(ASCO) Sept 10, 2019 - The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) joined approximately 350 health care groups in urging members of the U.S. House of Representatives to support the Improving Seniors’ Timely Access to Care Act (H.R. 3107). The bipartisan bill would help protect patients from unnecessary care delays by streamlining and standardizing prior authorization under Medicare Advantage (MA) and providing program oversight and transparency for MA beneficiaries.

Thomas Marsland, MD (Posted: September 11, 2019)

I have been doing this a long time, and one of the biggest frustrations I face today is the delay it takes to get patients the appropriate care they need. It didn't use to be that way. Prior auths are a big part of these delaying tactics foisted on us by the payer community. Hopefully this dysfunctional Congress can literally get this act together..... (comment from a long standing R). I would hope that in this bill that they also assure that those nasty PBM's also have to play by the new rules.

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(IASLC 2019) Sept 10, 2019 - Pooled data on two clinical trials demonstrate patients taking nivolumab realized a greater than five-fold increase in five-year overall survival rate compared with the chemotherapy docetaxel. The presentation was made today by Dr. Scott Gettinger of Yale Comprehensive Cancer Center, New Haven, Conn., at the IASLC 2019. Historically, outcomes for advanced non-small cell lung cancer have been poor, with five-year survival rates less than five percent with conventional chemotherapy. Nivolumab, a programmed death-1 inhibitor, was approved in 2015 for patients with previously treated advanced NSCLC based on two randomized phase three trials, CheckMate 017 and CheckMate 057, which demonstrated improved overall survival compared to docetaxel

H. Jack West, MD (Posted: September 11, 2019)

Definitively answering a completely obviated clinical question.

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(IASLC 2019) Sept 10, 2019 - Patients with Stage IV squamous non-small cell lung cancer enrolled in clinical trial to test the immunotherapy atezolizumab and chemotherapy against chemotherapy alone experienced a longer survival rate, among a subgroup of patients with high PD-LI. The data for the Impower131 Trial was presented today by Dr. F. Cappuzzo, from Azienda Unità Sanitaria Locale della Romagna, Ravenna/Italy at the IASLC 2019 World Conference on Lung Cancer, hosted by the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer.

H. Jack West, MD (Posted: September 11, 2019)

These results are not as impressive as those of KEYNOTE-407, so I would say that this trial will not lead to this regimen emerging as a strong alternative to carbo/taxane with pembrolizumab as the leading chemo/immunotherapy approach in the first line setting for patients with advanced squamous NSCLC. The absence of an OS benefit in this trial falls short of what we'd have hoped and would need to see to have this trial change practice.

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