Speakers here at the Association of American Cancer Institutes (AACI)/Cancer Center Administrators Forum Annual Meeting discussed the escalating costs of cancer care and what can be done to keep high-quality care affordable. According to a new report on the crisis in cancer care from the Institute of Medicine (OT 10/10/13), the cost of cancer care…
FDA Friday (Nov. 1) approved a therapeutic combination that more than doubled progression free survival in patients — the first approval under the breakthrough drug designation created more than a year ago with the passage of the FDA Safety and Innovation Act. The agency approved Genentech’s Gazyva for use in combination with chlorambucil to treat…
Roche Holding AG (ROG) won approval for its Gazyva drug for patients with leukemia who haven’t been treated before. The medicine, also known as obinutuzumab, is cleared to treat chronic lymphocytic leukemia and is the first breakthrough therapy ever to receive approval, the Food and Drug Administration said today in a statement. The FDA granted…
ASCO today announced its second “Top Five” list of opportunities to improve the quality and value of cancer care. Published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO), ASCO’s second Top Five list was released as part of the Choosing Wisely® campaign, sponsored by the ABIM Foundation, to encourage conversations between physicians and patients aimed at curbing the use of certain…
How can we work together to achieve a future in which we’re beating cancer by providing care that is effective, affordable, high quality and patient-centered? Ellen Sigal: The key to beating cancer will be found through true collaboration from all sectors. For years, Friends of Cancer Research has convened the best and the brightest from all…
IBM continues to expand the use of its Watson supercomputer from winning Jeopardy to handling incoming call-center questions to guiding cancer doctorsat Memorial Sloan Kettering to better diagnoses. Today it announced a new pilot program for Watson at Houston’s renowned MD Anderson Cancer Center. The institution has been trying out Watson for a little under a year in its leukemia…
The once-hypothetical question of reimbursability is now leading the global partnering conversation, but how can anyone know whether a preclinical molecule will differentiate itself enough down the road to provide value for payers? The reality of partnering conversations these days is that reimbursement is becoming a bigger consideration than science, particularly with the influence of…
WASHINGTON — The federal government has continued to enroll critically ill people in clinical trials at the National Institutes of Health since the government shutdown began last week, but the pace has slowed drastically, and many other sick people are having to wait for treatment. As elected officials try to sway public opinion on which party bears…
WASHINGTON, DC—The advocacy organization Friends of Cancer Research (FOCR) released a new blueprint document at a forum here designed to improve and expedite the approval process for drugs given the Food and Drug Administration’s Breakthrough Designation, along with companion diagnostic tests. Currently, the development of a companion diagnostic may lag behind the accelerated review timeline…
In 2006 when doctors started testing a melanoma treatment made by Roche Holding AG on patients, they were used to facing slim odds – about one in eight – that the tumors would shrink on chemotherapy. This time, they couldn’t believe their eyes. With Zelboraf, a drug that targets specific mutations in cancer cells, eight…
