Seth Berk, MD, section chief of gastrointestinal hematology/oncology at Virtua Memorial Hospital, discusses the use of immunotherapy in colon cancer.

One study presented at the 2018 ESMO Congress examined the use of immunotherapy for use in patients with preoperative colon cancer whose diagnoses were based on biopsy. Investigators found that those patients experienced a near complete or complete remission nearly 100% of the time prior to surgery when they first received a combination of ipilimumab (Yervoy) and nivolumab (Opdivo).

Berk stressed that while the use of ipilimumab and nivolumab are not game changers, the findings give researchers and oncologists reason to wonder if these agents will be offered as adjuvant therapy for a small number of patients with colon cancer.

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Dr. Berk on Immunotherapy Options for Patients With Colon Cancer

As insurers and the federal government look for ways to reduce costs in oncology, the division of care between large, academic institutions and smaller providers is undergoing a process of change, says Seth Berk, MD, chair of the Financial Audit Committee for Regional Cancer Care Associates (RCCA) and a Mount Holly, New Jersey, specialist in internal medicine, hematology and oncology.

The broad availability of general oncology care and expanding access to clinical trials through independent oncological centers offer a significant financial benefit to all patients and to the healthcare system, but large institutions have an important role to perform in the provision of specialized services that may be beyond the reach of smaller centers, Berk noted during this OncLive.com interview at the 2016 RCCA annual meeting, November 19 in Princeton, New Jersey.

Those services include bone marrow transplants and surgeries for rare tumors for which knowledgeable physicians may not be available in a smaller clinical setting. Large institutions are more likely to have the expertise on hand for handling rare cases that may not have standard approaches. Such care rightly belongs in larger venues, Berk said.

As insurers and the federal government look for ways to reduce costs in oncology, the division of care between large, academic institutions and smaller providers is undergoing a process of change, says Seth Berk, MD, chair of the Financial Audit Committee for Regional Cancer Care Associates (RCCA) and a Mount Holly, New Jersey, specialist in internal medicine, hematology and oncology. 

Seth Berk, MD

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