Articles

Houston, TX—There is no question that evidence-based guidelines and pathways are critical to the success of value-based oncology, but not all stakeholders have an equal voice, said Craig Deligdish, MD, Chief Medical Officer at Oncology Resource Networks of America at the Second Annual Meeting of the Association for Value-Based Cancer Care.

Chicago, IL—Adverse events (AEs) related to chemotherapy for metastatic breast cancer create a substantial economic burden that is primarily explained by increased inpatient, outpatient, and pharmacy costs, said lead investigator Sara A. Hurvitz, MD, Director of the Oncology Breast Can cer Program at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center and Assistant Clinical Professor at UCLA School of Medicine, who presented an economic analysis at the 2012 Ameri can Society of Clinical Oncology meeting.

Tivozanib, a potent investigational tyrosine kinase inhibitor with a long half-life, demonstrated significant improvement in progression-free survival (PFS) as first-line targeted therapy for metastatic renal-cell carcinoma (RCC), according to results from a phase 3 randomized, open-label trial.

Chicago, IL—Researchers from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill reported at the 2012 American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting that endocrine therapy is substantially underutilized among the low-income breast cancer population.

Chicago, IL—Improved cancer screening can save lives, and despite the high cost of implementing such a measure, it was found cost-effective and therefore valuable in a recent analysis using quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs), said Michael S. Broder, MD, President of Partnership for Health Analytic Research, LLC (PHAR), CA, and colleagues, at the 2012 American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting.

Chicago, IL—In a cohort of patients at risk for colorectal cancer (CRC), the majority were willing to pay some out-of-pocket (OOP) expenses for genetic testing, Fox Chase Cancer Center researchers reported in a poster that was presented at the 2012 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting and earned an ASCO Merit Award.

Chicago, IL—Older patients with cancer and Medicare coverage often incur greater out-of-pocket (OOP) expenses compared with their counterparts without cancer.

Approximately 1 in 5 patients with cancer who are undergoing radiotherapy as part of their treatment can count on unexpected hospital stays—adding an economic and clinical burden on the patient and on the healthcare system, according to an analysis by Nabeel H. Arastu, BS, and colleagues at the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, which was presented at the 2012 ASCO meeting.

The FDA’s Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) recommended in an 11 to 0 vote (and 1 absentee) to approve carfilzomib (Kyprolis; Onyx), a new-generation proteasome inhibitor, for the treatment of patients with refractory and relapsed multiple myeloma who have failed at least 2 other myeloma therapies—the proteasome inhibitor bortezomib (Velcade) and the immunomodulatory drug lenalidomide (Revlimid).

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the Access Hybritech p2PSA (Beckman Coulter) test, which measures a form of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) called [-2]proPSA in the blood and can help men whose PSA test scores are elevated decide whether they should have a biopsy to rule out prostate cancer.