Articles

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.

San Francisco, CA—Women with diabetes taking metformin had a significantly lower risk of breast cancer, an association that appeared to grow stronger with increasing duration of follow-up, results of a recent meta-analysis showed.

San Francisco, CA—When cancer treatment is equal among patients, the outcomes are equal as well, “but there is not equal treatment” within the US population with cancer, according to Otis W. Brawley, MD, Chief Medical and Scientific Officer of the American Cancer Society, and Professor of Hematology, Medical Oncology, Medicine, and Epidemiology at Emory University, Atlanta.