MD Anderson Cancer Center’s uninterrupted seven-year stretch as the top cancer hospital in the U.S. News & World Report rankings has come to an end.

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center has broken the spell of being the perpetual runner-up and moved to the lead.

The result is as close as cancer care can come to a photo finish:

• MSKCC: 100 percent.

• MD Anderson: 99.9 percent.

A coalition of advocacy groups focused on colorectal cancer asked Congress to fix the loophole in Medicare coverage of colonoscopies.

The group, organized by Fight CRC and the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, met July 16 to lobby for proposed legislation that would ensure cost is not a barrier to colon cancer screenings.

• Jennifer Pietenpol named to IOM National Cancer Policy Forum

• University of Arizona forms plan with Banner Health to build statewide health system

• Roswell Park Cancer Institute granted approval for genome trials by New York State Department of Health

• Medical College of Wisconsin receives $2.6 million grant from NCI

• Dana-Farber Cancer Institute forms three-year immuno-oncology lung cancer collaboration with Johnson & Johnson and Janssen Biotech

• Eli Lilly and Company and Immunocore Limited form collaboration

• The Ohio State University and the University of Michigan sign agreement with Venture Therapeutics Inc.

An article in the June 6 issue of The Cancer Letter described plenary presentations at ASCO 2014. One presentation was the adjuvant breast cancer clinical trial ALTTO in HER2-positive disease, which “was chosen [for the plenary session] because it addressed the reliability of pathological complete response as a surrogate for patient benefit.”  

As always, I both enjoyed and learned something interesting from Dr. Don Berry, one of the great biostatisticians of our era. I find, reading his analysis of ALTTO and NeoALTTO, much that I agree with. I am certainly no statistician, and must bow to his statistical analysis of ALTTO and NeoALTTO. And yet at the same time I think it misses the point. So I will beg to differ.

Also: Don Berry's Rejoinder

The American Association for Cancer Research ushered in the year 2000 with a round logo that combined the lamp of knowledge with a map of the Americas and an aspirational slogan in Latin.

The 26-year-old logo gave way to one that looked more corporate. However, AACR didn’t stop at just one redesign. It changed the logo four more times. 

The NIH has published a funding opportunity announcement for the Outstanding Investigator Award in any area of cancer research.

• Three appointed to leadership positions at St. Jude

• Duke's Amy Abernethy named chief medical officer at Flatiron Health

• William Hogan joins University of Florida as director of bioinformatics

• J. Alan Diehl named associate director of basic sciences at MUSC

• Vincent O'Neill named chief medical officer of Exosome Diagnostics

• Joseph Haywood named president of FASEB

• Thomas Jefferson University receives $110 million gift

• Stand Up to Cancer Canada launched

• Bristol-Myers Squibb announces collaboration with Duke University

• Pew Charitable Trusts announce class of cancer research scholars

• Steven Bangert named CEO of the Year by the American Cancer Society

• Breakthrough Therapy designation granted to CTL019 in ALL

• European Commission approves Halaven for metastatic breast cancer

• Breakthrough Therapy designation granted to blinatumomab in Ph- ALL
  

• Mylan launches generic Carboplatin Injection in multi-dose vials

The Cancer Letter asked David Challoner, emeritus vice president for health affairs at the University of Florida, to discuss FDA’s 510(k) medical device clearance process.

The process has come under scrutiny after laparoscopic power morcellation procedures were found to spread previously undetected sarcomas inside benign fibroids.

Challoner chaired an Institute of Medicine committee tasked by FDA and Congress in 2009 to review the 510(k) approval process. 

“We know that this improves patient care,” Bertagnolli said in an interview with Matthew Bin Han Ong, a reporter with The Cancer Letter.

“In a case such as this one, close communication between the oncology and general gynecology communities is a key requirement for reducing morbidity and deaths due to uterine sarcomas.”

Question: What’s more expensive than proton beam radiation therapy?

Answer: Carbon ion radiation therapy.

With CIRT centers costing about $300 million to construct—about twice as much as proton beam centers—the potential adoption of this technology threatens to further inflate health spending worldwide.

• Li Ma and Jeffrey Tyner receive Wachter Award from AAAS

• John Cleveland named associate director of basic science at Moffitt Cancer Center

• The Community Oncology Alliance appoints new officers
  

• Roswell Park Cancer Institute receives "outstanding" distinction from NCI

• The American Society for Radiation Oncology names 30 new fellows

NCI has received some relief from sequestration, and the budget cuts will be adjusted proportionally, Director Harold Varmus said at the joint meeting of the National Cancer Advisory Board and the Board of Scientific Advisors June 23.

“The FY 14 budget is not very dissimilar from last year’s budget,” Varmus said. “We had relief from sequestration. We have correspondingly reduced the level of cuts we have imposed on both competitive and non-competitive awards. We expect to be awarding roughly the same number of RPGs, research project grants, as we did in FY 13.”

On the fifth anniversary of the landmark 2009 law granting the FDA authority over tobacco products, 10 leading public health and medical organizations called on the FDA and the Obama Administration to prioritize three actions to reduce tobacco use.

• James Downing named CEO of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

• Lynda Chin receives fellowship at MD Anderson Cancer Center

• Thomas Hansen, CEO of Seattle Children's, to retire in 2015
  

• Cornelia Ulrich and Bruce Edgar to join Huntsman Cancer Institute

• Lymphoseek label updated to include head and neck SCC

• Aloxi injection approved to prevent chemotherapy-related nausea and vomiting in children as young as one month old

• Fast Track status granted to DNX-2401 in glioblastoma

• Orphan Drug status granted to mocetinostat for myelodysplastic syndrome

The Cancer Letter asked David Wholley, director of research partnerships for the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health, to explain the novel scientific and administrative structure of Lung-MAP.

"For the first five drugs that are going into the trial, NCI is putting in about $24 million, and companies are putting in about $55 million. This would cover the costs for all of the drugs to complete testing through phase III," he said.

BALTIMORE—Constructed in Germany, shipped to the port of Baltimore, and driven through downtown during the night, the 90-ton cyclotron arrived at the University of Maryland’s Proton Treatment Center.

Cancer survivors face higher medical costs and productivity losses when compared to people without a cancer history, according to a CDC study published June 13. 

• Patricia LoRusso named associate director of innovative medicine at Yale Cancer Center

• Corrine Augelli-Szafran named director of chemistry at Southern Research Institute

• Sandeep Reddy named chief medical officer of Caris Life Sciences

• Hiromitsu Ota receives award from Wistar Institute

• Yeshiva University and Montefiore Health System agree on new management structure for Albert Einstein College of Medicine

• Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Trovagene Inc. begin collaboration

• Eli Lilly and Qiagen announce plan to co-develop assay panels

• Bayer Pharma AG and arGEN-X collaborate to develop therapeutic antibodies

We are facing a disturbing paradox in science. We have unprecedented potential for advancements spurred by current technologies. But at the same time we are confronting flat to declining funding. 

This climate provides a unique opportunity to examine and improve how we fund research. 

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have another six months to decide whether to cover low-dose computed tomography screening. Yet, proponents of screening seem unwilling to take the chance that Medicare coverage would be restrictive.

To tilt the scale in their favor, they have launched two congressional sign-on letters to CMS.

Cancer survivors face higher medical costs and productivity losses when compared to people without a cancer history, according to a CDC study published June 13. 

The number of high school boys who smoke cigars—16.5 percent—is now on par with cigarette use, said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

• Kraft named director of University of Arizona Cancer Center

• St. Jude redesignated as an NCI Comprehensive Cancer Center

• AstraZeneca CAMCAR, S.A. partners with Cancer Genetics Inc.

• Memorial Sloan Kettering forms collaboration with Quest Diagnostics

• Merck signs agreement with Sysmex Inostics GmbH

• ASCO publishes suvivorship compendium

• International health organizations publish guidelines for establishing cancer registries

• Association of Clinical Research Professionals coordinator designation recognized by ANCC Magnet program

• The Cancer Letter receives the 2014 Dateline Award for Excellence from the Society of Professional Journalists

My name is Clifford Hudis, and I am a medical oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center where I am chief of the Breast Medicine Service. I am also professor of medicine at the Weill Cornell Medical College and president of ASCO.

The word “alternative” may soon disappear from the name of the NIH National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

The name NIH officials now prefer is the National Center for Research on Complementary and Integrative Health.

A Kansas City, Kan., cancer clinic agreed to pay $2.9 million to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by submitting claims to Medicare, Medicaid, and the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program without providing those drugs and services.

Eddie Reed, a physician who conducted ground-breaking clinical studies on paclitaxel, one of the major cancer drugs of our time, died May 28.

• Georgetown, John Theurer Form Immunotherapy Research Collaboration

• John Hopkins to Develop Bladder Cancer Institute

• Maurie Markman Named President of CTCA Medicine & Science Unit

• UT San Antonio Researchers Call for More Hispanic Enrollment in Trials

• The National Patient Advocate Foundation Launches Project Innovation

Responding to an inquiry by the American Association of University Professors, MD Anderson Cancer Center President Ronald DePinho said his critics are incorrect in asserting that his administration gave no formal explanation for denying tenure renewal to two faculty members.

Douglas Boyd, a professor at MD Anderson, sent his own letter to the American Association of University Professors, responding to DePinho’s version of events.

Boyd is chair of MD Anderson’s Faculty Senate Promotion & Tenure Issues Committee.

Moffitt Cancer Center and the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center—Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute earlier this week announced that they are constructing a bioinformatics framework that would enable a multi-center collaboration.

The Department of Defense Lung Cancer Research Program will provide $10.5 million to support innovative, high-impact lung cancer research during fiscal 2014.

• Big Ten Cancer Research Consortium names Susan Goodin exec. officer

• ASCO launches online resource center for the Affordable Care Act

• James Graham Brown Cancer Center receives $5.5 million grant

• MD Anderson signs consulting agreement with Concord Medical Services Holdings for hospital projects in Beijing and Shanghai

• Mayo Clinic signs agreement with N-of-One for molecular diagnostics

• CDC is recruiting for director of the Division of Cancer Prevention

• FDA approves Vectibix in mCRC with KRAS companion diagnostic

• European CHMP issues positive opinions for Arzerra in CLL and Halaven in metastatic breast cancer