Articles

Niagara Falls, Ontario—Among men with prostate cancer and preexisting cardiovascular (CV) disease, the risk of CV events or CV-related death is cut in half when they receive androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT) with degarelix (Firmagon) instead of the luetinizing hormone–releasing hormone (LHRH) agonists goserelin (Zoladex) or leuprolide (Lupron), according to results of a new analysis presented at the 2013 Canadian Urological Association annual meeting.

Lugano, Switzerland—The genomic basis of primary central nervous system lymphoma (PCNSL), a very aggressive and incurable type of lymphoma, has not been understood until now. At the 2013 International Conference on Malignant Lymphoma, a team of researchers from the Mayo Clinic and from the University of Virginia presented its recent findings at a poster session involving the most comprehensive study to date of the genomic landscape of PCNSL.

The US Supreme Court’s ruling on June 13 in the case of the Association for Molecular Pathology v Myriad Genetics will have significant implications for the future of cancer testing, molecular diagnostics, and treatment.

>Orlando, FL—The use of patient navigators can reduce racial disparities in colorectal cancer (CRC) screening and can potentially reduce the mortality rates—and do both cost-effectively, according to studies presented at Digestive Disease Week 2013.

Hollywood, FL—End-of-life issues have advanced in a positive direction since the so-called death panel controversy of 2009, but health plans still need to promote these discussions, said J. Russell Hoverman, MD, PhD, Vice President, Quality Programs, Texas Oncology, at the Third Annual Conference of the Association for Value-Based Cancer Care.

At the Third Annual Conference of the Association for Value-Based Cancer Care, several Meet the Experts roundtable discussions addressed the hottest topics in oncology.

Hollywood, FL—Pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) will soon have the new challenge of dealing with the confusion of biosimilars, according to Douglas S. Burgoyne, PharmD, President and Managing Partner, VRx Pharmacy Services, Salt Lake City, UT, a full-service PBM company that provides medication therapy management, case management, and other clinical services to employer group waiver plans and commercial payers.

A new study investigated whether combined immune blockade with ipilimumab and nivolumab would increase survival in patients with advanced melanoma (Wolchok JD, et al. N Engl J Med. 2013;369:122-133).

A new phase 2 clinical trial is one of the first to investigate the use of hormonal therapy without chemotherapy as a neoadjuvant strategy for patients with HER2-positive breast cancer (Rimawi MF, et al. J Clin Oncol. 2013;31:1726-1731).