Medicare Telehealth Flexibilities and CMS Operations During Government Shutdown @ascocancer.bsky.social www.asco.org/news-initiat...

What if every comprehensive cancer center were required to show they have a comprehensive AYA pathway? Here's a thoughtful and patient-led list from the EU. #AYACSM anything you might add from the US setting? Via @winettevandergraaf.bsky.social

The indomitable @fumikochino.bsky.social highlighting Financial Toxicity: From Data to Practice and Policy Change in Plenary Session 1. Calling out practical solutions to a huge issue (like free patient parking, streamlined visits and appropriate telemedicine that limit time off from work) #MASCC25

This is what we were waiting for. A direct comparison between apixaban and rivaroxaban for the treatment of acute VTE. Apixaban reduces bleeding risk in the first 3 months by >50%! Practice changing investigator-initiated RCT. #ISTH2025

Dr. Elizabeth Loggers of Fred Hutch presents Phase II and interim phase III trial analyses of peri-transplant supportive and palliative care and/or comorbidity management for older, medically infirm and/or frail recipients of Allo-HCT. #ASCO25 www.asco.org/abstracts-pr...

Made me think of @adrianna.bsky.social 2024 study in Health Affairs www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/38190...

Finishing up some coding of interview transcripts, and I'm struck by a participant / cancer survivor who experienced a lapse in their health insurance coverage because their ACA marketplace plan no longer had a $0 premium, & in that time, incurred out-of-pocket costs for surgery.

Dr. Natalie Miller presents results final results from the proof-of-concept investigator-initiated study of combination therapy with anti–PD-1, anti–LAG-3, and anti–TIM-3 in participants with advanced or metastatic PD-(L)1 refractory #MCC. #ASCO25 meetings.asco.org/abstracts-pr...

#ctDNA after neoadjuvant therapy may serve as an independent prognostic marker for #breastcancer recurrence, per results from the TBCRC 040 PREDICT-DNA trial presented by Dr. Natasha Hunter of Fred Hutch. #ASCO25

#ASCO25 Q&A stat: 20 years ago, time to first competitor (“me too drug”) in oncology was 4-5 years. Now, it’s under 9 months. Huge pressure on companies to pick endpoints that will turn around quickly, another pressure making it harder to get industry sponsored studies with OS primary endpoints.

Presenting at #ASCO25 today! I was expecting to find evidence that oncologists prefer more-lucrative treatments, and was surprised by our results! Clinical benefit matters, drug profit did not. Cc @dusetzinas.bsky.social

Excited to share our findings re: caregiver requirements for HCT and CAR T with the National Alliance for Caregiving in 2 hours! To join us, listen here: us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi... #OncSky #CanSky #Caregivers

Excited to share new work in @jama.com on launch prices for cancer drugs in Medicare Part D. Prices are going up, but no trend change post-IRA. Mean monthly launch prices increased from $10,954 in 2012-2014 to $27,891 in 2023-2025. Many thanks to @arnoldventures.bsky.social for funding this work!

In case anyone else was impressed, like me, at early separation of survival curves based on medication fills (ie., what group of medications is this life-saving on this short a timescale??): 6 more patients per 1000 are dead within 9 months if they don't have access to ART for HIV. #medsky

Wow: bench -> regulatory approval -> bedside in 7 months. Editorial from Peter Marks @nejm.org highlights that the "platform technology" designation was key to rapid approval. Hope to see this concept develop & pipeline/safety assessment formalize under Dr. Prasad. #medsky

But, once the early Medicaid loss group began losing LIS, these folks started filling fewer prescriptions than those who still had LIS. Around this time, mortality rates diverged for these two groups. After both groups lost LIS, prescription fills converged; so did death rates. (9/11)

"I would not have dared to dream that metastatic melanoma would become a treatable disease in my lifetime. Yet here we are today, with 43% of people diagnosed with metastatic melanoma living 10 years or more, due to treatments that we broadly refer to as cancer immunotherapy." Barry P. Sleckman, UAB

The full manuscript describing outcomes of 7 days Aza + 7 days Ven in newly diagnosed AML is out! -72% composite CR rate -mOS 11.2 months www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Sorry in advance for this, but I assume they got the W(-186)

Glad to see this. So many cancer patients getting cisplatin/carboplatin are sarcopenic, and Cr-based eGFR measurement may result in too-high doses. #OncSky #NephSky

A teenager hit by a car, a mother who couldn’t lift her baby, and a woman with multiple leg operations needed physical therapy. Their health insurers stopped paying before any could walk without assistance. kffhealthnews.org/news/article...

Please go see your primary care providers and get your kidneys checked!!!!! seattlemedium.com/national-kid...

🎙️In the latest #JCOOP podcast, @fumikochino.bsky.social discusses the past, present, and future of prior authorization in cancer care with Dr. Michael Anne Kyle, a health policy expert with a research focus on utilization management and patient burdens from prior auth. 🎧 ascopubs.org/do/prior-aut...

"more transparency throughout [the #priorAuth] process is great, I remain concerned that relying on patients & physicians to recognize & initiate appeals places disproportionate burden on our patients who can least afford it." @michaelannica.bsky.social @ascocancer.bsky.social

Plasma MRD kinetics in the 18 of 220 ADAURA patients who had baseline MRD+ after surgery +/- chemotherapy. Any reason why the baseline prevalence of MRD+ is higher in the placebo group? Groups were well matched for chemo receipt, nodal staging, surgery type. Just small n? #OncSky

Who is archiving MEPS, HCUP, etc.? #medsky

Multiple sources tell me AHRQ is about to be destroyed. A terrible loss for our country.

Medicaid covers about one-fifth of all hospital spending. There's a hospital in pretty much every Congressional district, and it's often one of the biggest employers. www.kff.org/medicaid/iss...

Yes, these are ridiculous. But we must also defend more "woke" grants caught in Cruz's net, like my PhD student's NSF dissertation grant on how air monitoring does not serve the needs of (mostly Black) people the most polluted zip codes. It was funded through peer review and is hugely important.

Any supervisors of cancer survivors on here? We’re in a final push for recruiting supervisors and HR professionals for this study. #ayacsm

Medicare stops access to #Telehealth April 1st for almost all. [Even rural pts must drive to a 🏥 office 1st & THEN get telehealth.] This will lead to: 1️⃣ less access to specialty care 2️⃣ poorer outcomes 3️⃣ higher costs for people with cancer #Telemedicine was a step forward. Let's not fall back.

“When you erect barriers to people enrolling in Medicaid, like premiums or documenting work status, you end up rationing coverage by complexity and ability to pay.”

#HodgkinLymphoma survivors can face difficult tx decisions & financial tradeoffs. We want to better understand how cancer (& cancer-related costs) have affected your life so that we can provide better resources in the future. 🚨Last push for our #lymsm #ayacsm #survonc survey. 🙏 Please SHARE.

#tandem25 #leusm Gang: this study from the @fredhutch.bsky.social looked at 207 adults undergoing allo in CR1/CR2 and who had high quality MPFC MRD positivity pre allo. Majority underwent MAC. Median fup 5yr. Relapse 65% with 3yr OS 34%. No sig diff between MAC and RIC.

Beautiful best oral abstract by Masumi Oshima @fredhutch.bsky.social in a giant ballroom @astct.bsky.social on how post-transplant cytoxan significantly reduces chronic graft vs host disease but increases rates of infection.

Fascinating talk on how to predict & optimize cell/gene therapy capacity/throughput from Julie Porter @danafarber.bsky.social. In addition to all the plenary session payers worried by #celltx #genetx costs-- how do hospitals balance urgency & risk that if they treat they won't get paid? #tandem25

There’s been much discussion about CAR T for severe autoimmune disease, incl. lupus & MS. What can we learn about how that might work from patients who have both cancer & autoimmune disease and get B-/plasma-cell directed CAR T? From Jennifer Huang @fredhutch.bsky.social #Tandem25 #OncSky #RheumSky

Fred Hutch Heme-Onc Fellow Dr. Margery Gang to present "Modulators of Relapse Risk after Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation for Adults with Acute Myeloid Leukemia Allografted in Measurable Residual Disease (MRD)-Positive Remission" today at #Tandem25

Fred Hutch at #Tandem25: Catch presentations from Dr. Jennifer Adair, Elizabeth Krantz and Dr. Jennifer Huang on global access to #genetherapy, #cartcelltherapy and more. Details: bit.ly/4jW3ukj

#tandem25 #bmtsm Abrams: exclusion from HCT/CT most commonly due to lack of insurance, unhoused, medication non-adherence, and substance abuse. Broad variability in abstinence time requirements. Top center-reported barriers to all HCT/CT were lack of caregiver and housing concerns.

#tandem25 #bmtsm Abrams: majority of centers require staying <60min for auto, allo, and CART, but informant minority require <30min.

#tandem25 #bmtsm Abrams: caregiver days required similar overall.

#tandem25 #bmtsm Abrams: survey of NCCN centers re non-medical barriers to alloHCT. N=31/34 centers responded. Differences in caregiver allowances; limited option for prolonged inpatient stay in lieu of optimal caregiver plan.

#tandem25 #bmtsm Giralt: Bortin Lecture: more than 450 attempts before first successful BMT. Giralt’s work on CML alloHCT contributed to it being one of the most common indications historically… until STI-571 (Gleevec), which he joked meant “Stop Transplants Immediately” 😂😂

correct alt: presenting from the *lectern also 😍

Come learn along with me from yesterday's #Tandem25 plenary on the economics of novel cell/gene therapies. Informally subtitled, "...How are we going to pay for this?" @astct.bsky.social

Statement at #Tandem25 thanking NIH contributors not able to join the meeting took me aback: #OncSky

a very practical study in Haematologica supporting that the platelet cutoff of 50K for an LP is quite arbitrarty! haematologica.org/article/view...