Articles

Former Senator Bill Frist, MD, opened the 2017 Cancer Center Business Summit in Las Vegas, NV, in early February, with a smile and a warning that we are in unfamiliar territory as the new Congress and the new administration move into 2017, territory that may occur only 2 or 3 times in a century. He said that, “For the first time since 1929, the GOP [the Republican Party] controls Congress, the White House, most governorships and state houses, as well as the Supreme Court.”

San Antonio, TX—Extended adjuvant endocrine therapy beyond 5 years with an aromatase inhibitor (AI) failed to improve disease-free survival (DFS) in patients with hormone receptor (HR)-positive breast cancer who were enrolled in the 3 large National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP) B-52, IDEAL, and DATA studies, which were presented at the 2016 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

San Antonio, TX—Two HER2-targeted drugs improve progression-free survival (PFS) compared with a single drug when combined with an aromatase inhibitor in patients with advanced breast cancer, as reported at the 2016 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

San Antonio, TX—The use of an investigational electronic scalp-cooling device in patients with breast cancer who had received alopecia-inducing chemotherapy resulted in reduced or no hair loss in 50% of the patients, according to results of a randomized clinical trial reported at the 2016 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. By contrast, no patient in the control group had hair preservation.

San Antonio, TX—Neoadjuvant therapy with the investigative CDK4/CDK6 inhibitor abemaciclib, alone or in combination with anastrozole (Arimidex), showed promising activity in postmenopausal hormone receptor (HR)-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer enrolled in the phase 2 NeoMONARCH study. Correlative tissue studies demonstrated that abemaciclib inhibited cell-cycle proliferation and activated the immune system, supporting its anticancer activity. Abemaciclib received a breakthrough therapy designation in 2015 as monotherapy for the treatment of patients with refractory HR-positive advanced breast cancer in heavily pretreated patients.

San Antonio, TX—The addition of the mTOR inhibitor everolimus (Afinitor) to the antiestrogen chemotherapy fulvestrant (Faslodex) led to a 2-fold increase in progression-free survival (PFS) in patients with advanced hormone receptor (HR)-positive breast cancer compared with fulvestrant alone, according to results of a randomized clinical trial presented at the 2016 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

St Louis, MO—Financial counselors can help patients find assistance with the often-prohibitive costs of cancer treatment. According to Jordan Karwedsky, a financial counselor at HSHS St Vincent Regional Cancer Center and Green Bay Oncology, Green Bay, WI, patients at these organizations saved more than $1 million on intravenous and oral chemotherapy in 2015 through copay assistance.

San Francisco, CA—Nivolumab (Opdivo) as salvage treatment significantly reduced the risk for death after second-line or later chemotherapy in patients with advanced gastric or gastroesophageal junction cancer. In a double-blind, randomized phase 3 trial, the median overall survival was improved by 37% in patients assigned to nivolumab versus placebo after previous treatment with at least 2 regimens, reported Yoon-Koo Kang, MD, PhD, Department of Oncology, Asan Medical Center, Seoul, South Korea, at the 2017 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium.

Las Vegas, NV—A panel discussion at the 2017 Cancer Center Business Summit revealed continuing gaps in the evolution of healthcare reform among providers, payers, and patients with cancer. Michael Kolodziej, MD, National Medical Director, Managed Care Strategy, Flatiron Health, New York, NY—an oncologist with experience on the provider and the payer sides—moderated the panel discussion, which offered perspectives from the trenches on healthcare reform.