Dear Editor,
I was disappointed to see that you reported on the results of the IMpassion 131 trial, without context. [The Cancer Letter, Sept. 4, 2020]
I often see stories touting increased funding at NCI and changes in the payline. However, these are not the ultimate goals we are all working toward. More money, more research, and more researchers are simply the tools to achieve the real goal: saving lives. Is the system set up to accomplish the real goal? I continue to question that.
By law, the Food and Drug Administration is required to determine whether a drug, device, biologic, or medical device is “safe and effective.” But the FDA determination does not control whether the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will pay for it. To satisfy CMS, medical products and services must be “reasonable and necessary,” meaning...
As a radiation oncologist, I am struck by how often the decisive variable in lung cancer is not the sophistication of our therapy, but the timing of our encounter with the disease. The American Cancer Society projects 618,120 cancer deaths in the United States in 2025, with lung cancer remaining as the single largest contributor,...
