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BETHESDA, Md-The number of cancer deaths in the United States remained flat for the first time between 1996 and 1997, at about 540,000 (Figure 1). And the decreases in the mortality rates of many cancers seen in the first half of the 1990s seem to have accelerated, a preliminary review of cancer data for 1997 reveals.

WASHINGTON-President Clinton’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2001 includes $3.505 billion for the National Cancer Institute (NCI), a 5.8% increase over the current fiscal year. The President also asked Congress to appropriate $18.813 billion for the National Institutes of Health, a 5.6% increase over its present budget.

Many oncologists are barraged with questions and declarations from patients regarding therapies and products that

CHICAGO-The Institute of Medicine (IOM) report to the Congress about research that relates to minority and medically underserved populations lauded many of the efforts the National Cancer Institute (NCI) has undertaken to conduct research and sponsor training programs involving ethnic minorities and the medically underserved, while making recommendations for improvement.

Deeply troubled by the profound and universal impact of cancer on human life, human suffering, and on the productivity of nations;

In a study of previously untreated patients with lowgrade or follicular non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL), all patients responded to the combination of tositumomab and iodine I 131 tositumomab (Bexxar) and fludarabine (Fludara). When compared to

CHICAGO-Last year’s Institute of Medicine (IOM) report to the US Congress about research that relates to minority and medically underserved populations was bound to generate controversy because part of its purpose was to look at the amount of resources spent on studying these groups.

BETHESDA, Md-Pharmacia & Upjohn’s Camptosar (irinotecan hydrochloride injection) found smooth sailing through the often roiling waters of the FDA’s Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC).

WASHINGTON-The Food and Drug Administration’s effort to prod pharmaceutical companies into earlier testing of anticancer agents in children and teens (see FDA Tries to ‘Jump Start’ Pediatric Cancer Drug Trials) has drawn rave reviews from the pediatric oncology community.

BETHESDA, Md-In an unusual decision, the FDA’s Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) first voted against recommending accelerated approval for Mylotarg (gemtuzumab ozogamicin, Wyeth-Ayerst) for the treatment of patients with CD33-positive acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in relapse. Then, after a sometimes intense discussion, ODAC members urged the FDA to grant accelerated approval for the drug’s use in a limited subgroup of patients, particularly those older than age 60.

NEW YORK-Cancer patients have employment rights under the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) and other legislation, “and they will need them,” L. Susan Scelzo Slavin, Esq, a nationally known advocate and litigator on behalf of the catastrophically ill, said at a workshop sponsored by Cancer Care, Inc.

Researchers at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) have reported an antitumor effect in a small group of patients with lymphoma who were vaccinated with an experimental B-cell lymphoma vaccine over a 5-year period. These promising

NEW YORK- Three researchers at the Chemotherapy Foundation Symposium XVII reported efforts to improve survival in the brain cancers glioblastoma multiforme and astrocytoma with new chemotherapeutic combinations.

BETHESDA, Md-The National Cancer Advisory Board (NCAB) has objected in a letter to several proposed provisions in a new rule mandated by Congress and drafted by the Department of Health and Human Services (HSS). The regulation would set privacy standards governing the release of health information that might reveal the identity of individual patients, and it could significantly affect oncologists whose patients enter clinical trials.

NEW ORLEANS-Primarily used for preprocedural analgesia and sedation in children, oral transmucosal fentanyl citrate (Actiq) also works well for adult cancer patients undergoing diagnostic bone marrow aspiration and biopsy, Cheryl Ann Arena, MPH, PA–C, said at her poster presentation at the American Society of Hematology annual meeting.

The Charter of Paris Against Cancer was signed by more than 100 international leaders in government, patient advocacy, cancer

BETHESDA, Md-The Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) declined to vote on whether to recommend that the Food and Drug Administration approve Eloxatin (oxaliplatin, Sanofi Pharmaceuticals) for the first-line treatment of patients with advanced colorectal cancer in combination with fluorouracil (5-FU)-based chemotherapy.

NEW ORLEANS-Toxicity related to rituximab (Rituxan) is greatly reduced in patients with indolent lymphomas when the antibody is given after two cycles of mitoxantrone/cyclophosphamide chemotherapy, Christos Emmanouilides, MD, reported in a poster presentation at the 41st annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH).

BETHESDA, Md-At the request of the Food and Drug Administration, a special subcommittee of the Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) has begun assessing issues related to the use of quality-of-life (QOL) endpoints in the approval process for new oncology drugs.

WASHINGTON-The National Cancer Policy Board (NCPB) has a message for states still deciding whether to devote some or all of their tobacco settlement funds to lowering tobacco use: Aggressive, focused control efforts work and save lives. “As states contemplate increasing their tobacco control efforts, many have asked if such programs can make a difference. The evidence is clear: They can,” a new NCPB report says.

ROCKVILLE, Md-A new initiative by the Food and Drug Administration seeks to move more oncology drugs into pediatric testing and onto the market. In a letter sent to drug companies and researchers, and made public, the FDA said that such an effort “merits special consideration” and notes that the “known and potential differences in the biology of pediatric and adult tumors usually will not permit the extrapolation of clinical activity from adults to children.”

Sedation is a clinically important therapeutic intervention in the imminently dying patient. As the patient with an advanced, irreversible illness nears the end of life, symptoms accumulate that are progressively more difficult to

Over the past decade, increased attention has focused on the care of dying patients. The role of the physician in caring for these patients has been the subject of renewed interest and intense, sometimes passionate, debate. Patient groups have formed to advocate for the promotion of compassion in the care of the dying, and some of these advocacy groups have asserted a fundamental “right” to physician-assisted suicide. The US Supreme Court has ruled against a constitutional right to physician-assisted suicide but has asserted its willingness to reconsider the issue if it learned that dying patients were not receiving appropriate, high-quality end-of-life care.[1]

Local tumor recurrence after radiation therapy is due primarily to the failure to eradicate all of the tumor cells within the treatment fields. Theoretically, all cancers could be controlled locally if a sufficiently high radiation dose

An innovative approach to treating glioblastoma multiforme-the use of a bacterial toxin attached to interleukin-13 (IL-13)-has been tested in animals, and a phase I study

In 1998, a retrospective cost-minimization analysis from the perspective of a British hospital was performed comparing the use of cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, Oncovin, and prednisolone (CHOP), fludarabine (FLU [Fludara]), and rituximab

Among patients with low-grade non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL), combining CHOP (cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone) chemotherapy with rituximab (Rituxan) adds therapeutic benefit

This phase II trial investigated the safety and efficacy of retreatment with rituximab (Rituxan) in patients with low-grade or follicular non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma who relapsed following a response to rituximab therapy.

Ibritumomab tiuxetan (IDEC-Y2B8 [Zevalin]) is an anti-CD20 murine immunoglobulin G1 (IgG1) kappa monoclonal antibody conjugated to tiuxetan (MXDTPA), which can securely chelate either indium-111 (111In) for imaging/dosimetry or yttrium-90 (90Y) for therapy.

When Janet Woodcock, MD, a top FDA official, appeared before a Senate committee in early February, she tried to put the issue of medical errors in perspective by referring to a patient who dies after chemotherapy. She rhetorically asked whether