Articles

Healthcare is more than medicine and patient care. Physicians, pharmacists, nurses, and hospital administrators are realizing that healthcare is also a business. As a result, healthcare professionals are looking for ways to improve quality of care while lowering costs. College and universities are answering the call with business management courses geared toward medical professionals.

Scott A. Soefje, PharmD, BCOP, has more than 20 years of pharmacy experience. He started as a hospital staff pharmacist, has held several positions in academia, and worked briefly in industry. Currently, he is director of pharmacy operations and director of the oncology residency program at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. Just this past summer, however, he em barked on a new venture—a master of business administration (MBA) program at George Washington University. Read More ›

NATIONAL HARBOR, MD—Preliminary results of an ongoing trial suggest that a combination of trastuzumab, bevacizumab, and docetaxel is safe and effective as first-line therapy in women with metastatic breast cancer (MBC).

Fourteen of the 18 patients treated to date had a partial response or stable disease, a clinical benefit rate of 77.7, the investigators reported.

Aresearch-based educational program aimed at enhancing communication between non- Hodgkin lymphoma patients and their healthcare providers has just been launched and is available for healthcare providers.

Framing Life With Lymphoma was developed by the Cancer Support Community, which unites The Wellness Community and Gilda’s Club World wide, and was supported by a grant from Cephalon.

Positive findings in treatment of metastatic melanoma were among the highlights of June’s 2010 annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). For ipi - limumab, there was the remarkable achievement of being the first to show a survival advantage in a randomized clinical trial. But whereas ipilimumab is an investigational human monoclonal antibody and a product of the most sophisticated of modern medical technologies, the agent in the second successful metastatic melanoma trial, Rose Bengal, has a more humble pedigree.

CHICAGO—Findings of a new study suggest that an antiemetic regimen containing a single intravenous (IV) 150- mg dose of fosaprepitant dimeglumine in combination with a 5-hydroxytryptamine type 3 (5-HT3) antagonist and dexamethasone appears to be comparable with a 3-day regimen of aprepitant with a 5-HT3 antagonist and dexa methasone for the prevention of chemo - therapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV).

CHICAGO—Among patients with lung cancer on highly emetogenic chemo therapy, those receiving palo - nosetron throughout all cycles of chemo therapy had a 31% lower risk of chemo therapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV) associated with an emergency department or hospital visit, than patients receiving other 5- hydroxy tryptamine type 3 (5-HT3) re - ceptor antagonists (RAs).

The role of intravenous (IV) iron as an addition to erythropoiesis-stimulating agents (ESAs) to optimize therapy in patients with anemia from cancer or chemotherapy-induced anemia has been examined in nine prospective, randomized trials,1-9 all of which showed improvement in ESA response, time to maximal response, reduction in ESA dose to reach maximal response, and improvement in quality-oflife parameters (when measured). Read More ›