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ONCOLOGY Vol 23 No 9

We have presented the first case of a patient with metastatic ATGCT with peritoneal carcinomatosis, who responded to treatment with a VEGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor. Because of the relative paucity of such cases in the literature, no clear treatment strategy exists. For patients with metastatic ATGCT, enrollment in clinical trials testing novel therapies, including angiogenesis inhibitors, is a reasonable option.

Promoters of metabolic therapies claim that special diets, detoxification, and immune stimulation can treat and prevent a variety of diseases including arthritis, multiple sclerosis, and cancer.

Genentech announced that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved bevacizumab (Avastin) plus interferon- alfa for people with metastatic renal cell carcinoma, the most common type of kidney cancer.

A phase I clinical trial enrolled its first patient only 2 days after FDA clearance of the experimental drug for a first-in-human cancer trial, a milestone that normally takes 3 to 6 months. Investigators from The University of Texas M.D.

AstraZeneca announced the company has submitted a New Drug Application to the FDA for an investigational drug, vandetanib ( Zactima) 100 mg, for use in combination with chemotherapy for the treatment of advanced non–small-cell lung cancer in patients previously treated with one prior anticancer therapy.

Lawrentschuk and Fleshner accurately depict the difficulty in choosing among observation, prophylactic radiation, and adjuvant chemotherapy for clinical stage I testicular seminoma. The physican has competing priorities of avoiding unnecessary treatment while minimizing the overall burden of both therapy and surveillance testing. The patient has to contend with defined risks that exist with any of the three options.

Drs. Lawrentschuk and Fleshner have written an excellent review on therapeutic options following orchiectomy for stage I seminoma. Their practical review discusses the roles of active surveillance, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy with one cycle of carboplatin (area under the concentration-time curve [AUC] 7) in this setting and provides important perspectives on the management controversies for practicing oncologists.