First Reported Case of Successful Conception and Delivery During Stage IV Breast Cancer Treatment: A Case Report and Literature Review.

We herein report a case involving a woman with metastatic human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER-2)-positive breast cancer (BC) who became pregnant while undergoing active anticancer therapy with Trastuzumab-Pertuzumab for her advanced BC disease at our institution. To our knowledge, this is the first reported case of pregnancy and successful delivery in a stage IV BC patient during anticancer therapy. A multidisciplinary approach for such a complex case is a must to evaluate the mother's medical condition by an experienced oncology team along with a maternal-fetal team, with support from a psychiatric and psychological evaluation for the mother. The use of effective contraception during anticancer therapy is essential to avoid such a scenario.

The State of Cancer Care in the United Arab Emirates in 2020: Challenges and Recommendations, A report by the United Arab Emirates Oncology Task Force.

With cancer being the third leading cause of mortality in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), there has been significant investment from the government and private health care providers to enhance the quality of cancer care in the UAE. The UAE is a developing country with solid economic resources that can be utilized to improve cancer care across the country. There is limited data regarding the incidence, survival, and potential risk factors for cancer in the UAE. The UAE Oncology Task Force was established in 2019 by cancer care providers from across the UAE under the auspices of Emirates Oncology Society. In this paper we summarize the history of cancer care in the UAE, report the national cancer incidence, and outline current challenges and opportunities to enhance and standardize cancer care. We provide recommendations for policymakers and the UAE Oncology community for the delivery of high-quality cancer care. These recommendations are aligned with the UAE government's vision to reduce cancer mortality and provide high quality healthcare for its citizens.

Preferred drug lists and Medicaid prescriptions.

BACKGROUND: When Medicaid preferred drug lists (PDLs) are implemented, they may impose indirect costs on prescribing physicians and Medicaid patients, leading to an unintended reduction in the number of Medicaid prescriptions filled. OBJECTIVE: To test retrospectively the proposition that PDLs adversely affect the number of Medicaid prescriptions filled. DATA AND METHODS: We compared three 'test' states (Alabama, Texas, and Virginia) that implemented PDLs with restrictions on the prescription of statins with three 'control' states (New Jersey, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania) that did not implement drug access restrictions. We conducted the analysis at the county level and used a differences-in-differences approach that allows for county and time-period fixed effects. RESULTS: We found that PDLs adversely impacted several measures of filled Medicaid prescriptions in the 'test' states relative to the 'control' states. CONCLUSION: There are unintended but potentially harmful consequences to cost-focused health policy interventions.

New Anticancer Drugs Associated With Large Increases In Costs And Life Expectancy.

Spending on anticancer drugs has risen rapidly over the past two decades. A key policy question is whether new anticancer drugs offer value, given their high cost. Using data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER)-Medicare database, we assessed the value of new cancer treatments in routine clinical practice for patients with metastatic breast, lung, or kidney cancer or chronic myeloid leukemia in the periods 1996-2000 and 2007-11. We found that there were large increases in medical costs, but also large gains in life expectancy. For example, among patients with breast cancer who received physician-administered drugs, lifetime costs-including costs for outpatient and inpatient care-increased by $72,000 and life expectancy increased by thirteen months. Changes in life expectancy and costs were much smaller among patients who did not receive these drugs.

Exploration of the impact of preferred drug lists on hospital and physician visits and the costs to Medicaid.

OBJECTIVE: To conduct an exploratory investigation of the possible effects of the implementation of a state Medicaid preferred drug list (PDL) on the average number of visits by Medicaid patients to hospitals and physicians, and to provide preliminary estimates of the Medicaid reimbursement costs of these additional visits. STUDY DESIGN: A regression-based, difference-in-differences retrospective analysis using anonymized patient-level data on cardiovascular-related inpatient and outpatient hospital visits and procedures, and physician visits and procedures. METHODS: The impact of the implementation of a state Medicaid PDL on a test group of Medicaid cardiovascular patients was examined. A contemporaneous group of non-Medicaid cardiovascular patients from the same state were used as controls. RESULTS: There was a statistically significant increase in the number of outpatient hospital visits and physician visits for the test group compared with the control group in the first 6 months after PDL implementation. There was a positive but statistically insignificant increase in the number of inpatient hospital visits. All increases in visits for the test group compared with the control group in the second 6 months after PDL implementation were positive but statistically insignificant. As a result, estimated average Medicaid reimbursement costs for cardiovascular patients in the state increased during that year. CONCLUSION: The observed range of increases in hospital and physician visits is evidence for the possible existence of an unintended consequence of PDL implementation by state Medicaid programs. Precautionary research in this area is clearly called for.

The large social value resulting from use of statins warrants steps to improve adherence and broaden treatment.

Statins are considered a clinically important breakthrough for the treatment of cardiovascular disease. However, their social value at the US population level has not previously been studied. From an economic perspective, social value measures the quantity of resources--in monetary terms--that society would be willing to give up in order to retain the survival gains resulting from statin therapy. Using combined population and clinical data, this article calculates statins' social value to consumers, or the value of survival benefits above actual payments for the drug, and to producers, or drug revenues, for the period 1987-2008. National survey data suggest that statin therapy reduced low-density lipoprotein levels by 18.8 percent, which translated into roughly 40,000 fewer deaths, 60,000 fewer hospitalizations for heart attacks, and 22,000 fewer hospitalizations for strokes in 2008. For people starting statin therapy in 1987-2008, consumers captured $947.4 billion (76 percent) of the total social value of the survival gains. Even greater consumer benefits could be achieved in the future if statins were prescribed in full compliance with cholesterol guidelines and patients adhered to prescribed regimens. In addition, statin costs are declining because of patent expirations. Policy makers should consider interventions at the patient and provider levels to encourage both therapy for untreated patients with high cholesterol and greater adherence after therapy is initiated.