Across disciplines, all healthcare providers take a practice oath that supports the principle of nonmaleficence (“first, do no harm”)—and so does the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), several agency leaders wrote in a March 2023 blog post. The authors called for increased awareness of patient safety and highlighted ways CMS is taking action.
Joe Camel, the Marlboro Man, and the women who’ve “come a long way, baby” with Virginia Slims are marketing mascots that created an image of smoking as cool, chic, and classy—a concept that’s still cemented in the minds of many Americans today. For the past 30 years, public awareness campaigns have battled that belief among young people to dramatically curtail underage smoking, finally reaching a real reduction in youth tobacco use.
On April 17, 2023, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved omidubicel-onlv (Omisirge®) for use in adult and pediatric patients aged 12 years and older with hematologic malignancies receiving umbilical cord blood transplantation following myeloablative conditioning to reduce the time to neutrophil recovery and the incidence of infection.
Despite Americans spending more for health care than other high-income countries, the United States has the highest rates of death for avoidable or treatable conditions, maternal and infant mortality, and suicide, researchers reported in an analysis study published in January 2023 by the Commonwealth Fund.
Once abandoned because of dose-limiting toxicities, a novel chemotherapy drug is showing even more promise as a modified prodrug. In study results published in Science Advances, researchers demonstrated how turning DRP-104 into a prodrug enables it to kill more tumor cells and activate CD8+ T cells with a “markedly improved tolerability profile.”
Recharting the trajectory of cancer in the United States requires involvement from everyone—government and private investors, researchers, clinicians, and people with cancer, their caregivers, and advocates, the National Cancer Institute said in April 2023 as it launched the National Cancer Plan. The plan supports the Cancer Moonshot initiative and “aligns broad societal engagement and focuses on critical needs to end cancer as we know it.”
Cancer knows no boundaries, geographic borders included. Although the United States has made incredible progress in reducing both incidence and mortality rates, the truth remains that cancer’s global burden is much greater. More than 70% of the world’s total new annual cases of cancer will occur in Africa, Asia, and Central and South America, and many patients in those countries lack access to quality cancer care.
On April 12, 2023, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a safety communication to healthcare providers, institutions, and consumers recommending that they do not use certain surgical N95 respirators manufactured by Owens and Minor Halyard and that they use certain surgical masks and pediatric face masks from Owens and Minor Halyard with caution. The recommendation comes after the masks failed fluid resistance performance tests.
Spiritual care is an essential component of cancer care.
Between travel time and expenses, missed work hours, and other factors, cancer care visits cost patients more than just a copay. A new study quantified the financial benefits of conducting those visits via telehealth versus in person, with researchers reporting that patients saved more than $150 in expenses and three hours in travel and waiting time per visit by using telehealth. They published their findings in JAMA Network Open.