Sara Willa Ernst

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has proposed a rule to update Medicare payments for hospice care in the next fiscal year, which begins on Oct. 1. 

It took Yuliia Lozko nearly three days to travel to Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Jefferson Health in Philadelphia. 

Leadership is changing at The Wistar Institute and the Helen F. Graham Cancer Center & Research Institute in the months to come—but the leaders of the two institutions say that this will have little if any effect on the clinical-research collaboration that they have spent the past 15years building (The Cancer Letter, July 12, 2019). 

Three decades ago, colorectal cancer was the fifth leading cause of cancer death in patients under 50 years old. For a physician treating the average 45-year-old, colorectal cancer was not a diagnosis that immediately came to mind.

Judge Brian E. Murphy, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, temporarily blocked a series of recent changes to the CDC vaccine schedule. 

The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed a series of amendments to weaken regulations on emissions of ethylene oxide, a gas that is primarily used to sterilize medical devices and equipment. 

Yet another U.S. Preventative Services Task Force meeting is postponed—the third missed meeting since the start of the second Trump administration. 

If you listen to GRAIL executives discuss the results of the long-awaited trial of the company’s multicancer detection test, you might be led to conclude that the company’s pivotal NHS-Galleri study had an overwhelmingly positive result.

Undeterred by the negative topline result of its pivotal trial of Galleri, a multicancer detection test, the test’s sponsor, GRAIL, said it’s forging ahead with its plan to get FDA approval and reimbursement from CMS and private insurers.

Philip E. Castle, director of the NCI Division of Cancer Prevention, said he was disappointed to hear that GRAIL’s NHS-Galleri trial did not meet its primary endpoint of reduction in late-stage cancers.

Mount Sinai hospital has formed a committee to investigate the ties between Jeffrey Epstein and Eva Dubin a Swedish physician and philanthropist who founded the Dubin Breast Center at the Tisch Cancer Institute whose name is featured prominently in the Epstein files.

Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) introduced the FIRE Cancer Act on Feb. 27. The piece of legislation seeks to increase grant dollars available to local fire departments, specifically earmarked for cancer prevention, “including providing multi-cancer early detection testing or other forms of preventative tests.” 

The call to Fire Captain Brian Buchanan and his crew came at midnight. Northern California firefighters were urgently needed to help fight the wildfires that were devouring big swaths of Los Angeles. 

Bayer, the owner of the herbicide Roundup, offered $7.25 billion to settle thousands of lawsuits alleging that the product is responsible for causing cases of Non-Hodgkin lymphoma. 

The National Cancer Advisory Board’s ad hoc Working Group on Extramural Research Concepts and Programs on Feb. 6 voted to approve four new and three reissue concepts. 

A Super Bowl LX commercial by Hims &  Hers, a controversial direct-to-consumer medication platform, featured the company’s new offering: Galleri, a multi-cancer detection test produced by GRAIL Inc. 

HHS is withdrawing the “340B Rebate Model Pilot Program” that was intended to go into effect on Jan. 1, according to a joint motion filed last week. 

Pressed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya acknowledged that he is not aware of any study pointing to a causal link between vaccines and autism.

NIH is suspending the addition of new human embryonic stem cell lines to the Human Embryonic Stem Cell Registry, all while looking for alternatives. The agency also issued a request for information on “emerging biotechnologies to reduce or potentially replace remaining research reliance on human embryonic stem cells.”

The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services is entering negotiations with drugmakers over the price of 15 medications this year. The newly announced list includes four drugs used to treat cancer.

Around 31,000 healthcare workers in California and Hawaii joined the picket line Jan. 26 as the United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care  Professionals and Kaiser Permanente reached an impasse in contract negotiations.

Over his five decades as a radiation oncologist, Bernie Lewinsky has been collecting the relics of radiotherapy.

According to a preliminary tally, 1.4 million fewer Americans have signed up for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act Marketplace this year, according to early data published by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. 

New Medicaid work requirements included in President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” could result in as many as 1.6 million missed screenings for breast, colon, and lung cancers within the first two years, researchers at the University of Chicago reported in a paper published in JAMA Oncology earlier this month.

A phase III clinical trial will soon begin testing the evidence collected thus far that points to a stunning prospect: the COVID-19 vaccine—a widely accessible mRNA vaccine already on the market—could make checkpoint inhibitors work better for lung cancer and melanoma patients.

In a joint letter, 148 members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives are urging the Department of Education topreserve nursing as a “professional” degree—a categorization that gives students greater access to federal loans. 

The European Society For Medical Oncology has formally weighed in on a question that U.S. medical groups have been chipping away at as well: How can we guarantee safe and effective use of artificial intelligence in oncology?

Scott Gottlieb, a former FDA commissioner, said a recent decision by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices’ to change its recommendation for when children should receive the hepatitis B vaccine is another sign of the ACIP’s diminished credibility as a scientific authority. 

The Friends of Cancer Research annual meeting, to be held Nov. 4 in Washington, DC, will focus on three questions facing the field of oncology clinical trial design.

Scientists, health care professionals, and supporters will take to the streets on Nov. 5, calling for Congress to remove Robert F. Kennedy Jr. from his position as Secretary of Health and Human Services. 

A court filing by Thomas Nagy Jr., deputy assistant secretary for Human Resources and chief human capital officer at HHS, claims that his department can proceed with the 982 RIFs it issued two weeks ago, despite a judge’s temporary order freezing the notices issued by two dozen federal agencies since the government shutdown that began on Oct 1. 

NIH has published a policy that prohibits U.S. researchers and NIH grant recipients working with human biospecimens to share this data with “countries of concern.” That list includes China (including Hong Kong and Macau), Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, and Venezuela. 

Chris Biggar, a 34-year-old from Ohio, had just landed his dream job working in R&D when he was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer. 

NCI has released the names of the members of the newly formed ad hoc Working Group on Extramural Research Concepts and Programs. The group will perform the peer review functions of the now-defunct Board of Scientific Advisors.

As NCI and NIH funding is being deliberated in Congress, this year’s 2025 AACR Cancer Progress Report had an unequivocal message: With 20 new anticancer therapeutics, new uses for eight previously approved anticancer therapeutics, two new early detection tools, and several AI-powered diagnostics approved over the span of just one year, cancer research funding yields a good return on investment. 

The National Cancer Advisory Board approved five reissue concepts at a meeting Sept. 4. 

A federal judge ruled that the Trump Administration’s move to cut research funding to Harvard University was illegal—restoring more than $2 billion and all future grants to the institution. 

FDA is shortening its timeline for publicizing Complete Response Letters, pledging to make them available to the public “promptly” after sponsors receive notice. 

Phil and Penny Knight made a record-setting $2 billion gift to OHSU Knight Cancer Institute.

Earlier this year, amid efforts by the Trump administration to reduce the federal workforce, Lakshmi Grama decided to take early retirement from NCI.

Those anxiously anticipating the release of the U.S. News & World Report‘s evaluation of cancer hospitals will find one intriguing change.

The first large cancer screening/early detection initiative to be launched in 2025—the NCI-funded Vanguard study of multi-cancer detection tests—has started accruing patients through nine sites across the U.S.

On July 4, President Donald Trump signed into law “The One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which is expected to deal a massive blow to Medicaid coverage and leave millions without insurance by instituting a work requirement for beneficiaries. 

The FDA Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee July 17 recommended against approval of a Blenrep-based regimen for the treatment of relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma, citing unacceptable rates of ocular toxicity and overall poor tolerability of the drug.