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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
  • Patient-Reported Outcomes Needed in Clinical Trials of Cancer Therapies for Accurate Drug Safety Evaluations
  • Ibrutinib Highly Active in Patients with Waldenström’s Macroglobulinemia
  • PIK3CA Mutations Associated with Poor Response to HER2-Targeted Breast Cancer Therapies
  • Better Outcomes with Nivolumab plus Ipilimumab than with Ipilimumab Monotherapy for Untreated Melanoma
According to a recent study, 63.6% of oncologists surveyed favor the establishment of an independent panel of health experts to decide which treatments Medicare will pay for based on a cost-benefit analysis (Gogineni K, et al. J Clin Oncol. 2015;­33:846-853). Less than 50% of patients and members of the general public think this is a good idea. The United Kingdom’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is one model for such a panel.
The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and a German company called SAP are launching the clinical phase of ASCO’s big-data initiative—CancerLinQ. This clinical phase is focused on gathering and analyzing data from the 97% of US patients with cancer who do not participate in clinical trials.
A revised survivorship care plan template addresses obstacles that have limited the use of survivorship plans in clinical practice, suggested an American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) expert panel headed by Deborah K. Mayer, PhD, MSN, RN, Professor of Nursing and Director of Survivorship Care, Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
San Diego, CA—According to the National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines for the prevention of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV), highly and moderately emetogenic chemotherapy should be managed with a 5-HT3 receptor antagonist, an NK1 receptor antagonist, and dexamethasone (Decadron).
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