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AUGUST 2004 News in this issue:
> NIH
Funding Update
3299 K Street, NW,
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Welcome to the August
2004 issue of the Friends of Cancer
Research Newsletter. For
more information and updates,
please monitor the Friends' website at www.focr.org.
The Senate is scheduled to mark up its version of the Labor-HHS bill on Thursday, September 9th.
Update on Clinical Trials Partnership On July 29th, representatives from Friends attended the “Overcoming Barriers to Early Phase Clinical Trials” workshop in Arlington, Virginia. The workshop featured pilot projects generated through a unique public private partnership between the NCI, the Foundation of the National Institutes of Health (FNIH), Friends of Cancer Research, the Association of American Cancer Institutes (AACI), and five pharmaceutical firms (Aventis, Bristol-Myers Squibb, GlaxoSmithKline, Eli Lilly, and Novartis ).
According to the AACI, the program's six pilot projects are designed to “enhance national capability to test innovative therapeutic agents through supporting the development of new models for increasing patient accrual to early phase trials.”
The July 2004 workshop included partipants from all six project grantees including the UC Davis Cancer Center, whose project campaign entitled “The Big C” has attracted national attention. More information on the workshop, including the “Big C” campaign, can be found at:
http://www.aaci-cancer.org/overcoming_barriers/index.html
A recent state-wide poll last week revealed passage of Proposition 71 by California voters this November is not a clear victory; proponents for the stem cell funding proposition lead by only a few percentage points, with many voters still undecided. The proposed bill would close the stem cell research gap by authorizing tax-free state bonds that will provide up to $350 million per year over 10 years to support stem cell research at California research facilities. The Coalition for Stem Cell Research and Cures, the organization behind the websites "Cures for California" also notes that the proposition has strict financial and ethical controls, including prohibiting on any funding for human reproductive cloning. Friends of Cancer Research has endorsed this initiative along with numerous other organizations including the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research, the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation, and over 20 Nobel Prize winning scientists and disease organizations representing millions of patients. For the entire list and more information, please visit: http://www.curesforcalifornia.com/ Friends is pleased to announce a new section of the FOCR newsletter entitled "In the Spotlight." Each month this section will feature an interview with a noteworthy individual who is making a difference in the cancer community. For the first installment, Alyse Garber of FOCR interviewed Clifton Leaf, Executive Editor of Fortune Magazine and author of the March 2004 Fortune cover story entitled “Why we’re losing the war on cancer (and how to win it).” This month's "In the Spotlight" takes a "behind the scenes” look at Leaf's cover story, his recommendations for making better progress against cancer, and his thoughts on stem cell research. Below is an excerpt, for the full article please visit: www.focr.org/news/cliftonleaf.html While the process of researching and writing took several months, the makings of Clifton Leaf’s March 2004 cover story on cancer in Fortune Magazine began years ago. Diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease at the young age of fifteen, cancer is no stranger to Leaf. Fortunately, Leaf waged a successful battle against the disease, which left him with not only a profound sense of optimism, he says, but also a deep gratefulness to those in the cancer community. However, it was not until a meeting in the fall of 2002 that Leaf, a longtime journalist who is now Fortune’s executive editor, felt a need to bring the disease he overcame back into the media spotlight... To read the rest of the article, please click below or visit: |
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