Cancer, Cancer Treatment

A new era of intelligent cancer drug development has spurred a leap in the proportion of drugs reaching patients, according to a study by Cancer Research UK scientists published in Nature Reviews Drug Discovery.

Scientists obtained data on 974 cancer drugs in clinical development, and calculated that there was a probability that 18 per cent of those entering the clinic would make it to market. Previously it was estimated that in some studies only five per cent of cancer drugs in the pipeline become standard treatments for the disease.

(Ivanhoe Newswire) — The majority of older Americans are not getting cancer screenings done, according to a new study. The research also finds doctors are not recommending the tests to patients for colorectal, breast and cervical cancer.

When detected early, these three types of cancers are potentially curable. The goal of the government’s Health People 2010 plan is to improve the number of screenings. One way to track this is through Medicaid patients who are some of the nation’s most vulnerable citizens. Study authors from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill looked at data on close to 2,000 North Carolina Medicaid recipients age 50 and older.

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