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Reposted by Hannah R. Abrams

Julie Gralow @jrgralow.bsky.social · 7d

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

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Hannah R. Abrams @hannahrabrams.bsky.social · 7d

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

A checklist for minimum standards of AYA oncology care. Standards listed include:
1. Age-appropriate built environment (including environment, social spaces, connectivity, control and comfort)
2. Clinical care organization and patient pathways (AYA multidisciplinary teams, trained professionals, case management, clinical trials, genetic counseling, digital records access, second opinions, supportive care, sexual health, mental wellbeing, late effects surveillance/long term follow up care, reproductive health, nutrition, facilitated care pathways, exercise training and physical rehabilitation.)
3. Support services (education and career support, family and social support, housing support, transportation support, children support, insurance/finance/legal assistance)

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Hannah R. Abrams @hannahrabrams.bsky.social · Jul 29

Saw this used as inpatient bowel prep in residency! Can't comment on why some institutions do vs don't use it inpatient/cost of each option.

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Stacey Tinianov, MPH @coffeemommy.bsky.social · Jun 26

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

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Saskia Middeldorp @middeldorps.bsky.social · Jun 22

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

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Fred Hutch @fredhutch.org · Jun 2

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...

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Arrianna Marie Planey, PhD MA @arrianna-planey.bsky.social · Jun 2

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

Small Marketplace Premiums Pose Financial And Administrative Burdens: Evidence From Massachusetts, 2016-17 - PubMed

Health insurance premiums are primarily understood to pose financial barriers to coverage. However, the need to remit monthly premium payments may also create administrative burdens that negatively af...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

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Arrianna Marie Planey, PhD MA @arrianna-planey.bsky.social · Jun 2

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.

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Fred Hutch @fredhutch.org · Jun 1

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...

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Fred Hutch @fredhutch.org · Jun 1

#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

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Hannah R. Abrams @hannahrabrams.bsky.social · Jun 1

#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.

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Aaron Mitchell @thewonkologist.bsky.social · May 31

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

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Hannah R. Abrams @hannahrabrams.bsky.social · May 28

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

Title card for event with white text "Breaking Down Barriers: Caregivers & the Challenges of CAR-T and BMT Requirements" over a picture of two people where one has their arm slung around the other.

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Reposted by Hannah R. Abrams

Stacie Dusetzina @dusetzinas.bsky.social · May 16

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!

Trends in Launch Prices and Price Increases for Self-Administered Anticancer Drugs in Medicare

This study examines trends in launch prices and price increases for anticancer therapies covered under Medicare Part D and approved from 2010 to 2024.

jamanetwork.com

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Hannah R. Abrams @hannahrabrams.bsky.social · May 15

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

Figure title: "Figure shows regression-adjusted differences in cumulative mortality between beneficiaries with early (January-June) vs. late (July-December) Medicaid disenrollment during 2015-2017. Separate estimates shown for subgroups of beneficiaries filling medications in different therapeutic classes at baseline (defined as filling >30 days of medications in a therapeutic subclass in the 12 months before Medicaid disenrollment). Estimates obtained from person-month-level linear regressions that modeled cumulative mortality as a function of early vs. late Medicaid disenrollment, fixed effects for post-disenrollment months, and their interaction. Separate models estimated for each beneficiary subgroup. Models adjusted for baseline age, sex, race and ethnicity, original reason for Medicare entitlement, enrollment in full vs. partial Medicaid in the month before disenrollment, Medicare coverage type (Medicare Advantage vs. Traditional Medicare) in the month before Medicaid disenrollment, month of birth, fixed effects for state and year of Medicaid disenrollment, and two-way interactions between these covariates and indicators for months following Medicaid disenrollment. To account for seasonality, estimates were adjusted for cumulative winter exposure (total months in December-February accrued through each post-disenrollment month). Whiskers denote 95% confidence intervals, which were adjusted for intra-person clustering. Confidence interval widths were not adjusted for multiplicity and may not be used in place of hypothesis testing."

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Hannah R. Abrams @hannahrabrams.bsky.social · May 15

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

Timeline of development of k-abe, an N-of-1 treatment for severe carbamoyl-phosphate synthetase 1 deficiency. Figure title: "Timeline from Birth to Second Treatment with Kayjayguran Abengcemeran (K-abe)." Key timepoints listed on timeline include genetic diagnosis near time of birth, development of patient-specific cell line within the first month, meeting with FDA in month 4, mouse model testing of the tailor-made product in month 6, testing of clinical batch in month 6, and initial dose near the end of month 7.

Text from accompanying editorial:
"That is, the combination of rapid diagnosis though genome sequencing and expedited individualized product development, followed by administration of the therapy and careful monitoring of safety and efficacy outcomes, could remarkably improve the lives of persons affected by these rare disorders. Although additional work will need to be conducted to reproducibly deliver gene-editing products to target tissues other than the liver, progress is being made in targeting bone marrow, T cells, and the brain. Moreover, with the application of a forward- leading, science-based regulatory approach, this clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)–based method could potentially provide a solution to the commercial challenges that currently limit the ability to apply such an approach broadly to N-of-1 disorders.
In the United States, the “platform technologies” provision was enacted in late 2022. The development of gene-editing products to address N-of-1 disorders with the use of mRNA encapsulated in lipid nanoparticles represents one of the most obvious opportunities for the application of a platform-technology approach that could be transformational."

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Reposted by Hannah R. Abrams

Aaron Schwartz @aschwartz.bsky.social · May 14

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)

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Hannah R. Abrams @hannahrabrams.bsky.social · May 14

Cytotoxic chemotherapy
Unfractionated heparin

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Reposted by Hannah R. Abrams

Needhi Bhalla 💅🏽 @needhibhalla.bsky.social · Apr 30

"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

Needhi Bhalla 💅🏽 @needhibhalla.bsky.social · Apr 12

The Senate Committee on Appropriations is holding a hearing on Biomedical Research: Keeping America’s Edge in Innovation on April 30 at 10:30am ET, chaired by Senator Susan Collins 🧪

www.appropriations.senate.gov/hearings/bio...

Biomedical Research: Keeping America’s Edge in Innovation | United States Senate Committee on Appropriations

United States Senate Committee on Appropriations

www.appropriations.senate.gov

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Hannah R. Abrams @hannahrabrams.bsky.social · Apr 25

Totally agree. In the outpatient side, I think it’s also much more helpful to specify, ie:
- inability to access med (d/t insurance, pharmacy, copay, etc)
- med nonadherence due to toxicity

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Reposted by Hannah R. Abrams

Anand Patel @anand-88-patel.bsky.social · Apr 22

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...

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Hannah R. Abrams @hannahrabrams.bsky.social · Apr 16

Heck of a Rn-222

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Hannah R. Abrams @hannahrabrams.bsky.social · Apr 16

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

Codify Baseball @codifybaseball.bsky.social · Apr 16

THE ALBUQUERQUE ISOTOPES SCORED THREE RUNS ON A BASES-LOADED WALK AND THERE IS VIDEO

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Hannah R. Abrams @hannahrabrams.bsky.social · Apr 13

Also, I still remember being an intern and thinking Dr. Sise was a wizard. I was on call and got a call from her at 9PM: "At 10PM the sodium will be this, I want you to do this. Then at 2AM the sodium will be this, I want you to do this. Call if you need help."

She was exactly right at every check.

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Hannah R. Abrams @hannahrabrams.bsky.social · Apr 13

Wow, yikes. Look forward to seeing them publish on this and spread the word-- so many scenarios in which creatinine (and BSA) are poor surrogates.

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