• In a recent project, described in an article published in Nature Biotechnology, researchers from Johns Hopkins and MSKCC reported concrete steps in the use of human stem cells to test how diseased cells respond to drugs.
• Fitch Ratings has assigned an ‘AA’ rating to Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center’s approximately $400 million revenue bonds, 2012A.
• Researchers from the Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA) in Barcelona and MSKCC have found a key pathway that is responsible for metastasis initiation of colorectal tumors to the liver—a frequent metastasis site for this tumor type. The research is published in Cancer Cell.
• Joshua J. Meeks, MD, and colleagues at MSKCC found that if PSA screening were used uniformly—excluding men with PSA levels above 4—only one of 382 TURPs would identify clinically significant PCa, for a total of 390 in the American population in three years, according to an online report in The Journal of Urology.

• Dr. Dan Douer of MSKCC presented data at the 2012 Chemotherapy Foundation Symposium from a pivotal Phase 2 RALLY trial of Marquibo. Marqibo is indicated for the treatment of adult patients with Philadelphia chromosome negative (Ph-) acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in second or greater relapse or whose disease has progressed following two or more anti-leukemia therapies.
• The New Times reports that MSKCC has agreed to train Rwandan public and private medical personnel on cancer treatment and management.

Selected articles published in this time period include:

• Sanofi cuts in half the price of a new cancer drug after a leading cancer center said it would not use the drug because it was too expensive (Note: See MSKCC in the News: October 8 – October 19 to read letter in NYT entitled “In Cancer Care, Cost Matters” written by Drs. Peter B. Bach, Leonard B. Saltz, and Robert E. Wittes from MSKCC).
• Prof Nancy Kemeny, Attending Medical Oncologist at MSKCC was in Cork, Ireland recently to present her work on the use of regional chemotherapy to improve survival rates for patients with liver metastases due to colorectal cancer.