A New Deal for Cancer: Lessons from a 50 Year War

by Abbe R. Gluck (Editor), Charles S Fuchs (Editor)

Overview

An unprecedented constellation of experts—leading cancer doctors, policymakers, cutting-edge researchers, national advocates, and more—explore the legacy and the shortcomings from the fifty-year war on cancer and look ahead to the future.

The longest war in the modern era, longer than the Cold War, has been the war on cancer.  Cancer is a complex, evasive enemy, and there was no quick victory in the fight against it. But the battle has been a monumental test of medical and scientific research and fundraising acumen, as well as a moral and ethical challenge to the entire system of medicine. In A New Deal for Cancer, some of today’s leading thinkers, activists, and medical visionaries describe the many successes in the long war and the ways in which our deeper failings as a society have held us back from a more complete success.

Together they present an unrivaled and nearly complete map of the battlefield across dimensions of science, government, equity, business, the patient provider experience, and more, documenting our emerging understanding of cancer’s many unique dimensions and offering bold new plans to enable the American health care system to deliver progress and hope to all patients.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781541700611
Publisher:	PublicAffairs
Publication date:	11/16/2021
Pages:	416
Sales rank:	1,020,677
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.60(d)

About the Author

Abbe R. Gluck is  is the Alfred M. Rankin Professor of Law, the founding faculty director of the Solomon Center for Health Law and Policy at Yale Law School, professor of internal medicine at Yale School of Medicine and the faculty director of the Yale Medical-Legal Partnership. She is also a Professor in the Institution for Social and Policy Studies at Yale. Gluck is an expert on Congress, federalism, litigation, and health law and is the author of more than 60 articles in law, health and mainstream publications, as well as the author of a leading legislation casebook. After graduation from Yale Law School, Gluck clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and worked on the senior staffs in the administrations of NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg and NJ Governor Jon Corzine. Gluck filed influential amicus briefs in all of the major ACA challenges.
 
 
Charles S. Fuchs MD, MPH is Senior Vice President and Global Head of Product Development for Oncology and Hematology at Genentech and Roche, former Director of Yale Cancer Center and Physician-in-Chief of Smilow Cancer Hospital, and Adjunct Professor of Medicine at Yale Cancer Center. Dr. Fuchs has spent his career advancing and enabling great science toward improving the lives of people with cancer. An internationally recognized expert in cancer care, treatment, and prevention, he was previously Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Chief of the Gastrointestinal Oncology Division and the Robert T. and Judith B. Hale Chair in Pancreatic Cancer at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Dr. Fuchs’ research and laboratory include work in molecular epidemiology, translational science, and drug development with over 700 publications and multiple FDA approvals of new cancer therapies.
 

Table of Contents

Introduction: A New Deal for Cancer Charles S. Fuchs Abbe R. Gluck Eugene Rusyn 1

Part 1 Cancer Care Today: Where We are and Who Pays

1 The New Borders of Cancerland Siddhartha Mukherjee 17

2 A View from the Ground: The Changing Landscape of Cancer Care Randall A. Oyer Erin O. Aakhus 31

3 The Health Insurance Landscape and Cancer Care K. Robin Yabroff 52

4 Reductions in Cancer Drug Prices Must Account for the Cross-Subsidies They Provide for Essential Underreimbursed Services Edward J. Benz Jr. 68

5 Save Physician-Owned Practices to Save Money in Health Care Barbara McAneny 83

Part 2 Cancer and the Community

6 Racial Disparities and Cancer Injustice Matt K. Nguyen Otis W. Brawley 103

7 Cancer and Health Justice Blase N. Polite Lindsay F. Wiley 124

8 Cancer and Public Health Melinda L. Irwin Abigail S. Friedman Nicole C. Deziel Linda M. Niccolai 139

9 Lift Every Voice and Sing: Working for Equity for Children with Cancer Nancy Goodman 158

10 Perspectives on Cancer Advocacy Sherry Lansing 171

Part 3 Science and Treatment Transformed

11 The Frontier of Cancer Care Aphrothiti J. Hanrahan Gurshan S. Gill David B. Solit 187

12 Oncologist Perspectives on the Evolution of Clinical Care Since the National Cancer Act of 1971 Neal J. Meropol Eric P. Winer 207

13 Responsible Open-Source Data Sharing for Precision Oncology Cynthia Jung Kenna Shaw Arjun Mody Barrett J. Rollins Charles L. Sawyers 224

14 (Over-)Paying for Cancer Care Cary Gross Stacie B. Dusetzina Ezekiel J. Emanuel 242

Part 4 Governing Cancer

15 FDA and Cancer R&D: The Engine for Future Cures Gideon Blumenthal 265

16 US Federal Agencies: Advancing Cancer Research and Care Through Improved Coordination and Efficiency Shelagh Foster Shimere Sherwood Richard L. Schilsky 284

17 The Fifty States of Cancer Cary Gross Deborah Schrag 314

18 Cancer and Congress Hon. Rosa L. DeLauro Abbe R. Gluck 336

19 Cancer and the President: The Moonshot and Beyond Greg Simon Allison Rabkin Golden 358

Acknowledgments 381

Index 383

Editorial Reviews

A probing collection of essays on the medicine and money involved in the war on cancer.”—Kirkus

“A New Deal for Cancer offers new perspectives to issues the oncology community has long grappled with. For that, it is highly recommended.”—ASCO Post

From the Publisher

12/01/2021

With the 50th anniversary of Nixon's signing of the National Cancer Act in 1971 as a springboard, Gluck (Yale Law Sch.) and oncologist Fuchs present 19 essays looking at accomplishments in cancer treatment and the challenges that lie ahead. These essays focus on policy rather than science. An essay by Siddhartha Mukherjee sets the stage by looking at five decades of successes, failures, and newly arisen problems in cancer treatment. Other contributors—in fields like medicine, economics, public health, political science, and patient advocacy—cover a wide range of topics in well-documented detail. Topics include inequity and availability of cancer care, costs, insurance, and caregiving. While viewpoints are varied, there is an overall emphasis on the need to work toward addressing the scattershot nature of pricing and insurance, and the causes of and possible solutions for disparities in care between regions and patients of different demographic groups. VERDICT The editors have assembled an impressive array of experts, offering a range of views with varying levels of detail. Decision makers in clinical, academic, advocacy, political, and governmental positions will be interested.—Richard Maxwell, Porter Adventist Hosp. Lib., Denver

Library Journal

2021-10-13
A probing collection of essays on the medicine and money involved in the war on cancer.

One of Richard Nixon’s many failed promises was that cancer would be conquered as surely as illegal drugs would be. That didn’t come to pass—though, as Yale Law School health policy specialist Gluck and oncologist Fuchs point out, the death rates from cancer have fallen by 29% in the last 30 years. “Efforts in cancer prevention, most notably reduction in the use of tobacco products, account for much of the mortality reductions,” they write, “though recent advances in cancer therapeutics are now also contributing.” What will it take to bring the rate down even further? Contributors, including geneticists, public health and public policy specialists, physicians, cancer researchers, and pharmaceutical engineers, examine the many moving parts of the effort. One answer is more money, since cancer care is outpacing other medical costs. Care costs are better managed in physician-driven practices rather than corporate-driven ones. Even so, a kind of mentality is at play that, writes Siddhartha Mukherjee, is forming a “cancer institution” or totalizing cancer world in which the passage into illness is more emphasized than the passage into wellness. “I fear that we now possess one-way passports into the realm of illness,” he concludes. Other contributors examine developments in evidence-based screening, argue for the need for a “national cancer care databank,” and forecast improvements in imaging technology that will aid in earlier detection of tumor growth. Provocatively, one call is for mandatory HPV vaccination. The response to Covid-19 provides a model for cancer care and pharmaceutical development, although it will work only with increased federal funding, requirements for better reporting, and enhanced coordination among states.

Of considerable interest to professionals working in the many fields associated with cancer care.

Kirkus Reviews