Issue 28 – The Cancer Letter

$5.275 billion for NIH is a healthy chunk of change—but read the fine print
A House subcommittee July 7 marked up a spending bill that proposes a $5.275 billion increase for NIH.
Depending on how you count, the bill that has cleared the Subcommittee on Labor, HHS, Education and Related Agencies would provide one of the biggest raises in NIH history.
USPSTF broadens age range, risk threshold in new recommendation for lung cancer screening
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force has recommended expanding the eligible age range and broadening the risk threshold for annual low-dose CT screening for lung cancer.
Conversation with The Cancer Letter
USPSTF’s Michael Barry: Recommendation on lung cancer screening aims to reduce mortality
By making lung cancer screening available to a larger population, the new guideline from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force could save an additional 120 lives per 100,000 Americans, said Michael J. Barry, a member of the Task Force, and a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.
Conversation with The Cancer Letter
Ruben Mesa: Facing a dramatic COVID-19 spike in San Antonio
Last time Ruben Mesa spoke with The Cancer Letter, COVID-19 was under control in San Antonio and the environs—or so it seemed.
COVID-19 Updates
- Yale researchers identify COVID-19 blood clotting cause
In Brief
- Theoret, Beaver, Kim, Amiri-Kordestani named to new positions at FDA
- Müschen named director of Center of Molecular and Cellular Oncology at Yale
- Friedman named associate director for community science and health outcomes at Vanderbilt
- Mehnert joins NYU Langone as associate director, clinical research
- Yale researchers awarded $2.8M NCI Cancer Systems Immunology grant
- Thermo Fisher and Chugai sign companion diagnostic agreement
Funding Opportunities
DoD Pancreatic Cancer Research Program funding opportunities for FY20
The FY20 Defense Appropriations Act provides funding to the Department of Defense Pancreatic Cancer Research Program to support a collaborative pancreatic cancer research paradigm that reduces the burden of pancreatic cancer.
Clinical Roundup
- Drug screens and CRISPR combine to make better cancer drugs, collaboration of researchers say
- Fasting Mimicking Diets may enhance effectiveness of chemotherapy in cancer patients
Drugs & Targets
- Inqovi approved by FDA for at-home MDS treatment
- Keytruda’s sBLA receives Priority Review from FDA for second-line treatment of relapsed or refractory classical Hodgkin lymphoma
- Lynparza approved in EU for germline BRCA-mutated metastatic pancreatic cancer