atezolizumab (Tecentriq) in metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (mTNBC), ten percent of patients showed impressive long-term survival, although researchers said that aside from some biomarker evidence, it’s yet unclear why the drug was more effective in this subset of patients.

A new trend in the way pharmacy benefit managers are collecting fees from pharmacy providers is driving up drug costs, gouging point-of-sale pharmacy operations, and playing havoc with spending at Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

According to a retrospective 4.5-year study of patients who had commercial and Medicare supplemental coverage, healthcare resource use and costs remain high among patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer.

Larry Norton, MD, says the so-called butterfly effect, in which a small creature can cause something on the scale of an earthquake merely by flapping its wings, is fodder for debate on whether the digital revolution in medicine can deliver on its promise for precision medicine.

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and Rep Nancy Pelosi have confirmed the demise of the Medicare Part B Drug Payment Model experiment to cut margins.

The artificial intelligence computer program Watson for Oncology (WFO) achieved a high degree of concordance with tumor board recommendations in a double-blinded validation study in Bengaluru, India, according to results presented at the 2016 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS).

The FDA has expanded the approval for bevacizumab (Avastin) in ovarian cancer to include patients with platinum-sensitive recurrent disease as part of a combination regimen with chemotherapy followed by continued use of the angiogenesis inhibitor, according to Genentech, which developed the drug.

Several practice-changing developments are on the horizon in subsets of non–small cell lung cancer.

When it comes to adverse events and duration of response, next-generation BTK inhibitors in chronic lymphocytic leukemia compare favorably with ibrutinib.

A move by CVS Health to place in-house physician dispensaries out-of-network for purposes of Medicare Part D drug payment would force hundreds of thousands of cancer patients across the country to find alternate sources for their oral oncolytic drugs, the Community Oncology Alliance (COA) argued in a new white paper.

Biologics therapy spending soared several hundred percent from 2004 to 2014; but despite rising treatment costs in general, oncology spending kept pace with spending for all categories of medical care, according to a report on Medicare and commercial data from the Community Oncology Alliance.

The kinase inhibitors sorafenib (Nexavar) and lenvatinib (Lenvima) have significantly altered the treatment paradigm for patients with advanced radioactive iodine (RAI)-refractory differentiated thyroid cancer in both older and younger populations, with combination strategies hoping to further build upon this success.

While CLL patients have lived longer with the use of B-cell pathway inhibitors, they require diligent monitoring and even potential suspension to control adverse events.

The FDA’s recent approval of the first PARP inhibitor, coupled with current research, suggests that this new class of targeted therapy has great potential to help not only patients with ovarian cancer for whom the agent is indicated but also individuals with breast cancer.