Mary Caffrey

Coverage from the Association of Community Cancer Centers 2022 Annual Meeting and Cancer Center Business Summit, held in Washington, DC, March 2-4.

Coverage from the 2022 annual meeting of the Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation, which met February 23-25 in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Accenture’s 2021 report, “The Future Is Now: How to Drive Precision Oncology Adoption," adds to the chorus calling for greater sharing of data and improved standardization, so that academic centers and community practices alike can continually improve data sets used worldwide.

Across OneOncology, says Edward Arrowsmith MD, MPH, clinical pathways offer a vehicle for physicians to agree on best practices and to implement them across the network. Early this year, Arrowsmith became medical director for Clinical Pathways, OneOncology.

Researchers presented results for ZB131, a monoclonal antibody that would target cancer-specific plectin (CSP); experiments with mice showed this may be present in more than 80% of the most common types of cholangiocarcinoma.

Camille Hertzka, vice president, head of oncology, US Medical, AstraZeneca, clarifies testing for the HRR mutation in metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) and the predictive importance of radiographic progression-free survival (rPFS) for overall survival in this setting.

The authors found that the relationship between immunosuppressive cells and effector T cells in hilar and distal cholangiocarcinoma has important implications for treatment, in that the tumor microenvironment would likely need to be primed for a treatment strategy to be effective.

Norman E. “Ned” Sharpless, MD, is departing shortly after the launch of Cancer Moonshot 2.0, an initiative that aims to reduce the cancer death rate by at least half over the next 25 years while improving the experience for all those affected by cancer.

Debra Patt, MD, PhD, MBA, executive vice president of Texas Oncology, explains recommendations for annual mammography screenings after COVID-19 vaccination and why guidelines differ for diagnostic visits.

Many oncologists oppose white bagging because they prefer to be able to adjust doses during a visit based on lab reports taken that day.

Whether a patient is refractory to initial treatment dictates the future course of care.

The expanded use of axi-cel, sold as Yescarta, while not unexpected, nonetheless represents uncharted territory in cancer care.

Camille Hertzka, vice president, head of oncology, US Medical, AstraZeneca, discusses why so much excitement has been generated for the use of olaparib (Lynparza) in the first line for patients with metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer.

From taking part in clinical research at a local location to foregoing aggressive therapy in favor of quality of life, patients with cancer are seeking new options, said panelists at the 2022 Annual Conference of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN).

The authors say delivering FOLFOX via transarterial infusion could be a “perfect option for treating intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma before patients receive targeted therapy, immunotherapy, or radiotherapy.

The study by the Veneto Institute of Oncology (IOV) in Padua, Italy, examined 286 patients for genomic mutations in cholangiocarcinoma as well as survival status.

A recommendation to test for the mutation aligns with calls to identify biomarkers in cholangiocarcinoma to guide treatment.

Quality measures are the lifeblood of practice transformation, but learning which ones make a difference—and how to use them to drive change—is as much an art as a science, according to 3 oncology care leaders who discussed the topic Friday at the 2022 Community Oncology Conference, presented by the Community Oncology Alliance.

During a panel at the Community Oncology Alliance’s Community Oncology Conference, speakers discuss practice-level efforts to reduce cancer care disparities.

Sunil Verma, MD, senior vice president and global head of oncology, medical, at AstraZeneca, talks about advancements in standards of care for uncommon cancers, including cholangiocarcinoma.

Barbara McAneny, MD, CEO of the New Mexico Cancer Center, who served as president of the American Medical Association (AMA) in 2018, said the AMA has engaged a law firm to take on the issue of curtailing prior authorization, which oncologists say has become worse with increased vertical integration among health plans and pharmacy benefit managers.

A panel on the first day of the Community Oncology Alliance 2022 Community Oncology Conference examines issues that will affect oncology practices in the future.

The first in-person Community Oncology Alliance (COA) meeting in 2 years will feature sessions on practice management, health disparities, and more. A virtual option is available.

A study from Japan identifies markers for a presurgical staging system in intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma, with results on par with an existing postsurgical staging system.

A session moderated by the president of the Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC) examined the business case for having oncology pharmacists and oncology social workers on community cancer care teams.

Sunil Verma, MD, senior vice president and global head of oncology, medical, at AstraZeneca, discusses safety findings of the TOPAZ-1 trial.

The panel said the prior authorization system was intended not just to make sure treatments are necessary but also to ensure that practices get paid; however, it needs a lot of work.

A session on industry reconfiguration covered differed business models for oncology, including payer acquisition of networks and collaboration with academic centers and primary care.

The session opened the 48th Annual Meeting and Cancer Center Business Summit, which is the first in-person meeting in 2 years for the Association of Community Cancer Centers. The meeting is taking place March 2-4 in Washington, DC.

Camille Hertzka, vice president, head of oncology, US Medical, AstraZeneca, discusses why it is important to test for HRR gene mutation status and appropriateness of olaparib use in patients with metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC).