CancerActionNow.org...
Advocates for cancer treatments that work
Cancer ActionNow.org helps cancer patients identify treatment options if the standard treatment for their cancer has not helped them.
The Marti Nelson Cancer Foundation/CancerActionNow.org works to make effective and safe cancer treatments available to cancer patients. Check Advocacy to see what we’re doing.
Latest News
Visit the Cancer Action Now! Blog
Visit our blog (linked in the sidebar menu to the left)for the latest alerts and updates. We will post a headline on this page whenever something new comes to our attention, but our discussion and expanded information will be posted on the blog starting 08-02-2010.
ALERT!!!
08-12-2009: The FDA announced it's final rules for Expanded Access to Investigational Drugs for Treatment Use and Charging for Investigational Drugs. Click here to see the announcement and additional links.
A New Information Project
Thanks to generous new financial support from several individual contributors and from Bosom Buddies of Solano County, Genentech, and Genomic Health, we are redesigning, rebuilding and expanding CancerActionNow.org. Our plan is for this site to become a significant resource for patients, medical professionals, and regulatory agencies for information dealing with all aspects of cancer prevention, diagnosis, and treatment, and also some of the public policy issues that may affect cancer patients and their families.
We welcome your input and suggestions for ways we can make this site more useful to our visitors. Whether you are a patient or family member, a medical care provider, a patient advocacy activist, or involved in insurance or regulatory issues, we invite you to email us at: editor (at) canceractionnow (dot) org.
Pending Legislation and Regulatory Issues
As part of our renovation project, we will be adding current information on regulatory and legislative developments concerning all aspects of cancer research and treatment. The Foundation issued a position statement in the form of a letter to US Senators concerning the EARLY bill, which would create a program for early education and awareness of breast cancer in young women. You can read the letter here: MNCF Position Statement on the EARLY Bill.
Inadequate control of cancer pain is a long-standing problem for many patients, but for a very large percentage of people with cancer, there are effective pharmaceuticals for controlling pain and improving the quality of life. Unfortunately, in the past many physicians have been reluctant to prescribe adequate amounts of pain medication out of fear for government oversight and regulation of their medical practice. A new initiative by the families of victims of drug abuse threatens to make the situation much worse for many cancer patients. Although we sympathize with the people harmed by drug abuse, we do not think what the FDA is proposing to do will help them. Therefore we have taken a public position in opposition to imposing additional regulation on the use of opioid drugs via the mechanism known as REMS (Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies). You can see the FDA's announcement of a public meeting on the topic here: Federal Register Notice -- FDA Proposal on Opioids REMS, and our public comments here: MNCF Comments on FDA Opioids REMS Proposal.
Read a thoughtful proposal endorsed by the Marti Nelson Cancer Foundation regarding how Comparative Effectiveness Research can be conducted to benefit cancer patients. You can read or download the PDF at this link to the Friends of Cancer Research website.
The Marti Nelson Cancer Foundation endorses stem cell research conducted for the benefit of cancer patients: http://www.cancerleadership.org/policy/cancer_research/050520.html.
Thank you for your support
In the past year, we worked to increase the treatment options available to cancer patients. Your support made our work possible.