Data Stream
Easing the Cancer Burden for Patients
Living With HIV
The total number of cancer diagnoses among people living
with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is projected
to decline in the coming decades because of decreases
in cases of non-Hodgkin lymphoma and Kaposi sarcoma
(known as AIDS-defining cancers).
Using data from the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC) and the HIV/AIDS Cancer
Match Study, researchers esti-
mated that, compared with inci-
dence rates in 2010, total cancer
burden will decrease from 7,908
to 6,495 by 2030.
8000
7000
7,908
6,495
6000
The Bad Luck Hypothesis
About two-thirds of cancers are
caused by random DNA replication
errors and many fewer are caused
by environmental factors or inherited
mutations, suggesting that most
cancers are caused by bad luck, according
to research published in Science.
Researchers studied the associations between the
number of normal stem cell divisions and the risk of
17 cancer types in 69 countries, finding that:
66 % are caused by random mutations
29 % are caused by environmental factors
5 % are caused by inherited mutations
Source: Tomasetti C, Li L, Vogelstein B. Stem cell divisions, somatic mutations, cancer etiology, and cancer prevention. Nature.
2017;355:1330-4.
5000
4000
3000
Money for Nothing
2000
Doctors who spend more on treating hospitalized patients don’t necessarily produce better patient out-
comes than doctors who spend less, according to a report published in JAMA Internal Medicine.
1000
0
2010
2030
Also, NHL will be the least common
cancer among people living with
HIV, dropping from 1,163 to 429.
1200
1000
1,163
In a retrospective data analysis of Medicare Part B spending among 72,042 physicians at 5,932 hospitals,
researchers found that with every additional $100 spent by a physician, the adjusted odds ratios for 30-day
mortality and readmissions remained the same:
30-day mortality = 1.00
(95% CI 0.98-1.01; p=0.47)
readmissions = 1.00
(95% CI 0.99-1.01; p=0.54)
800
600
400
429
200
0
2010
2030
Source: Islam JY, Rosenberg PS, Hall HI, et al. Projections of cancer incidence
and burden among the HIV-positive population in the United States through
2030. Abstract #5302. Presented at the 2017 AACR Annual Meeting, April 5,
2017; Washington, DC.
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ASH Clinical News
Also, health-care spending varied more across individual physicians than across hospitals, suggesting that
“policies targeting both physicians and hospitals may be more effective in reducing wasteful spending than
policies focusing solely on hospitals,” the authors concluded.
Source: Tsugawa Y, Jha AK, Newhouse JP, et al. Variation in physician spending and association with patient outcomes. JAMA Intern Med.
2017 March 13. [Epub ahead of print]
May 2017