(U.S.) Community Oncology Alliance - audio interview (10 min) Ted Okon

August 12, 2010: COA Executive Director Ted Okon Talks Cancer Crisis

Interfaces Across the Cancer Continuum Offer Opportunities to Improve the Process of Care -- JNCI (pay-per-view - excerpt only)

Note: comparisons U.S./Canada

Comparison of Anticancer Drug Coverage Decisions in the United States and United Kingdom: Does the Evidence Support the Rhetoric? -- Mason et al. 28 (20): 3234 -- Journal of Clinical Oncology

Conclusion
Anticancer drug coverage decisions that consider cost effectiveness are associated with greater restrictions and slower time to coverage. However, this approach may represent an explicit alternative to rationing achieved through the use of patient copayments.

Cancer Statistics, 2010 -- U.S.

FIGURE 5 Annual Age-Adjusted Cancer Death Rates* Among Females for Selected Cancers, United States, 1930 to 2006.

(U.S.) Society of Gynecologic Oncologists Releases Data on the State of the Specialty

"SGO Practice Survey Task Force Chairman James Orr, MD, said in a news release, “The information in this report is a useful tool not only to current, practicing gynecologic oncologists with regard to how their practice composition relates to their peers, but also has important implications for individuals considering a career in this subspecialty, medical schools interested in creating a specialty program, and hospitals and health systems investigating the addition of specialized cancer care to their women's health care programs.”"

YouTube - (Understanding) NIH Peer Review Revealed

NEJM -- The Path to Personalized Medicine (U.S.)

"...In February, the NIH and the FDA announced a new collaboration on regulatory and translational science to accelerate the translation of research into medical products and therapies; this effort includes a joint funding opportunity for regulatory science. Working with academic experts, companies, doctors, patients, and the public, we intend to help make personalized medicine a reality. A recent example of this collaboration is an effort to identify new investigational agents to which certain tumors, identified by their genetic signatures, are responsive.
Real progress will come when clinically beneficial new products and approaches are incorporated into clinical practice. As the field advances, we expect to see more efficient clinical trials based on a more thorough understanding of the genetic basis of disease. We also anticipate that some previously failed medications will be recognized as safe and effective and will be approved for subgroups of patients with specific genetic markers.


When the federal government created the national highway system, it did not tell people where to drive — it built the roads and set the standards for safety. Those investments supported a revolution in transportation, commerce, and personal mobility. We are now building a national highway system for personalized medicine, with substantial investments in infrastructure and standards. We look forward to doctors' and patients' navigating these roads to better outcomes and better health."

Activism among exceptional patients with cancer. [Support Care Cancer. 2010] - PubMed result

Abstract
BACKGROUND: The "exceptional patients" with cancer are survivors who had advanced cancer considered incurable by medical report and who subsequently became disease-free or experienced unexplained survival time given the nature of their disease or treatment. This experience is a puzzling phenomenon that has not been formally investigated in a cancer population. The purpose of this study was to understand exceptional patients' accounts of their experience.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study used a narrative approach with a cross-case thematic analysis. Recruitment took place at health care centers in the USA and Israel. Oncologists in both centers were asked to identify patients who had an exceptional disease course. Patients were then contacted and interviewed; an audio recording was made of each narrative account and then transcribed. Interviews and thematic analyses were conducted independently at each site. These thematic findings from each site were discussed with both research teams and a common underlying theme was identified, which is the focus of this report.
RESULTS: Twenty-six participants were interviewed: 14 from the USA and 12 from Israel. All the participants have had advanced disease with a range of diagnoses that included breast, colorectal, pancreatic, ovarian cancer, glioblastoma multiforme, and others. The main recurrent theme from both the US and Israeli sites was personal activism. This was manifested in taking charge and getting involved in the process of diagnosis and treatment, as well as becoming more altruistic in their relationships with others. In many cases, this was reflected in a change in a philosophy about life
CONCLUSIONS: In this study, we found that activism was a major theme that was independently observed in both Israel and the USA. This has implications for health care providers to facilitate patient engagement in the care and treatment of their disease. Further research on this phenomenon is needed.

International Cancer Genome Consortium

Note: those studying ovarian cancer -  

Ovarian Cancer Australia

Ovarian Cancer United States

"Once thought of as a single disease, cancer is now understood to be the result of genetic mutations in cells which disrupt normal functions leading to uncontrollable growth. Because mutations are often specific to a particular type or stage of cancer, systematically mapping the changes that occur in each cancer could provide the foundation for research to identify new therapies, diagnostics and preventive strategies."

Patient Advocate Foundation :: 1-800-532-5274

help for solving insurance and access problems (U.S.):

Patient Advocate Foundation :: 1-800-532-5274