Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Towering Figure In Cancer Research World Failed To Disclose Financial Ties To Drug, Health Care Companies
The New York Times/ProPublica: Top Cancer Researcher Fails To Disclose Corporate Financial Ties In Major Research Journals
One of the world’s top breast cancer doctors failed to disclose millions of dollars in payments from drug and health care companies in recent years, omitting his financial ties from dozens of research articles in prestigious publications like The New England Journal of Medicine and The Lancet. The researcher, Dr. José Baselga, a towering figure in the cancer world, is the chief medical officer at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. He has held board memberships or advisory roles with Roche and Bristol-Myers Squibb, among other corporations, has had a stake in start-ups testing cancer therapies, and played a key role in the development of breakthrough drugs that have revolutionized treatments for breast cancer. (Ornstein and Thomas, 9/8)
The New York Times: MSK Cancer Center Orders Staff To ‘Do A Better Job’ Of Disclosing Industry Ties
The chief executive of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center sent an email to all staff members on Sunday saying that the institution and its faculty “need to do a better job” of disclosing their relationships with the drug and health care industries. “The matter of disclosure is serious,” wrote the executive, Dr. Craig B. Thompson, along with Kathryn Martin, the chief operating officer. (Thomas and Ornstein, 9/9)
In other news —
Stat: That Alarm About The Cancer Risks Of CRISPR? It's Still Ringing
When papers from two independent research groups reported in June that CRISPR genome editing is more likely to succeed in cells that have lost their cancer kill switch, it raised fears that edited cells used to treat patients might initiate tumors. That inference is still the subject of intense debate — including over whether Nature Medicine should even have published the studies — but one thing is beyond question: The papers sent other scientists scurrying to their labs to check their results. (Begley, 9/10)
The Washington Post: For New Cancer Treatments, Less Is More
Tom Maguire always figured that, if he ever developed cancer, he would pursue the toughest treatment available. “You destroy yourself, and then you can come back,” he said. His view was tested earlier this year when he was diagnosed with bladder cancer that had invaded the muscle wall of the organ. The standard of care, he learned, usually involves removing the bladder. He would have the choice of permanently wearing a bag to collect his urine or having a difficult surgery to fashion a new bladder from his intestines. Both prospects filled the 63-year-old avid hiker and scuba diver with dread. (McGinley, 9/9)
