Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Global Cancer Deaths, New Cases Expected To Jump As Populations Age, Lifestyles Change
Reuters: Cancer Deaths Rise To 9.6 Million As Populations Grow And Age
Cancer will claim the lives of 9.6 million people in 2018, accounting for one in eight of all deaths among men and one in 11 among women, the World Health Organization's cancer research agency said on Wednesday. In its GLOBOCAN report detailing prevalence and death rates from many different types of cancer, the WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) said the global cancer burden would rise to an estimated 18.1 million new cases this year. This was up from 14.1 million - and 8.2 million deaths - in 2012, when the last GLOBACAN survey was published. (9/12)
Stat: Study Cracks Open The Secrets Of The Cancer-Causing BRCA1 Gene
Lawsuits didn’t do it, public shaming didn’t do it, patients and doctors banding together to “free the data” couldn’t do it: For 22 years Myriad Genetics, one of the oldest genetic testing companies, has refused to make public its proprietary database of BRCA1 variants, which lists more than 17,000 known misspellings in that major “cancer risk” gene, along with the medical significance of each. The database lists which mutations increase the risk of breast and ovarian cancer, which do not, and which have an unknown health effect. (Begley, 9/12)
