People who don't follow cancer research often ask me why we haven't cured cancer. That perception masks a wonderful reality: We make amazing, stepwise progress every year, and the result is that many people live much longer today than they would have previously. Right now we're in the thick of the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the biggest research meeting on new cancer medicines, and this morning a bunch of really important studies dropped. I'm going to review them here. This first image is the result for daraxonrasib, a treatment for pancreatic cancer that is generating consdirable excitement. The green line is the probability of living for patients who got the new drug; the gray one is the chemo control group. If you follow cancer drugs, a chart like this will make your breath hitch a little. I'm going to review these and some other data here.

PSA screening for prostate cancer reduces disease-specific deaths, new Cochran review shows. The benefit, though small, represents a significant change from a 2013 review statnews.com/2026/05/14/psa-… via @statnews

With a ‘misleading’ name, polycystic ovary syndrome is both over- and under-diagnosed: Why an ovary syndrome may get a new name: Men seem to have PCOS, too statnews.com/2026/04/01/pcos… via @statnews

Bhattacharya “is hijacking Bush’s legacy for his own purposes,” says Vannevar Bush biographer statnews.com/2026/04/01/jay-…

AI drug developer Insilico Medicine and Lilly ink commercialization deal worth up to $2.75 billion statnews.com/2026/03/29/insi… via @statnews

NIH restrictions on research partnerships with foreign institutions significantly impacted 1 in 4 U.S. scientists statnews.com/2026/03/27/nih-… via @statnews

“Lost in the focus on ‘me’ rather than ‘we’ has been discussion of vaccines’ wider benefits: The indirect — and sometimes surprising — benefits of vaccines statnews.com/2026/03/19/vacc… via @statnews

Cancer cells can ‘barf’ proteins onto their cell surface. That may create new targets for immunotherapies statnews.com/2026/03/12/canc… via @statnews

5 lessons from Vinay Prasad’s turbulent tenure at the FDA statnews.com/2026/03/08/vina… via @statnews

Round 1 of STAT Madness is underway. Vote now!

UniQure plans to seek approval for Huntington’s therapy still blocked by FDA statnews.com/2026/03/02/uniq… via @statnews

Trump touts lower drug costs and anti-fraud measures in lengthy State of the Union, even as more than half of Americans say health care has become more unaffordable statnews.com/2026/02/24/trum… via @statnews

Nature Medicine to investigate study that found cancer treatment is better in morning, after sleuths find inconsistencies in data statnews.com/2026/02/20/canc… via @statnews

Key study of Grail’s cancer detection test fails in setback for company statnews.com/2026/02/19/grai… via @statnews

Should routine semen analysis become a biomarker of general men’s health? Some men’s health experts say yes, but there’s also skepticism about the idea statnews.com/2026/02/19/seme… via @statnews

I took part in a 2012 psilocybin trial. What I’m seeing now horrifies me: “Despite the marketing hype that puts the drugs themselves at the center of the story, psychedelics are therapeutic accelerants, not panaceas”statnews.com/2026/02/19/psyc… via @statnews

NIH Director Bhattacharya to lead CDC after O’Neill’s exit statnews.com/2026/02/18/cdc-… via @statnews

The FDA’s Moderna pirouette is one more sign of chaos at the agency statnews.com/2026/02/18/mode…

FDA reverses course, agrees to review Moderna’s flu vaccine statnews.com/2026/02/18/fda-… via @statnews