Tony Hagen

Articles

CAR T-Cell Therapy: The Sticker Price Is Just for Openers

June 12th 2018

CMS has proposed a different way to handle payment for chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy, one that the medical and manufacturing community thinks is unworkable.

Maintenance Therapy Changes Paradigm in Rare Childhood Sarcoma

June 3rd 2018

A course of low-dose maintenance chemotherapy administered after standard-of-care intensive chemotherapy led to significant improvements in disease-free and overall survival in pediatric rhabdomyosarcoma.

cfDNA Assays Demonstrate High Specificity for Early Stage Lung Cancer Detection

June 2nd 2018

Initial results from the Circulating Cell-Free Genome Atlas study strongly suggest that cell-free DNA tests can be used with a high degree of specificity to detect signs of early stage lung cancer.

Colorectal Cancer Treatment Twice as Costly in US Than Canada, Despite Similar Outcomes

June 2nd 2018

A study that compared costs of treatment for metastatic colorectal cancer in Western Washington and the province of British Columbia in Canada found that prices were more than twice as high for the US patients than for their Canadian counterparts, with no significant difference in outcomes.

CAR T-Cell Payment Codes Don't Address True Cost

May 17th 2018

CMS's initial payment codes for CAR T-cell therapies are opposed by the medical community on the basis that they would be cumbersome to implement and wouldn't reflect the full amount of care delivered to each patient.

When Prior Approvals Are "A Game of Chicken"

May 11th 2018

Experts across the medical spectrum weigh in on requesting prior authorization, and how that process effects the treatment of cancer.

The Looming Squeeze on Provider Revenues

May 2nd 2018

Since 2008, 423 individual cancer treatment sites have closed and another 658 community cancer centers were acquired by or became affiliated with hospitals.

Necitumumab/Abemaciclib Combo Fails in Stage IV NSCLC

April 13th 2018

A phase Ib study of necitumumab in combination with abemaciclib failed to meaningfully improve outcomes in patients with stage IV non–small cell lung cancer.

Alectinib Edge Over Crizotinib Supported by Patient-Reported Outcomes

April 12th 2018

In findings consistent with earlier results on efficacy and adverse events reported for the phase III ALEX trial, investigators announced superior patient-reported outcomes for the next-generation tyrosine kinase inhibitor alectinib versus the standard of care TKI inhibitor crizotinib in ALK-positive non–small cell lung cancer.

Atezolizumab Shines in Long-term POPLAR Findings

April 12th 2018

Anti PD-L1 immunotherapy with atezolizumab (Tecentriq) was strongly superior to docetaxel in locally advanced or metastatic non–small cell lung cancer, according to 3-year survival findings from the phase II POPLAR study.

Fresh Focus on Second Primary Cancers

April 5th 2018

When investigators looked at roughly 150,000 cases of well-differentiated thyroid cancer using the SEER database of the National Cancer Institute, they knew that the use of radioactive iodine in conjunction with surgery and other treatments for thyroid cancer had increased dramatically over the years.

Coping With the Shortage of Oncologists

April 4th 2018

The shortage of doctors and other professionals to fill available positions in oncology practice is not news to practitioners—the American Society of Clinical Oncology has long chronicled the growing need for young oncologists to fill the ranks as senior ones retire or leave due to burnout.

Neoadjuvant Endocrine Therapy Ideal for Some Breast Cancer Patients

March 11th 2018

Endocrine therapy can achieve tumor reduction for patients with ER-positive breast cancer, possibly avoiding the need for chemotherapy or even surgery in some patients; however, deciding how long to continue this therapy can be tricky.

AJCC Staging Manual Gives Boost to Precision Medicine

March 11th 2018

The latest revision of the staging manual for breast cancer from the American Joint Committee on Cancer is a quantum leap toward precision oncology, as it codifies advanced knowledge of the role of biologic factors in cancer, and oncologists should now be using it.

Frontline Palbociclib Effective Regardless of Prior Treatment in Breast Cancer Subgroups

March 9th 2018

Palbociclib (Ibrance) demonstrated significant efficacy in combination with letrozole (Femara) in the frontline setting of estrogen receptor-positive, HER2-negative, postmenopausal metastatic breast cancer.

CTCs Demonstrate Predictive Power in Prostate Cancer

February 21st 2018

Investigators looking for a superior means of testing for response to therapy in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer said they found the solution in a study of circulating tumor cells.

Better Utilization of Broad Panel NGS Possible in 2018

February 13th 2018

A recent study of oncologists’ use of next-generation sequencing to test for actionable genetic mutations reveals a stark gap between the appropriateness and the actual utilization of these tests.

Docetaxel Adds to QALY in Advanced Prostate Disease

February 6th 2018

The addition of docetaxel (Taxotere) to frontline long-term hormone therapy for advanced prostate cancer improved quality of life and reduced the need for subsequent therapy, contributing to lower overall costs in the nonmetastatic setting.

Network Enlists Practicing Oncologists to Develop Plans

February 3rd 2018

Physicians are carefully evaluating potential partnership and referral deals to ensure that whatever they do is perceived as aligned with delivering better, more efficient care.

Right-to-Try Bills Push the Needle on Risk

December 24th 2017

Congressional "right-to-try" legislation could make investigational drugs available to desperately ill patients sooner in the trials process, but there are substantial risks.