ASCO 2015 Highlights

Barcelona—A protein previously thought to exist only in a limited number of tumors in fact exists across all breast cancer subtypes, a finding that can help predict the tumor’s response to chemotherapy and guide treatment decisions.

Barcelona—An effort to monitor and modify prescription drug use in breast cancer patients prescribed tamoxifen can help prevent the polypharmacy that lessens tamoxifen’s effectiveness.

Barcelona—For women with the BRCA1 or 2 genetic mutation that predisposes them to breast cancer, the option to undergo prophylactic mastectomy of the other, noncancerous breast following their initial breast cancer treatment does not improve disease-free survival or overall survival, said researchers at the EBCC7 meeting.

San Francisco, CA—By mining the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results-Medicare Database, researchers have documented a significant de cline in nonevidence-based use of androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) for prostate cancer between 2003 and 2005.

San Francisco, CA—A new study challenges the notion that more testing leads to greater accuracy in detection of non–muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC).

San Francisco, CA—The expression “a picture is worth a thousand words” is certainly true when it comes to figures from a new literature review of prostate cancer (PCa) treatments.

Hollywood, FL—As specialty pharmacy (SP) expands rapidly into oncology, there is a need to better define its role. This was the aim of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) Task Force on Specialty Pharmacy, whose chair presented the group’s preliminary report at the 15th Annual NCCN Conference.

At the most basic level, compendia are drug information resources intended to aid clinicians in making “informed treatment decisions, especially in difficult and complex cases.”¹ They were not intended for use in determining reimbursement of medications for the public and private healthcare insurance sectors. Nevertheless, this responsibility was assigned by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in a 1993 law that requires Medicare plans to use 1 of 4 national compendia to determine coverage and pay for “off-label uses of anticancer drugs for Medicare beneficiaries.”

New Orleans, LA—As reimbursement for services continues to decline, oncology pharmacists must be proactive and develop a strategy to minimize losses, said Steven L. D’Amato, RPh, a clinical pharmacy specialist with the Maine Center for Cancer Medicine, Scarborough, Me, at a presentation at the annual meeting of the Hematology/Oncology Pharmacy Association (HOPA).

New Orleans, LA—The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, ie, “health care reform,” was recently passed, but oncologists and those who pay for their services are still wondering what’s in store for them.