Category: In the News

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Media Inquiries: Ryan Hohman   703.302.1522/717.333.6248- rhohman@focr.org   KANSAS CITY, Mo. (July 6, 2010) – Academic institutions across the United States are playing a critical role in developing life-saving treatments, procedures and innovations, and must be supported by a public policy agenda designed to foster continued growth and investment, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human…

KAREN WEINTRAUB , Dr. Kevin S. Hughes, co director of the Avon Comprehensive Breast Evaluation Center at Massachusetts General Hospital and a surgeon at Newton-Wellesley Hospital, recently completed a study on breast cancer treatment for women over 70. Q. Please explain your study’s finding that most women over 70 with small, contained breast tumors do…

By Lynn Etheredge, Cancer is among the most complicated group of diseases to research and treat. The progress in the federal government’s “war on cancer” launched in the 1970s has been frustratingly slow. A rapid-learning (RL) cancer system is now possible — using the potential of “in silico” research. Traditional health research has relied on…

By Lisa Richwine, Drugmaker Pfizer Inc is pulling a decade-old leukemia medicine off the U.S. market after a study found a higher death rate and no benefit for patients. Mylotarg won approval under an abbreviated process to help bring treatments for serious diseases to patients more quickly. Medicines cleared in that way must pass follow-up…

TEN years ago, on June 26th 2000, a race ended. The result was declared a dead heat and both runners won the prize of shaking the hand of America’s then president, Bill Clinton, at the White House. The runners were J. Craig Venter for the private sector and Francis Collins for the public. The race…

FDA plans to draft its first-ever guidance on the co-development of two or more novel drugs to be used in combination to treat cancer and other life-threatening diseases and is seeking stakeholder help in how to tackle regulatory issues. Cancer advocates said they see the agency’s recent outreach as the first step to establishing a…

Dr. Francis Collins is a giant, figuratively and literally,in the world of medicine. Standing 6 feet 5, with floppy, boyish hair and soft-spoken enthusiasm , Collins is one of two scientists – Craig Venter is the other – whose race to find the blueprint of human DNA, ended in a virtual tie – 10 years…

By JENNIFER CORBETT DOOREN , A non-invasive medical device that could provide a new way to battle brain cancer is being tested on patients with the most lethal form of the disease.   Researchers discussed details of the portable, non-invasive device, designed to blast apart cancer cells using an electrical field, at the American Society…

By N.C. Aizenman, President Obama has appointed Harold Varmus, a Nobel Prize-winning researcher and former director of the National Institutes of Health, to lead the National Cancer Institute, the White House announced Monday. Varmus, 70, president of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan, will take charge of the roughly $5 billion-budget institute in mid-July. Although…

By ROBERT PEAR  Dr. Harold E. Varmus, a Nobel Prize-winning biologist and former director  of the National Institutes of Health, will become director of the National Cancer Institute, the White House announced Monday. President Obama selected Dr. Varmus, who is now president of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, after a lengthy search.  Dr.…