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The White House is reviewing a proposal from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that apparently would require lower levels of a well-known carcinogen in chewing tobacco. While it has not yet been made public, the proposed rule under review by the White House's Office of Management and Budget is listed as a tobacco product standard for N-nitrosonornicotine levels in finished smokeless tobacco products. The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids said the chemical has long been known as one of the most troublesome cancer-causing agents in smokeless tobacco as well as in cigarette smoke. (Wheeler, 10/6)

Mammography can prevent deaths from breast cancer, but it's not a perfect test. It misses some cancers, especially in women with dense breast tissue, and flags abnormalities for follow-up tests that turn out to be benign, among other issues. So there's a lot of interest in additional tests that might make screening more accurate in women who have dense breasts. (Hobson, 10/7)

California will tighten rules on how much farmers can use a common pesticide listed by the nation's most productive agricultural state as a chemical known to cause cancer, regulators said Thursday. The change doesn't ban the pesticide Telone but creates a uniform rule for its application each year. The rule is drawing criticism from farmers who call it a key way to fight pests and fear the crackdown could lead to rising food prices. (Smith, 10/6)

Officials from the U.S. government's health research agency are to be questioned by a congressional committee about why taxpayers are funding a World Health Organization cancer agency facing criticism over how it classifies carcinogens. An aide to the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform told Reuters that National Institutes of Health officials have agreed to give an in-person briefing to the committee after questions were raised by lawmakers over its grants to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a semi-autonomous part of the WHO based in Lyon, France. (Kelland, 10/6)

UCSF gastrointestinal oncologist Dr. Margaret Tempero is among colleagues at 200 other medical centers around the world participating in the clinical trial called HALO-301. As part of the 420-patient Phase 3 clinical study, Tempero is evaluating the efficacy of an investigational therapeutic called PEGPH20. Tempero is looking for patients with untreated Stage IV pancreatic cancer, and patients whose cancers have high levels of a sugar called HA (hyaluronic acid), which impacts 35 percent to 40 percent of Stage IV pancreatic cancer patients. (Seipel, 10/6)

As part of an ambitious $100 million-plus expansion plan, Olathe Medical Center broke ground Thursday on a new $25 million cancer center. The 25,000-square-foot facility, expected to be completed next year, will consolidate the hospital’s currently fragmented cancer outpatient services in one place. It’s the latest project in a frenzy of construction at the hospital’s 250-acre medical campus near 151st Street and Interstate 35. The last year has also seen the opening of a new hospice house and the start of construction on a neonatal intensive care unit. (Margolies, 10/6)