Ronald Piana

The Diagnosis and Treatment of Medicare, by Andrew J. Rettenmaier, PhD, and Thomas R. Saving, PhD. Washington, DC: The AEI Press, 2007.

In March, the FDA's Cellular, Tissue and Gene Therapies Advisory Committee endorsed approval of Dendreon's sipuleucel-T vaccine (Provenge) for treating men with metastatic prostate cancer.

Reimbursement for medical practices was once based on what was known as "customary, prevailing, and reasonable charges." This system was felt to be inequitable and inflationary.

There's a huge hole in the ground in the shadow of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, but within 4 years, a gleaming 13-story facility—the Yawkey Center for Cancer Care—will rise on the corner of Brookline Avenue and Jimmy Fund Way, creating a new "front entrance" to the Institute and expanded cancer care opportunities for the thousands of patients who will walk through it each year.

Over the past several decades, investment through the National Cancer Institute (NCI) has become an essential source of support for academic and clinical cancer research. The dividends paid by this investment have been discoveries that have reduced suffering and mortality due to cancer. For cancer patients and survivors, it is money well spent.