There are a number of provisions in both the House and Senate health care reform bills that will affect colorectal cancer patients.  Click here to see a chart outlining and comparing these provisions.

Read the rest of this entry »

By Catherine Knowles, C3’s Director of Policy

Democratic Senator Ben Nelson (NE) announced this afternoon that he will vote for cloture on the motion to proceed Saturday.

Continue reading to see exactly what Senator Nelson said, and for additional updates on the pending vote. Read the rest of this entry »

By Catherine Knowles, C3’s Director of Policy

On Thursday afternoon, Senate Majority Leader Reid (NV) set the procedural wheels in motion for a vote on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

The first procedural vote is expected around 8pm on Saturday.  It will be a cloture vote on the motion to proceed.  Majority Leader Reid is working to line up the 60 votes needed to pass the cloture motion (a cloture motion must be approved by three-fifths of the Senate).

Continue reading for more information on the upcoming Senate vote as well as a summary of some of the provisions included in the Senate bill that C3 thinks are important for people living with colorectal cancer. Read the rest of this entry »

By Nancy Roach, the Founder of C3 and Chair of its Board of Directors

A National Cancer Institute (NCI) working group has developed recommendations about how to engage advocates effectively in NCI research activities.  The recommendations are open to public comment until November 30, 2009.  Rather than go into detail about the recommendations, I will explain from my personal experience why I feel they are important and present C3’s feedback. Read the rest of this entry »

Nancy Roach is the Founder of C3 and Chair of the Board of Directors.

On September 22, I participated in a meeting that looked at some of the profound implications of the growing amount of publicly-available data, and grappled with questions around reporting research results using this data.  The day’s agenda was titled “Interpreting and Communicating Clinical Data in the Public Domain,” and the meeting was convened by the FDA Clinical Trials Transformation Initiative (CTTI).

The meeting delved into a lot of detail:

• Legislation which requires research sponsors to make summary data publicly available in www.clinicaltrials.gov, both positive and negative results;
• Existing guidelines and best practices for both clinical trials and meta-analyses; and
• Existing efforts to clarify guidelines for meta-analyses.

At the end of the day, my personal conclusion was that meta-analyses will be used in the future to make health care recommendations, and that strong guidelines are critical.  The meeting results are still being processed, so no formal recommendations have occurred yet. Read the rest of this entry »