Clinical

What we're reading, September 29, 2016: as part of the bill to prevent a government shutdown, the Senate has finally approved Zika virus funding; electronic health record breaches skyrocketed from 2014 to 2015; and California passes "right to try" law for terminally ill patients.

Focus on behavioral interventions to prevent HIV transmission has been unsuccessful but the more recent intervention of using antiretroviral drugs has more promise, said Thomas C. Quinn, MD, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Global Health.

Researchers at the Mayo Clinic are recommending that premenopausal women with a low risk of ovarian cancer should be spared unnecessary comorbidities associated with bilateral oophorectomy.

A new study has found that after adjusting for changes in screening, there was a decrease in incidence of all grades of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) for women 15- to 19-years old, and CIN grade 2 in women 20- to 24-years old.

A study published in the journal Cancer has discovered that a 2012 recommendation for prostate cancer screening did not change physician behavior.

Mohs surgery is generally the gold standard for rare and more aggressive tumors because the surgeon can ensure the roots of the tumor are gone, but the technique keeps the hole small, said Ally-Khan B. Somani, MD, PhD, at the 25th European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology Congress.

Reimbursement issues surrounding Mohs surgery are getting worse, which provides a challenge for surgeons who would perform the procedure, explained Aleksandar L. Krunic, MD, PhD, during the 25th European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology Congress.

A new study presented at the annual meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology has found a significant survival advantage of combining chemotherapy and radiotherapy following surgery in patients with medulloblastoma.

Barring major advances in prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), hospitalizations for the disease will increase by more than 150% over the next 15 years in developed countries

Use of stereotactic body radiation therapy improved survival in elderly patients diagnosed with early-stage non-small cell lung cancer by about 20% over a decade.

A new study by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine has identified a predictive biomarker in stage IV patients with melanoma being treated with the pembrolizumab.

The American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases/Infectious Diseases Society of America Guidance Panel is recommending that before patients begin antiviral therapies for the treatment of hepatitis C, that they be screened for hepatitis B, as well.

What we're reading, September 26, 2016: the obesity rate in America has been rising steadily, but the health system is ill equipped to treat these patients; the pros and cons of mail-order medications; and barring recipients of federal funding from preventing money from going to Planned Parenthood.

An ongoing clinical trial has shown that the use of a recently approved hepatitis C virus (HCV) medication could make it possible to transplant HCV-infected kidneys into non-infected patients.

Research published in the journal JAMA Oncology argues that major lifestyle changes can significantly delay the onset of cancer.

What we're reading, September 22, 2016: a new bill would cap out-of-pocket costs for Medicare beneficiaries; world leaders agreed to a global effort to curb the spread of superbugs; and Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan, MD, will donate $3 billion over 10 years to cure disease.

A new study published in the journal PLoS Medicine has found strong evidence that a significant portion of information on adverse events, gathered from clinical trials, remains unpublished.

Colombia has decided to slash the price of imatinib mesylate (Gleevec), manufactured by Novartis, by nearly half.

Using prophylaxis with biosimilar granulocyte colony-stimulating factor can reduce the severity of neutropenia in patients with soft tissue sarcoma.

This week, the top managed care stories included news that Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, MD, MBA, will be leaving the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a report that obesity rate in the military are also on the rise, and CMS denied Ohio's proposal to charge fees for Medicaid.

The American Journal of Managed Care reached out to Daniel F. Hayes, MD, FASCO, 2016-2017 president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), to understand his perception of how the recommendations of the Cancer Moonshot initiative's Blue Ribbon Panel would impact cancer care in the United States.

There has been a steady decline in death rates among children and adolescent patients diagnosed with cancer (ages 1 to 19 years), minus gender or racial disparity, between 1999 and 2014, according to a new report from the National Center for Health Statistics.

Following an FDA advisory on ovarian cancer screening tests, London-based Abcodia has announced that it will temporarily stop sales of its Risk of Ovarian Cancer Algorithm test in the United States.

What we're reading, September 15, 2016: A United Nations panel challenges the market-based approach to drug research and development; an FDA panel recommends removing a serious health warning from Chantix's label; and older patients may want to wait to get their flu shot.

A cost-effectiveness analysis has found that Oncotype DX may not be economical to make clinical decisions on adjuvant radiation treatment in patients with DCIS.

Patricia Salber, MD, MBA, of The Doctor Weighs In, interviewed James D. Chambers, PhD, to discuss his findings on the impact of formulary drug exclusion policies.

A study published in JAMA Oncology has found that interventions to improve patient-centered communication was successful in patients with advanced cancer, but it failed to improve quality of life (QOL), patient-physician relation, or healthcare utilization toward the end of life.

Although daratumumab reduced the risk of disease progression and death for patients with multiple myeloma, the drug was associated with a higher rate of neutropenia.

Insurance companies are making it mandatory for individuals to speak with qualified genetic counselors prior to testing for some hereditary cancers.

The treatment of chronic hepatitis C virus has been revolutionized by the development of direct-acting antivirals, but a small fraction of patients do experience resistance and treatment failure.