ASCO 2015 Highlights

Boston, MA—The work of 3 Harvard Medical School researchers presented at June’s AcademyHealth Conference provided a snapshot of how cancer care outcomes compare between the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) and the fee-for-service Medicare community.

Over the past decade, polarized opinion has abounded regarding robot-assisted laparoscopy. On one side, many of the surgeons who pioneered the use of the da Vinci surgical robot (Intuitive Surgical, Sunnyvale, CA) in Germany and the United States described it as “revolutionary,” heralding “a new era,” and creating a “paradigm shift.”

On July 14, 2010, the Departments of Treasury, Labor, and Health and Human Services issued interim final rules for group health plans and health insurance issuers to provide detail on how those entities are to cover the preventive services required under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA).

Cost-related factors are a chief reason for patients declining to participate in a clinical trial, a survey of 4 community oncology practices showed.

The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) stated that comparative effectiveness research (CER) should draw on approaches currently used for clinical trials, highlighting its stake in the matter by pointing out that CER is integral to oncology research.

Atlanta, GA—Offering practical advice about how and when to use patient-reported outcomes (PROs) to make supportable claims in the marketing of new drugs and products, a workshop directed mainly to new product developers at the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research meeting in Atlanta clarified some of the basic issues surrounding the use of this type of research instrument.

Chicago, IL—Using genetic and pharmacogenomic information to treat patients with cancer in optimal fashion has advanced in the past several years, and the clinical utility of this approach should continue to improve as genetic research continues, said several panelists at a 2010 ASCO session on evaluating the evidence and marketing of genomic tests.

Chicago, IL—The cost-effectiveness of adding bevacizumab (Avastin) to first-line chemotherapy for the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer is comparable to that of many other therapies for metastatic cancer.

Chicago, IL—Active surveillance is a cost-effective option for low-risk clinically localized prostate cancer.

dding trastuzumab to standard cisplatinum/fluoropyrimidine chemotherapy for patients with HER2-positive advanced gastric cancer results in a median survival of 13.8 months, compared with 11.1 months with chemotherapy alone, according to a new study (Lancet. 2010;376 [9742]:687-97. Epub 2010 Aug 19).