Providers

Patients with myelofibrosis can see their quality of life impacted in a range of ways with various symptoms, said Ruben Mesa, MD, director of UT Health San Antonio MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Minimal residual disease (MRD) may be prevalent in clinical trials and discussed at conferences, but it is not really used widely in practice, said C. Ola Landgren, MD, PhD, professor of medicine and chief of the Myeloma Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer.

While ibrutinib is a major breakthrough in treating chronic lymphocytic leukemia, it is associated with financial burdens and medical concerns for the older patients being treated, said Adam Olszewski, MD, associate professor of medicine at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University.

Research has shown that fedratinib favorably impacts health-related quality of life for patients with myelofibrosis across the board, said Ruben Mesa, MD, director of UT Health San Antonio MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Financial barriers and perceived implicit biases were both barriers that families of children with acute leukemia raised regarding access to care issues that might have delayed diagnosis, said Lena Winestone, MD, assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco.

Sarah Tasian, MD, attending physician in the Division of Oncology at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, highlights the coming advances in pediatric acute myeloid leukemia (AML) that she is the most excited for.

While minimal residual disease (MRD) has been a topic of research for at least a decade, right now it is more top of mind than ever before for people treating cancer, said C. Ola Landgren, MD, PhD, professor of medicine and chief of the Myeloma Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer.

Providers have an inefficient business model that’s become so deeply ingrained, they simply can’t fathom how else to do business as the industry shifts to value-based care.

Quality of life is an important end point in clinical trials, and it is important to discuss that with regulatory agencies, said Ruben Mesa, MD, director of UT Health San Antonio MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Since there are aspects of care in clinical trials that might not be mandated, research is being done to see whether there are socioeconomic disparities for things like supportive care for children with cancer, said Lena Winestone, MD, assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco.

In research presented at the 61st American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting and Exposition, Abby Statler, PhD, MPH, MA, research associate, Cleveland Clinic, and her colleagues found that African Americans with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) may be excluded from clinical trials due to renal dysfunction, despite it having no impact on AML outcomes.

So far, minimal residual disease (MRD) has not been used much outside of clinical trials, but researchers are testing how it might be used to guide decisions in clinical practice, said Lindsey Roeker, MD, clinical fellow at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

The next era in treating mantle cell lymphoma will use precision medicine to target therapies in a personalized way, said Michael Wang, MD, professor in the Department of Lymphoma and Myeloma at MD Anderson.

The terminology for smoldering myeloma has been around for decades, but more discussion over what it means and who it really applies to is needed, said C. Ola Landgren, MD, PhD, professor of medicine and chief of the Myeloma Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer.

Lena Winestone, MD, assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco, explains how her research into disparities in pediatric acute myeloid leukemia (AML) may help identify the cause of those disparities and how best to intervene in order to improve outcomes for these patients.

The introduction of novel agents has really revolutionized the care of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia to the point where chemotherapy is rarely used, said Lindsey Roeker, MD, clinical fellow at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

A new sponsor will award a Massachusetts-based organization up to $25,000.

One of the challenges with treating children with acute myeloid leukemia is that many of the novel drugs are not available in children. Current treatment with chemotherapy really requires balancing increasing doses with the short-term and long-term toxicities, said Sarah Tasian, MD, attending physician in the Division of Oncology at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

To avoid the toxicities associated with use of chemotherapy, there has been progress in developing and utilizing chemotherapy-free therapies to treat mantle cell lymphoma, said Michael Wang, MD, professor in the Department of Lymphoma and Myeloma at MD Anderson.

Although the pembrolizumab 8 arm of I-SPY2 did not have strong enough results to continue onto phase 3, it does provide some insights and highlights the need for precision medicine to tailor approaches to treatment, said Rita Nanda, MD, associate professor, medicine, The University of Chicago Medicine.

Listening to patient concerns and issues and communicating with them can really help providers keep patients with breast cancer adherent to their hormonal therapies, said Erica Mayer, MD, MPH, assistant professor, medicine, Harvard Medical School.

While efforts to abate surprise medical billing, such as the kind that come from out-of-network emergency department visits, are currently being debated in Washington, DC, the kind of billing discussed here occurs when patients struggle to understand the difference between preventive health services, which are covered at no cost under the Affordable Care Act, and billing for services at a doctor’s visit for an illness, condition, or injury.

Rita Nanda, MD, associate professor, medicine, The University of Chicago Medicine, outlines the design of the I-SPY2 clinical trial and what the results have been so far.

Ensuring that prognostic or predictive tests to help make decisions regarding radiation therapy are accurate and clinically validated remains a challenge, said Corey Speers, MD, PhD, assistant professor, radiation oncology, University of Michigan.

More than 7 months after Scott Gottlieb, MD, resigned from his position as FDA commissioner, the Senate confirmed Stephen Hahn, MD, FASTRO, to be the next head of the agency.

The bar for who should get genetic testing for breast cancer keeps getting lowered, and oncologists have to keep informed about which results should trigger a referral for germline testing, said Nadine Tung, MD, director, Cancer Risk and Prevention Program, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and associate professor, medicine, Harvard Medical School.

Using biomarker tests can help personalize care for women with ductal carcinoma in situ and determine the risks of using or not using radiation, said Eileen Rakovitch, MD, MSc, FRCPC, professor, department of radiation oncology, University of Toronto.

Amy Ellis, director of quality and value-based care at Northwest Medical Specialties, and Amanda Hodges, director of implementation for ReVital Cancer Rehabilitation, who acts as a bridge between the oncology world and the rehabilitation world, discuss overcoming barriers in practices to help patients with cancer get the rehab care they need, how patients with cancer can benefit from rehab, and defining value.

Patients with hematologic malignancies receive less appropriate end-of-life care than patients with solid tumors because of barriers with patients, physicians, and the healthcare system in general, said Adam Olszewski, MD, associate professor of medicine at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University.

New research shows that carfilzomib in newly diagnosed patients with multiple myeloma resulted in a higher rate of minimal residual disease negativity compared with usual rates, said C. Ola Landgren, MD, PhD, professor of medicine and chief of the Myeloma Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer.