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People may celebrate a 2-week improvement in survival without acknowledging costsTom Somerville's decision to stop medical treatment for his end-stage cancer was a personal one. Somerville, 62, was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2021 that later spread to his liver. He had six months of chemotherapy to slow down the cancer, which he said also left him exhausted with nausea. The Kingston, Ont., resident decided to take a break from treatment to enjoy a trip with his wife to Victoria. "Things that you cherish change, right?" Somerville said. "I used to love being out in the bush, but now it...

Many cancer drugs approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) between 1995 and 2020 lack proof of added benefit, particularly those approved through expedited ("fast track") pathways, finds a study published by The BMJ. Despite pharmaceutical industry claims that high drug prices are needed to offset research and development (R&D) costs, the results show that more than half of these drugs, including those with minimal or no added benefit, recover R&D expenses within three years. As such, the researchers call for better alignment between regulatory and reimbursement processes, particularly for drugs approved through expedited pathways, to promote development of the...

As the third-most lethal cancer in the United States, with only a 1% five-year survival rate for people with its most aggressive form, pancreatic cancer has long been a target of researchers who search for ways to slow or stop its growth and spread. Now, researchers have found that an anti-parasitic drug prevents pancreatic cancer's initiation, progression and metastasis in genetically engineered mice. …Mebendazole could slow or stop the growth and spread of both early and late-stage pancreatic cancer. "We think that mebendazole could have a role in all stages," Riggins says. "It was particularly effective for pancreatic cancer that...

Obamacare’s emphasis on cost-benefit has apparently granted permission for the medical technocrats to conjure all kinds of healthcare rationing schemes.And the Medical Establishment is apparently playing along. From, “The Cancer Death-Panel App,” by Robert Goldberg in the NY Post: The latest innovation in cancer care isn’t a medical breakthrough but an app to ration new drugs. It’ll measure care in terms of what it costs health plans, instead of what it means for patients’ lives.That it’s being developed under the auspices of the American Society for Clinical Oncology, or ASCO, the world’s leading oncology association, is a grim warning about...

Australian researchers published findings this week on a newly-discovered plant compound that destroys cancer cells, but leaves healthy cells unharmed. They found it in possibly the last place you'd look for a cancer cure: the family of plants that brings us cancer's number-one culprit, tobacco.

Just heard on the drive in that Ben Venue, a maker of cancer drugs (generic and on contract), will be going out of business. They have been working through a consent decree with the FDA for quality system issues and stated: "the company cannot return to sustainable production." Their announcement here: http://www.benvenue.com/news_/press_releases/october_3_2013.html 1100 folks in Beford Ohio will be impacted.

It's never comforting to have one's longstanding fears confirmed. Yet, that's exactly what's happened over the last week as Americans have been presented with a stunning array of facts that diminish faith in our government. Whether it's on foreign policy, taxes, or the health-care system our lives depend on, members of the Obama Administration are making it harder to trust them to perform the most very basic functions of public service. *snip* Next, the Department of the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration has found that conservative and Tea Party groups, after complaining for years of being unfairly targeted by...

A federal judge has ruled that the Unites States government must make the most common morning-after pill available over the counter for all ages, instead of requiring a prescription for girls 16 and under. The decision, on a fraught and politically controversial subject, comes after a decade-long fight over who should have access to the pill and under what circumstances, and it counteracts an unprecedented move by the Obama administration's Health and Human Services secretary who in 2011 overruled a recommendation by the Food and Drug Administration to make the pill available for all ages without a prescription.

Hospitals are denying patients the latest life-extending cancer drugs, a report reveals. Dozens of trusts are failing to hand out treatments for bowel, ovarian, lung and brain cancer that have been approved by the NHS watchdog NICE. Some of these drugs have been shown to boost survival rates by a quarter while others have extended the lives of terminally-ill patients by over a year.

For the first time ever, three pharmaceutical companies are poised to test whether new drugs can work against a wide range of cancers independently of where they originated — breast, prostate, liver, lung. The drugs go after an aberration involving a cancer gene fundamental to tumor growth. Many scientists see this as the beginning of a new genetic age in cancer research. Great uncertainties remain, but such drugs could mean new treatments for rare, neglected cancers, as well as common ones. Merck, Roche and Sanofi are racing to develop their own versions of a drug they hope will restore a...

Inflammatory signaling blocks NUMB’s ability to deaden NOTCH1-driven tumor developmentHOUSTON — An inflammation-promoting protein triggers deactivation of a tumor-suppressor that usually blocks cancer formation via the NOTCH signaling pathway, a team of researchers led by scientists at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center reports today in Molecular Cell. Working in liver cancer cell lines, the team discovered a mechanism by which tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFα) stimulates tumor formation, said senior author Mien-Chie Hung, Ph.D., professor and chair of MD Anderson's Department of Molecular and Cellular Oncology. Hung also is MD Anderson's vice president for basic research. "We've...

Patients with terminal cancer should not be given life-extending drugs, doctors said yesterday. The treatments give false hope and are too costly for the public purse, they warned. The group of 37 cancer experts, including British specialist Karol Sikora, claimed a 'culture of excess' had led doctors to 'overtreat, overdiagnose and overpromise'. Campaigners dismissed the report, saying it was wrong to write off cancer victims. 'I would hardly call this type of treatment futile,' said Rose Woodward, of the James Whale Fund for Kidney Cancer. The NHS spends well over £5billion annually on cancer treatments, up from £3billion in 2002....

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - More than 30 years have passed since President Richard Nixon declared a "war on cancer," and while no single cure has been found, many new treatments have come to market. Meanwhile, the nation's two biggest biotechs, Amgen (down $1.27 to $67.10, Research) and Genentech (down $2.85 to $75.93, Research), have emerged as leaders in the market for cancer drugs. Amgen, based in Thousand Oaks, Calif., makes two treatments for chemotherapy patients: Neupogen, a $1.2 billion drug, and Neulasta, at $1.7 billion.