ASCO 2015 Highlights

The AVBCC Annual Meeting experiences exponential growth in attendance and participation as oncologists, payers, employers, managed care executives, patient advocates, and drug manufacturers convened in Hollywood, FL, on May 2-5, 2013, for the Third Annual Conference of the Association for Value-Based Cancer Care (AVBCC).

Hollywood, FL—The goal of balancing cost and quality leaves no stakeholder without a challenge, said Grant D. Lawless, MD, RPh, Director, Healthcare Decision Analysis Program, and Associate Professor of Clinical Pharmacy, University of Southern California, Los Angeles.

An aromatase inhibitor has joined tamoxifen (Nolvadex) and the selective estrogen receptor (ER) modulator raloxifene hydrochloride (Evista) as chemoprevention for women who are at an increased risk for breast cancer, according to the recent update of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) practice guideline (Visvanathan K, et al. J Clin Oncol. 2013;31:2942-2962)

The cancer care landscape is rapidly evolving, in light of promising new therapies, as well as changing reimbursement strategies in response to the healthcare reform.

Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related death in the United States among men and the most frequently diagnosed cancer in American males. Among patients with metastatic prostate cancer, up to approximately 90% have bone metastases.

After being in short supply since 2008, leucovorin, an analog of folic acid, is now more readily available, and the economics of US cancer care are about to have a bit of a reprieve.

Niagara Falls, Ontario—New data presented at the 2013 Canadian Urological Association annual meeting suggest that prostatic inflammation can reduce the risk for developing prostate cancer.

Niagara Falls, Ontario—Among men with prostate cancer and preexisting cardiovascular (CV) disease, the risk of CV events or CV-related death is cut in half when they receive androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT) with degarelix (Firmagon) instead of the luetinizing hormone–releasing hormone (LHRH) agonists goserelin (Zoladex) or leuprolide (Lupron), according to results of a new analysis presented at the 2013 Canadian Urological Association annual meeting.

Lugano, Switzerland—The genomic basis of primary central nervous system lymphoma (PCNSL), a very aggressive and incurable type of lymphoma, has not been understood until now. At the 2013 International Conference on Malignant Lymphoma, a team of researchers from the Mayo Clinic and from the University of Virginia presented its recent findings at a poster session involving the most comprehensive study to date of the genomic landscape of PCNSL.

The US Supreme Court’s ruling on June 13 in the case of the Association for Molecular Pathology v Myriad Genetics will have significant implications for the future of cancer testing, molecular diagnostics, and treatment.