Congress has passed a $1.012 trillion omnibus spending bill, easing the sequestration cuts set for fiscal 2014 and keeping the government open through September. President Barack Obama is expected to sign the bill by Saturday.
In another round of changes in the executive suite at MD Anderson Cancer Center, Dan Fontaine was appointed head the institutional advancement division, President Ronald DePinho announced in an email to the faculty and staff.
When surveyed by the Faculty Senate in October 2012, nearly a third of faculty members at MD Anderson Cancer Center who responded said they were likely to leave the institution within three years.
HAROLD VARMUS, director of the NCI and co-recipient of a Nobel Prize for research into the genetic basis of cancer, received the Medal of Honour from the International Agency for Research on Cancer in France.
FDA granted accelerated approval for Mekinist (trametinib) in combination with Tafinlar (dabrafenib) for unresectable melanoma or metastatic melanoma with BRAF V600E or V600K mutations.
RICHARD GANNOTTA was named president of Northwestern Memorial Hospital and senior vice president of Northwestern Memorial HealthCare, effective Feb. 10.
GARY SCHWARTZ was named chief of the Division of Hematology/Oncology at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center. He will also serve as associate director for research of the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center.
GARY LYMAN was named co-director of The Hutchinson Institute for Cancer Outcomes Research, based at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. He will co-lead with Scott Ramsey, a member of the Cancer Prevention Program in the Public Health Sciences Division at Fred Hutch.
Declines in death rates over past two decades have added up to a 20 percent drop in the overall risk of dying from cancer, according to the American Cancer Society's annual statistics report.
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force released its final recommendation statement on screening for lung cancer with low-dose computed tomography.
