cancer
A major childhood brain cancer network is ending
The National Cancer Institute is phasing out the Pediatric Brain Tumor Consortium, a prominent clinical trial network that the agency supported for 26 years. The move caused alarm among cancer patient advocates and scientists, who feared that the loss of the PBTC could jeopardize ongoing and planned trials for pediatric brain cancer.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Health and Human Services told STAT that these trials would be completed with other clinical trial networks, notably the Children's Oncology Group Pediatric Early Phase Clinical Trials Network. "Strengthening PEP-CTN will streamline trial development and enhance capacity for pediatric brain tumor studies," the Trump administration spokesperson told STAT in an email. "Importantly, we do not anticipate any funding gap for pediatric brain tumor research."
The lead researchers with PBTC, along with advocates, are hoping for a smooth transition, but told STAT that they remain wary of the process.
"Our hope is that we can find a process and a new home for at least some of the ongoing studies," said Ira Dunkel, a pediatric oncologist and chair of the PBTC in an interview last week. "There's a lot of uncertainty right at this moment, but I think everybody agrees that we don't want to disrupt treatment for any patient." — Angus Chen and Jason Mast
research
Filling — then emptying? — the 10/90 gap
For decades, researchers have bemoaned this disparity called the 10/90 gap — meaning that about 10% of global health funding is dedicated to conditions that cause 90% of the world's disease burden. This imbalance is mainly driven by the way that high income countries dedicate more resources to chronic diseases rather than communicable ones that are more common in developing countries. Now, it looks like that gap is narrowing, but funding cuts to international aid and changing policies on international research collaborations could jeopardize those gains, STAT's Anil Oza reports.
Researchers analyzed 8.6 million papers published between 1999 and 2021, finding that if the U.S. reduces its funding over the next twenty years, it could undo half the progress made over the last twenty. Read more from Anil on what's at stake.
first opinion
How to bring patient voices to medical AI
It's not hard to see how generative AI has begun making an impact in health care and public health. Clinics are leveraging AI tools to draft clinical notes and messages to patients. The CDC has used social media data to monitor school closures to detect potential emerging outbreaks and forecast overdose trends. But at the same time, harm has already been done. One widely used algorithm in health care underestimated the need for follow-up care for Black patients while overestimating medical need for white patients.
That's why decision-making about AI in health must include communities affected by those systems, argue physician Oni Blackstock and advocate Akinfe Fatou in a new First Opinion essay. "We propose that generative AI be conceived and developed from the ground up, not from the top down, as is currently the case," they write. Read more about what this could look like in practice.
No comments