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A panel of patient advocates at the National Comprehensive Cancer Network Patient Advocacy Meeting, held in Washington, DC, discussed the reasons behind and consequences of inequities in cancer care.

How long a person with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) stops breathing may be a better predictor of mortality risk from OSA in both women and men than the number of times they stop breathing, a new study published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine concludes.

Ibrutinib-containing regimens have similar overall survival rates but significantly higher progression-free survival (PFS) rates at 2 years compared with bendamustine plus rituximab.

In the final weeks of open enrollment, the number of people signing up for Affordable Care Act plans has surged, although overall numbers still lag behind 2017; a study following the progress of babies who were born to mothers infected with the Zika virus during pregnancy are showing more development problems; new research has shown that the longer women breastfeed, the greater the reduction in their risk of developing nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.

The report in Diabetes Care, the official journal of the American Diabetes Association, comes after reports of rising rates of diabetes and obesity among young adults and soaring insulin costs, which may mean diabetes is not being effectively treated.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) said that it will fund a series of collaborations with medical research institutions in the region as part of a new initiative that will expand ongoing research at the NIH-funded Centers for AIDS Research, a group of HIV-focused research institutions focused on reducing the burden of HIV domestically and globally.

Exmaning an assessment of data from the 2016 Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors study, researchers found that headache disorders, specifically migraine, are important causes of disability worldwide and therefore require more attention in health policy debates and greater resources for research.

The observational, noninterventional study was part of an emicizumab clinical development program in which a daily bleed and medication questionnaire developed by the sponsor on a handheld device was used to prospectively collect data on treatment with factor VIII or bypassing agents in adult and adolescent people with hemophilia A, with and without inhibitors to FVIII.

A Pennsylvania report examining the role of pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) in the state called for more transparency in how they do business managing Medicaid prescriptions.

Only alcohol was found to have a strong positive correlation with breast cancer risk in a recent study looking at diet in postmenopausal women.

While weight loss surgery is safe and effective, only 0.4% of patients who qualify to receive such surgery actually go ahead with a procedure.

Following failure with ruxolitinib, there are limited treatment options available and among these patients who fail on the treatment, prognosis is unfavorable, particularly among those who started ruxolitinib with advanced stage disease, according to a study presented at the 60th American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting & Exposition.

The House has passed a bill that would support state efforts to investigate pregnancy-related deaths and research how to prevent future deaths; a column in The New York Times examined 4 specific drug pricing policies and had 3 health policy experts weigh in on what the outcomes of implementing these policies could be; despite the benefits of using biosimilar filgrastim, the United States has lagged behind other countries in adopting the therapy.

After growing modestly between 2011 and 2016, the average premium for employer health plans rose sharply in 2017, growing 5.5% from 2016 to 2017 for family plans and 4.4% for single-person plans.

The Supreme Court refused to hear 2 cases arising from efforts by states to bar Planned Parenthood clinics from the Medicaid program; the NIH will spend up to $20 million over 2 years to find and develop alternatives to using fetal tissue in research projects; whether or not the United States needs another opioid painkiller on the market has been widely debated since the FDA approved Dsuvia last month.

In November, AstraZeneca announced that the phase 3 MYSTIC trial investigating durvalumab (Imfinzi) monotherapy and durvalumab in combination with tremelimumab in patients with previously untreated stage IV non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) did not meet its primary end point.

Days before open enrollment for health insurance in the individual market for 2019 sold through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) exchanges comes to a close, a new report found health insurance coverage gained between 2013 and 2017 under the ACA is slipping.

Competing breast cancer tests vie for attention from clinicians and payers at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

A large coalition of medical associations, patient advocacy groups, drug companies, and others sent a letter to Congress Monday asking that they intervene on a CMS plan to use an index based on drug prices in other countries to determine reimbursement for Part B therapies, saying it would have a negative effect on the elderly and people with disabilities.

According to a study results presented at the 60th American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting & Exposition, the use of opioid medications for pain control in sickle cell disease (SCD) is relatively safe, and there has been no associated increase in hospital SCD mortality.

The authors of a study conducted in China assessed nearly 2000 women who were to identify whether premature birth leads to variability in long-term systolic blood pressure.

Nine organizations representing health insurance companies, consumers, and businesses announced Monday that they support the concept of federal legislation to protect patients from receiving surprise medical bills.

Battle lines are being drawn between establishment Democrats and progressive liberals in Congress over the idea of single-payer healthcare; an antitrust lawsuit filed in 2016 by states over 2 generic drugs has expanded into an investigation of alleged price-fixing involving at least 16 companies and 300 drugs; HHS will consider whether to approve work requirements for Medicaid expansion in Virginia.

While the Oncology Care Model is likely not a sustainable mode for oncology care, it will probably inform what payment structure comes next.

Instead of the promised benefit—patients paying less for quality care—horizontal mergers can actually cost consumers more. However, vertical mergers have the potential to create a new, profitable business model that can benefit consumers.

Lifestyle factors like exercise, meditation, and alcohol use were inversely associated with depression risk, while smoking significantly predicted depression.

ELOQUENT-3 trial results found that adding elotuzumab to pomalidomide and dexamethasone improved progression-free survival (PFS) and overall response rate in patients with multiple myeloma that had relapsed from or were refractory to (R/R) lenalidomide and a proteasome inhibitor.

A next generation DNA sequencing study offers a streamlined protocol that integrates the genomic portrait of pathogen, microbiome, and host transcriptome for a more accurate diagnosis of lower respiratory tract infections.

BioNTech AG, a drug developer that specializes in cancer immunotherapies, announced last month new results from a clinical performance evaluation study of a molecular in vitro diagnostic test for quantitative detection of mRNA expression of certain genes.

Can virtual reality help prevent falls in elderly patients? A small study suggests that it can.