Value Peer-spectives

The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has awarded $10.5 million to 10 researchers to develop technologies that will assist research on millions of genomic elements that play a role in determining what genes are expressed, and at what levels in different cells.

Genomic Health announced it has formed an alliance with OncoMed Pharmaceuticals to support the development of DNA-sequencing technologies in the search for diagnostic biomarkers that could identify patients who will best benefit from targeted drugs currently in development by OncoMed.

A recent survey of US and Canadian oncologists explored how they perceive cost-effectiveness of the new and costly cancer treatments, and whether providers are considering value questions of quality versus cost in their clinical decisions.

Professor Jonathan Waxman, of Imperial College London, an expert in prostate cancer who founded the Prostate Cancer Charity in England and helped garner support for cancer treatment, has denounced the refusal of the UK National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) to approve the 2 new and expensive prostate cancer drugs approved last year in the United States, saying that NICE "has overregulated and proscribed drugs that offer real advances to people with cancer.

The Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF) is expanding its efforts to encourage innovation in prostate cancer research.

An online tool launched by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will help patients, providers, and researchers navigate the rapidly growing landscape of genetic testing, many of them associated with cancer therapy.

Results of a new survey of primary care physicians (PCPs) show that 1 in 3 PCPs believe that ovarian cancer screening is safe and effective, contrary to current evidence. The survey was published in the February 7, 2012, issue of Annals of Internal Medicine.

Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, FL, has announced it is launching its Personalized Medicine Institute to advance the fight against cancer, and implementing the promise of personalized cancer care medicine by focusing on innovative biotechnology with its biotechnology subsidiary M2Gen.

Researchers at Espicom Business Intelligence, a medical and pharmaceutical market analysis company, predict that the development of novel biologic approaches to drug therapy will bring "a sea change" to the approach to cancer therapy, by focusing on controlling solid tumors and the introduction of new drugs that target new pathways.

On September 26, 2011, the FDA issued an approvable letter to Mela Sciences, the manufacturer of MelaFind, an investigational diagnostic device for early melanoma.