President Barack Obama’s $3.9-trillion budget proposal for the 2015 fiscal year would bump NIH funding up to $30.2 billion—a $200 million increase over fiscal 2014—and would include an additional $8 million for NCI, totaling $4.931 billion for the institute.

Human papillomavirus vaccines are underused in the U.S. and need to be made a national public health priority, according to a report from the President’s Cancer Panel.
In a presentation to the National Cancer Advisory Board Feb. 27, panel chair Barbara Rimer outlined three goals to accelerate uptake of HPV vaccines, including having providers strongly encourage HPV vaccination to adolescents when other vaccines are being administered.

NCI has issued a report detailing a “scientific framework” for advancing research on pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, indicating potential new funding opportunities for genomic studies for early detection of pancreatic cancer.

The institute’s report is the result of the Recalcitrant Cancer Research Act, a bill proposed by the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, and passed Jan. 2, 2013.

• Pasche named center director at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center 

• Jiali Han named Rachel Cecile Efroymson Professor in Cancer Research at the Indiana University Simon Cancer Center

• Carol Bier-Laning will lead CTCA Head and Neck Cancer Program

• Curie-Cancer renews partnership with DNA Therapeutics

• A correction

The contractor running the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research received nearly $300 million from NCI in the 2013 fiscal year, and is slated for an increase, officials said at a recent advisory committee meeting.

• Van Andel Research Institute to build epigenetics hub

• Jennifer Doudna named winner of the Foundation for the NIH's Lurie Prize

• GRU Cancer Center receives $6 million committment

• Twenty-six public health organizations call for retailers to stop selling tobacco products

• ION Solutions selects Foundation Medicine for genomic profiling services

• Mylan launches first Herceptin biosimilar

• NeoGenomics launches profiling tests covering 22 cancer categories

• Clarient adds BRAF diagnostic to its service offerings

Enrollment in NCI-sponsored National Clinical Trials Network clinical trials will drop to about 17,500 this fiscal year, the network groups have been told by NCI officials. 

This enrollment figure includes 3,600 pediatric patients, so the total adult enrollment will add up to about 14,000, insiders at cooperative groups say.

FDA needs to improve its access to data if it is to manage drug shortages more effectively, the Government Accountability Office concluded.

The FDA’s management of drug shortage data is “inconsistent with federal internal control standards,” the GAO report states.

Victor Dzau, chancellor of health affairs at Duke University and president and CEO of the Duke University Health System, was named president of the Institute of Medicine.

Dzau will succeed current IOM president Harvey Fineberg effective July 1.

• NCI's John Czajkowski to take executive dean position at Harvard Medical School

• Issam Markhoul named distinguished chair for hematology and oncology at University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences

• Margaret Dimond named president of Karmanos Cancer Hospital

• North Shore-LIJ Cancer Institute opens $47 million radiation facility

• Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Singapore partners with ImaginAb Inc.

• St. Jude Thanks and Giving campaign rasies over $97 million

• Roswell Park Cancer Institute to collaborate with GenomOncology

• Roche Servicios S.A. and Cancer Genetics Inc. enter agreement

• Novartis acquires CoStim Pharmaceuticals Inc.