KPLU Local News
(2009-10-05)
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Federal stimulus money, more than $300 million, is headed to Washington state to research health and scientific issues. The majority of the money comes from the National Institutes of Health. So far, 350 projects have won grants.
One cluster of stimulus grants, totaling $16-million, focuses on answering: Which treatments and screening tests are most effective? Particularly in cancer there's a lot of uncertainty.
The problem, according to Dr. Scott Ramsey of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, is that in all kinds of cancer, in each stage, from screening to treatment, there's usually a choice. "And in that choice there is almost always not enough really good quality science to make both the doctor and the patient sure it's the best one for them."
So, you'll find doctors using different approaches to the same cancer in the same type of patient. To address that, there's a big push nationally for what's called "comparative effectiveness" research. It's part of the Obama Administration effort to make health care less wasteful.
Seattle happens to have some of the leaders in this field, including Dr. Ramsey, and others at the University of Washington and Group Health's Research Institute. Big new grants are flowing in, to try to answer questions such as, Which colon cancer test is better? Is there any benefit to getting an MRI to look for breast cancer?
Some people worry the results will lead to rigid rules, and not allow for individual differences. Ramsey believes some uniformity would be a good thing. If doctors all have the same information from "a study that shows a particular treatment works better, I hope everyone gets offered that first," he says.
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