October 2007

A collection of cancer statistics and facts

Treatment advances focus on the potential use of Bortezomib and Lenalidomide in the front-line setting to improve patients' response rates.

News reports from the American Head and Neck Society's annual meeting, held in San Diego, CA include the following: 1) New Role for Immune Activation of Antibody Therapy May Fine-Tune Approach to Head and Neck Cancer Treatment 2) Robots and Lasers Change the Face of Head and Neck Cancer Surgery 3) Advances in Head and Neck Cancer Treatment Compel Clinical Trials and Success Measures to Keep Up 4) Clear Connection Between Diagnosis of Advanced Head and Neck Cancer and Insurance Coverage, ACS Study Reports

Topics covered in this issue include: 1) Bad News for Health Plans: MRIs Gain in Breast Cancer Detection 2) Do Terminally Ill Patients Have a Right to Receive Unproven Drugs? 3) Benefits of HPV Vaccine Still Unclear, but Time Will Tell 4) Updated Kidney Cancer Guidelines Focus on Medication Revisions 5) Simultaneous, not Sequential, Abl Kinase Inhibitors for Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia 6) The Cost Effectiveness of Proton Beam Radiation Use in Prostate Cancer 7) Can We Stem the Waste of Unused Trastuzumab?

The Clinical Trials reported in this issue include: PHASE III: 1) Is Combination or Sequential Treatment for Metastatic Colorectal Cancer More Effective? 2) Cervical Cancer Vaccines Do Not Work Like Investigational Cancer Vaccines, Study Confirms 3) Docetaxel to Improve Clinical and Quality of Life Improvement in the Treatment of Advanced Gastric or Gastroesophageal Cancer PHASE II: 1) Two-Drug Combination Fights Metastatic Kidney Cancer 2) Intensify the Dose to Treat Metastatic Testicular Cancer 3) Vaccination Plus Chemotherapy for Advanced Colorectal Cancer Offers Hope 4) Testing Sequential Therapy in Patients With Poor-Risk Acute Myelogenous Leukemia

Physicians' Financial News focuses on newsworthy and/or notable companies in the oncology/biotech sector. In this issue: 1) Genentech: Continues to Grow Oncology Portfolio 2) ImClone: Erbitux News Initially Raise ImClone Shares 3) AstraZeneca: Prostate Drug Enters Phase II 4) Kiadis Pharma: One Blood Cancer Treatment Clears Phase II Hurdles, Another May Hit Market By 2009 5) Big Pharma Stocks Show Signs of Life

Articles in this issue include: 1) Italy: Coffee as a Prophylaxis Against Liver Cancer 2) China: Will a Daily Vitamin Prevent Liver Cancer as Well? 3) India: A Cost-Effective Method of Screening for Cervical Cancer in Developing Countries 4) Multiple Sites in Europe: More Fiber From Cereal, Not Fruits or Vegetables,Proves to Protect from Gastric Cancer 5) Turkey: Tamoxifen Extends Life in Patients With Advanced Ovarian Cancer in Retrospective Pilot Trial 6) Canada: Obesity Predicts Prostate Cancer Recurrence 7) Australia & New Zealand: Does Medical Immunosuppression Increase the Risk of Ocular Cancer?

The first annual 2007 Cancer Symposium, held September 7-8 in San Francisco, provided an opportunity for members of the oncology community to discuss major developments in breast cancer treatment and research.

An oral therapy currently utilized in the treatment of advanced kidney cancer may be on the threshold of obtaining a major new indication.

In 2007, more than 240,000 persons will receive a diagnosis of breast cancer and nearly 41,000 will die from the disease. Although survival rates have shown significant improvement over the past several decades, breast cancer continues to be the second most common cause of cancer death in women.

Lung cancer is the second most common cancer and the most common cause of cancer-related death in both men and women in the US. At the 12th World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC), the world's top lung cancer specialists convened to present and discuss the latest research in this disease. Key themes included accurate targets, new combinations of drugs to reduce toxicity, and strategies to improve outcomes.

Oncology & Biotech News provides updates from major oncology meetings because symposia remain an important means for disseminating new data. this issue, we highlight two important meetings: 2007 Breast Cancer Symposium (in San Francisco) and the World Conference on Lung Cancer (in Korea).