Articles
The Centers for Medicare & Medi caid Services (CMS) has re leased a proposed decision memo that suggests it will cover the cost of sipuleucel-T (Provenge), the immunotherapy vaccine approved in April 2010 for men with asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer, for on-label use. CMS contractors will have discretion as to whether they will cover it for off-label use.
Read More ›Every physician has a preferred way of writing prescription instructions, and pharmacists differ in how they translate those instructions to the pill bottle. A study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine by Wolf and associates found that the lack of a universal medication schedule (UMS) to standardize how prescriptions are written and filled contributes to poor patient adherence and increases safety concerns. Elderly patients or those with low health literacy are more prone to confusion when trying to follow a multidrug regimen.
Read More ›The National Cancer Institute set out to answer this question last year and published results of their investigation in the January 2011 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The study’s authors point to flaws in previous cancer cost estimates, many of which did little more than take figures from 15 years ago and adjust them for inflation.
Read More ›The following is a list of drugs commonly used for patients with cancer that the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) classified as being in short supply in March. For some drugs, only certain doses or preparations are unavailable. Most shortages are attributable to manufacturing delays and/or increased demand. In some cases, the manufacturer discontinued the drug or offered no explanation for the short supply. A couple (ie, capecitabine [Xeloda] tablets and dexamethasone sodium phosphate) have been voluntarily recalled because of contamination concerns. Read More ›
APP Pharmaceuticals has issued a voluntary recall of 5 lots of irinotecan hydrochloride injection (Camptosar) as a precautionary measure. No adverse events related to the recalled products have been reported. The following lots have been recalled:
Read More ›HOLLYWOOD, FL—Patients receiving chemotherapy are at risk for reactivation of the hepatitis B virus (HBV), and this can have a significant negative impact on the outcomes, including death from liver failure. According to Emmy Ludwig, MD, of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), New York, one-third of the world has been exposed to HBV, “making it an enormous problem.”
Fortunately, HBV reactivation can be prevented with the prophylactic use of effective antiviral agents, for which recommendations were presented by Ludwig at the meeting.
Read More ›The evidence backing the use of myeloid growth factors in patients at high risk for febrile neutropenia is solid, according to Jeffrey Crawford, MD, of Duke Cancer Institute, Durham, North Carolina.
Myeloid growth factors are the primary means of preventing chemotherapy-induced neutropenia. This often leads to febrile neutropenia, which can be fatal in 10% of patients, according to a database of more than 40,000 individuals. Concerns recently have been raised, however, that their use is associated with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML).
Read More ›Effective management of breakthrough cancer pain requires optimizing background therapy for chronic pain and accurately assessing the type of breakthrough pain, said presenters at the 45th American Society of Health-System Pharmacists Midyear Clinical Meeting & Exposition.
“Knowing the type of breakthrough cancer pain can help match the right drug with the right goal,” said Mary Lynn McPherson, PharmD, BCPS, CDE, who is professor and vice chair, Department of Pharmacy Practice and Science, University of Maryland School of Pharmacy in Baltimore.
Read More ›Adding simvastatin to cetuximab enhances antitumor activity in KRAS-mutant colorectal (CRC) cancer cells, according to a study by Lee and colleagues in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The addition did not, however, enhance efficacy in BRAF-mutant cells.
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