Mary Caffrey is the Executive Editor for The American Journal of Managed Care® (AJMC®). She joined AJMC® in 2013 and is the primary staff editor for Evidence-Based Oncology, the multistakeholder publication that reaches 22,000+ oncology providers, policy makers and formulary decision makers. She is also part of the team that oversees speaker recruitment and panel preparations for AJMC®'s premier annual oncology meeting, Patient-Centered Oncology Care®. For more than a decade, Mary has covered ASCO, ASH, ACC and other leading scientific meetings for AJMC readers.
Mary has a BA in communications and philosophy from Loyola University New Orleans. You can connect with Mary on LinkedIn.
Dr William Oh Discusses Goals of Prostate Cancer Awareness Month
William Oh, MD, chief medical officer at Sema4 and a clinical professor of medicine at Mount Sinai, discusses Prostate Cancer Awareness Month and possible reasons for disparities in diagnoses and mortality in prostate cancer.
Could CAR-NK Cells Using Cord Blood Offer a Treatment for Multiple Myeloma?
For several years, investigators have examined the potential for allogenic natural killer (NK) cells as an alternative for “off-the-shelf” chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) treatments. New study results presented at the International Myeloma Society (IMS) meeting showed CD38 CAR-NK cells significantly reduced the tumor burden—and improved survival
Durvalumab With Chemo Wins FDA Approval in Treatment of Biliary Tract Cancers
An estimated 1 in 4 patients treated with durvalumab and chemotherapy (gemcitabine plus cisplatin) was alive at 2 years compared with 1 in 10 treated with chemotherapy alone, with these results contributing to the FDA's approval of the first immunotherapy to treat these cancers.
SGLT2 Inhibitors, Combination Therapy Needed to Stem the Tide of CKD in Diabetes
Katherine R. Tuttle, MD, FASN, FACP, FNKF, a nephrologist from the University of Washington and Providence Health Care, discussed new consensus guidelines that call for the early use of sodium glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors, GLP-1 receptor agonists, and finerenone in the care of patients with both chronic kidney disease (CKD) and diabetes.
Topline KarMMa-3 Results for Ide-Cel in Multiple Myleoma Show “Significant Improvement” in PFS
Ide-cel is a B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA)-directed CAR T-cell therapy, which uses the process of genetically modifying a patient’s T cells and infusing them back into the patient to attack the cancer.
As Health Disparities “Weave Their Way Through Hypertension,” New Agents Are on the Way
Coverage from the 2022 Congress of the American Society for Preventive Cardiology (ASPC) in Louisville, Kentucky, featuring 3 experts on aspects of hypertension treatment: Keith C. Ferdinand, MD, of Tulane University School of Medicine; Kim Allan Williams, MD, of the University of Louisville; and George C. Bakris, MD, of the University of Chicago Medicine.
Trastuzumab Deruxtecan Wins Rapid Approval for HER2-Low Breast Cancer
The approval came exactly 2 months after results from the landmark DESTINY-Breast04 trial showed that the antibody drug conjugate reduced the risk of disease progression or death by 50% compared with chemotherapy for HER2-low patients with both hormone receptor (HR)–positive and HR-negative disease.
Cardiologists Must “Get Into the Game” With Novel Agents in Patients With Diabetes
During the 2022 Congress of the American Society for Preventive Cardiology (ASPC), held in Louisville, Kentucky, Erin D. Michos, MD, MHS, of Johns Hopkins, and Pam R. Taub, MD, of UC San Diego Health, discussed how treatment of diabetes requires going beyond glucose-lowering therapies and including newer medications that offer cardiovascular benefits.
Gulati on Unequal CV Treatment for Women: “There Is a Bias in Our Care”
Martha Gulati, MD, MS, kicked off the symposium “Saving the Hearts of Women Through Prevention” ahead of the 2022 Congress of the American Society for Preventive Cardiology, which took place Friday through Sunday in Louisville, Kentucky.
Social Determinants, Including Racism, Are Major Drivers of Health Inequity, Watson Says
Social determinants of health are major drivers of the inequities seen in health outcomes, and racism is clearly a social determinant tied to life expectancy, said Karol Watson, MD, PhD, in talk Sunday at the 2022 Congress of the American Society for Preventive Cardiology, held in Louisville, Kentucky.
Gluckman Calls for Better Data, Payer Policies to Drive Value-Based CV Care
Ty J. Gluckman, MD, FACC, FAHA, who is medical director of the Center for Cardiovascular Analytics, Research, and Data Science at Providence St. Joseph Health in Portland, Oregon, addressed the 2022 Congress of the American Society for Preventive Cardiology meeting in Louisville, Kentucky.
Early Use of Novel Therapies in Multiple Myeloma Could Target Bone Marrow Microenvironment
Authors explained how multiple myeloma emerges from earlier clinical phases and the tumor’s microenvironment in the early course of the disease plays a critical role in the survival of myeloma cells.
After Transplant, City of Hope Patient in Long-term Remission From HIV and Leukemia
City of Hope has announced that a patient living with HIV, who received a stem cell transplant from an unrelated donor to treat acute myelogenous leukemia, has been in remission from both diseases since 2019.
Dr Anne McCall Discusses How Louisiana’s History Will Shape Xavier/Takeda Partnership
In part 2 of our interview with Anne McCall, PhD, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at Xavier University of Louisiana, she discusses in greater detail the university’s 3-year partnership with Takeda, in particular how the directions it goes in will be influenced by the history of unequal health care delivery in the state.