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Albuquerque, NM—Using yoga and other integrative medicine and complementary therapies can cut oncology-related inpatient costs by more than $150 per day as a result of the reduced need for pain medications, anxiolytics, and antiemetics, according to a recent study conducted at the Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City.

Houston, TX—With the onslaught of drugs that will target genetic subsets of patients, companion diagnostic testing will become vitally important, said Jane F. Barlow, MD, MPH, MBA, Vice President of Clinical Innovation, Medco Health Solutions (now Express Scripts), New York, who spoke on personalized medicine during the 2012 Annual Conference of the Association for Value-Based Cancer Care.

Houston, TX—A wealth of new agents and abundant clinical trial data supporting their use have led to multiple “acceptable” evidence-based options for treating tumors.

Houston, TX—To eliminate coverage inconsistencies and enhance relationships with providers, health plans should have specific policies for dealing with off-label use of oncologic drugs, said Kristen M. Reimers, RPh, Specialty Pharmacy Director and Clinical Operations Manager for Excellus Health Plans.

San Francisco, CA—An analysis of a large claims database showed that patients with breast cancer had fewer delays in chemotherapy and maintained better adherence to their regimens when treated with the 5-hydroxytryptamine 3 (5-HT3) receptor antagonist palonosetron (Aloxi) than with other agents in this antiemetic class.

The search for better diagnostic tools for prostate cancer continues, with current test modalities leaving much room for improvement.

Early treatment response is a strong predictor of long-term outcomes in children with acute myeloid leukemia (AML); it can further help to determine whether an aggressive treatment approach is needed.

In September, Cardinal Health Specialty Solutions announced the launch of a new collaboration initiative with Health Alliance Plan (HAP) and Physician Resource Management to establish an evidence-based clinical pathways program aimed at reducing the costs of cancer care while improving quality of care.

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) recently held a roundtable discussion on the status of genome-based drug development.

The recent discovery of 3 subtypes of high-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC) by researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute will soon enable oncologists to determine which of their patients with HGSOC—the most common type of ovarian cancer—are most likely to benefit from a certain class of drugs.