Description
May 18, 2026
How an ‘Impossible’ Idea Led to a Pancreatic Cancer Breakthrough - The New York Times
Most who meet proposed CTE criteria do not show disease signs at autopsy | Penn Today
Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.
Transcription
A breakthrough that may help people live longer with pancreatic cancer and years of relationship building with lawmakers pays off for pathologists pushing for Medicare reform.
It's really kind of a common sense thing is that you actually get paid like all the other health professionals do and you have to be paid to be able to do your work and basically it's a no-brainer from our point of view.
This is Path News Network Daily Edition. From the College of American Pathologists, I'm Nancy Johnson. It's Monday, May 18th. Scientists say a once impossible idea may have led to one of the biggest cancer breakthroughs in years. The New York Times reports that a new drug called Daraxonrasib is showing promise against pancreatic cancer by shutting down a protein known as KRAS that fuels tumor growth in pancreatic, lung, and colon cancers. In a late-stage trial, patients with advanced pancreatic cancer lived a median of more than 13 months on the drug, compared with less than seven months for chemotherapy alone. Researchers say the discovery overturns decades of belief that the KRAS protein could not be targeted with medicine. This new treatment could win FDA approval. later this year. A win for the CAP's advocacy efforts on Capitol Hill as Michigan Representative Haley Stevens becomes the 13th lawmaker to co-sponsor HR 6160, the Strengthening Medicare for Patients and Providers Act. The bill would provide annual inflation-based updates to Medicare physician payments after years of cuts that pathologists say you are making it harder to care for patients and invest in new technology. Dr. Joseph Fullmer of Corwell Health in southeast Michigan helped lead the push, alongside Dr. Ghassan Allo and Dr. Rima Tinawi-Aljundi, after years of meeting with Stephen's staff and other lawmakers.
I'm not going to go out and say, okay, we pushed her over the line. I don't know if we did or not. But I am completely confident that several groups going in there, including ourselves, did push over the line. And I don't have any doubt about that at all.
Pathologists say Medicare payments have dropped while practice costs continue to rise. And Dr. Fullmer says that's already affecting access to care.
Corewell Health is interesting because we're a hybrid system where we have employed physicians, but probably the majority of our physicians are independent individuals. Independent physicians who have privileges here. And what these Medicare cuts have done over the years is several of those private individual, private practice doctors are reluctant to see Medicare patients.
Without changes, the pathologists warn the gap between rising costs and Medicare reimbursement could make it harder to expand services and adopt advanced diagnostic tools that patients increasingly rely on.
This is going to affect patients. It's going to be a huge problem for patients to have fewer providers who can see them, to have lab costs cut. And this isn't just about patting the doctor, sorry. We just want to be more than just breaking even. We want to be able to add services. We want to be able to have more money to invest in our systems. I'm involved in molecular pathology, involved in new technologies coming on, something called methylation profiling, trying to bring it on here. And we have to have that for advanced diagnoses. And it's without appropriate reimbursement. If you're government payers, it's just going to be much more difficult.
Go to the CAP's Action Center to let your member of Congress know this is important legislation they should support. The link is in the show notes. A new review paper in the International Journal of Laboratory Hematology finds hospitals around the world use very different rules. for deciding when abnormal blood tests should be checked manually under a microscope. Researchers reviewed 20 years of studies involving automated blood analyzers and found wide variation in how accurately machines flagged dangerous abnormalities, like leukemia cells, with some systems performing far better than others. The CAP requires labs to have clear rules you for when a blood smear should be reviewed by a qualified expert. But the CAP does not spell out a national standard for how every lab must do it. The study authors say the findings highlight the need for more standardized, evidence-based guidelines to improve patient safety while helping laboratories work more efficiently. And finally, a new study from Penn Medicine finds most people who met proposed clinical criteria for chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, did not actually have the disease. CTE can only be confirmed after death in an autopsy, but researchers reported in the journal Nature Medicine that about 75% of patients classified as having traumatic encephalopathy syndrome. lacked the abnormal brain protein buildup that defines the disease. Scientists say the findings raise concerns that current criteria could wrongly label athletes, veterans, and others as having CTE while missing some people who truly do. Researchers say better diagnostic tools are urgently needed to better identify CTE. That does it for The Daily Edition. Be sure to check the show notes for more information on today's stories. Also, share this newscast with your social media network. We're back tomorrow at 5 a.m. Eastern for another episode of The Daily Edition. I'm Nancy Johnson. Have a great day.
Description
May 18, 2026
How an ‘Impossible’ Idea Led to a Pancreatic Cancer Breakthrough - The New York Times
Most who meet proposed CTE criteria do not show disease signs at autopsy | Penn Today
Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.
Transcription
A breakthrough that may help people live longer with pancreatic cancer and years of relationship building with lawmakers pays off for pathologists pushing for Medicare reform.
It's really kind of a common sense thing is that you actually get paid like all the other health professionals do and you have to be paid to be able to do your work and basically it's a no-brainer from our point of view.
This is Path News Network Daily Edition. From the College of American Pathologists, I'm Nancy Johnson. It's Monday, May 18th. Scientists say a once impossible idea may have led to one of the biggest cancer breakthroughs in years. The New York Times reports that a new drug called Daraxonrasib is showing promise against pancreatic cancer by shutting down a protein known as KRAS that fuels tumor growth in pancreatic, lung, and colon cancers. In a late-stage trial, patients with advanced pancreatic cancer lived a median of more than 13 months on the drug, compared with less than seven months for chemotherapy alone. Researchers say the discovery overturns decades of belief that the KRAS protein could not be targeted with medicine. This new treatment could win FDA approval. later this year. A win for the CAP's advocacy efforts on Capitol Hill as Michigan Representative Haley Stevens becomes the 13th lawmaker to co-sponsor HR 6160, the Strengthening Medicare for Patients and Providers Act. The bill would provide annual inflation-based updates to Medicare physician payments after years of cuts that pathologists say you are making it harder to care for patients and invest in new technology. Dr. Joseph Fullmer of Corwell Health in southeast Michigan helped lead the push, alongside Dr. Ghassan Allo and Dr. Rima Tinawi-Aljundi, after years of meeting with Stephen's staff and other lawmakers.
I'm not going to go out and say, okay, we pushed her over the line. I don't know if we did or not. But I am completely confident that several groups going in there, including ourselves, did push over the line. And I don't have any doubt about that at all.
Pathologists say Medicare payments have dropped while practice costs continue to rise. And Dr. Fullmer says that's already affecting access to care.
Corewell Health is interesting because we're a hybrid system where we have employed physicians, but probably the majority of our physicians are independent individuals. Independent physicians who have privileges here. And what these Medicare cuts have done over the years is several of those private individual, private practice doctors are reluctant to see Medicare patients.
Without changes, the pathologists warn the gap between rising costs and Medicare reimbursement could make it harder to expand services and adopt advanced diagnostic tools that patients increasingly rely on.
This is going to affect patients. It's going to be a huge problem for patients to have fewer providers who can see them, to have lab costs cut. And this isn't just about patting the doctor, sorry. We just want to be more than just breaking even. We want to be able to add services. We want to be able to have more money to invest in our systems. I'm involved in molecular pathology, involved in new technologies coming on, something called methylation profiling, trying to bring it on here. And we have to have that for advanced diagnoses. And it's without appropriate reimbursement. If you're government payers, it's just going to be much more difficult.
Go to the CAP's Action Center to let your member of Congress know this is important legislation they should support. The link is in the show notes. A new review paper in the International Journal of Laboratory Hematology finds hospitals around the world use very different rules. for deciding when abnormal blood tests should be checked manually under a microscope. Researchers reviewed 20 years of studies involving automated blood analyzers and found wide variation in how accurately machines flagged dangerous abnormalities, like leukemia cells, with some systems performing far better than others. The CAP requires labs to have clear rules you for when a blood smear should be reviewed by a qualified expert. But the CAP does not spell out a national standard for how every lab must do it. The study authors say the findings highlight the need for more standardized, evidence-based guidelines to improve patient safety while helping laboratories work more efficiently. And finally, a new study from Penn Medicine finds most people who met proposed clinical criteria for chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, did not actually have the disease. CTE can only be confirmed after death in an autopsy, but researchers reported in the journal Nature Medicine that about 75% of patients classified as having traumatic encephalopathy syndrome. lacked the abnormal brain protein buildup that defines the disease. Scientists say the findings raise concerns that current criteria could wrongly label athletes, veterans, and others as having CTE while missing some people who truly do. Researchers say better diagnostic tools are urgently needed to better identify CTE. That does it for The Daily Edition. Be sure to check the show notes for more information on today's stories. Also, share this newscast with your social media network. We're back tomorrow at 5 a.m. Eastern for another episode of The Daily Edition. I'm Nancy Johnson. Have a great day.
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May 18, 2026
How an ‘Impossible’ Idea Led to a Pancreatic Cancer Breakthrough - The New York Times
Most who meet proposed CTE criteria do not show disease signs at autopsy | Penn Today
Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.
Transcription
A breakthrough that may help people live longer with pancreatic cancer and years of relationship building with lawmakers pays off for pathologists pushing for Medicare reform.
It's really kind of a common sense thing is that you actually get paid like all the other health professionals do and you have to be paid to be able to do your work and basically it's a no-brainer from our point of view.
This is Path News Network Daily Edition. From the College of American Pathologists, I'm Nancy Johnson. It's Monday, May 18th. Scientists say a once impossible idea may have led to one of the biggest cancer breakthroughs in years. The New York Times reports that a new drug called Daraxonrasib is showing promise against pancreatic cancer by shutting down a protein known as KRAS that fuels tumor growth in pancreatic, lung, and colon cancers. In a late-stage trial, patients with advanced pancreatic cancer lived a median of more than 13 months on the drug, compared with less than seven months for chemotherapy alone. Researchers say the discovery overturns decades of belief that the KRAS protein could not be targeted with medicine. This new treatment could win FDA approval. later this year. A win for the CAP's advocacy efforts on Capitol Hill as Michigan Representative Haley Stevens becomes the 13th lawmaker to co-sponsor HR 6160, the Strengthening Medicare for Patients and Providers Act. The bill would provide annual inflation-based updates to Medicare physician payments after years of cuts that pathologists say you are making it harder to care for patients and invest in new technology. Dr. Joseph Fullmer of Corwell Health in southeast Michigan helped lead the push, alongside Dr. Ghassan Allo and Dr. Rima Tinawi-Aljundi, after years of meeting with Stephen's staff and other lawmakers.
I'm not going to go out and say, okay, we pushed her over the line. I don't know if we did or not. But I am completely confident that several groups going in there, including ourselves, did push over the line. And I don't have any doubt about that at all.
Pathologists say Medicare payments have dropped while practice costs continue to rise. And Dr. Fullmer says that's already affecting access to care.
Corewell Health is interesting because we're a hybrid system where we have employed physicians, but probably the majority of our physicians are independent individuals. Independent physicians who have privileges here. And what these Medicare cuts have done over the years is several of those private individual, private practice doctors are reluctant to see Medicare patients.
Without changes, the pathologists warn the gap between rising costs and Medicare reimbursement could make it harder to expand services and adopt advanced diagnostic tools that patients increasingly rely on.
This is going to affect patients. It's going to be a huge problem for patients to have fewer providers who can see them, to have lab costs cut. And this isn't just about patting the doctor, sorry. We just want to be more than just breaking even. We want to be able to add services. We want to be able to have more money to invest in our systems. I'm involved in molecular pathology, involved in new technologies coming on, something called methylation profiling, trying to bring it on here. And we have to have that for advanced diagnoses. And it's without appropriate reimbursement. If you're government payers, it's just going to be much more difficult.
Go to the CAP's Action Center to let your member of Congress know this is important legislation they should support. The link is in the show notes. A new review paper in the International Journal of Laboratory Hematology finds hospitals around the world use very different rules. for deciding when abnormal blood tests should be checked manually under a microscope. Researchers reviewed 20 years of studies involving automated blood analyzers and found wide variation in how accurately machines flagged dangerous abnormalities, like leukemia cells, with some systems performing far better than others. The CAP requires labs to have clear rules you for when a blood smear should be reviewed by a qualified expert. But the CAP does not spell out a national standard for how every lab must do it. The study authors say the findings highlight the need for more standardized, evidence-based guidelines to improve patient safety while helping laboratories work more efficiently. And finally, a new study from Penn Medicine finds most people who met proposed clinical criteria for chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, did not actually have the disease. CTE can only be confirmed after death in an autopsy, but researchers reported in the journal Nature Medicine that about 75% of patients classified as having traumatic encephalopathy syndrome. lacked the abnormal brain protein buildup that defines the disease. Scientists say the findings raise concerns that current criteria could wrongly label athletes, veterans, and others as having CTE while missing some people who truly do. Researchers say better diagnostic tools are urgently needed to better identify CTE. That does it for The Daily Edition. Be sure to check the show notes for more information on today's stories. Also, share this newscast with your social media network. We're back tomorrow at 5 a.m. Eastern for another episode of The Daily Edition. I'm Nancy Johnson. Have a great day.
Description
May 18, 2026
How an ‘Impossible’ Idea Led to a Pancreatic Cancer Breakthrough - The New York Times
Most who meet proposed CTE criteria do not show disease signs at autopsy | Penn Today
Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.
Transcription
A breakthrough that may help people live longer with pancreatic cancer and years of relationship building with lawmakers pays off for pathologists pushing for Medicare reform.
It's really kind of a common sense thing is that you actually get paid like all the other health professionals do and you have to be paid to be able to do your work and basically it's a no-brainer from our point of view.
This is Path News Network Daily Edition. From the College of American Pathologists, I'm Nancy Johnson. It's Monday, May 18th. Scientists say a once impossible idea may have led to one of the biggest cancer breakthroughs in years. The New York Times reports that a new drug called Daraxonrasib is showing promise against pancreatic cancer by shutting down a protein known as KRAS that fuels tumor growth in pancreatic, lung, and colon cancers. In a late-stage trial, patients with advanced pancreatic cancer lived a median of more than 13 months on the drug, compared with less than seven months for chemotherapy alone. Researchers say the discovery overturns decades of belief that the KRAS protein could not be targeted with medicine. This new treatment could win FDA approval. later this year. A win for the CAP's advocacy efforts on Capitol Hill as Michigan Representative Haley Stevens becomes the 13th lawmaker to co-sponsor HR 6160, the Strengthening Medicare for Patients and Providers Act. The bill would provide annual inflation-based updates to Medicare physician payments after years of cuts that pathologists say you are making it harder to care for patients and invest in new technology. Dr. Joseph Fullmer of Corwell Health in southeast Michigan helped lead the push, alongside Dr. Ghassan Allo and Dr. Rima Tinawi-Aljundi, after years of meeting with Stephen's staff and other lawmakers.
I'm not going to go out and say, okay, we pushed her over the line. I don't know if we did or not. But I am completely confident that several groups going in there, including ourselves, did push over the line. And I don't have any doubt about that at all.
Pathologists say Medicare payments have dropped while practice costs continue to rise. And Dr. Fullmer says that's already affecting access to care.
Corewell Health is interesting because we're a hybrid system where we have employed physicians, but probably the majority of our physicians are independent individuals. Independent physicians who have privileges here. And what these Medicare cuts have done over the years is several of those private individual, private practice doctors are reluctant to see Medicare patients.
Without changes, the pathologists warn the gap between rising costs and Medicare reimbursement could make it harder to expand services and adopt advanced diagnostic tools that patients increasingly rely on.
This is going to affect patients. It's going to be a huge problem for patients to have fewer providers who can see them, to have lab costs cut. And this isn't just about patting the doctor, sorry. We just want to be more than just breaking even. We want to be able to add services. We want to be able to have more money to invest in our systems. I'm involved in molecular pathology, involved in new technologies coming on, something called methylation profiling, trying to bring it on here. And we have to have that for advanced diagnoses. And it's without appropriate reimbursement. If you're government payers, it's just going to be much more difficult.
Go to the CAP's Action Center to let your member of Congress know this is important legislation they should support. The link is in the show notes. A new review paper in the International Journal of Laboratory Hematology finds hospitals around the world use very different rules. for deciding when abnormal blood tests should be checked manually under a microscope. Researchers reviewed 20 years of studies involving automated blood analyzers and found wide variation in how accurately machines flagged dangerous abnormalities, like leukemia cells, with some systems performing far better than others. The CAP requires labs to have clear rules you for when a blood smear should be reviewed by a qualified expert. But the CAP does not spell out a national standard for how every lab must do it. The study authors say the findings highlight the need for more standardized, evidence-based guidelines to improve patient safety while helping laboratories work more efficiently. And finally, a new study from Penn Medicine finds most people who met proposed clinical criteria for chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, did not actually have the disease. CTE can only be confirmed after death in an autopsy, but researchers reported in the journal Nature Medicine that about 75% of patients classified as having traumatic encephalopathy syndrome. lacked the abnormal brain protein buildup that defines the disease. Scientists say the findings raise concerns that current criteria could wrongly label athletes, veterans, and others as having CTE while missing some people who truly do. Researchers say better diagnostic tools are urgently needed to better identify CTE. That does it for The Daily Edition. Be sure to check the show notes for more information on today's stories. Also, share this newscast with your social media network. We're back tomorrow at 5 a.m. Eastern for another episode of The Daily Edition. I'm Nancy Johnson. Have a great day.
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