Joseph Alvarnas, MD

The new law will expand access for Medi-Cal patients who receive a complex cancer diagnosis and represents a critical first step in fulfilling the promise of the California Cancer Patients Bill of Rights, a resolution adopted by the legislature in 2021.

From the editor-in-chief of Evidence-Based Oncology.

The president’s aim is a 50% reduction in age-adjusted cancer deaths by 2047. This goal seems audacious, but it is likely achievable.

Truth is ever to be found in simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things.

"No matter where you go, there you are." Buckaroo Banzai

In this issue of Evidence-Based Oncology™ we see a foreshadowing of what the future of cancer care innovation could look like and how we may learn to move forward, safely, at an ever-accelerating pace.

Employers have the focus, innovative mindset, analytical tools, and drive to partner effectively with innovative cancer care entities to bring better care to their respective members.

Creativity is just connecting things--Steve Jobs

From the Editor-in-Chief, Evidence-Based Oncology, August 2020.

As I recall the early days of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, what stands out most is its profound human cost and the courage of those who helped our society transcend it. We are in the midst of a time in which the human toll of COVID-19 and the enormity of the path ahead are clear.

References: Humility and Hope: Evolution of the HIV Pandemic, From ART to Today’s Cancer Cures

The connections between cancer and HIV/AIDS became clear relatively early in the HIV/AIDS pandemic and continue to this day. Not only were opportunistic infections present in a majority of HIV-infected patients who met the initial diagnostic criteria for AIDS, but several cancer types were far more prevalent as well. While there is still much to understand before HIV is fully conquered, we have already learned a great deal about the pathobiology of this virus that has helped advanced immune-oncological technologies and led to the development of increasingly effective gene therapy delivery systems.

From the editor-in-chief of Evidence-Based Oncology™.

Dr Alvarnas is editor-in-chief of Evidence-Based Oncology.™ He is vice president of Government Affairs, senior medical director for Employer Strategy, and associate clinical professor, Hematology & Hematologic Cell Transplantation, City of Hope, Duarte, Califonia.

Dr Alvarnas is editor-in-chief of Evidence-Based Oncology.™ He is vice president of Government Affairs, senior medical director for Employer Strategy, and associate clinical professor, Hematology & Hematologic Cell Transplantation, City of Hope, Duarte, Califonia.

Reality seems so simple. We just open our eyes and there it is. But that doesn’t mean it is simple. Penn and Teller

The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves... Julius Caesar (I, ii, 140-141)

There is an epidemic failure within the game to understand what is really happening. ––Peter Brand (Jonah Hill), Moneyball, 2011.

In an article published in Electronics Magazine on April 9, 1965, Intel cofounder Gordon Earle Moore noted that the number of transistors in an integrated circuit doubled every year. He extrapolated that this rate of growth in computing power would continue to double every 2 years throughout the late 1960s and in to the 1970s and 1980s. The prediction, which became known as Moore’s Law, proved prescient. Intel and other industry leaders took this as both a prediction for the pace of innovation and a push for the industry to create “computing [that] would dramatically increase in power, and decrease in relative cost, at an exponential pace.” From 1965 to today, the technologies, depth of innovation, and corresponding impact from discoveries made in the pursuit of achieving and sustaining Moore’s vision have affected our lives in profound and unexpected days. Conversations rarely take place today without someone glancing at a smartphone to close a business deal, to let family know they will be late, or to post pictures of the conversation on a social media site.

Joseph Alvarnas, MD, discusses the history of cancer care and what the future might look like in the space.

“Every great magic trick consists of three parts or acts. The first part is called ‘The Pledge.’ The magician shows you something ordinary. ...The second act is called ‘The Turn.’ The magician takes the ordinary something and makes it do something extraordinary. Now you’re looking for the secret, but you won’t find it, because of course you’re not really looking...Every magic trick has a third act, the hardest part, the part we call ‘The Prestige.’” — Christopher Priest, The Prestige

A letter from our Editor-in-Chief, Joseph Alvarnas, MD.

Film is truth 24 times a second, and every cut is a lie – Jean-Luc Godard