Oncology Business Management

The narrowing difference between operating cost and total medical revenue has eased, buying some time for practices to adjust their business models and perhaps survive.

Although it is now standard practice to utilize the second-generation TKIs dasatinib or nilotinib in patients whose CML has recurred while taking imatinib treatment, published support for the economic value of this approach is lacking.

Leonard G. Gomella, MD, from the Thomas Jefferson University Hospital Kimmel Cancer Center, discusses the information currently available on sequencing the recently approved treatments for men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer.

Following the recent flurry of FDA approvals for prostate cancer medications, oncologists are grappling with questions about which combinations or sequences of those therapies might improve outcomes for patients.

Companion diagnostics can enable significant improvements in safety, efficacy, outcomes, and cost-effectiveness associated with many existing and new therapies.

The compound LDK378, a highly selective inhibitor of ALK, has been granted "Breakthrough Therapy Designation" by the FDA for the treatment of patients with ALK-positive metastatic non-small cell lung cancer.

The FDA approved the radioactive diagnostic imaging agent technetium Tc 99m tilmanocept (Lymphoseek Injection) to identify lymph nodes for potential removal in patients with breast cancer or melanoma.

Emmanuel Stylianos Antonarakis, MBBCh, from the Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses a phase II trial evaluating the optimal sequence for sipuleucel-T and ADT in patients with biochemically recurrent prostate cancer.

Two months after temporarily delaying a package of budget cuts and tax increases, federal lawmakers allowed the changes to automatically take effect by failing to agree on an alternative plan.

Nicholas J. Vogelzang, MD, from Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada, discusses sequencing abiraterone acetate and enzalutamide in the treatment of men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer.

The FDA approved regorafenib for the treatment of gastrointestinal stromal tumors that cannot be removed surgically and no longer respond to other FDA-approved treatments for the disease.

The FDA has approved ado-trastuzumab emtansine, also known as T-DM1, for HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer.