- The FDA approved a new drug, Kadcyla, that kills cancer cells more effectively while potentially reducing side effects.
- Men with high-risk prostate cancer undergoing hormone therapy live just as long whether they receive treatment for 18 months or 36 months.
- African-Americans and people living in poverty are more likely to present with an emergency colorectal cancer diagnosis.
- Daily use of a multivitamin reduced total cancer incidence in men tracked for more than a decade.
Time to Take Notice – Changes to the NIH Public Access Policy
This month I have certainly seen a great many emails, tweets, and blog posts all focused on the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Public Access Policy and their efforts to enhance compliance. The NIH recently released a new Notice that affects all NIH-funded researchers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering and applies to awards they receive with anticipated start dates on or after July 1, 2013 (view: NIH NOT-OD-13-042). Researchers need to know that these changes also impact those publications where they have used a core facility that is supported by NIH-funds.
This delay in processing of non-competing continuation grants will take effect in tandem with NIH requiring the use of the Research Performance Progress Report (RPPRs) for all Streamlined Non-competing Award Process (SNAP) and Fellowship awards. As the notice states, all NIH grant-related publications need to be deposited into PMC (formerly PubMed Central) within three months of the official publication date, otherwise they will be flagged as non-compliant and action will be taken. Continue reading
Blog Buzz: February 15 – February 22
The New York Genome Center has a nice round up post on Clinical Genomics talks from day two of the Advances in Genome Biology and Technology conference. You can see all their posts from the meeting on their website.
The FDA has approved TDM-1 for breast cancer, according to coverage from Reuters. Here is a brief item from Forbes about the drug and its cost, A Triumph in Breast Cancer–And Another Expensive Drug. (A number of people on Twitter have commented that the brand name is Kadcyla a bit close to Kalydeco, a drug used in the treatment of cystic fibrosis.)
On Thursday, the NIH announced a new US policy for research with potentially risky subjects requiring stricter controls, such as H5N1. The LA Times has coverage, and this post from the Nature News Blog includes a number of helpful links, as well as official opportunities for public comment on the policy related to this type of research, referred to as “dual-use research of concern”.
The Washington Post WonkBlog explains a new regulation on how insurance companies must cover colonoscopies under the Affordable Care Act.