November 2012, Vol 3, No 8

Vienna, Austria—Costs associated with first-line pemetrexed/cisplatin are significantly lower than those of carboplatin/paclitaxel/bevacizumab for the treatment of advanced non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to an analysis presented at the 2012 European Society for Medical Oncology Congress.

Vienna, Austria—Adding bevacizumab (Avastin) to chemotherapy improves outcomes in patients with platinum-resistant recurrent ovarian cancer, according to results of the phase 3 clinical trial AURELIA, which was presented at the 2012 European Society for Medical Oncology Congress.

Houston, TX—Most employers do not understand biologics and specialty pharmacy well enough to use services appropriately and to take advantage of their benefits, said F. Randy Vogenberg, RPh, PhD, Principal, Institute for Integrated Healthcare, Sharon, MA, an employer benefit consulting company.

Houston, TX—Employers’ health plan managers must “balance members’ access to new treatments with the fiscal responsibility of managing the healthcare financial resources wisely,” said Bridget Eber, PharmD, Senior Consultant and Clinical Lead of Rx Group Purchasing, Towers Watson, at the 2012 Second Annual Association for Value-Based Cancer Care Conference.

San Francisco, CA—According to a study from the US Oncology Network, patients with breast cancer who are treated with adjuvant chemotherapy have no increased risk for acute myeloid leukemia (AML) or myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), at least within the first 3 years of treatment.

San Francisco, CA—Acute care utilization, namely, emergency department visits and hospitalizations, are surprisingly common among patients with early breast cancer, according to a retrospective study using an administrative database in Ontario, Canada.

San Francisco, CA—Three frequently used radiologic tests rarely detect metastases in patients with a new diagnosis of breast cancer and should not be routinely performed, according to a comprehensive literature review presented at the 2012 Breast Cancer Symposium.

In a study of patients who were enrolled in the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results–Medicare database, these utilization patterns led to a cost increase of 63% per patient. The study’s results were reported at the 2012 American Society for Radiation Oncology annual meeting.

In this article we address the final payment rules issued on November 1, 2012, by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the Physician Fee Schedule (PFS), and the Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System.