Last year 1.5 million Americans were diagnosed with cancer. Every year 560,000 Americans will die from the disease. Over the past five years federal funding has been flat for cancer research. The effect of flat funding has been devastating. The rate of medical inflation far outstrips the rate in the general economy. This means that [...]
To many people’s surprise on Friday the FDA approved Avastan in combination with the chemotherapy drug Paclitaxel for the treatment of breast cancer. Why was this a surprise? The FDA’s advisory committee voted 5 to 4 against approving the drug. In the clinical trial Avastan did not demonstrate a statistically improved survival rate. However, it [...]
The American Cancer Society has released its revised statistical projections for prostate cancer diagnoses and deaths in the United States for the upcoming year of 2008. The projection calls for 186,320 men to be diagnosed and 28,660 to die from the disease. These numbers do not take into account the many men who die from [...]
If you have not yet read yesterday's post please do so before reading this post. Among the most valuable communication tools created as a result of the National Cancer Act of 1971 is the NCI's annual report on The Nation's Investment in Cancer Research, which was released this week. Often referred to as the "bypass [...]
At the National Cancer Advisory Board's (NCAB) February 5 meeting, NCI Director Dr. John Niederhuber briefed committee members on the Institute's operating budget for fiscal year (FY) 2008. The $4.8 billion appropriation is essentially flat compared with FY 2007. Because of the rate of inflation, this will require NCI leaders to initiate 3-percent reductions across [...]