Blood and marrow transplantation compensation: Perspective in payer and provider relations

AbstractThe high cost per patient of hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) causes this therapy to be the focus of much controversy, given the competing societal demands to provide all possible therapy to preserve life while simultaneously limiting global health care expenditures. Treatment and eligibility decisions for HCT often are heavily scrutinized by both governmental and private payers and not simply determined by physicians, facility providers, and the patient. In an effort to control costs, payers have administrative infrastructure to review resource utilization by these patients. Additionally payers have developed payment methodologies, usually in the form of a case rate payment structure, that place facilities and physician providers of HCT at financial risk for adverse patient financial outcomes in an effort to promote optimal utilization and selection of patients for HCT. As providers enter into such financial risk arrangements with payers, the providers need to understand the true cost of care and be able to identify predictable and unpredictable outlier risks for the financial consequences of medical complications. HCT providers try to protect themselves from excessive financial risk by having different payment rates for different types of transplant, eg, autologous versus HLA or genotypically matched related versus HLA mismatched transplants. Because at certain times in the HCT process risk is more unpredictable, HCT providers require different payment system strategies for the different time periods of care such as evaluation, pre-transplant disease management, harvesting, and cell processing, as well as short- and long-term follow-up. Involvement by clinicians is essential for this process to be done well, especially given the rapid changes technological innovation brings to HCT. Constant dialogue and interaction between providers and payers on these difficult financial issues with HCT is essential to preserve patient access to this potentially lifesaving therapy

Marrow transplantation from unrelated donors for patients with severe aplastic anemia who have failed immunosuppressive therapy

AbstractAllogeneic marrow transplantation offers curative therapy for patients with aplastic anemia. We analyzed retrospective results in 141 patients with severe aplastic anemia who received transplants between 1988 and 1995 from an unrelated volunteer donor identified through the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP). All patients had failed one or more courses of immunosuppressive therapy. Of the patients, 121 (86%) received a radiation-containing conditioning regimen, and 20 (14%) were given chemotherapy only. Based on serologic human leukocyte antigen (HLA) typing (class I and II), 105 patients (74%) received HLA-matched marrow, and 36 (26%) received marrow mismatched for at least one HLA-A, -B, or -DR antigen. Allele-level (molecular) typing for HLA-DRB1 was available in 108 donor-recipient pairs; 77 patients received DRB -matched and 31 DRB1-mismatched transplants. All but 13% of patients were given a cyclosporine-containing regimen for graft-vs.-host disease (GVHD) prophylaxis, and 45 patients (32%) received marrow that was T cell-depleted. Among 131 evaluable patients, 116 (89%) achieved sustained engraftment and 15 (11%) did not. Among patients with engraftment, acute GVHD of grades II-IV developed in 60 patients (52%) and extensive chronic GVHD in 24 patients at risk (31%). Currently, 51 patients (36%) are surviving at 11-94 months (median 36) after transplantation. All but five have Karnofsky scores > or =80. Patients who received a serologically matched transplant fared somewhat better than did patients given a serologically mismatched transplant p = 0.03). Patients with donors matched by both serology and allele-level DRB1 typing had significantly better survival than DRB1-mismatched patients with 56 vs. 15% surviving at 3 years p = 0.001). Outcome in patients transplanted within 3 years of diagnosis was superior to that among patients transplanted with greater delay. Major causes of death were graft failure, GVHD, and infections. These data suggest that unrelated marrow transplantation offers successful therapy for a proportion of patients who have failed immunosuppressive therapy.Biol Blood Marrow Transplant 1999;5(4):243-52

One-Antigen Mismatched Related versus HLA-Matched Unrelated Donor Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation in Adults with Acute Leukemia: Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research Results in the Era of Molecular HLA Typing

Approximately 13% of patients lacking an HLA-identical sibling have a one-antigen–mismatched related donor (MMRD). Historically, outcomes from the use of a one-antigen MMRD were considered equivalent to those from the use of a matched unrelated donor (UD). Recent improvements in UD stem cell transplantation (SCT) resulting from better molecular HLA matching justifies investigating whether UD should be preferred over MMRD in adult patients with acute leukemia. Here, we compared the outcomes of MMRD (n = 89) and HLA-A, -B, -C, and -DRB1 allele–matched UD (n = 700) SCT reported to the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research between 1995 and 2005. The patients underwent transplantation for acute myelogenous leukemia or acute lymphoblastic leukemia in first or second complete remission. Donor type was not associated with hematologic recovery. Univariate and multivariate comparisons of MMRD versus HLA-matched UD transplants showed no statistically significant differences in overall survival, disease-free survival, treatment-related mortality, relapse, or 100-day grade III-IV acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). MMRD SCT was associated with a lower rate of chronic GVHD at 1 year (35% vs 47%; P = .03), which was confirmed by multivariate analysis (relative risk, 0.58; 95% confidence interval, 0.39-0.85; P < .01). According to our data, HLA-matched UD and MMRD SCT are associated with comparable survival. Given that less chronic GVHD was observed in the MMRD transplantations, this option, when available, remains the first choice in patients with acute leukemia without an HLA-identical sibling in need of allogeneic SCT

The international wheelchair basketball federation’s classification system: the participants’ perspective

The purpose of this exploratory study was to evaluate opinions of elite athletes, coaches and classifiers regarding the International Wheelchair Basketball Federation’s (IWBF) functional classification system. We were also interested in the athletes’ perspective regarding potential changes to the classification system. In addition, we compared the generalized opinions reported by the athletes to those of coaches and classification officers. This survey was administered during the Wheelchair Basketball Gold Cup (Amsterdam, 2006). Seventy-nine athletes, 50 men and 29 women, as well as 12 coaches and 14 classifiers completed the survey. The first part of the survey addressed demographic characteristics of the participants. The second part focused on their opinions regarding the current classification system. Based on the survey responses, athletes reported that the IWBF classification system is generally satisfactory. However, athletes as well as coaches and classification officers did report some specific concerns about this classification system. These concerns included changes in an athlete classification, athlete cheating and communication between classifiers and athletes. Athletes, coaches and classifiers, as the wheelchair basketball’s primary constituent groups, have a vested interest in the evolution of the game and should be included in the evaluation and modifications to the functional classification system. This study has demonstrated that a classification specific survey could provide useful information and insight into the perspectives of these constituent groups

SITC/iSBTc Cancer Immunotherapy Biomarkers Resource Document: Online resources and useful tools - a compass in the land of biomarker discovery

Recent positive clinical results in cancer immunotherapy point to the potential of immune-based strategies to provide effective treatment of a variety of cancers. In some patients, the responses to cancer immunotherapy are durable, dramatically extending survival. Extensive research efforts are being made to identify and validate biomarkers that can help identify subsets of cancer patients that will benefit most from these novel immunotherapies. In addition to the clear advantage of such predictive biomarkers, immune biomarkers are playing an important role in the development, clinical evaluation and monitoring of cancer immunotherapies. This Cancer Immunotherapy Resource Document, prepared by the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC, formerly the International Society for Biological Therapy of Cancer, iSBTc), provides key references and online resources relevant to the discovery, evaluation and clinical application of immune biomarkers. These key resources were identified by experts in the field who are actively pursuing research in biomarker identification and validation. This organized collection of the most useful references, online resources and tools serves as a compass to guide discovery of biomarkers essential to advancing novel cancer immunotherapies

GRFS and CRFS in alternative donor hematopoietic cell transplantation for pediatric patients with acute leukemia.

We report graft-versus-host disease (GVHD)-free relapse-free survival (GRFS) (a composite end point of survival without grade III-IV acute GVHD [aGVHD], systemic therapy-requiring chronic GVHD [cGVHD], or relapse) and cGVHD-free relapse-free survival (CRFS) among pediatric patients with acute leukemia (n = 1613) who underwent transplantation with 1 antigen-mismatched (7/8) bone marrow (BM; n = 172) or umbilical cord blood (UCB; n = 1441). Multivariate analysis was performed using Cox proportional hazards models. To account for multiple testing, P \u3c .01 for the donor/graft variable was considered statistically significant. Clinical characteristics were similar between UCB and 7/8 BM recipients, because most had acute lymphoblastic leukemia (62%), 64% received total body irradiation-based conditioning, and 60% received anti-thymocyte globulin or alemtuzumab. Methotrexate-based GVHD prophylaxis was more common with 7/8 BM (79%) than with UCB (15%), in which mycophenolate mofetil was commonly used. The univariate estimates of GRFS and CRFS were 22% (95% confidence interval [CI], 16-29) and 27% (95% CI, 20-34), respectively, with 7/8 BM and 33% (95% CI, 31-36) and 38% (95% CI, 35-40), respectively, with UCB (P \u3c .001). In multivariate analysis, 7/8 BM vs UCB had similar GRFS (hazard ratio [HR], 1.12; 95% CI, 0.87-1.45; P = .39), CRFS (HR, 1.06; 95% CI, 0.82-1.38; P = .66), overall survival (HR, 1.07; 95% CI, 0.80-1.44; P = .66), and relapse (HR, 1.44; 95% CI, 1.03-2.02; P = .03). However, the 7/8 BM group had a significantly higher risk for grade III-IV aGVHD (HR, 1.70; 95% CI, 1.16-2.48; P = .006) compared with the UCB group. UCB and 7/8 BM groups had similar outcomes, as measured by GRFS and CRFS. However, given the higher risk for grade III-IV aGVHD, UCB might be preferred for patients lacking matched donors. © 2019 American Society of Hematology. All rights reserved

Experimental limits on monopole catalysis, N oscillations, and nucleon lifetimes

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/25877/1/0000440.pd

IMB Detector‐The first 30 Days

A large water Chernekov detector, located 2000 feet below ground, has recently been turned on. The primary purpose of the device is to measure nucleon stability to limits 100 times better than previous measurements. The properties of the detector are described along with its operating characteristics.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/87428/2/138_1.pd