Cancer Decisions - Free Newsletter

FROM THE MOSS REPORTS

Today marks the fifth anniversary of the launch of our free Cancer Decisions newsletter. In those five years we have published over 250 separate weekly newsletters, generally timed to appear in our readers' email boxes early Sunday morning. I want to thank my dedicated staff for making this happen each week, particularly my research director, Dr. Louise Lubetkin, and my Webmaster, Charla Blevins. Together, we have weathered countless glitches, large and small, over the past half decade.

How does our newsletter differ from some other well-known Web-based health newsletters? For a start, we have avoided commercialization. You will therefore not find any ads, pop up or otherwise, or tie-ins to any commercial products whatsoever. Accurate information on cancer is our only commodity: we are primarily a publishing company, and our only source of income is the sale of our informational Moss Reports (along with books and phone consultations).

Today, we have nearly 50,000 newsletter subscribers - but we do not judge our success purely by the size of our mailing list. We do what we do because it is necessary, needed and right, not because of any expectation of phenomenal gain. We have proven this by our behavior over the past 32 years.

Cancer is a field that changes fast. Over the past five years we have published many notable articles on aspects of cancer research and treatment. Frankly, I am more excited today about the prospects for understanding (and eventually treating) cancer than I ever have been before. I urge you to introduce our weekly newsletter to your friends, so that they too can learn about new developments in this field.

So, on this fifth anniversary, my staff and I wish you the best of health. Together we can look forward to reporting many exciting discoveries in the cancer field. As the Dalai Lama has said, the ultimate meaning of life is to contribute to the relief of human suffering. If we at Cancer Decisions can contribute even in a small way to that lofty goal by clarifying the progress that is being made in cancer research, we will have been highly successful.

Our single most valuable asset is the trust that you and thousands like you have put in our good sense and objectivity. My staff and I hope that in the coming years we will continue to earn and repay your trust and that our relationship will continue to thrive.

ANOTHER MILESTONE

As readers of this newsletter will very probably already be aware, former National Cancer Institute director Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach has now left NCI to become commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). On August 15, his chosen successor, John Niederhuber, MD, was nominated by President Bush to be the new NCI director.

There are some grounds for hope in this appointment. In addition to being a surgeon, Dr. Niederhuber has a special research interest in the role of stem cells in cancer - an area of investigation that has been woefully under-funded during the present Administration because of the ideological controversies that swirl around the issue of fetal stem cells.

Here is how Dr. Niederhuber's official biography describes his work in the stem cell field:

"Under his leadership, the Laboratory of Tumor and Stem Cell Biology, which is a part of the Cell and Cancer Biology Branch of NCI's Center for Cancer Research, is studying tissue stem cells as the cell-of-origin for cancer. He is working to identify, fully characterize, and isolate this population of cells, with the hypothesis that they might become a therapeutic target. The lab is also studying the complex relationship between tumor cells and their microenvironment. Studies focus on how normal stroma (connective tissue) is changed during tumor progression and on strategies for preventing the development of tumors by manipulating the microenvironment."

It is very exciting to progress from von Eschenbach, who seemed to have an almost visceral aversion to the topic of stem cells, to Dr. Niederhuber, who has devoted a considerable amount of attention to this field, and has a real appreciation for the incredible promise that this work holds for the future of cancer research. For that reason, I greet his appointment and wish him the best of luck both in his own studies and in fostering this important direction in cancer research.

--Ralph W. Moss, Ph.D.

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IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER

The news and other items in this newsletter are intended for informational purposes only. Nothing in this newsletter is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice.