ASCO 2015 Highlights

San Diego, CA—The healthcare costs of patients with advanced melanoma after ipilimumab (Yervoy) therapy are significant, according to recent study findings presented at the 2015 Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy annual meeting.

The April 14, 2015, repeal of the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula for physician payments under Medicare is being welcomed by the healthcare community, including the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). The 392 to 37 vote to pass H.R. 2, called the Medicare Access and Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2015, came just in time to avoid the 21% cut in Medicare fees that would have come into effect after the most recent SGR patch expired on March 31, 2015.

Washington, DC—The institution of cancer treatment pathways is not incompatible with personalized medicine, but rather it has the potential to offer access to a rapid learning system that can promote personalized therapy, said Michael Kolodziej, MD, National Medical Director, Oncology Solutions, Aetna, at the Fifth Annual Conference of the Association for Value-Based Cancer Care.

All patients with smoldering or asymptomatic multiple myeloma should undergo whole-body magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), or pelvic and spinal MRI if whole body is unavailable, according to recommendations from the International Myeloma Working Group (IMWG). The presence of >1 focal lesions >5 mm should be considered diagnostic for symptomatic myeloma requiring therapy.

Geneva, Switzerland—Circulating DNA (ctDNA) in the blood of patients with cancer appears to detect lung cancer mutations, providing similar information to tumor tissue sampling, according to a study presented at the 2015 European Lung Cancer Conference. This makes blood testing for ctDNA an attractive option when tumor tissue sampling is not accessible.

Geneva, Switzerland—A study with ­real-world data showed that almost 1 in 4 (24%) patients with advanced lung cancer are not receiving appropriate testing for EGFR mutations, even though guidelines recommend this genetic test to guide the selection of the most appropriate therapy.

Hollywood, FL—Switching therapy in patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) should be considered in those who have a suboptimal response to a first-line tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) at 3 months, said Jerald P. Radich, MD, Director of the Molecular Oncology Laboratory, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA, and Vice Chair of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) guideline panel on CML. He discussed the management of patients with CML at the 2015 NCCN conference.

Hollywood, FL—New targeted agents in multiple myeloma will turn it into a chronic illness, with sustained complete response possible in a significant fraction of patients, predicted Kenneth C. Anderson, MD, Director, Jerome Lipper Multiple Myeloma Center, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, at his presentation at the 2015 National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) conference.