Surabhi Dangi-Garimella, PhD

In a blogpost on Health Affairs, 2 economists have challenged the claim made by researchers that packaging expensive, patented chemotherapy drugs into multiple vial sizes could reduce wastage and in turn significantly reduce healthcare costs.

CancerCare's 2016 Patient Access and Engagement Report underscores barriers for patient access to care, as well as communication gaps with care providers, both of which have a significant impact on patient outcomes.

Algenpantucel-L, an allogenic whole-cell immunotherapeutic vaccine being developed to destroy a patient’s pancreatic cancer cells, has failed to improve overall survival (OS).

Therapeutic substitution of branded drugs with generics approved for the same indication, in the absence of a generic equivalent, has the potential to yield considerable cost savings to the healthcare system and individual patients.

A new analysis of websites that provide information on pancreatic cancer, published in JAMA Surgery, has found that they overestimate the reading ability of the population and might even misguide them.

With reports documenting the shockingly rising use of e-cigarettes by middle and high school children, the announcement today that the FDA will extend its regulatory authority to include e-cigarettes is welcome news.

Scientists have discovered a new biomarker that could predict survival outcomes, and help establish the need for aggressive treatment, in patients with head and neck cancer.

Safe disposal of prescription drugs is turning out to be a costly endeavor, and the pharmaceutical industry seems to want no part of it.

A new commentary in the New England Journal of Medicine has cautioned clinicians to tone down the perceived benefits of earlier screening in colorectal cancer.

A new study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute has identified the cause of the high rates of bladder cancer cases diagnosed in the New England region of the United States: arsenic in drinking water from private wells.

A study presented at the European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology 35, ongoing in Turin, Italy, has shown that women younger than 45 years, diagnosed with early stage breast cancer, who chose breast conservation therapy followed by radiation, over mastectomy, had a significantly greater risk of local disease recurrence.

Oral anticancer agents are being launched at significantly higher prices compared with a decade ago, which can prove a barrier to patient access, according to a new analysis published in JAMA Oncology.

A small study in 30 patients with advanced B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia has further strengthened the faith in the potential of chimeric antigen receptor or CAR-T cell therapy.

A company in Canada, Biolyse Pharma, has offered to manufacture a generic version of enzalutamide at a significantly lower price than what CMS paid in 2014.

A collaboration between the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the fitness tracking company Fitbit will investigate whether weight loss in women diagnosed with breast cancer can stave off recurrence.

An exhaustive analysis of over a 100,000 individuals has confirmed the absence of unbiased association between statin use and a person’s risk of colorectal cancer; however, an inverse relation of risk and cholesterol levels was identified.

A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study conducted across 16 countries over a 3-year period has confirmed that Chantix and Zyban do not increase the risk of suicidal behavior among users.

Patients diagnosed with advanced renal cell carcinoma, who have received prior treatment with anti-angiogenic agents, now have the option of being treated with the small molecule inhibitor cabozantinib.

Flatiron Health has announced the development of a cloud-based electronic health record and an analytics tool to support reporting requirements for those clinics that will be selected to participate in the Oncology Care Model.

According to Avalere Health, physicians who prescribe lower cost drugs would be reimbursed at a higher rate than those who use more expensive drugs, under the proposed Medicare Part B demo model.

Coverage of sessions held at Cancerscape, the Association of Community Cancer Center’s 42nd annual meeting on policy, value, and quality, held March 2-4, 2016, in Washington, DC.

An international study evaluating nivolumab in head and neck cancer has found that patients treated with the checkpoint inhibitor were twice as likely to be alive at 1 year after initiating treatment, compared with patients who were given standard chemotherapy.

A study presented at the ongoing annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research has confirmed that 3 commercially available diagnostic tests that measure the expression of the programmed death ligand 1 protein in non-small cell lung cancer could be interchanged.

While clinical pathways can help standardize care, considering the multitude of options available for oncology care providers, there is significant push-back from providers as well.

A cost-economic analysis by researchers at the Yale School of Public Health has found that switching to Gardasil-9, which protects against 9 oncogenic serotypes of the human papillomavirus, would provide improved health benefits at the same or lower societal cost.

Evidence-Based Oncology invited a panel of experts who are experienced in the creation of oncology care pathways, use them in their practice, and have researched the development and implementation of care pathways, to exchange ideas on the topic.

Targeting cancer stem cells could have a much better impact on the outcome of patients with multiple myeloma being treated with standard chemotherapy, a new single-arm study by researchers at Johns Hopkins has found.

Pharmaceutical industry experts provide an overview of the highly complex biosimilar development process at The Community Oncology Conference: Innovation in Cancer Care, held in Orlando, Florida.