The majority of epithelial ovarian cancer is diagnosed at an advanced stage and long-term survival is low. Since ovarian cancer screening is ineffective, the main focus to reduce ovarian cancer mortality is prevention.
Cancer patients face a sharply higher risk of suicide than the general population, but the strongest risk factors may be mitigated through increased screening for depression, expanded use of psychosocial and palliative care, and improved access to adequate health insurance, according to a recent study led by American Cancer Society researchers.
Academic cancer centers are facing severe staffing shortages after three years of personnel attrition during the COVID-19 pandemic—resulting in depressed levels of patient accrual to investigator-initiated and grant-funded clinical trials.
The National Cancer Institute defines precision medicine in cancer as a strategy that “uses specific information about a person’s tumor to help make a diagnosis, plan treatment, find out how well treatment is working, or make a prognosis.”1
The release of FDA’s draft guidance, “Optimizing the Dosage of Human Prescription Drugs and Biological Products for the Treatment of Oncologic Diseases,” has been greatly anticipated since June 2021, when FDA announced in its accelerated approval of the KRASG12C inhibitor sotorasib that it would require a randomized, controlled trial comparing the efficacy of the labeled dose (960 mg once daily) to a 75% lower dose (240 mg once daily) as a condition of full regulatory approval (The Cancer Letter, June 11, 2021; April 29, 2022).
Medicare Advantage, the private insurance alternative to traditional Medicare, is popular for several reasons: lower premiums, dental and vision coverage, and a cap on out-of-pocket costs.
The American Cancer Society’s Cancer Facts & Figures 2023, released last week, reports that the five-year survival rate for pancreatic cancer is now 12%, an increase of one percentage point from last year.
A personalized mRNA cancer vaccine sponsored by Moderna and Merck has the potential to change the standard of care for melanoma patients—and reshape the landscape of cancer vaccines—if the company’s latest data on the vaccine are validated in a phase III clinical trial.
Pragmatica-Lung is shaping up as the clinical trial to watch—not just because of the research question, but because of the way it’s being addressed.
The NCI Clinical Trials and Translational Research Advisory Committee has approved an interim set of guidelines for streamlining requirements for conduct of clinical trials.
