Check out this article in the Washington Post by RoB Stein: LINK
Breast Cancer Drug Study Canceled
By Rob SteinWashington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
The federal government yesterday canceled a $100 million study designed to test a new generation of drugs to prevent breast cancer in women at risk for the disease.
The National Cancer Institute took the unusual step of terminating the long-planned study, saying the massive project could not be justified amid questions about the study’s usefulness and the drugs’ safety.
“The numerous scientific concerns . . . are sufficiently formidable that the NCI will not commit to the funding of this particular trial,” the agency wrote. “While the . . . study may provide another possible option for women at risk for breast cancer, the dangers of introducing these drugs, with their many known side effects, outweighs their potential until we are better able to determine who will benefit from these interventions and what the longer term effect may be.”
The decision was criticized by proponents, who argued that the study would have been crucial to determining the best drugs to prevent breast cancer, potentially protecting thousands of women from the common malignancy.
“We’re certainly disappointed,” said D. Lawrence Wickerham of the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project in Pittsburgh, which was organizing the study. “We feel this trial is scientifically valid and one that has the potential to impact the health of thousands of women in this country and around the world.”…
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Read the rest – but also, consider, does this happen often? Why would the plug get pulled – could it really be about the money, or is there a growing concern about the business of healthcare or rather, the profits of healthcare?