Value Assessment in Precision Cancer Medicine
Publication date: Available online 9 September 2016 Source:Journal of Cancer Policy Author(s): Adrian Towse, Louis Garrison Oncology is the initial prime clinical area of precision medicine applications. This paper identifies and discusses key conceptual, implementation, and policy issues in applying value assessment in precision cancer medicine. The economic complementarity of tests and diagnostics is important to recognize because of the challenges it creates in defining their specific contribution to value. There are three key aspects to this: (a) the institutional arrangments, (b) the evidence requirements, and (c)...
Source: Journal of Cancer Policy - September 9, 2016 Category: Cancer & Oncology Source Type: research
Value-Based Payment for Oncology Services in the United States and France
Publication date: Available online 9 September 2016 Source:Journal of Cancer Policy Author(s): James C. Robinson, Francis Megerlin The pursuit of economic and clinical value in oncology goes “beyond the pill” to encompass improvements in the process of caring for patients suffering from cancer. The concept of value-based payment thus extends beyond the amounts reimbursed for drugs themselves to encompass the methods of payment used for the physicians and facilities where those drugs are prescribed and delivered. Oncology payment mechanisms vary widely across nations depending on the structure of their health care s...
Source: Journal of Cancer Policy - September 8, 2016 Category: Cancer & Oncology Source Type: research
Is willingness to pay higher for cancer prevention and treatment?
Publication date: Available online 9 September 2016 Source:Journal of Cancer Policy Author(s): Koonal Kirit Shah It is often assumed by health economists that the principal objective of health care is to maximise population health. However, people may be willing to sacrifice overall health in order to direct resources towards high priority disease areas, such as cancer. This paper examines whether society is willing to pay more for cancer prevention and treatment than for other types of health care. The policy context in the UK, where special assessment criteria and funding arrangements are currently in place for certai...
Source: Journal of Cancer Policy - September 8, 2016 Category: Cancer & Oncology Source Type: research
Rare Cancers − Rarity as a Cost and Value Argument
Publication date: Available online 9 September 2016 Source:Journal of Cancer Policy Author(s): J.-Matthias Graf von der Schulenburg, Frédéric Pauer Here is a paradox in medicine: rare diseases are unusual, but developing a rare disease is quite frequent. This is also true for rare forms of cancer. Almost every 20th person in the world suffers from a rare disease, and about one quarter of all new diagnosed cancers belong to rare cancers. The downside of rare diseases for patients is the difficulty to find the right institution for their treatment, for health care payers it is the costly treatments, and for medical pro...
Source: Journal of Cancer Policy - September 8, 2016 Category: Cancer & Oncology Source Type: research
The Cost-Effectiveness and Value of Gynecological Cancer Biomarker Screening in Financially Vulnerable Female Populations
This article explores the “value-added” portfolio of biomarker screening, and provides a written analysis of current literature. This article then describes how biomarkers can be used to achieve affordable gynecological cancer prevention and/or early-stage cancer detection and management in financially vulnerable populations of women. (Source: Journal of Cancer Policy)
Source: Journal of Cancer Policy - August 2, 2016 Category: Cancer & Oncology Source Type: research
Which is more important for doctors in a middle-income country, a national guideline or the medical literature? An adherence survey of trastuzumab use for breast cancer in Iran
Conclusions Resource-sensitive guidelines may be beneficial in middle-income countries where limited budgets cannot accommodate all innovative technologies. However, Iranian physicians appear to rely more on the medical literature than on national guidelines regarding trastuzumab use. Policymakers, doctors and other stakeholders need to reach some consensus about the optimal way to treat patients. A national guideline needs to be accompanied with country-specific economic evaluations. (Source: Journal of Cancer Policy)
Source: Journal of Cancer Policy - July 28, 2016 Category: Cancer & Oncology Source Type: research
The Cost of Accuracy: A Budget Impact Analysis of Whole-Mount Histopathology Processing for Patients with Breast Cancer Undergoing Breast Conservation.
Conclusion The initiation of routine WM processing for breast lumpectomy specimens is costly. However, favourable tradeoffs in diagnostic accuracy and histopathologic efficiency underpin the need to deliberately consider the adoption of WM technique. (Source: Journal of Cancer Policy)
Source: Journal of Cancer Policy - July 25, 2016 Category: Cancer & Oncology Source Type: research
Strategies for cancer prevention in India —Catching the ‘low hanging fruits’
We present a summary of the group recommendations here. While tobacco use remains the most important preventable cause of cancer, a substantial number of preventable cancers can be attributed to non-tobacco risk factors including infections, alcohol use, dietary factors, physical activity/body composition, and environmental and occupational exposures. Strategies presented range from early diagnosis of cancers (including innovative health communication strategies to increase awareness), to consideration of secure spaces and facilities for exercise in urban design and planning. Cancer prevention and the control of non-commun...
Source: Journal of Cancer Policy - July 19, 2016 Category: Cancer & Oncology Source Type: research
Why do some countries approve a cancer drug and others don ’t?
Publication date: June 2015 Source:Journal of Cancer Policy, Volume 4 Author(s): Laia Maynou Pujolras, John Cairns The term drug reimbursement describes the policy system that determines whether or not a drug is entitled to reimbursement within the healthcare system. Countries make different decisions regarding which cancer treatments to routinely provide. As a result, depending on the cancer drug-indication and the country assessing it, the decision can be Favourable, Favourable with restrictions or Non-Favourable. The main objective of this paper is to describe the differences in drug reimbursement decisions on c...
Source: Journal of Cancer Policy - July 19, 2016 Category: Cancer & Oncology Source Type: research
First international workshops on Provocative Questions (PQ) in cancer research, October –November 2014, New Delhi, Bengaluru, and Thiruvananthapuram, India
Publication date: December 2015 Source:Journal of Cancer Policy, Volume 6 Author(s): Preetha Rajaraman, Bindu Dey, Partha P. Majumder, Satyajit Mayor, M. Radhakrishna Pillai, S. Ramaswamy, Chandrima Shaha, Maureen Johnson, Sudha Sivaram, Edward L. Trimble, Edward E. Harlow, K. VijayRaghavan In 2011, the National Cancer Institute (NCI, USA) introduced the Provocative Questions (PQ) Initiative, a new approach allowing active researchers to define major unsolved or neglected problems in oncology unaddressed by existing funding. Last year, the U.S. NCI teamed up with the Indian Department of Biotech...
Source: Journal of Cancer Policy - July 19, 2016 Category: Cancer & Oncology Source Type: research
A national framework for breast cancer control: A report on Rwanda ’s inaugural symposium on the management of breast cancer
Publication date: December 2015 Source:Journal of Cancer Policy, Volume 6 Author(s): Shilpa Shree Murthy, Neo Tapela, Marie Aimee Muhimpundu, Jean Paul Balinda, Florence Musabyemariya, Katie Kirby, Lydia E. Pace, Robert Riviello, Faustin Ntirenganya, Georges Ntakiyiruta Breast cancer (BC) is on the rise and is a leading cause of cancer-related mortality for women globally. A highly treatable and survivable cancer in high-income countries, outcomes for BC in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are extremely poor. These inequities are often due to resource limitations within the health care syste...
Source: Journal of Cancer Policy - July 19, 2016 Category: Cancer & Oncology Source Type: research
Population-level scale-up of surgery platforms for women ’s cancer care in low- and middle-income countries
Publication date: March 2016 Source:Journal of Cancer Policy, Volume 7 Author(s): Groesbeck P. Parham, Mulindi H. Mwanahamuntu, Michael L. Hicks, Ronda Henry-Tillman, Carla J. Chibwesha, Lameck Chinula, Olola Achieng Oneko, Daniel Murokora, Vikrant V. Sahasrabuddhe Surgery is a cornerstone of management of women's cancer care in low- and middle-income countries. As cancer incidence rates and disease burden rise rapidly even in the lowest income nations, the need for investing in surgical care platforms at all levels of the health system (primary health care clinics to tertiary hospitals) is being incr...
Source: Journal of Cancer Policy - July 19, 2016 Category: Cancer & Oncology Source Type: research
Palliative radiotherapy: Evolving role and policy challenges
Publication date: Available online 31 May 2016 Source:Journal of Cancer Policy Author(s): Ajay Aggarwal, Simon Hughes Radiotherapy remains a key modality in the palliation of advanced malignancy managing both local primary tumour effects such as pain and bleeding as well as the sequelae of metastatic disease. Its role continues to evolve in line with advances in radiation technology, which have facilitated dose escalation and reduced toxicity. Injudicious use of such advancements has the potential to magnify the cost of delivering palliative radiotherapy without achieving significant gains in terms of outcomes, and...
Source: Journal of Cancer Policy - June 15, 2016 Category: Cancer & Oncology Source Type: research
Palliative care: when and how, and what are the implications for global cancer policy?
Publication date: Available online 31 May 2016 Source:Journal of Cancer Policy Author(s): Richard Harding, Emmanuel Luyirika, Katherine E Sleeman (Source: Journal of Cancer Policy)
Source: Journal of Cancer Policy - May 30, 2016 Category: Cancer & Oncology Source Type: research
Palliative radiotherapy: evolving role and policy challenges?
Publication date: Available online 31 May 2016 Source:Journal of Cancer Policy Author(s): Ajay Aggarwal, Simon Hughes Radiotherapy remains a key modality in the palliation of advanced malignancy managing both local primary tumour effects such as pain and bleeding as well as the sequelae of metastatic disease. Its role continues to evolve in line with advances in radiation technology, which have facilitated dose escalation and reduced toxicity. Injudicious use of such advancements has the potential to magnify the cost of delivering palliative radiotherapy without achieving significant gains in terms of outcomes, and...
Source: Journal of Cancer Policy - May 30, 2016 Category: Cancer & Oncology Source Type: research
