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Major Insurers Drop Avastin for Breast Cancer Amid Concerns About Its Effectiveness

The Reporting on Health Daily Briefing

Major Insurers Drop Avastin for Breast Cancer Amid Concerns About Its Effectiveness

Picture of Barbara Feder Ostrov
By Barbara Feder Ostrov
October 03, 2011


breast cancer, Avastin, reporting on health

Breast Cancer:

 Major health insurers, including Blue Shield of California, are starting to drop the expensive cancer drug Avastin from their list of covered treatments for breast cancer as the FDA considers whether to revoke approval of the drug for lack of effectiveness, Andrew Pollack reports for the New York Times. Medicare, however, will continue to cover Avastin for breast cancer.

Nobel Prize: The American immunologist Dr. Ralph M. Steinman is among three scientists who today won the Nobel Prize for medicine, but he died three days without knowing of the award, Lawrence K. Altman and Nicholas Wade report for the New York Times. Now, his prize has been called into question because the Nobel committee does not award prizes posthumously.

HPV/Gardasil: Yes, they went there. Last week's Saturday Night Live program featured this satirical commercial for "Li'l Poundcake," a doll can inject its young owners with the vaccine for human papillomavirus.

Medicare: Richard Wolf of USA Today outlines five possible ways Medicare could trim its $555 billion budget. None of them will appeal to anyone under 55.

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Photo credit: Paul Falardeau via Flickr

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