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Ovarian Cancer

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BALTIMORE--Some 60% to 80% of ovarian cancer patients recur after the first round of treatment, and "only about 15% of ovarian cancer patients who test positive at second-look laparotomy survive as long as 5 years," Karl F. Hubner, MD, of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, said at a nuclear oncology conference sponsored by the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions.

ROCKVILLE, Md--The Food and Drug Administration's Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) has voted unanimously to recommend accelerated approval of Ethyol (amifostine injection) as a cytoprotective agent against cumulative renal toxicities associated with cyclophosphamide (Cytoxan, Neosar) and cisplatin (Pla-tinol) in patients with advanced solid tumors of non-germ-cell origin.

WASHINGTON--Applying a newly developed mathematical model to an updated version of a familiar tumor marker may increase the chance of finding ovarian cancers at an earlier stage, Robert C. Knapp, MD, said at the American Cancer Society Conference on Gynecological Cancers.

LOS ANGELES--Administration of cisplatin (Platinol) by the intraperitoneal rather than intravenous route to patients with optimally debulked stage III ovarian cancer reduced toxicity and improved survival by about 25%, David S. Alberts, MD, said at the ASCO meeting.

SAN FRANCISCO--Approximately 6% of all women diagnosed with ovarian cancer have had a previous diagnosis of breast cancer, Jeffrey G. Schneider, MD, said at the annual conference of the Society of Gynecologic Oncologists.

LOS ANGELES--Using paclitaxel (Taxol) rather than cyclophosphamide in combination with cisplatin (Platinol) significantly increases both progression-free and overall survival in patients with advanced ovarian cancer, William P. McGuire, MD, said in his presentation at the plenary session of ASCO.

SAN FRANCISCO--Retinoic acid appeared to enhance the efficacy of cisplatin (Platinol) and paclitaxel (Taxol) in two of three ovarian cancer cell lines tested, James R. Bosscher, MD, said in his poster presentation at the Society of Gynecologic Oncologists meeting.

MALVERN, Penn--Centocor Diagnostics has introduced Centocor CA 125 II, a second-generation radioimmunoassay for the management of ovarian cancer. The new assay, a more sensitive version of Centocor CA 125, uses the same tracer antibody, OC125, but a new capture antibody, M11, to measure serum CA 125 levels.

NEW YORK--The earth's oceans are yielding a multitude of new sources of anticancer and anti-HIV agents, possibly with unique mechanisms of action (see illustration on page 1). In only 8 years of operation, Pharma Mar, s.a. (Madrid, Spain) has developed a library of more than 20,000 marine samples and has isolated some 350 novel marine-based compounds, including 40 that have been patented.

LISBON, Portugal--Encouraging news for women with platinum-resistant advanced ovarian cancer has emerged from a large phase II trial of docetaxel (Taxotere) conducted by the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Early Clinical Trials Group.

During the past decade, there has been an increase of over 300% in the incidence of prostate cancer and a 150% increase in the death rate from this dreaded cancer. It is estimated that more than 244,000 men will be diagnosed with this neoplasm during 1995, and at least 42,000 will die as a direct result of the disease [1]. Challenged by this dramatically rising incidence and mortality, three strategies can be implemented: (1) attempt to prevent the disease; (2) find the disease early, treat it, and cure it; and (3) discover a cure for the disease once it has escaped the bounds of the prostate.

MENLO PARK, Calif--Ansan, Inc., an operating company of Titan Pharmaceuticals, has received FDA approval to start a phase I trial of its butyric acid derivative AN-9 in patients with solid tumors. In preclinical studies, AN-9 demonstrated broad anticancer activity and may have less toxicity than standard chemotherapeutic agents, the company said.

ROCKVILLE, Md--The FDA's Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee has declined to recommend Ethyol (amifostine injection, U.S. Bioscience, Inc.) for approval at this time. The drug is being considered as a cytoprotective agent against both the acute and cumulative hematologic and renal toxicities associated with alkylating agents such as cyclophosphamide (Cytoxan, Neo-sar) and platinum agents such as cisplatin (Platinol) in patients with ovarian cancer.

The paper by Schilder et al is an outstanding review of the current status of the management of women with early-stage ovarian cancer. As the paper makes clear, despite the efforts of numerous cancer research groups around the world, an optimal treatment strategy for early-stage ovarian cancer has yet to be defined.