ASCO 2015 Highlights

Fertility and early menopause after cancer can pose challenging emotional and medical issues for patients and their clinicians. Survivors who become infertile because of their cancer treatment are at an increased risk for emotional distress and are often affected by unresolved grief and depression, according to Ann H. Partridge, MD, MPH, Medical Oncologist, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston.

Boston, MA—In a first-of-its-kind study, aprepitant (Emend), a centrally acting neurokinin (NK)-1 antagonist indicated for the treatment of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV), led to a reduction in cough frequency and an improvement in the objective and subjective measures of cough in patients with lung cancer.

San Antonio, TX—An innovative care model program for end-of-life care for patients with cancer improved symptom management, reduced hospitalizations and in-hospital deaths, and increased the use of hospice care.

At the Fifth Annual Conference of the Association for Value-Based Cancer Care in Washington, DC, Grant Lawless, RPh, MD, FACP, of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, moderated a multidisciplinary panel on value-based care for patients with multiple myeloma.

An assay that measures circulating tumor (ct) DNA in the urine can detect mutations in patients with a variety of advanced cancers, according to a recent study.

Boston, MA—Delivering the keynote lecture at the 2015 Palliative Care in Oncology Symposium, Howard L. McLeod, PharmD, Medical Director of the DeBartolo Family Personalized Medicine Institute at Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, FL, discussed advances in personalized medicine as they relate to palliative care, as well as the continuing challenges in cancer care.

Boston, MA—A new guidance statement from the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (AAHPM) provides the first formal, consensus-based recommendations regarding high-quality primary palliative care in oncology, according to Kathleen E. Bickel, MD, MPhil, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, NH.

Washington, DC—The COME HOME initiative, a 7-member oncology medical home practice partnership, has documented significant reductions in hospitalization rates, inpatient days, and total cost of care of approximately $5 million over a 6-month period, said Barbara L. McAneny, MD, at the Fifth Annual Conference of the Association for Value-Based Cancer Care.

San Antonio, TX—A genomic classifier is now available that can predict a low or high risk for metastasis in men with prostate cancer who have rising prostate-specific antigen (PSA) after a prostatectomy. The good news is that this test is reimbursable by Medicare.