FDA: Standing Between You and Promising Cancer Care

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FDA: Standing Between You and Promising Cancer Care

The promise:

MelaFind is a handheld scanner meant to provide an objective aid to doctors applying to the standard visual tests for melanoma. Because melanoma is such a killer, doctors tend to biopsy every skin flaw that looks suspicious but they still miss one melanoma for every three or four they catch. In a clinical trial involving 23 practitioners around the country, MelaFind caught 98% of melanomas among the targeted suspicious lesions, while equaling or besting the top docs in avoiding unnecessary biopsies.

The obstacle:

When an FDA advisory panel met in November to review the device, the experts narrowly voted eight-to-seven in favor.

Eight to seven? Yes. Eight to seven. Final decision yet to come.

Daniel J. SmithSent via mobile phone
Oloffson Weaver Fellow of Political Economy
Department of Economics
George Mason University
Email: smith.dan.j
Website: http://www.danieljosephsmith.com

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