Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Study Suggests Not All Breast Cancer Patients Need Surgery
The conventional approach to fighting breast cancer is to deploy all the tools modern medicine has to offer. Surgery to excise the tumor is considered a critically important step, along with drugs, radiation, and hormone treatments and immunotherapy when appropriate. A new study questions that approach, suggesting surgery may not always be necessary for all patients. The study, an early-stage clinical trial, found that a carefully selected group of patients who responded remarkably well to chemotherapy could skip surgery altogether. (Rabin, 10/25)
In other cancer news 鈥
People should take the benzene-related recalls seriously, as they involve a far more dangerous contaminant than most, according to David Light, CEO of Valisure, an independent lab in New Haven, Connecticut, that alerted the Food and Drug Administration to its findings of benzene in sunscreen sprays last year.聽(Gibson, 10/25)
Rates of uterine cancer have been increasing in the United States, particularly for Black and Hispanic women. The number of cases diagnosed each year rose to 65,950 this year, compared to 39,000 15 years ago. Black women are also more likely to have more aggressive cases of the cancer, Dr. White said, and the study showed they were disproportionately more likely to use hair straighteners. (Blum, 10/25)
Our best weapon against cancer may already live inside us 鈥 it just needs a little prodding. That鈥檚 the premise behind Normunity, which launched Tuesday with $65 million from investors to develop a suite of drugs that it dubs 鈥渋mmune normalizers鈥 to help restore the natural ability of the immune system鈥檚 T cells to infiltrate and destroy tumors. (Cross, 10/25)
KHN: $38,398 For A Single Shot Of A Very Old Cancer Drug
Dr. Josie Tenore and Paul Hinds were introduced by a mutual friend in 2017 and hadn鈥檛 been going out long when she laid down the law: He had to get a physical. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 date people who don鈥檛 take care of their health,鈥 said Tenore, who practices cosmetic dermatology and functional medicine in suburban Chicago. One of Hinds鈥 blood tests that summer came back with an alarming result: His prostate-specific antigen, or PSA, level was very high. A biopsy confirmed he had advanced prostate cancer. (Allen, 10/26)
