The Sunday, May 15, New York Times magazine is devoted to advances in oncology, with seven lead articles covering topics ranging from from genomic targets in cancer to super-responders to hospice care. Here.
The April 8 issue of Science was devoted to the new science of metastasis, and featured an editorial by Harold Varmus, former head of NCI and currently holder of an endowed chair at Weill Cornell School of Medicine. Of note, Varmus calls on CMS to cover molecular profiling in cancer patients:
More after the break.
Image from the current Sunday New York Times homepage:
Image and a quotatoin from the Science op-ed by Varmus:
[T]here are important things to do, even without enlarged Congressional appropriations. The White House is already using its convening power to encourage greater collaboration, information sharing, and team efforts. The vice president could use his popularity and bully pulpit to move beyond research to emphasize cancer prevention: the life-saving values of vaccines for human papilloma and hepatitis B viruses, the avoidance of tobacco use, the control of obesity. The Administration could also exercise its regulatory authority—most potently, to direct the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to allow reimbursement for molecular profiling of cancers. That would vastly increase the data available for analysis, accelerate interpretation of genetic profiles, provide a test bed for true sharing of clinical information, and allow future coverage determinations by CMS to be made more quickly and sensibly.
We are living in a remarkable time for cancer research....
