CareToLive has just learned Alison Martin no longer works at NCI. Remember her? She helped Howie Scher write his leaked letter. She now works for the Melanoma Research Alliance. Check out their website. It will be fully up and running on August 19th.

http://www.melanomaresearchalliance.org/

This is a new organization found under the auspices (patronage; support; sponsorship) of the Michael Milken Institute. It intends to support ambitious and innovative projects from both individual scientists and research teams to develop novel diagnostic and therapeutic avenues relevant to pathways governing the behavior and clinical outcome of melanoma.

Skin cancer represents the most commonly diagnosed malignancy, surpassing lung, breast, colorectal and prostate cancer.
Melanoma is a type of skin cancer.
Even though it is rare, malignant melanoma is responsible for 75 % of all skin cancer related death cases

Meanwhile, back at the NCI ranch, we tried to pursue the missing gaps in the FOIA documents, namely, Scher’s “personal” e-mail. Under the rules, we can’t have his personal letter if it has his mother’s maiden name, his social security number, his phone number, home address, etc. Well what we learned is, this e-mail has his personal opinion. Did he say bad things about the Advisory Committee, its panelists, the patients who made public statements, CBER, Dendreon and Provenge? Did he brag how Asentar and GVAX and Abiraterone are better options? We want to know. Personal information and personal opinion are two different things, especially when that opinion influences a decision.

You can view the NCI FOIA documents here:

http://caretolive.com/NCI-FOIA-Response.pdf

Well, NCI tells us that since Alison Martin no longer works there, and since Scher doesn’t work for NCI, they do not have to turn over the e-mail. Can you believe that? What Alison Martin did when she worked for NCI should be fair game. Our tax dollars paid for that “work”. And what Scher, the most conflicted doctor on the Advisory Committee panel, had to say is most relevant in why he fought so hard to stop Provenge from being approved. We are sure he didn’t ask Alison Martin her bra size because it appears she forwarded the e-mails to Howard Streicher. We will continue to pursue this.

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On a night in early April, 2007, the temperature was hanging around 35 degrees outside. It was considered good sleeping weather on the East Coast. But a particular doctor could not sleep. He tossed. He turned. His mind was still rapidly busy with the activities from a few days ago.

He could still see his fellow panelists sitting around the table in that hotel room in Gaithersburg, Maryland. He tried his best to influence them, to show them the flaws in the medical treatment they were evaluating. He kept pointing them to trial design problems, failed endpoints, and survival that surely could not have come from the agent.

Then the doctor’s gut suddenly felt that guilt-wrenching churn. Novacea and ProQuest had just popped into his head. If those panelists persuade the FDA to approve Provenge, he is finished. “Oh, no,” he thought, “and Schering-Plough will back out of that deal. I have to do something.”

Dr. Howard Scher sprang out of bed and headed to another room.

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