The NCI Board of Scientific Advisors approved eight new Requests for Applications, Requests for Proposals, and PAR—a program announcement reviewed in the institute—concepts at a meeting March 25, including three new Cancer Moonshot concepts.
We posed the same 10 questions to FDA, Pfizer and Flatiron Health. Here is what came back:
Real world data played a role in FDA's recent decision to expand the indications for Pfizer's drug Ibrance (palbociclib) to include men.
A story about robotic mastectomy that appeared in the April 5 issue of The Cancer Letter reported incorrectly that surgeon Stephen A. Chagares had performed robotic mastectomies at Monmouth Medical Center without a surgical trial protocol.
Robert O. Hickman, a pediatric nephrologist and inventor of a catheter that revolutionized care for cancer patients, died on April 4. He was 92.
Paul Godley died after a brief illness on March 31. He was the Rush S. Dickson Distinguished Professor of Hematology and Oncology in the School of Medicine, a professor of epidemiology at the Gillings School of Global Public Health, and senior fellow at the Sheps Center for Health Services Research at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
Stephen Chagares initially declined to speak with The Cancer Letter. However, following publication of this story on April 5, 2019, Chagares sent the following email to Matthew Ong, a reporter with The Cancer Letter:
The number of electronic health record systems joining with CancerLinQ to facilitate information sharing continues to grow. CancerLinQ LLC, a wholly owned nonprofit subsidiary of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, announced Varian's ARIA Oncology Information System is the next Electronic Health Record System to be certified by CancerLinQ after meeting criteria for interoperability and data standardization. This collaboration aims to dismantle barriers to information sharing and streamline access to CancerLinQ for oncology practices using Varian ARIA OIS.
FDA is extending the indication of Ibrance (palbociclib) capsules in combination with specific endocrine therapies for hormone receptor-positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative advanced or metastatic breast cancer in male patients.
FDA issued a warning letter to Inova Genomics Laboratory of Falls Church, Virginia, for illegally marketing certain genetic tests that have not been reviewed by the FDA for safety and effectiveness. The tests claim to predict patients' responses to specific medications based on genetic variants.
