Wolfgang Knauf

LONDON— A change of therapy from chlorambucil to bendamustine was being recommended at the European Haematology Association annual meeting (June 8-12, 2011) for patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia who are not fit enough to receive the gold-standard FCR chemo-immunotherapy. In a debate with Professor Peter Hillmen from Leeds University in England Wolfgang Knauf, Professor of Haematology from Frankfurt, Germany, opposed the motion that “chlorambucil is still the chemotherapy of choice” for this patient group.

More news from the EHA congress at http://www.ecancermedicalscience.com.

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Srdan Verstovsec

LONDON—Strikingly successful treatment results were reported in patients with myelofibrosis — a disabling, disfiguring and fatal cancer, for which no therapy has been available up to now — at the European Haematology Association annual meeting held in London (June 8-12, 2011). Srdan Verstovsek from the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Texas tells ecancer radio about his group’s data from a placebo-controlled study investigating treatment with the monoclonal antibody ruxolitinib which inhibits the JAK II enzyme. Organomegaly was reversed and symptoms reduced in the COMFORT I and COMFORT II studies.

More news from the EHA congress at http://www.ecancermedicalscience.com.

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Alan Burnett

ROME—Older patients with acute myeloid leukaemia need individualised treatment, according to Professor Alan Burnett from Cardiff University who talked about the differences between treating older as compared with younger patients at the Rome conference on blood cancer in the elderly. For ecancer radio he surveys the options and gives his clinical recommendations.

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Peter Hillmen

ROME—Although combination immunochemotherapy —rather than single agent chlorambucil — is widely used among younger patients with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia as a means of improving outcome, the recommendation to use such combination therapy in older patients has not been so clear, according to Peter Hillmen, Professor of Haematology at the University of Leeds, who discussed this dursing the Rome conference on Blood Cancer in The Elderly. He talks with ecancer radio about the clinical implications of recent study findings.

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Lodovico Balducci

ROME—The idea that clinical evidence can be biased was under scrutiny — at the Rome Conference on Blood Cancer In The Elderly — by Professor Lodovico Balducci, Director of the Senior Adult Oncology Program at the Moffitt Cancer Center, University of South Florida, Tampa. He explains to ecancer radio why doctors need to look critically at clinical trial evidence before using it to influence clinical decision-making. He also talks about the need to individualise therapy for older patients with cancer by combining the efforts of different specialists, including care-givers.

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Joerg Hasford

Un-spoken discrimination against older patients with blood cancer may be happening in hospitals because of “quiet rationing” of the expensive drugs such as tyrosine kinase inhibitors, according to Professor Joerg Hasford from the Department of Epidemiology at the Ludwig-Maximillians University of Munich. He talked with ecancer radio about the evidence he has accumulated from a study — originally designed to look into discrimination against female patients — which he presented to the conference on blood cancer in the elderly held in Rome.

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Roger Lo and Sridhar Ramaswamy

ORLANDO—Awards of $750 000 each were announced at the AACR annual conference in Orlando of Innovative Research Grants, given by the organisation: Stand Up To Cancer to allow some of the best and brightest young researchers to step out of their comfort zones and attempt to make major breakthroughs with bold research projects. Two of the grant winners — Sridhar Ramaswamy from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and Roger Lo from UCLA in Los Angeles — talk with eCancer radio about their work and the importance of the awards.

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Ervin Epstein

ORLANDO—A rare inherited form of skin cancer — basal cell nevus syndrome — has been controlled by an inhibitor of the “hedgehog” molecular pathway in a study reported to the American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting held in Orlando. Ervin Epstein, Senior Scientist at the Children’s Hospital of the Oakland Research Institute in California, presented the first drug study in man to harness the anti-hedgehog pathway for treating cancer. He talks with ecancer radio about the importance of his group’s findings.

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Johanna Bendell

ORLANDO—Evidence that cancer could be controlled more effectively by blocking two molecular pathways simultaneously was reported at the American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting in Orlando, Florida. Johanna Bendell from the Sarah Cannon Research Institute in Nashville, Tennessee discusses her group’s findings in research using inhibitors of both the P13K-AKT-mTOR and RAS-RAF-MEK pathways in a group of patients with a range of different advanced solid tumours.

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Luzia Travado

ROME—The use of comprehensive psychological assessment of elderly patients with haematological malignancies to look at cognitive and psychological functioning — along with physical factors — was being urged at the European Expert Forum on Blood Cancer in the Elderly held in Rome. Luzia Travado from Portugal talked with ecancer radio about the psychological techniques she uses, which can improve outcomes.

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