Issue 2 – The Cancer Letter

Roche funds effort by Syapse to build software for measuring outcomes in precision oncology
Roche has teamed up with the precision medicine company Syapse to develop software for measuring health outcomes and economic impact of precision medicine.
The Syapse-Roche collaboration will focus on developing four specific software analytics solutions that would ultimately be added to the existing Syapse platform to generate insight and data trends.
Conversation with the Cancer Letter
Syapse: Roche collaboration enables us to experiment with new technology
Syapse and Roche are working on building software that would allow health systems to incorporate real-world evidence into Syapse’s platform in an effort to develop true clinical decision support for precision therapies.
Conversation with the Cancer Letter
Hostin: Roche-Syapse programs will increase amount and depth of risk-benefit info in precision oncology
The Roche-Syapse collaboration to develop analytics programs may enable health systems to measure the impact of precision therapies, said Damon Hostin, CEO of the Precision Medicine Alliance.
Hostin oversees the bioinformatics partnership between two of the nation’s largest nonprofits—Dignity Health and Catholic Health Initiatives—and is in charge of integration of oncology data between the health systems. The network describes itself as the largest community-based precision medicine program in the U.S.
An Appreciation
Robert W. Day, former president of Fred Hutchinson, dies at 87
As the current president and director of Fred Hutch, I personally will be forever grateful to Bob for taking me under his wing when I started here three years ago. He was a wonderful friend and mentor to so many of us, and his passing is mourned by all.
An Appreciation
Marsha Fountain Woznuck, nurse and pioneering cancer center administrator, dies at 65
Marsha Fountain, retired president of The Oncology Group, died Jan. 7 after a long struggle with metastatic breast cancer. She was 65.
In Brief
- Emory receives $400 million pledge from Woodruff Foundation
- Children’s Mercy Kansas City receives gifts—totaling $150 million
- Mary Beckerle receives NCI Knudson Award
- Chi Van Dang as editor-in-chief of AACR journal Cancer Research
- Mark Israel named executive director of Israel Cancer Research Fund
- International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer becomes member of registry of real-world data
- Elizabeth Barrett named CEO of Novartis Oncology
Funding Opportunities
LUNGevity issues RFA for 2018 Career Development Award in translational research in lung cancer
LUNGevity Foundation has issued a Request for Application for translational research in lung cancer for the 2018 Career Development Award.
Trials and Tribulations
How disease-specific clinical trial finders can address gaps in study participation
As a cancer patient advocacy organization—especially one dedicated to a category of malignancies that have seen frustratingly slow progress and only negligible improvements in survival rates over the past four-plus decades—we’ve come to view our role and responsibility to the brain tumor community as something like that of a plumber.
Clinical Roundup
- Yale study demonstrates four-fold superiority of academic level diagnostic accuracy
- Researchers demonstrate RAS dimers are essential for cancer
- Xenoestrogens in foods may counteract breast cancer treatment
Drugs and Targets
- FDA expands indications for AZ’s Lynparza, making it first treatment for breast cancer with BRCA mutation