Articles

San Diego, CA—Two studies, one in melanoma and one in non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), presented at the 2014 American Association for Can­-cer Research meeting attempted to correlate response to the anti–programmed cell death (PD)-1 inhibitor MK-3475 with the biomarker PD-L1. The hope is that the level of PD-L1 expression will be a biomarker for the selection of patients for treatment with this new agent.

Studies with the tyrosine kinase inhibitor crizotinib (Xalkori) have shown significant improvement in clinical outcomes for the treatment of echinoderm microtubule-associated protein-like 4 and anaplastic lymphoma kinase (EML4-ALK) fusion-positive non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), but researchers recently questioned its cost-effectiveness.

Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) are the preferred treatment option for patients with advanced non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who have tested positive for EGFR mutations, because of better outcomes than conventional chemotherapy.

Non–small-cell lung cancer (NSC LC) harboring anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) rearrangement is sensitive to the ALK inhibitor crizotinib (Xalkori). Despite initial responses to crizotinib, resistance ultimately occurs. In preclinical studies, ceritinib (Zykadia), a novel, oral adenosine triphosphate–competitive inhibitor of the ALK tyrosine kinase, has shown greater antitumor potency than crizotinib.

San Diego, CA—A multitargeted kinase inhibitor met criteria for a phase 3 clinical trial in breast cancer after statistical modeling of clinical data showed a high probability of success versus standard therapy for patients with HER2-positive/hormone receptor (HR)-negative (HER2+/HR–) disease.

San Diego, CA—Almost 50% of patients with metastatic renal-cell carcinoma (mRCC) had objective responses to third-line treatment with the angiogenesis inhibitor pazopanib, according to the results of a small clinical trial reported at the 2014 American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting.

San Diego, CA—Preliminary results suggest that an investigational antibody-drug conjugate called DEDN-6526A (Seattle Genetics, Genentech) has activity against melanoma, including cutaneous, mucosal, and ocular melanoma, which is considered difficult to treat. The new drug comes on the heels of trastuzumab emtansine, the first antibody-drug conjugate approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of breast cancer.

Los Angeles, CA—The cost of cancer care is a major cost driver for payers, who are actively engaging in the management of this complex disease state. Payer approaches to cancer care continue to evolve, with new reimbursement methodologies key to maintaining affordability, said Gary M. Owens, MD, President, Gary Owens Associates, Ocean View, DE, and John Fox, MD, MHA, Senior Medical Director and Associate Vice President of Medical Affairs, Priority Health, Grand Rapids, MI, at the Fourth Annual Conference of the Association for Value-Based Cancer Care.

The total annual cost of mammography screening for women aged 40 to 85 years in the United States is estimated to be $7.8 billion, according to a new analysis (O’Donoghue C, et al. Ann Intern Med. 2014;160:145-153). That is $4.3 billion more than the cost would be if mammography intervals were lowered to fall in line with the recommendations of the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), the study researchers calculated.

Value Propositions for May 2014.