October 2019

Reality seems so simple. We just open our eyes and there it is. But that doesn’t mean it is simple. Penn and Teller

AJMC®TV interviews let you catch up on what’s new and important about changes in healthcare, with insights from key decision makers—from the clinician, to the health plan leader, to the regulator.

Managed care and clinical updates in cancer treatment.

Speakers from major area cancer centers and Independence Blue Cross addressed progress in implementing value-based care initiatives during a session held September 19, 2019.

Speakers at the September 12, 2019, Policy Summit of the National Comprehensive Cancer Center, held in Washington, DC, addressed what practices have learned from experience with the Oncology Care Model and what steps must occur to standardize patient reported outcomes to incorporate them into reporting.

In a commentary adapted from the organization's official response to CMS' proposal, the author highlights potential challenges that proposed alternative payment model presents for members of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO).

Although results of other recent studies have noted the rise in the rate of obesity-related cancers among younger adults, this is the first study to also find a concurrent decrease in the rate of new cancer cases among patients 65 years and older.

Debra Patt, MD, MPH, MBA, an oncologist who specializes in breast cancer and who serves as executive vice president at Texas Oncology, discusses the effect of obesity on cancer treatment as well as prevention strategies.

Obesity is associated with a number of adverse health-related complications and carries an elevated individual all-cause mortality risk. It would be hard to overstate the increased adverse health outcomes for obese individuals. What is far less well recognized by the general public is the significant link between obesity and increased cancer risk.

The most common primary liver cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma, is driven by fatty liver disease and is among the most prevalent and deadly of cancers driven by obesity. Rising rates of overweight and obesity parallel increased rates of obesogenic cancers, which increased 7% between 2005 and 2014.