ASCO Picks Top Clinical Cancer Research Advances for 2009 & Gives Recommendations for Accelerating Progress : Oncology Times

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ASCO Picks Top Clinical Cancer Research Advances for 2009 & Gives Recommendations for Accelerating Progress

Oncology Times 31(22):p 12, November 25, 2009. | DOI: 10.1097/01.COT.0000365291.64063.83
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The American Society of Clinical Oncology has released its annual Clinical Cancer Advances Major Research Advances in Cancer Treatment, Prevention and Screening report, an independent assessment of the clinical cancer research studies considered to be most significant for the past year, including 15 major advances.

The report also makes policy recommendations for increasing investment in cancer research funding, accelerating progress in clinical cancer research, and ensuring that Americans with cancer receive high-quality care.

The 2008 edition of the report received a PR News award, a news release notes.

“These continuing research advances should encourage people with cancer and those who care for them,” ASCO President Douglas W. Blayney, MD, said in a statement. “As this report demonstrates, investment in clinical cancer research is paying off.”

This year, ASCO identified 15 major cancer research advances in the following four key areas. (The advances in the report are not ranked.)

  • Advances in Personalized Medicine and Targeted Therapies.
  • The targeted drug trastuzumab, which has been successful against breast tumors that overexpress the HER2 protein, was found to also extend survival for patients with HER2+ gastric cancer.
  • Researchers identified the first effective immunotherapy for neuroblastomas—chimeric anti-GD2 antibody ch.14.18.
  • For the first time in 30 years, a randomized trial identified a regimen—initial chemotherapy combined with the EGFR-targeted drug cetuximab—that increases survival for people with metastatic head and neck cancer.
  • Researchers identified a specific subset of patients with non-small cell lung cancer who benefit from first-line treatment with the targeted drug gefitinib.
  • The FDA-approved new indications for targeted drugs to treat glioblastoma and advanced kidney cancer: Bevacizumab approved as a single agent for treatment of glioblastoma and when combined with interferon, for treatment of advanced kidney cancer. Additionally, everolimus was approved for kidney cancer in patients whose disease has progressed despite treatment with other targeted drugs.

The new standards of care identified from the results from several long-awaited clinical trials this year affirmed the superiority of certain treatment regimens for biliary, lung, and prostate cancers, including:

  • The first-ever standard of care for advanced biliary cancer—results from the largest clinical trial to date for this disease stage showed that combination gemcitabine and cisplatin increases survival and slows cancer progression, compared with the use of gemcitabine treatment alone.
  • FU1-3
  • Data from a late-stage trial reporting that maintenance therapy with pemetrexed extends survival for patients with non-squamous forms of advanced NSCLC—a finding that establishes a new standard and gives patients a long-term, easily administered treatment option with low toxicity.
  • Practice-changing findings showing that radiation following prostatectomy increases survival and reduces the risk of metastasis for men with early-stage prostate cancer.
  • The report also notes that this year, findings from large trials shed new light on widely used cancer detection, monitoring, and prevention tools. Major cancer prevention and screening research advances were:
  • Interim results from two large trials showing that routine PSA testing has a minimal effect on reducing prostate cancer mortality—findings that add new insight to a long-time debate.
  • A large trial showing that treating relapsed ovarian cancer based on rising levels of CA125 does not improve outcomes, compared with monitoring for physical symptoms of ovarian cancer relapse, findings that will help spare women from the anxiety and costs of frequent CA125 testing, as well as the toxicity of earlier treatment.
  • Research suggesting that more women may benefit from HPV vaccination than previously thought, based on findings showing that Gardasil reduces the risk of HPV infection, cervical cancer, and other HPV-related disease in women aged 25 to 45.
  • Also noted in the report were the results of two closely watched studies that settled major debates in the treatment of colon and breast cancers:
  • In the first trial to examine bevacizumab in the adjuvant setting, researchers demonstrated that adjuvant bevacizumab treatment does not prevent colon cancer recurrence in patients who have undergone surgery for their disease.
  • And standard three-drug chemotherapy was found to be more effective and less toxic than single-drug treatment with capecitabine in women age 65 and older undergoing adjuvant treatment for early-stage breast cancer. Researchers had thought that single-drug treatment may be more tolerable for older women, but this was not found to be the case.
  • ASCO also makes three key recommendations in the report for accelerating progress in clinical cancer research and ensuring that people with cancer have access to high-quality care.
  • “To achieve new breakthroughs, the scale of our nation's response must match the scale of the problem,” Dr. Blayney said. “The cancer community has a long road ahead before we reach President Obama's goal of finding ‘a cure for cancer in our time.’ Long-term federal investment in our nation's clinical research infrastructure and health care reform that ensures that all Americans have access to high-quality care are important first steps.”
  • ASCO's recommendations include:
  • Increase the federal investment in cancer research funding.
  • Strengthen the nation's clinical research system: ASCO urges policymakers to support the nation's clinical research system by requiring insurance providers to cover clinical trials participation, increasing funding to cover the cost of patient participation, and reducing regulatory burdens to conducting clinical trials.
  • Ensure that patients receive high-quality care: ASCO calls on health care systems and providers to implement quality programs that ensure all patients receive high-quality care, and calls on policymakers to support legislation that fairly covers the cost of providing high-quality, comprehensive cancer care to patients.
  • The report was developed under the guidance of an 18-person editorial board of leading oncologists, including specialty editors for each of the disease- and issue-specific sections. Editors reviewed studies in peer-reviewed scientific journals and the results of research presented at major scientific meetings from October 2008 through September 2009.
  • Only studies that significantly altered the way a cancer is understood or had an important impact on patient care were selected for the report, ASCO notes. The report is posted on Cancer.Net and is published online ahead of print in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
© 2009 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Inc.
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