Microsoft founder Bill Gates and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg have pledged $500 million to fight the growing tobacco epidemic in developing countries. The investment will help governments implement proven programs and policies for reducing tobacco use. The announcement came at a press briefing in New York City on July 23.

"We are thrilled by this remarkable commitment to global tobacco control," said Dr. Robert Croyle, director of NCI's Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences. "NCI will continue to fund research that informs the programs and policies supported by this important initiative," he noted.  Read more  

In updated recommendations released today, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) is advising against the routine use of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing to screen for prostate cancer in men age 75 and older. Published in Annals of Internal Medicine, the recommendations state that the potential harms of PSA testing for men in this age group outweigh any benefits, and that there is "adequate evidence that the incremental benefits of treatment for prostate cancer detected by screening are small to none."

For men under 75, the panel concluded that there was inadequate evidence to say whether "treatment for prostate cancer detected by screening improves health outcomes compared with treatment after clinical detection." In its report, the panel added that there is "convincing evidence that treatment for prostate cancer detected by screening causes moderate-to-substantial harms, such as erectile dysfunction, urinary incontinence, bowel dysfunction, and death. These harms are especially important because some men with prostate cancer who are treated would never have developed symptoms related to cancer during their lifetime."  Read more  

The NCI Cancer Bulletin is produced by the National Cancer Institute (NCI). NCI, which was established in 1937, leads the national effort to eliminate the suffering and death due to cancer. Through basic, clinical, and population-based biomedical research and training, NCI conducts and supports research that will lead to a future in which we can identify the environmental and genetic causes of cancer, prevent cancer before it starts, identify cancers that do develop at the earliest stage, eliminate cancers through innovative treatment interventions, and biologically control those cancers that we cannot eliminate so they become manageable, chronic diseases. For more information on cancer, call 1-800-4-CANCER or visit http://www.cancer.gov. NCI Cancer Bulletin staff can be reached at ncicancerbulletin@mail.nih.gov.