Darcy Lewis

If there's one constant in medical oncology, it's that new cancer therapies are hitting the market at a dizzying pace. The U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) issued a total of 59 oncology drug approvals in 2020. They included 21 new drugs, 2 biosimilars and 36 new or expanded drug indications.
2021 is on track to be another banner year for new FDA-approved oncology drugs. Keeping up with all of these advances is important. Here's what you need to know to stay up to date.

For years, the standard treatment for early stage non-small-cell lung cancer that hasn’t spread beyond the lungs has been chemotherapy given either before or after surgery to kill off any microscopic remaining tumor that may have spread before the surgery.
The results, however, were less than ideal.

NOTE: ASJA NAMED THIS ARTICLE THE BEST TRADE ARTICLE IN ITS 2020 AWARDS CONTEST. It wasn't too many years years ago that the primary concerns related to pain management for patients with cancer revolved around whether they were getting adequate relief. Now, with the United States in the throes of an opioid epidemic, the use of these powerful and addictive pain relievers for patients with cancer is coming under unprecedented scrutiny.

Margaret Q. Rosenzweig, PhD, is an oncology nurse and a Distinguished Service Professor of Nursing at the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing. Dr. Rosenzweig’s research examines diagnosis, treatment, and survival differences among women with breast cancer based on their race. Her goal is to improve care so that all women receive timely diagnoses, treatment, and support during their breast cancer journeys.
The National Cancer Institute reports that Black people have higher death rates t...

It wasn’t so long ago that the birth defect spina bifida was considered primarily a pediatric disease. That’s because most people with the disease did not survive past adolescence. Today, in one of modern medicine’s major successes, more than 75 percent of people with spina bifida now live to adulthood. There are several reasons for this, but most hinge on the phenomenon of coordinated medical care for children with spina bifida.

For most companies, the decision to rent or buy home infusion and respiratory equipment involves a variety of factors. These factors include capitalization, cash flow, equipment utilization and maintenance costs. Here's how to decide which approach is right for your company.

Even if you’ve got health insurance, there’s no guarantee against getting a medical bill full of unexpected charges. In a 2018 survey on health care billing by NORC, a research organization at the University of Chicago, 57 percent of respondents said they had been surprised by a bill they thought would be covered by their health plan.
Communication, or the lack of it, is part of the problem, according to Richard Gundling, senior vice president of health care financial practices at the Healthc...

When researchers develop scientific new treatments, they must first be proven safe and effective. Only then can new treatments earn U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval.
Scientists earn FDA approval by conducting more research. They use clinical trials — human-based research studies — to show safety and effectiveness.
That’s where volunteers come in. Clinical trials rely on volunteers to take new treatments under medical supervision.

If you have cancer, your oncologist will closely monitor your health to determine how the cancer is impacting the rest of your body. Your kidneys play a vital role in your overall health so your doctor will pay close attention to your kidney heath regardless of whether the cancer is in your kidneys.
Kidney cancer directly harms your kidneys and prevents them from working well. But other types of cancer can damage your kidneys, too. Some cancer treatments can also affect how well your kidneys work.

Virtual reality, already established in brain surgery, is starting to prove its value as a patient-education tool in the spine setting. Here’s how VR in medicine can enhance the patient experience.
Virtual reality in medicine can change the game for surgeons. Any neurosurgeon who has slipped on virtual reality (VR) goggles and “flown” through an interactive, immersive three-dimensional (3-D) visualization of a patient’s brain aneurysm or meningioma can instantly grasp how useful the technolog...

Dramatic improvements in efficacy outcomes for patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) have been a reason for celebration over the last decade, as FDA approvals of immunotherapy-plus-chemotherapy combinations as well as oncogenic-targeting drugs have transformed the treatment landscape.
The FDA frequently issues approvals for drugs and biologics based on surrogate end points such as progression- free survival (PFS) or objective response rate (ORR) instead of overall survival (OS).

About 55,000 people in the United States receive a diagnosis of head and neck cancer each year. That’s about 4% of all U.S. cancer cases. Nearly 11,000 people die of head and neck cancer annually.
Defining Head and Neck Cancers
Head and neck cancers are cancers that start in the organs and tissues inside the head and neck. They include cancers of the:
Inner lips
Mouth
Nose
Sinuses
Larynx (voice box)
Oropharynx (throat)
Salivary glands
Thyroid
Doctors consider cancers that grow on the outside ...

You may have heard that improvements in cancer care happen every day. It’s true: treatments are getting better. That means many people with cancer now live longer than ever before.

The American Society of Clinical Oncology reports that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a total of 126 cancer drugs between 1980 and 2018. Cancer drugs now account for more than one in four of all new drug approvals in the United States. That’s the finding of a report from the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development.

Clinical trials made every one of these advances possible.

When you have a problem with your brain, spine, or nervous system, you want answers — and you want them fast. A neurosurgeon may be the ideal specialist to provide the care you need.
Neurosurgeons are specially trained to operate on the brain, spine, and nerves throughout the body. After completing 4 years of medical school, they complete a 7-year surgical training residency. Some neurosurgeons complete an additional 2 or 3 years of fellowship training. Most neurosurgeons are board-certified,...