The American Cancer Society has approved funding for 93 research and training grants totaling $40,277,750 in the first of two grant cycles for 2019. The grants will fund investigators at 65 institutions across the U.S.; 86 are new grants while seven are renewals of previous grants. All the grants go into effect July 1, 2019.
The University of Pennsylvania was planning a short-term trial for robotic mastectomies, but after an FDA advisory, investigators decided to revise that protocol to include assessment of cancer-related outcomes, said Ari Brooks, director of endocrine and oncologic surgery, director of the Integrated Breast Center at the University of Pennsylvania Health System, and professor of clinical surgery at Penn Medicine.
Robotic mastectomy deserves to be studied, because the procedure may improve cancer-related outcomes, surgeons at MD Anderson Cancer Center say.
The Breast Surgical Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center has decided not to adopt—or study—robotic surgical devices in mastectomies, said Laurie Kirstein, a breast surgical oncologist at MSK.
Last August, Stephen A. Chagares, a breast surgeon, made an announcement that startled some of his colleagues at New Jersey’s Monmouth Medical Center. At internal meetings and in a press release, Chagares declared that he would perform a robotic mastectomy—a new and relatively untested minimally invasive surgical procedure. According to the press release, his first patient, Yvonne Zucco, 56, was being treated for stage IIa breast cancer.
I enjoy your publication and read it cover to cover most weeks. But I must point out a glaring error in your recent edition of March 22. The illustrations accompanying the article about the Texas cancer researchers show saguaro cacti. Saguaro cacti only grow in the Sonoran desert of southern Arizona and western Sonora, Mexico, with a few stray saguaros in California. The saguaro cactus does not grow in Texas. It is a common misconception that the saguaro grows throughout the west. The cactus is so unique to Arizona that the saguaro cactus blossom has been named the state flower of Arizona. I thought you should be made aware of this inaccuracy.
The ever-rising cost of oncology drugs is doing damage to cancer care on many levels.
Many have written and spoken about the goal of eliminating the effect of developing and delivering medical care in “silos.”
The Tomosynthesis Mammographic Imaging Screening Trial, a massive randomized trial of early detection, is asking an important question:
President Donald Trump has proposed to cut $4.7 billion from the NIH budget, with almost $900 million coming out of NCI during the fiscal year 2020.
