
Pazdur: “The Primary Endpoint of Any Trial Should be the Patient.”
RICHARD PAZDUR and ELLEN GOODMAN were honored by the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship for their contributions to cancer care at the “Focus on the Care” reception Oct. 21 in Washington, D.C.
Pazdur is the director of the FDA Office of Hematology and Oncology Products, and Goodman is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist, author and the founder of The Conversation Project, a national public health campaign focused on end-of-life care.
Goodman received the inaugural Jessie Gruman Award for Patient Engagement, established with a grant from the Center for Advancing Health.
 | ACS Recommends First Mammogram at 45, Transitioning to Biennial Screening After 55 The American Cancer Society published a breast cancer screening guideline that seems to steer toward the middle course in deciding when mammography screening should start and how often it should be performed. • The ACS guideline now says 45 is a good age to get the first mammogram. In the past, the society recommended starting at 40. The U.S. Preventative Services Task Force gives a “C” rating to screening before age 50. • Repeating mammograms every other year after age 55 is acceptable, the society now states. In the past, the society recommended annual mammography screening. USPSTF said screening should be biennial after age 50. |
 | Conversation with The Cancer Letter Wender: ACS Guideline Hinges on Shared Decision Making The Cancer Letter invited Richard Wender, chief cancer control officer of the American Cancer Society, to describe the rationale for the society’s new guideline for breast cancer screening. |
 | Guest Editorial Brawley on Mammography: What we Know, What we Don’t Know, and What we Believe By Otis W. Brawley I have watched the rhetoric and heated debate about screening at age 40, now 45, and 50 for 25 years and am miffed that the discussion consistently ignores the obvious things we can do to save lives. |
 | National Academy of Medicine Elects 80 Members The National Academy of Medicine elected 80 members during its annual meeting, including at least 17 whose work focuses on cancer treatment and research. “Our newly elected members represent the brightest, most influential, and passionate people in health, science, and medicine in our nation and internationally,” said Victor Dzau, president of the academy, formerly known as the Institute of Medicine. |
 | Vice President Biden Calls For A National Commitment to Cancer Research Funding Vice President Joe Biden, in a Rose Garden address announcing his decision to not run for president, called for a national commitment to end cancer—expressing that, were he to run and be elected, it would be a goal of his presidency. “If I could be anything, I would have wanted to have been the president that ended cancer, because it’s possible,” Biden said Oct. 21. He said that his window of opportunity to mount a winning campaign had closed. “While I will not be a candidate, I will not be silent,” he said. |
 | In Brief- Pazdur and Goodman honored by NCCS
- ACCC announces six winners of 2015 Innovator Awards
- Jodi Daniel joins Crowell & Moring LLP
- Kids v Cancer awarded Drucker Prize for Nonprofit Innovation
- ACCC publishes white paper on integrated health care systems
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 | Drugs and Targets |
| CORRECTION: A previous version of last week’s In Brief was unclear in its headline referring to Beth Israel Deaconess cancer center. It has been corrected to say that Manuel Hidalgo was named director of the Leon V. & Marilyn L. Rosenberg Clinical Cancer Center and chief of the Division of Hematology-Oncology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Hidalgo will oversee all clinical cancer programs, reporting to Pier Paolo Pandolfi, director of the BIDMC Cancer Center and its Cancer Research Institute. |