Is Zevalin treatment part of Rad Onc?

[AlexanderJ]

What does everyone think? Will Zevalin and other radioactively tagged antibodies used to treat cancer ultimately be administered by Rad Onc, Nuc Med, or Med Onc? Seems to me that there could be a turf war developing in this area. What's happening regarding this at your institution?

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[cdf95cro]

At our place, it's about 2/3 rad onc delivered. Many nuc med guys are unfamiliar with the mutimodality cancer protocols, and don't get the cancer patients sent to them unless imaging is needed. So from a referral standpoint, rad onc "catches" potential patients more than nuc med.

 

[Su4n2]

that's very interesting. do you guys know of any researc articles about the use of antibodies in rad onc. are there any free rad onc journals online? thanx, susan

 

[AlexanderJ]

Susan,

just do a medline search on Zevalin (generic name is Ibritumomab Tiuxetan) and you should find lots of articles. It is currently be used on certain kinds of lymphoma with good response.

 

[oscar]

Another aspect also is that the cost of one dose of this I heard is in the neighborhood of $20,000. I'm not a hundred percent sure how reimbursement works for these sorts of things, and of course these sorts of things are not supposed to dictate the administration of treatment. But in today's environment with so many departments and medical centers in financial trouble, are insurance companies and medicaid/medicare willing to pay for anyone who has the indications for treatment? Would medical centers have to eat the costs if not?

 

[AlexanderJ]

Oscar, I don't know if medicare/insurance would cover the full 20K, if indeed that is what a Zevalin txt costs. However, I'm not sure if 20k is all that much in today's day and age. I know of a patient with brain mets who got gamma knife and the txt costed ~$45,000, just for the gamma knife txt. Fortunately, insurance did cover the cost in that patient's case.

 

[stephew]

At U Wisc. Radonc is sharing with nuc med.

 

[ATM Machine]

At the cush little community hospital that i'm doing my prelim year, Zevalin is prescribed pretty much 100% by Rad Onc.