The Cancer Letter

11/20/2025

Last week, Richard Pazdur was named to the position of director of FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. Much has been written about how Pazdur, with nearly a three-decade long career at the agency, represents a stabilizing choice for FDA as it faces inner and outer turmoil.

Indeed, on this week’s episode of In the Headlines, we bring you the full audio of a conversation originally published in print in last week’s issue of The Cancer Letter between Ellen Sigal, chair and founder of Friends of Cancer Research, and Karen Knudsen, CEO of the Parker Institute for Immunotherapy, about how Pazdur is a great choice for the position—and the agency.

Last week, Richard Pazdur was named to the position of director of FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. Much has been written about how Pazdur, with nearly a three-decade long career at the agency, represents a stabilizing choice for FDA as it faces inner and outer turmoil. This episode ...

11/19/2025

CMS announces GENEROUS drug payment model aimed at lowering Medicaid drug prices

CMS announced a new drug payment model called the GENErating cost Reductions for U.S. Medicaid (GENEROUS) Model that the agency plans to pilot next year. To access this subscriber-only content please log in or subscribe.If your institution has a site license, log in with IP-login or register for a s...

11/18/2025

Smoldering multiple myeloma: Rethinking the waiting game
Guest editorial by C. Ola Landgren, MD, PhD (Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center)
https://cancerletter.com/trials-and-tribulations/20251114_4/

11/17/2025

Advancing symptom science at City of Hope and across the globe
Guest editorial by Jeannine M. Brant, PhD, APRN, AOCN, FAAN
https://cancerletter.com/sponsored-article/20251114_5/

11/17/2025

Trump administration and Cornell University reach agreement to restore federal research funding

Cornell University has come to an agreement with the Trump administration that will unfreeze the university’s more than $250 million in interrupted federal research funding and “protect Cornell’s students from violations of federal civil rights laws, including from discrimination based on race...

11/17/2025

FDA to remove black box warnings on hormone therapy for menopause
Trump-era “gold standard science” is not to be confused with gold standard of scientific evidence
https://cancerletter.com/clinical/20251114_3/

11/16/2025

Trump signs CR that funds government through Jan. 30, ending the longest shutdown in U.S. history

On the evening of Nov. 12, President Donald Trump signed a continuing resolution that officially ended the 43-day-long U.S. government shutdown that began on Oct. 1.  To access this subscriber-only content please log in or subscribe.If your institution has a site license, log in with IP-login or re...

11/16/2025

Richard Pazdur, a respected insider with a plan to reengineer FDA, steps in as CDER director
https://cancerletter.com/conversation-with-the-cancer-letter/20251114_1/

11/15/2025

Rick Pazdur’s CDER appointment comes at exactly the right moment for FDA
Guest editorial by Ellen V. Sigal, PhD (Friends of Cancer Research)
https://cancerletter.com/guest-editorial/20251114_2/

11/14/2025

American Academy of Pediatrics: Leucovorin is not recommended for routine use in autistic children

The American Academy of Pediatrics does not recommend the routine use of leucovorin (folinic acid) for autistic children, according to the interim guidance issued by the physician group Oct. 31.  To access this subscriber-only content please log in or subscribe.If your institution has a site licens...

11/13/2025

At a time when federal immigration policies are becoming stricter, Kunle Odunsi, director of University of Chicago Medicine Comprehensive Cancer Center, reflected on the fact that cancer research is a highly international community.

As part of its crackdown on immigration under the Trump administration, the U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services announced that as of Sept. 21, H-1B visa petitions will require a $100,000 fee in an attempt to “curb abuses and protect American workers.”

“For someone like myself, I don’t think Yale would’ve paid $100,000 to get me an H-1B visa at the time, and I’m sure it’s going to be hard,” Odunsi, who is also the director of the Comprehensive Cancer Research Center, the AbbVie Foundation Distinguished Service Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and dean for oncology at University of Chicago Medicine, said. “But as I said, and as you pointed out, we have to keep our eyes on the target, on our target, and that is cancer.”

Listen to the full episode by clicking the link below.
https://cancerletter.com/podcastc/20251107_1/

11/13/2025

Tidmarsh is out, Pazdur is in: FDA’s CDER under new leadership

Richard Pazdur, founding director of FDA’s Oncology Center of Excellence and long-time FDA visionary, has accepted the top job at FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research following George F. Tidmarsh’s dramatic ouster from the position.

Richard Pazdur, founding director of FDA’s Oncology Center of Excellence and long-time FDA visionary, has accepted the top job at FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research following George F. Tidmarsh’s dramatic ouster from the position.  This episode is available on Spotify and Apple Pod...