February 2014, Vol 5, No 1

>New Orleans, LA—More patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) are receiving rituximab infusions in the hospital setting, incurring greater costs than those receiving infusions in the office or clinic, an examination of medical and pharmacy claims has shown.
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New Orleans, LA—Recipients of allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplant are at high risk for financial burden, according to survey-based data collected by Nandita Khera, MD, MPH, a medical oncologist from the Blood and Marrow Transplant Program, Mayo Clinic Arizona, Phoenix, and colleagues.
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New Orleans, LA—The use of decitabine (Dacogen) is more cost-effective than conventional induction therapy for patients aged >60 years with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), according to data from a recent economic analysis.
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>Patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) and high out-of-pocket (OOP) costs for treating their disease have a 70% chance of discontinuing treatment and a 42% chance of nonadherence to treatment compared with patients with lesser copays. These conclusions, which were recently published online (Dusetzina SB, et al. J Clin Oncol.
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San Francisco, CA—The early termination of clinical trials is a tremendous waste of resources and can leave patients with cancer with no improved treatment options.
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San Francisco, CA—Radiation added to hormone therapy with antiandrogens extended cancer-specific survival, as well as overall survival, when used as the primary treatment of patients with locally advanced or high-risk prostate cancer.
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San Francisco, CA—The use of angiotensin system inhibitors (ASIs) improved survival in patients with metastatic renal-cell carcinoma (mRCC) by 9 months, according to a retrospective pooled analysis of several clinical trials presented at the 2014 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium.
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The FDA approved a new indication for ibrutinib (Imbruvica; Pharmacyclics) for the treatment of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) who have received at least 1therapy before.
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>The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the use of dabrafenib (Tafinlar; GlaxoSmithKline) plus trametinib (Mekinist; GlaxoSmithKline) as a new combination therapy for the treatment of patients with advanced melanoma that is unresectable or metastatic.
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