All News

Progress in the treatment of indolent non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma has been slow and the disease remains incurable despite the relatively long median survival of patients. Decades of clinical trials resulted in standard

Intermediate-grade lymphomas are defined by the Working Formulation to include four histologic subgroups: follicular large-cell, diffuse small-cleaved-cell, diffuse mixed small- and large-cell, and diffuse large cell (Groups

High-grade non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas generally refer to immunoblastic lymphoma, lymphoblastic lymphoma, and small-noncleaved-cell lymphoma, three histological subtypes that were associated with the worst prognosis at the

The non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas are a biologically heterogeneous group of diseases with varying clinical presentations and outcomes. A number of studies have identified variables that carried independent prognostic significance. Although several staging systems had evolved that incorporated these prognostic variables, they were still unable to predict outcome. Ideally, the object of a staging system is to predict the likelihood of treatment response, time to progression or disease-free survival, and overall survival, and to provide a way to compare the outcome of similar groups of patients among various clinical trials. The need for such a system led to the creation of prognostic models such as the M. D. Anderson Tumor Score and, more recently, the International Prognostic Index. These prognostic models may identify those patients at highest risk for treatment failure, thereby identifying those patients who may require different therapeutic approaches. [ONCOLOGY 12(Suppl 8):17-24, 1998]

BETHESDA, Md--Nutrition scientists have a responsibility to translate their research into a message that "heads straight out the lab door and onto the breakfast table," said Jerianne Heimen-dinger, ScD, a research scientist at the AMC Cancer Research Center, Denver, Colorado.

In 1992, the FDA decided that silicone gel-filled breast implants would be available only through controlled clinical studies, despite the fact that they had been used for mammoplasty in millions of women around the world

WASHINGTON--The National Cancer Institute is getting more comfortable with the idea of seriously evaluating complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) approaches to treating cancer.

BETHESDA, Md--The National Cancer Institute (NCI) is seeking technology systems to revolutionize cancer detection, diagnosis, and treatment. Under a new $48 million, 5-year program dubbed the Unconventional Innovations Program, NCI is looking for new technologies "that will enable sensing of molecular alterations in the body in a way that is highly sensitive and specific, yet nonintrusive."

Scientists at the University of Pittsburgh have discovered how a novel form of vitamin K exerts its cancer-killing effects in primary liver cancers, which are notoriously resistant to chemotherapy. The research results, published in the May issue of the

BETHESDA, Md--The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) will collaborate with VaxGen, Inc. (South San Francisco), in research projects to expand the scientific range of the phase III trial of VaxGen’s AIDSVAX vaccine. The Institute will also provide the company with expertise in certain areas of immunology.

SAN FRANCISCO--Recent research assessing the skills of today’s clinicians in interpreting genetic tests for colon cancer (FAP and HNPCC) finds they fall woefully short, Francis M. Giardiello, MD, associate professor of medicine and gastroenterology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, said at the American Cancer Society Second National Conference on Cancer Genetics.

SAN DIEGO--For community physicians who have an interest in clinical research, "the line between community and academic centers isn’t so far apart anymore," said Andrew Pecora, MD, chairman of the medical board of the newly created Affiliated Physicians Network (APN), Fort Lee, NJ, which helps practitioners participate in clinical trials.

BETHESDA, Md--Three months after refusing to give its blessing to Valstar (valrubicin), the Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) reheard Anthra Pharmaceuticals’ new drug application and recommended that the FDA approve the new anthracycline for use in a limited population of patients with carcinoma in situ (CIS) of the urinary bladder.

HOUSTON--A new faculty center will allow M.D. Anderson Cancer Center to consolidate faculty offices currently located in several buildings on its main campus. The new facility, approved by the University of Texas System Board of Regents last August, will be constructed on the south side of Holcombe Boulevard, adjacent to the Jesse H. Jones Rotary House International patient/family hotel and directly across the street from M.D. Anderson’s main clinic and hospital complex (figure).

COLUMBUS, Ohio--Cancer pain patients on opioid therapy who request more medication, or more frequent dosing, are almost always responding to an increase in pain, said Steven Passik, PhD, director, Oncology Symptom Control and Research, Community Cancer Care, Indianapolis.

An extra margin of safety is now available to the approximately 400,000 people in the US who receive transfusions of blood plasma annually. PLAS+SD (Pooled Plasma, Solvent/Detergent Treated) is an FDA-approved product that virtually eliminates

ORLANDO--An ongoing debate within the health care industry is focusing on whether bone marrow and peripheral blood stem cell transplants (BMT/PBSCT) should be regionalized in academic centers or diffused to community hospitals.

SAN DIEGO--With the incidence of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) increasing throughout the United States, researchers have been searching for better ways to decrease the mortality rate of this cancer, which claims approximately 23,800 Americans each year.

Advances in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology will be held November 19 through 21, 1998, at the Hilton Clearwater Beach Resort, Florida (formerly the DoubleTree). Topics presented by nationally renowned speakers include:

WASHINGTON--The US Department of Justice is reviewing a complaint by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids that the big tobacco companies may have violated election laws by promising to run TV ads that would give senators "political cover" on the tobacco issue if they voted against the McCain tobacco control bill, which was defeated last June.

SAN FRANCISCO--Susan Leigh, RN, a cancer survivor and oncology nurse, is telling a familiar story, but one that arouses her anger. Recently, a young woman with breast cancer went to the local library to research her disease. She was shocked to read in a medical text that her particular type of breast cancer had little hope of cure and was likely to be fatal in a few months.

BETHESDA, Md--Herceptin (trastuzumab, Genentech) has become the first monoclonal antibody to win support from the Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) for use in treating breast cancer. The group voted unanimously to recommend that the FDA approve Herceptin for treatment of women with metastatic breast cancers that overexpress the HER2/neu gene, both as a single agent after first-line chemotherapy has failed and in combination with paclitaxel (Taxol) as first-line treatment.

ROCKVILLE, Md--A Chicago mammography facility, known as CMI, has agreed to pay a $30,000 fine and to cease operating in the mammography field for 5 years. The FDA had accused it of performing mammography exams without

HOUSTON--With its 1998 Holiday Collection, the Children’s Art Project rings in its silver anniversary--25 years of cards and gifts designed by pediatric patients at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. New this year is a children’s book, Bunnies in my Head, by Tricia Tusa with art from the children of M.D. Anderson.

GENEVA--Protease inhibitors are central to most current regimens for suppressing human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) but also may cause major side effects. These increasingly serious problems may be related to effects on two cellular receptors involved in lipid metabolism, according to work presented at the 12th World Conference on AIDS. The most serious problems are a lipodystro-phy syndrome, hyperlipidemia, and increased insulin resistance, which may lead to diabetes mellitus.

The continuum of smoking behavior among children and adolescents can be described in stages of preparation, trying, experimentation, regular smoking, and nicotine dependence or addiction. Persons who have smoked can discontinue at any

BETHESDA, Md--The Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) has unanimously recommended that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) grant full approval to Camptosar (irinotecan hydrochloride injection, Pharmacia & Upjohn) for the treatment of metastatic colon or rectal cancer that recurs or progresses after fluorouracil (5-FU) therapy.

Health-care organizations should make available to their workers a system that includes written protocols for prompt reporting, evaluation, counseling, treatment, and follow-up of occupational exposures that may place health-care workers at

Doctors at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute are exploring a new experimental therapy in which they transfer the tumor-suppressing gene TP53 (alias p53) into patients to reverse tumor progression. University of Pittsburgh clinical

In 1992, the FDA decided that silicone gel-filled breast implants would be available only through controlled clinical studies, despite the fact that they had been used for mammoplasty in millions of women around the world