NCI Flags ‘Cancer Moonshot’; Dr. Hologram Will See You; Fraud Crackdown Continues

Employees at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) received internal guidance to flag for closer scrutiny a variety of communications that address 23 hot-button issues, including “cancer moonshot.” (ProPublica)

The American Cancer Society awarded its 2025 Medal of Honor to W. Kimryn Rathmell, MD, PhD, renowned kidney cancer expert and former NCI director, in recognition of her “commitment to tackling the complexities and challenges of cancer.”

Patients with glioblastoma lived twice as long as projected when treated with an investigational radiopharmaceutical rhenium-186. (UT Health San Antonio)

Could “hologram doctors” help fill the shortage of trained oncologists in rural areas? (Wall Street Journal)

The pharmaceutical industry has pushed back against recent FDA guidance on accelerated drug approvals, including the need for confirmatory trials of therapies that address unmet medical needs. (Regulatory Focus)

Patients of a Baltimore physician known for his compassion and generosity have rallied around him after a paperwork snafu left him unable to pay for his own cancer care. (CBS News)

Vepdegestrant, a potential first-in-class PROTAC degrader, produced mixed results in a closely watched clinical trial, improving progression-free survival in ESR1-mutated breast cancer but not wild-type tumors. (BioSpace)

The Justice Department announced a plea deal with a Louisiana man who passed himself off as a physician, receiving privileges at several hospitals and writing prescriptions for himself and others, including a prescription for the anti-emetic ondansetron for a patient receiving cancer therapy.

The Justice Department also announced charges against a Louisiana doctor for healthcare fraud for allegedly billing Medicare for “medically unnecessary” cancer genetics tests.

OSE Immunotherapeutics and GERCOR Oncology Clinician Group announced an improvement in 1-year survival in pancreatic patients who received a therapeutic vaccine in addition to chemotherapy.

Research involving preclinical models suggests that combined effects of chronic stress and obesity may accelerate development and growth of pancreatic cancer. (UCLA Health)

Fed up with the confusing language of ballot proposals, a Cincinnati oncologist announced his candidacy for secretary of state in Ohio. (Oncology News Central)

More than half of patients with recurrent thymic carcinoma responded to a chemoimmunotherapy combination, resulting in a disease control rate of 98% for the rare, difficult-to-treat cancer. (Juntendo University)

AstraZeneca announced statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in event-free survival in gastroesophageal cancer treated with durvalumab (Imfinzi) plus chemotherapy.

The American College of Radiology announced plans to transition its lung cancer detection registry into the Early Lung Cancer Detection Registry, including support for diagnostic performance feedback on management of actionable incidental pulmonary nodules.

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    Charles Bankhead is senior editor for oncology and also covers urology, dermatology, and ophthalmology. He joined MedPage Today in 2007. Follow

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