Hodgkin’s Disease: 10-Year Results Show Further Benefit From Escalated BEACOPP Therapy

Less Radiation Is Significantly Better for Patients With Favorable Hodgkin’s Disease

More Support for Bevacizumab in Advanced Lung Cancer

Reduced Chemotherapy: Same Benefit in Pediatric Intermediate Risk Neuroblastoma

Oral Agent Benefits Patients with Advanced Gastric Cancer

MRI Better Than Mammography for Detecting High-Grade Ductal Carcinoma In Situ?

No Increase in Time of Cardiac Toxicity From Trastuzumab

MOSAIC Study Six Year Results: Adjuvant Oxaliplatin Adds Survival Advantage for Patients with Stage III Colorectal Cancer

Sorafenib for Patients with Advanced Refractory Renal Cell Carcinoma: TARGET Study Results

Axitinib: New Therapy for Thyroid Cancer?

Sorafenib The ‘New Standard’ for Advanced Liver Cancer

First Line Cetuximab Added to FOLFIRI Prolongs Progression Free Survival in Patients with Metastatic Colorectal Cancer

Chemotherapy with Surgery Provides Benefit for Patients with Colorectal Cancer Liver Metastases

Low Dose Dexamethasone with Lenalidomide Gives Benefit to Patients with Multiple Myeloma

Maintenance Rituximab Improves Outcomes After CHOP in Large B-Cell Lymphoma

Bevacizumab in Advanced Kidney Cancer: Another Treatment Gives Benefit in First Line

Benefit from Radium-223 in Hormone Refractory Prostate Cancer?

Cetuximab Up-Front Significantly Increases Survival in Head and Neck Cancer

Can Flaxseed Slow Prostate Cancer Growth?

Prophylactic Cranial Irradiation: Fewer Brain Metastases, Longer Survival for Patients with Small Cell Lung Cancer

Arsenic Trioxide Improves Survival for Patients with Newly Diagnosed Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia

Dasatinib Activity in First Line Treatment For Patients with Chronic Myeloid Leukemia

Elias Jabbour

REFERENCE: ABSTRACT 7039, ASCO Annual Meeting Chicago June 1-5, 2007
ELIAS JABBOUR, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston
Patients with chronic myeloid leukemia who are intolerant to imatinib because of adverse events were mostly found to tolerate an alternative tyrosine kinase inhibitor, nilotinib. This was in a study from Texas looking at the use of nilotinib in patients who had failed first-line imatinib therapy either because of resistance or intolerance. ASCO 2007 Merit Award-winner Elias Jabbour told Peter Goodwin about the latest findings.

Peter Wiernik

REFERENCE: ABSTRACT 8052, ASCO Annual Meeting Chicago June 1-5, 2007
PETER WIERNIK, New York Medical College
Patients with aggressive relapsed, refractory non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma have responded to monotherapy with lenalidomide. That’s the finding of a small study reported to the ASCO meeting in Chicago. Peter Wiernik gave the details to Peter Goodwin at a poster session of the conference.

Lawrence Wickerham

REFERENCE: ABSTRACT Special Session; American Association for Cancer Research Centennial Meeting, April 14-18, Los Angeles
LAWRENCE WICKERHAM, National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project, Pittsburgh
The best options for preventing invasive breast cancer among women at high risk were assessed at the AACR meeting. Lawrence Wickerham talked about the latest results from chemoprevention trials, which point to a need to rethink the way tamoxifen, raloxifene, and the aromatase inhibitors should be used. In Los Angeles he discussed his conclusions and recommendations with Karen Regester.

Stanley Gall

REFERENCE: ABSTRACT 4900, American Association for Cancer Research Centennial Meeting, April 14-18, Los Angeles
STANLEY GALL, University of Louisville, Kentucky
Latest data on the bivalent human papillomavirus vaccine for cervical cancer, showing continuing protection, were presented at the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting in Los Angeles. With five and a half years of follow up, Stanley Gall discussed with Karen Regester the success of the vaccine.

Andrew Lepisto

Theresa Whiteside

REFERENCE: ABSTRACT 4896; American Association for Cancer Research Centennial Meeting, April 14-18, Los Angeles
ANDREW LEPISTO, University of Pittsburgh
THERESA WHITESIDE, University of Pittsburgh
An autologous vaccine for pancreatic cancer offers the hope of improving survival, and perhaps even cure, among patients who have resectable tumors. Peter Goodwin talked about the latest findings with Andrew Lepisto, and he asked Theresa Whiteside to give her assessment of the new data.

Alberto Sobrero

REFERENCE: ABSTRACT LB-2; AACR 2007, Los Angeles, Plenary Session
ALBERTO SOBRERO, Ospedale San Martino, Genoa
Cetuximab could become a mainstay of treatment for colorectal cancer along with fluorouracil, oxaliplatin, irinotecan, and bevacizumab, according to findings from the EPIC study presented at the AACR meeting in Los Angeles. 1,300 patients who had failed previous therapy with oxaliplatin were randomly assigned to receive irinotecan with or without cetuximab. The results point to a benefit of adding the molecular therapy, even though the effect was diluted because the protocol permitted crossover. Alberto Sobrero presented the data in Los Angeles, where he talked about it with Peter Goodwin.

Derek Jonker

REFERENCE: ABSTRACT LB-1, AACR 2007, Los Angeles: Plenary Session
DEREK JONKER, University of Ottawa
The molecularly targeted drug cetuximab has now proved capable of extending life when used as monotherapy among patients with refractory colorectal cancer. The CO17 phase III randomized trial of cetuximab versus best supportive care shows improvements in overall survival, progression-free survival, response rate, safety, and quality of life in a study with almost 600 patients who had metastatic colorectal cancer that had progressed despite all previous therapies. Derek Jonker told Karen Regester about their results with cetuximab monotherapy, which followed earlier promising work using the agent in combination with cytotoxic therapy.

Richard Goldberg

REFERENCE: ABSTRACT LB-1 and LB-2; AACR 2007, Los Angeles Plenary Session, Monday 16th April, 2006
RICHARD GOLDBERG, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Following the presentations from David Jonker and Alberto Sobrero at the AACR conference in Los Angeles, Richard Goldberg assessed the role of cetuximab in the treatment of metastatic, refractory colorectal cancer. He discussed the latest findings and his conclusions about their clinical implications with Peter Goodwin.

Fritz Schröder

REFERENCE: AACR 2007, Los Angeles
FRITZ SCHRÖDER, Erasmus University, Rotterdam
Though elective screening appears to have reduced the number of patients who die from prostate cancer in the United States, this has yet to be proven. A large European study is currently seeking to settle the matter, and one of the investigators, Fritz Schröder took part in a debate at the AACR entitled: Opportunistic Screening for Prostate Cancer: The Up and Down Sides of PSA Testing. Peter Goodwin talked with him about the dilemmas involved with prostate screening.

Peter Scardino

REFERENCE: AACR 2007, Los Angeles
PETER SCARDINO, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York
The benefits of prostate cancer screening programs were questioned in a debate at the AACR conference in Los Angeles. Because the link between early detection and mortality is not simple, treatment risks could mean there is still an argument for watchful waiting in many patients. Peter Goodwin talked with Peter Scardino about the problems clinicians are facing in the age of the PSA test.