Issue 6 – The Cancer Letter

Dissenters in anti-tobacco movement cite National Academy report in claim that “e-cigarettes are saving lives.” Nope, the NAS report’s authors say
A group of tobacco control advocates, one of whom receives money from Philip Morris International, issued a press release trumpeting that “E-Cigarettes are Saving Lives,” and attributed this conclusion to a recent report by the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
Conversation with the Cancer Letter
NTRI’s Abrams: Smokers should use e-cigarettes if they can’t quit completely
Withholding e-cigarettes as an alternative from smokers who are unable to quit equals supporting the continued use of conventional cigarettes, said David Abrams, a member of the National Tobacco Reform Initiative.
“The main thing you want to get across with the NASEM report and others is that smokers should absolutely try to find an e-cigarette that works for them if they can’t quit completely,” said Abrams, professor, Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the New York University College of Global Public Health. “The public have been very much misled and wrongly believe that e-cigarettes would not help you quit.”
An Appreciation
Cancer moves fast…and we have to move faster
Jon M. Huntsman Sr. dared to eradicate cancer from the face of the earth. People thought he was crazy, but for someone who started out delivering fresh eggs as a boy to support his family, went on to invent and then manufacture the polystyrene egg carton, and built from scratch a $12 billion global chemical company with more than 12,000 employees, there was no holding him back. Jon was a dreamer, a risk-taker, a true visionary, and a man whose compassion for others knew no limits. He didn’t sleep. His life was dedicated to making the world a better place: a world without homelessness, a world without hunger, a world without cancer.
Congress passes two-year budget deal, paving the way toward giving NIH a $2 billion raise
So, the federal government shut down while America slept, but it reopened after a five-and-a-half hour pause, by early morning Feb. 9. We’ve seen this dance before.
However, in a move that is anything but yawn-inducing, Congress passed a budget deal that paves the way toward giving NIH a $2 billion raise and lifts the spending caps on defense and non-defense spending through March 2019.
CRUK names ten finalists for £20m Grand Challenge
Cancer Research UK has shortlisted ten multidisciplinary, international teams for what amounts to the second leg of competition for Grand Challenge awards.
Each of the teams will now receive £30,000 in seed funding to prepare up their applications for interviews later this year.
In Brief
- Arap, Pasqualini named to leadership posts at Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey at University Hospital in Newark
- Dhodapkar named director of new Center for Cancer Immunology at Emory Winship
- Oberstein named director of GI medical oncology at NYU Perlmutter Cancer Center
- Campbell joins Fox Chase Cancer Center Cancer Biology Program
- IU gets $14 million gift to create program focused on symptom management
Clinical Roundup
- In phase III study Tecentriq and Avastin reduced risk of disease worsening/death by 26 percent in advanced kidney cancer
- Opdivo plus Yervoy meet PFS endpoint in phase III trial in frontline NSCLC
- Tyme announces interim phase II data for SM-88 in prostate cancer at ASCO GU Symposium
Drugs and Targets
- FDA approves abiraterone acetate in combination with prednisone for high-risk metastatic castration-sensitive prostate cancer
- Foundation Medicine and EORTC collaborate comprehensive genomic profiling
- Abbott PathVysion HER-2 DNA Probe assay to be used in ANGLE study