Articles

San Francisco, CA—In a population of patients with metastatic breast cancer and Medicare Part D claims, the mean lifetime cost of treatment was approximately $102,000, according to a study presented at the 2013 Breast Cancer Symposium by Hope S. Rugo, MD, Director, Breast Oncology Clinical Trials Program, University of California, San Francisco.

San Francisco, CA—Management of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) was the focus of 2 studies highlighted at a press conference before the 2013 Breast Cancer Symposium.

San Francisco, CA—At the 2013 Breast Cancer Symposium, Lawrence N. Shulman, MD, Senior Vice President for Medical Affairs, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, told oncologists that in the current era of healthcare reform, they will need to think beyond treatment outcomes, toxicities, and personal preferences.

Amsterdam, The Netherlands—The novel ALK/EGFR inhibitor known as AP26113 achieved good responses in reducing brain metastases in patients with crizotinib (Xalkori)-resistant and crizotinib-nave non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), as well as radiographic regression of central nervous system (CNS) metastases.

Amsterdam, The Netherlands—The antibody-conjugate ado-trastuzumab emtansine (Kadcyla), also known as T-DM1, prolonged progression-free survival (PFS) in advanced HER2-positive breast cancer in a heavily pretreated population, according to the final results of the phase 3 clinical trial TH3RESA.

Amsterdam, The Netherlands—Although much progress has been made in cancer care over the past couple of decades, a report presented at the 2013 European Cancer Congress emphasizes that on a global scale, the impact is far from equitable.

A team of researchers at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute, led by Robert Wechsler-Reya, PhD, Professor at Sanford-Burnham’s National Cancer Institute (NCI)-Designated Cancer Center and Director of the Tumor Initiation and Maintenance Program, discovered that they can block the rapid growth of cancerous brain cells by using small-molecule inhibitors.

Researchers have identified new molecular markers—microribonucleic acids (RNAs)—that, combined with their target genes, are believed to be able to identify which breast cancer will metastasize to the brain.

The cost of cancer care has become a frequent topic of conversation in oncology conferences and publications, as well as among other stakeholders, including patients and payers. In a recent editorial published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, David G. Pfister, MD, Chief, Head and Neck Oncology Service, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, joined the discussion, acknowledging previous discussions related to the cost of cancer drugs and the notion that the status quo in drug pricing allows for arbitrary setting of a price for a drug that is not necessarily based on a demonstration of true value.

In a recent guest blog on the Harvard Business Review website, Toby Cosgrove, MD, President and CEO of the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, suggested that value-based care represents a life-saving “breakthrough,” not unlike penicillin or decoding the human genome, by focusing on lowering costs and improving quality of care and outcomes as its main goals.