cancer

In this second interview of a 4-part series, Dr. Achim Regenauer answers questions relevant to Life & Health underwriters on advances in cancer diagnostics.

Dr. Achim Regenauer discusses how far we are along the road to having multi-cancer early detection tests – essentially powerful liquid biopsies – in the clinical setting. It appears that this is much closer than previously assumed, and that these tests will complement, rather than replace, current detection options.
 

In this, the last of our 4-part series of insurance-focused articles on cancer, Dr. Achim Regenauer, Chief Medical Officer, presents a high-level overview of how genomic sequencing of cancers is blasting a trail for improved, early diagnosis and precision medicine by providing a powerful and ever-expanding means to detect, identify, subdivide and monitor cancer – and how this remarkable development could impact Life & Health insurers.

Dr. Achim Regenauer, Chief Medical Officer, presents a high-level overview of targeted cancer therapy – a catch-all term for a spectrum of innovative new cancer therapies that are improving the outlook for patients and moving us closer to precision medicine – and its impact on Life & Health insurers.
 

Dr. Achim Regenauer, Chief Medical Officer, presents a high-level overview of liquid biopsy, one of the most exciting potential advances in cancer research. With promising results to-date for certain late-stage cancers, early and painless diagnosis from liquid biopsies could have huge positive consequences for wider cancer treatments and recoveries.
 

A series of clinical trials examining biomarkers to reduce cancer deaths by around 20% could revolutionize cancer care. What does this mean for insurers?
 

Research suggests that the cause of rising incidence rates of cancer in adolescents and young adults relate to the increasing prevalence of obesity, the consumption of a Westernized diet, and leading a sedentary lifestyle. A focus on lifestyle and dietary habits of young insurance applicants would provide useful insights into the top modifiable risk factors for cancer and help stem the inevitable rising rates of claims for cancer.

Head and neck cancers were the eighth most common cancers worldwide in 2018 and accounted for 3% of all cancer diagnoses and about 1.5% of cancer deaths in the U.S. alone. Epidemiologist Dr. Lauren Garfield discusses well known and emerging risk factors, survival rates, and more in ReFlections. 

Nothing attracts media attention quite like a potential cure for cancer. Researchers from Cardiff University, UK, recently published this paper detailing one possible method to beat cancer with far-reaching, all-purpose abilities. While it is currently just a laboratory experiment, the method they have outlined certainly has merit.
 

Is science fiction becoming science fact? Liquid biopsies are a new class of blood- (or other bodily fluid-based) tests that can reveal direct evidence of cancer and are far less invasive than traditional biopsies. RGA's Dr. Daniel Zimmerman explores linkages between advances in genetics and this new technology. He also investigates limitations, potential mortality and morbidity impacts, and insurance implications.