Christin Melton

Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) typically begins in a milk duct and is the most common type of noninvasive early stage breast cancer. It represents nearly one-quarter of new breast cancer diagnoses annually.

In the quest to improve personalization of cancer treatment, the CALGB (Cancer and Leukemia Group B) Cooperative in Canada discovered that women with basal type breast cancer benefit from adding paclitaxel (Taxol) to standard chemotherapy.

Preliminary data from a phase 3 study show that panitumumab (Vectibix) added to standard FOLFOX chemotherapy as a first-line treatment for metastatic colorectal cancer significantly improves PFS in patients with wild-type KRAS.

Updated data from IES (Intergroup Exemestane Study) showed that sequencing therapy with tamoxifen followed by exemestane (Aromasin) prolonged disease-free survival and overall survival in postmenopausal women with early stage breast cancer.

Dr David Melisi, National Cancer Institute, Naples, Italy, and colleagues presented data at ECCO 15-ESMO 34 today identifying the transforming growth factor (TGF) beta-activated kinase-1 enzyme, known as TAK-1, as a possible target in pancreatic cancer.

The Austrian Breast and Colorectal Cancer Study Group (ABCSG) presented new data from the ABCSG-24 trial, which has been investigating adjuvant treatment with capecitabine (Xeloda) plus a standard chemotherapy regimen of epirubicin and docetaxel (Taxotere) in women with early stage breast cancer.

Approximately three quarters of funding for cancer research goes to biology research and drug development in Europe, and this concerns Professor Richard Sullivan, King’s Health Partners Integrated Cancer Centre in London and chairman of the European Cancer Research Managers Forum.

Prof Cuzick told an attentive audience at the ECCO 15-ESMO 34 Joint Congress that he believes new HPV vaccines on the horizon, which are effective against 9 strains of HPV, coupled with a shift to molecular HPV screening, could allow countries to eradicate cervical cancer within their borders.

Heating soft-tissue sarcomas during chemotherapy was associated with a significant reduction in the risk of recurrence and death, according to data presented by Professor Rolf Issels, professor of medical oncology, Klinikum Grosshadern Medical Center, University of Munich in Germany.

Many clinicians continue to puzzle over the best way to treat patients with ovarian cancer who relapse 6 to 12 months after treatment with a platinum-based chemotherapy regimen. These women are typically categorized as “partially” platinum-sensitive.

Motesanib diphosphate (AMG-706) is a novel compound that has demonstrated activity in a number of solid tumors, including gastrointestinal stromal tumors, lung cancer, thyroid cancer, and breast cancer.

In a press conference at ECCO 15-ESMO 34, Professor John Burn, Institute of Human Genetics, Newcastle University, United Kingdom, discussed follow-up results to a trial he and his colleagues conducted that investigated the effectiveness of ordinary aspirin in preventing colon cancer.

In what is being touted as a practice-changing study, Mieke Van Hemelrijck, a cancer epidemiologist at King’s College, London, and associates found that men with locally advanced or metastatic prostate cancer who receive hormone therapy have a much greater risk of developing cardiac problems.

Although an FDA Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Committee recommended in August against approving Amgen’s denosumab (Prolia) as a treatment to reduce bone complications in patients with advanced breast cancer, updated data presented today at ECCO/ESMO might elicit a different opinion from an ODAC panel, if convened.

Jetske Ruiterkamp, surgical resident, Jeroen Bosch Hospital, of The Netherlands and colleagues presented findings from a retrospective study that compared the rate of 5-year overall survival and reduction in the risk of death in women with stage IV breast cancer who underwent resection of their tumor compared with those who did not.

In a Scientific Symposium at ECCO/ESMO, researchers from the Netherlands Cancer Institute, Department of Molecular Carcinogenesis; Academic Medical Center, Department of Pathology; and MD Anderson Cancer Center, Department of Systems Biology, discussed the PI3K pathway as a factor in poor response or resistance to HER2-inhibitors such as trastuzumab (Herceptin).

The ECCO 15 - ESMO 34 Multidisciplinary Congress opened on Sunday, September 20, 2009, at the Internationales Congress Centrum (ICC) Berlin.

The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) has added information on the H1N1 (swine flu) virus to its clinical practice guidelines on the Prevention and Treatment of Cancer-Related Infections.

Ever since the Surgeon General warned of the dangers associated with smoking nearly 50 years ago, special interest groups have pressed Congress to grant the FDA authority to regulate or ban tobacco products.

Researchers at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, PA, believe the experimental drug neratinib may offer a new treatment option for women with HER2-positive breast cancer.

In what researchers from the University Hospital in Madrid, Spain, are calling a practice-changing study, sequential treatment with chemotherapy followed by chemoradiotherapy more than doubled time-to-treatment failure in patients with unresectable locally advanced head and neck cancer.

Dr. Hussein Tawbi and colleagues decided to look for biomarkers that might predict response to alkylator-based chemotherapy used to treat metastatic melanoma. They identified eight genes that they believe may form a profile useful in distinguishing responders from nonresponders.

More than 1 million new cases of gastric cancer are diagnosed annually worldwide. The prognosis for patients with this disease is poor, and new treatments with the potential to offer even small improvements in survival can be practice-changing.

Last month the news that Roche�s drug bevacizumab (Avastin) failed to improve disease-free survival in a trial of patients with early stage colon cancer made a big media splash. Norman Wolmark, MD, Allegheny General Hospital, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, addressed the study�s full results in a press conference the day before a scheduled plenary presentation at ASCO.

A team of investigators from University of Texas M D Anderson Cancer Center sought to determine whether adult patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia might have genetic biomarkers that predict treatment response.

Although the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 was very contentious in Congress, Richard L. Schilsky, MD, professor of medicine at the University of Chicago in Illinois and president of ASCO; and John Niederhuber, MD, director of the National Cancer Institute, were in complete agreement that it was a boon to cancer research.

In the past several years, enough studies have identified negative consequences associated with hormonal therapy in postmenopausal women that what was once standard therapy is becoming ancient practice.

Although participants in clinical trials are not charged for the chemotherapy drugs to treat their cancers, they pay for the drugs used to counter treatment-related effects, such as chemotherapy-induced nausea, pain, and opioid-induced constipation.

In yet another example of the need to personalize cancer care, researchers from the Kinki University School of Medicine in Osaka, Japan, found that endothelial growth factor receptor mutations predicted treatment response in Asian patients with non-small cell lung cancer.

Even if you did not support the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, commonly known as the stimulus package, you should be aware that one of its provisions—the HITECH Act—could help or hinder your future income.