Amy J. Davidoff, PhD, on Racial Disparities in Time to Cancer Treatment: The Effect of Medicaid Expansion
2019 ASCO Annual Meeting
Amy J. Davidoff, PhD, of Yale University School of Public Health, discusses study findings on how expanding access to Medicaid through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) reduced racial disparities among patients with advanced cancer. Before the ACA was implemented in 2014, black patients with cancer were less likely than white patients to receive timely treatment, but in states that did not adopt Medicaid expansion, racial disparities persist (Abstract LBA1).
Hirotsugu Kenmotsu, MD, of Shizuoka Cancer Center, discusses the phase III JIPANG trial findings, which showed that pemetrexed plus cisplatin was not superior to vinorelbine plus cisplatin in terms of recurrence-free survival for patients with completely resected nonsquamous non–small cell lung cancer (Abstract 8501).
Jame Abraham, MD, of the Cleveland Clinic, provides commentary on the NALA study findings on neratinib plus capecitabine vs lapatinib plus capecitabine in patients previously treated with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer (Abstract 1002).
Åsmund A. Fretland, MD, of Oslo University Hospital, discusses clinical trial findings on survival outcomes after laparoscopic vs open resection for colorectal liver metastases. The study he conducted with his team showed that the laparoscopic procedure did not jeopardize long-term survival (Abstract LBA3516).
Javier Sastre, MD, PhD, of Hospital Clinico San Carlos, discusses phase III findings on the assessment of circulating tumor cells as a prognostic factor and FOLFOXIRI plus bevacizumab combination outcomes for patients with poor-prognosis colorectal cancer (Abstract 3507).
Mark J. Levis, MD, PhD, of The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins University, discusses the effect of gilteritinib on survival in patients with FLT3-mutated relapsed/refractory AML who have common co-mutations or a high FLT3-ITD allelic ratio, and the importance of FLT3-ITD testing at diagnosis and again at relapse (Abstract 7000).
