Resources for News Media

• How AI Will Shape the Future of Cancer Care

  December 5, 2024 | Gov CIO Media
  During AWS re:Invent in Las Vegas, Nevada, NCI CIO Jeff Shilling discussed the critical role of data standardization backing AI initiatives and how he is thinking about ethical concerns like bias, data privacy and risk management to ensure AI is both effective and responsible. He highlighted the importance of regulating AI in the medical field and how its future might require practices like data certification.

• Her medical file read 'death imminent.' His treatment plan changed cancer forever.

  November 29 | USA Today
  Four decades ago, Dr. Steven Rosenberg saved the life of a 33-year-old Navy officer. Today, immunotherapy is the brightest new weapon in the fight against cancer. In 1984, Dr. Steven Rosenberg was the chief of surgery at the National Cancer Institute. During his residency training, he had operated on a patient with an extraordinary story. Years before, the patient’s terminal metastatic cancer had been cured after enduring a severe infection accompanied by high fevers. It seemed as if the body’s immune system, galvanized to fight the infection, had somehow also killed the cancer.

• Why cancer among younger Americans is on the rise

  October 16, 2024 | Washington Post Live: Chasing Cancer
  Yale School of Medicine’s Veda Giri, the American Cancer Society’s Rebecca Siegel and the National Cancer Institute’s Steven Rosenberg join Washington Post Live to discuss what is driving higher cancer rates in young people, how the disease is impacting under-resourced communities and the new cutting-edge immunotherapy treatments that aim to transform the cancer care landscape.

• WATCH: Biden speaks about progress made toward ‘cancer moonshot’

  August 13, 2024 | PBS
  President Joe Biden is zeroing in on the policy goals closest to his heart now that he’s no longer seeking a second term, visiting New Orleans on Tuesday to promote his administration’s “moonshot” initiative aiming to dramatically reduce cancer deaths.

• Estimated U.S. Annual Cost of Initial Cancer Screening $43 Billion in 2021

  August 5 | HealthDay
  Michael T. Halpern, M.D., Ph.D., from the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, and colleagues estimated the annual cost of initial cancer screening in the United States in 2021 using national health care survey and cost resources data.

• Taking a daily multivitamin does not help you live longer, study finds

  June 27, 2024 | CBS News
  In the study, researchers analyzed data from nearly 400,000 healthy U.S. adults followed for more than 20 years and found no association between regular multivitamin use and lower risk of death. The study was led by researchers from National Institutes of Health's National Cancer Institute, who noted the participants studied were generally healthy, meaning more research is needed for populations with nutritional deficiencies.

• Atlantic Live “People v. Cancer” livestream

  June 25, 2024 | Atlantic Live
  Unprecedented advancements in science and technology have led to early detection and better treatments for cancers and rare diseases, renewing hope for those facing a diagnosis and reshaping the realities of living with cancer today. The Atlantic illuminated the stories of patients, caregivers, practitioners, and researchers. And we explored patient-led and community-based strategies for prevention, healthy survivorship, and the race toward a cure.

• Study shows new treatment for lymphoma doesn't require chemo

  June 20, 2024 | CBS News
  Researchers at the National Institutes of Health found a new treatment for lymphoma that is not chemotherapy. The recent study focused on a non-chemotherapy treatment for people with aggressive B-cell lymphoma that has come back or is no longer responding to standard treatments.

• FDA approves self-collection screening for virus that causes cervical cancer

  May 15, 2024 | The Washington Post
  “The study will provide us the data to know what’s the uptake like, what do people do with this information? How is it received in different clinical settings, and do people engage with their gynecologists in a different way? And then ultimately, do we see a difference in cervical cancer cases?” NCI director Kimryn Rathmell said.

• NIH’s New Cancer Screening Research Network and Cancer Screening Technologies

  May 10, 2024 | The ASCO Post
  “There are many cancers we still cannot reliably detect until it is so late that they become extremely difficult to treat,” said W. Kimryn Rathmell, MD, PhD, Director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI). “Emerging technologies such as multicancer detection tests could transform cancer screening and help to extend the lives of many more [patients]. We need to be sure these technologies work and understand how to use them, so they benefit everyone,” she emphasized.
  
  

• NIH develops AI tool to better pair cancer patients with drugs

  April 19, 2024 | MobiHealthNews
  Researchers at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), have developed an artificial intelligence tool that predicts whether a patient will respond to cancer-treatment drugs using individual tumor cells, according to a study published in Nature Cancer.

• NCI Director Discusses Cancer Moonshot In Interview.

  March 25, 2024 | The Nashville Post
  “Dr. W. Kimryn Rathmell earned her stripes while working at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. During her tenure as physician-in-chief and chair of the department of medicine, she was tapped to lead the National Cancer Institute in November.” As NCI director, “she will play an integral part in the White House’s Cancer Moonshot initiatives.” The Post interviewed Dr. Rathmell, who said, “I’m really excited about Cancer Moonshot because it signals that there’s significant White House support for cancer. Also, the Moonshot is an all-government approach. It means that we need to be talking to everybody about how we make a big difference for cancer.”

• FDA approves groundbreaking treatment for advanced melanoma

  February 16, 2024 | NBC News
  The Food and Drug Administration approved a new cancer therapy that could one day transform the way a majority of aggressive and advanced tumors are treated. The technology has been in development and studied for nearly 40 years. It was Rosenberg who pioneered TIL therapy — first describing how it could shrink melanoma tumors in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1988.

• Cervical cancer is preventable, yet rising number of women in poor regions are getting it

  January 25, 2024 | USA Today
  Informing the public about treatment was also top of mind Thursday as the White House hosted a forum on cervical cancer, as part of the Biden administration’s cancer moonshot initiative, which aims to prevent more than 4 million cancer deaths by 2047. Dr. Kimryn Rathmell, the National Cancer Institute director, announced the availability of new at-home HPV testing. The trial program is set to begin in the second quarter of 2024 with 25 health institutions across the U.S.

Trending Topics

• Multi-Cancer Detection (MCD) Research

  NCI has been studying biomarkers of cancer and cancer risk for more than 20 years. One outgrowth of this research has been combining the measures into a way to test for multiple kinds of cancer at the same time. These types of tests, which use blood, urine, or other body fluids, are collectively known as either Multi-Cancer Detection assays (MCDs) or sometimes Multi-Cancer Early Detection assays (MCEDs). NCI uses the term Multi-Cancer Detection (MCD) assays or MCD tests.

• New NCI Director Eyes Cancer Moonshot, AI

  January 29, 2024 | Cancer Healthcast
  Dr. W. Kimryn Rathmell discusses her priorities ahead and how she views various tech innovation around cancer care and research. Dr. W. Kimryn Rathmell is one month into her post as National Cancer Institute’s new director and is already rolling up her sleeves on initiatives impacting health outcomes of cancer patients. Dr. Rathmell discusses her priorities for the year ahead, including a renewed focus on deepening connections across agencies, communities and the nation.
  

• Financial Toxicity and Cancer Treatment (PDQ®)–Health Professional Version

  Financial Toxicity and Cancer Treatment discusses the increased financial distress that cancer patients and survivors uniquely experience. Get detailed information about the complex relationship between cancer and financial toxicity along with potential interventions in this clinician summary.

• National Cancer Plan - Join Us

  People across the country and worldwide are counting on us to end cancer as we know it. Research alone will not accomplish this. To succeed, we must work together to develop strategies, share knowledge, and accelerate progress. The National Cancer Plan provides a comprehensive framework for this meaningful collaboration and unites us in acting on the vision President Biden and First Lady Biden set out in the Cancer Moonshot℠ to end cancer as we know it.

• Evidence of Novel Susceptibility Variants for Prostate Cancer and a Multiancestry Polygenic Risk Score Associated with Aggressive Disease in Men of African Ancestry

  Article on ScienceDirect - Background: Genetic factors play an important role in prostate cancer (PCa) susceptibility; Objective: To discover common genetic variants contributing to the risk of PCa in men of African ancestry.

• HER2’s Genetic Link to Breast Cancer Spurs Development of New Treatments

  HER2 is a gene that has been linked to breast cancer growth. Learn about the development of trastuzumab, a monoclonal antibody that blocks the HER2 protein, and other treatments that have improved survival for women with HER2-positive breast cancer.

• Cancer Treatment Vaccines

  Cancer treatment vaccines treat cancer by strengthening the body’s natural defenses against the cancer. This page covers how cancer treatment vaccines work against cancer, cancers that are treated with them, and the side effects they may cause.

• NCI COVID-19 in Cancer Patients Study (NCCAPS)

  The NCI COVID-19 in Cancer Patients Study, or NCCAPS, is a natural history study of COVID-19 in people with cancer. The knowledge gained from this study will help doctors better manage treatment for people with cancer and COVID-19 in the future.