Latest Conference Articles

While medical oncologists, drug developers, and research scientists presented their research findings and novel treatment options in hematological cancers, a special session in the afternoon on the first day of the 56th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH), held December 6 to 9 in San Francisco, addressed the aspect of cost of care and the increasing financial burden faced by the cancer patient.

Final safety and efficacy results for vismodegib were reported at the Society for Melanoma Research, 2014 International Congress, for the 30-month mark of the ERIVANCE trial. The Congress is meeting November 13-16 in Zurich, Switzerland.

Despite the various treatment advances in melanoma, advanced stages of the disease remain a significant challenge for oncologists. Novel methods of attacking disease vulnerabilities continue to be developed-one such technique is the use of oncolytic viruses to destroy cancer cells. A couple of studies presented an update on preclinical and clinical progress with CAVATAK, formulated using the common cold Coxsackievirus Type A21 (CVA21), during the Society for Melanoma Research, 2014 International Congress in Zurich, Switzerland, November 13—16.

Patients with metastatic melanoma receiving vemurafenib following disease progression showed similar or better overall response to patients without progressive disease, according to findings from an analysis reported at the 11th International Congress of the Society for Melanoma Research on November 15, 2014.

Results of a head-to-head comparison of pembrolizumab and standard chemotherapy in patients with advanced melanoma, including those who had experienced disease progression following ipilimumab, showed superior clinical response with pembrolizumab that was durable.

Much of the news at the Society of Melanoma Research, 2014 International Congress, involves breakthrough therapies for treating metastatic melanoma in its later stages. But the year has brought developments in diagnostics, too. Tools to determine which patients need aggressive treatment and which ones do not are becoming important. As awareness of melanoma grows, more patients arrive at doctors' offices with suspicious skin marks at earlier stages.

Nivolumab continues to show an impressive response that is both prompt and durable in patients with advanced melanoma, according to updated results from a long-term follow-up presented at the 11th International Congress of the Society for Melanoma Research on November 15, 2014.

During the first plenary session on the second day of the Society for Melanoma Research, 2014 International Congress in Zurich, Switzerland, November 13-16, Targeted Therapies: Genetics and Biology, several researchers presented their thoughts on where they see the future of melanoma research.

As the immuno-oncology landscape intensifies, a second player in the game, Merck's PD-1 inhibitor pembrolizumab (Keytruda), was recently approved for the treatment of advanced, unresectable melanoma.

A late afternoon talk on the third day at The Liver Meeting 2014, evaluated the influence of some of the newer antiviral agents on "brain fog," a phenomenon quite commonly observed in hepatitis C virus-infected patients, especially among those with mild disease.

The efficacy of oral antivirals for hepatitis C infection is a moot point. The prevailing discussion now delves into the best combinations that can target different viral genotypes, access to these combination regimens, and the subsequent dent in the budget of the patient, the health plan, or the care provider-as the case may be.

Medicare costs, Department of Veterans Affairs budgetary costs, and the economic impact on the developing world-these were some of the topics discussed at the evening session, Health Economics and Cost-Effectiveness, on the third day at The Liver Meeting 2014, held in Boston, Massachusetts, November 7 to 11, 2014.

Amidst discussions on liver care, transplants, and infections was a session on Value-Based Medicine in Hepatology, on the third day at The Liver Meeting 2014, an annual event by the American Association for the Study of Liver Disease, held in Boston, Massachusetts, from November 7 to 11, 2014. Presenters saw a huge turnout for the session, a sign of increased interest in value-based care.

A pattern is emerging in the hepatitis C virus treatment realm-of the newly approved agents, the sofosbuvir- and simeprevir-based regimens are gaining traction. A poster session on approved therapeutic agents on November 9, 2014, at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Study of Liver Disease, proved this again.

Bashar A. Aqel, MD, Mayo Clinic, Phoenix, Arizona, presented results from phase 2 of the COSMOS (Combination Of SiMeprevir and sOfosbuvir in hepatitis C virus genotype 1 infected patients) trial.

While the cost of hepatitis C treatment continues to be a major topic of debate-with the approval of simeprevir (Olysio), sofosbuvir (Sovaldi), and now the combination, sofosbuvir and ledipasvir (Harvoni)-those in favor of the treatment provide a strong research-based argument. The cost-debate is global, as shown by this cost-effectiveness study conducted in Italy.

While the cost of novel hepatitis C drugs has been rigorously debated, real-world data on the safety and efficacy of these drugs has now started showing up. A white paper released by CVS Health Research Institute in September of this year reported that in addition to the downward trend in utilization of sofosbuvir, which has cure rates of more than 95%, high discontinuation rates are being observed.

According to the CDC, hepatitis C virus infection is a common chronic disease that currently affects about 3.2 million people in the United States, and although less common it remains a significant health problem in children, according to the American Liver Foundation.

The era of accountable care and pay for performance is here, and physicians will have to embrace these novel reimbursement models. In a plenary session, Rubin Cohen, MD, FCCP, a member of the American College of Chest Physician's quality improvement committee, discussed the relationship between quality improvement and outcomes.

During a plenary session at the American College of Chest Physicians' CHEST meeting in Austin, Texas, Edgar Jimenez, MD, FCCM, vice president of critical care integration at Baylor Scott and White Health in Central Texas, discussed how to prepare for Ebola in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) setting. Dr Jimenez began by introducing the session as a way to answer questions and to provide hospital ICU staff with key considerations for Ebola preparation in the United States.

A symposium on idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), which was presented on behalf of InterMune, Inc, highlighted clinical data supporting the use of pirfenidone in patients with IPF. Leading the panel discussion was Steven Nathan, MD, FCCP, a principal investigator involved in studies of pirfenidone. Dr Nathan was joined by IPF experts Lisa Lancaster, MD, of Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Marilyn Glassberg, MD, of the University of Miami Health System.

The categorization of lung allograft dysfunction is changing, David Nunley, MD, clinical director of lung transplant at the University of Louisville Health Care Outpatient Center, said at the 2014 CHEST meeting in Austin, Texas.

Fear is the biggest barrier preventing providers from using social media to its fullest potential, according to Christopher Carroll, MD, social media editor at CHEST and research director for the Division of Critical Care at the Connecticut Children's Medical Center.

Dan Heath, a senior fellow at the Center for Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship at Duke University, outlined strategies for implementing change within an organization, including looking for solutions that are already present within an organization, as a solution to a large problem may already have been implemented on a small scale.

During a panel discussion, Darren Taichman, MD, PhD, executive deputy editor of the Annals of Internal Medicine and adjunct associate professor of medicine, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, presented updates to pulmonary hypertension treatment guidelines, and Daniel Oulette, MD, FCCP, leader of the American College of Chest Physicians guideline oversight committee, discussed the move toward evidence-based guidelines that allow for continuous updates.

The molecular heterogeneity of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) may be important when selecting treatment strategies, including 2 new medications for delaying the progression of IPF-pirfenidone and nintedanib. In a featured lecture, Steven K. Huang, MD, an expert in IPF and an assistant professor of internal medicine at the University of Michigan, discussed characterization of the disease from the perspective of genetics.

The big news at the 2014 CHEST meeting in Austin, TX, was that 2 new drugs - pirfenidone and nintedanib - were approved to treat idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, according to Steven Nathan, MD, medical director of the Lung Transplant Program at Inova Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church, VA.

Guidelines for the treatment of healthcare-associated pneumonia recommend the use of broad-spectrum therapy. But based on current evidence, use of broad-spectrum therapy may not be warranted, according to Marcos I. Restrepo, MD, MSc, of the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.

In this session, Gerard A. Silvestri MD, MS, a professor at the Medical University of South Carolina, discussed the evolution of therapy for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The use of targeted therapies has led to a dramatic improvement in survival for a certain subset of patients with NSCLC whose cancers have specific driver mutations.

Lung cancer is a good candidate for broad, population-based screening because it is a common disease with a high mortality rate that is often more successfully treated when a diagnosis is established early in the disease process. In an educational session, Gerard A. Silvestri, MD, MS, a professor at the Medical University of South Carolina, discussed the state of the art in lung cancer screening.