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WASHINGTON-The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is proposing a new set of measurements to gauge the tar and nicotine yields of cigarettes.

LOS ANGELES-The Lymphoma Research Foundation of America launched its second annual National Lymphoma Awareness Week on October 12. Actress Kelly Lynch, whose sister Robyn Lynch is a lymphoma survivor, served as honorary chair of the week, which featured a slate of events to inform the public about this cancer.

Clinical data supporting the use of leukocyte-reduced blood indicates a significant decrease in the risk of infection and cost of recovery in surgical patients, according to a panel of experts.

NEW YORK-A strong belief in the healing power of creative activity spurred Geraldine Herbert to establish a place where women with cancer could go to express themselves through the visual, performing, literary, and domestic arts-The Creative Center for Women With Cancer, located in New York City.

Researchers may be close to developing an additional weapon for treating a type of rapidly growing, fatal brain tumor that

ROCHESTER, NY-The Eastman Kodak Company has been selected to receive the 1997 R&D 100 Award for its development of the Kodak EC-L film system for oncology imaging. The award-winning system provides high-contrast images for use in monitoring radiation treatment of cancer patients.

HOUSTON-The first clinical study in the United States of green tea as an anticancer agent is underway at The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. If this trial and future studies show a benefit, the next step would be to get Americans to switch from their usual “black” tea to the Asian green variety, which has a milder flavor.

SAN FRANCISCO-Photodynamic therapy (PDT), using light tuned to specific wavelengths in order to activate a previously administered photosensitizing drug, holds significant promise as a new treatment modality for malignancies of the oral cavity and larynx, said Vanessa Schweitzer, MD, clinical professor of otolaryngology at the University of Michigan and senior staff physician at Henry Ford Health Care Systems, Detroit. [See page 64 for more on new uses of PDT.]

WASHINGTON-New cases of AIDS in the United States have fallen for the first time in the 16 years of the epidemic, dropping by 6% in 1996 from 1995 levels. The main reason for the fall, most experts believe, is the use of combination regimens including protease inhibitors that prevent HIV infection from progressing to AIDS. It is also possible that fewer individuals are becoming infected with the AIDS virus.

FREDERICK, Md-Mutations in two genes that produce chemokine receptors-CCR5 and CCR2-account for about 30% of long-term survivors of HIV infection, that is, patients whose disease has not progressed to AIDS within 10 to 20 years of infection, said Stephen J. O’ Brien, PhD, of the NCI’s Laboratory of Genomic Diversity.

WASHINGTON-The Administration’s demand that Congress strengthen areas of the proposed tobacco agreement (see article above) won praise from a number of organizations that had criticized the initial settlement as too weak. “The opportunity to enact the right tobacco policy has never been greater,” said John R. Seffrin, PhD, chief executive officer of the American Cancer Society.

SAN DIEGO-Accepting an award for her national efforts to make cancer pain management a top priority, Betty R. Ferrell, PhD, RN, used her lecture opportunity to outline 10 philosophical precepts, or “lessons,” that form the basis for the development of good cancer pain management in the institutional setting.

WASHINGTON-The FDA has proposed a new regulation that would make sure pharmaceutical companies comply with a 1993 order to include women in all phases of drug testing. An examination of some 4,000 trials done in the last three years showed that approximately one quarter still excluded women of childbearing age solely because they could become pregnant during the trial.

SAN FRANCISCO-About 4,000 human diseases have a genetic cause, and many such diseases are untreatable or poorly treated by conventional medicine, said R. Michael Blaese, MD, chief of the Clinical Gene Therapy Branch at the NIH National Center for Human Genome Research. In theory, many of these diseases could be treated by adding, deleting, or altering genes.

PASADENA, Calif-The Emmy Awards, honoring television’s best shows, may be more prestigious, but the Phlemmy Awards are gaining popularity, if not with television executives, then certainly with antismoking crusaders.

BETHESDA, Md-Tobacco companies should be tightly regulated regarding how they formulate their products to increase nicotine, contends a tobacco-control advocate.

A team of researchers has disrupted the natural progression of division and death in human cells, endowing the cells with an

The July issue of ONCOLOGY contained an article by Alan Venook, MD, entitled “Update on Hepatic Intra-

The July, 1997 issue of ONCOLOGY(11:947-970, 1997) featured a discussion by Alan Venook, “Update on Hepatic

The authors provide a comprehensive overview of the role of axillary lymphadenectomy in the treatment of early-stage breast cancer. They do not argue against lymphadenectomy for patients with clinical T2 and 3 tumors and clinical N1 and 2 nodes. However, for clinical N0 cancers and for postmenopausal patients with hormone-receptor-positive tumors, the authors propose radiotherapy to the axilla as a modality less expensive than surgery and with fewer complications. They suggest observation only for lesions associated with a less than 10% to 15% chance of axillary metastasis (T1a cancers, tubular carcinomas, ductal carcinoma in situ [DCIS] with microinvasion). However, for patients with lesionsless than 1 cm with “high-risk features (presence of tumor emboli in vessels, poor nuclear grade, etc),” axillary lymphadenectomy “should continue to serve as a refined prognostic indicator for selection of patients for adjuvant therapy.”

Many of the more commonly observed adverse effects of standard doxorubicin (Adriamycin) are lessened by pegylated liposomal delivery (Doxil). The slow release of doxorubicin into normal tissue cells via this form of liposomal delivery ameliorates its potential for severe alopecia, nausea and vomiting, cardiotoxicity, and myelosuppressive toxicity. Infusion-related acute reactions are managed by slowing infusion rates and thorough dilution and mixing of the infused drug. Vesicant properties normally seen with doxorubicin are absent. Palmar-plantar erythrodysesthesia can be reduced by decreasing the dose or increasing the dosing interval. Many of these side effects are developing a predictable profile and are manageable. Because of its overall reduced toxicity profile, pegylated liposomal doxorubicin may be well-suited for use in combination chemotherapeutic regimens. [ONCOLOGY 11(Suppl 11):54-62, 1997]

The treatments employed for Kaposi’s sarcoma in patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS-KS) have been limited in their usefulness by toxicities and underlying immunodeficiency in this patient population.

Liposome-encapsulated drug delivery is a methodology that has been evolving over the past 30 years. A number of liposome-encapsulated anthracycline products are in development and two, pegylated liposomal doxorubicin

SAN FRANCISCO-Surgery appears to offer better results than radiation as primary therapy for many laryngeal cancers. Results of a five-year study in Germany suggest that tumor excision and subsequent reconstruction offer better clinical outcomes, better preservation of voice function, and lower cost than radiation therapy.

GAITHERSBURG, Md-An FDA advisory committee voted unanimously to recommend Anesta Corporation’s Actiq (oral transmucosal fentanyl citrate) for approval for use in cancer patients with breakthrough pain.

Although the combination of uracil and tegafur (UFT) has been available commercially in Japan since 1984 and is one of the most extensively prescribed antineoplastic agents in that country, few physicians outside Japan have knowledge of and

Both cisplatin (Platinol) and fluorouracil (5-FU) have demonstrated single-agent clinical efficacy in a variety of solid neoplasms. The combination of these agents has revealed synergistic cytotoxicity in models in vitro and in vivo, which may explain the clinical effectiveness of 5-FU-cisplatin regimens. UFT (tegafur and uracil) and bis-aceto-ammine-dichloro-cyclohexyl-amine platinum (IV) (JM-216) are novel oral analogues of 5-FU and cisplatin, respectively. In preclinical models, JM-216 has demonstrated equivalent cytotoxicity to cisplatin, while phase I trials suggest its dose-limiting toxicity is myelosuppression. In contrast to cisplatin, JM-216 has not demonstrated significant neurotoxicity or nephrotoxicity. UFT has been used extensively in Japan, where phase II data suggest disease response rates similar to single-agent 5-FU in colorectal, gastric, and breast carcinomas. Combination studies of prolonged administration UFT and single-dose cisplatin have shown efficacy, but also significant hematologic toxicity. We propose a phase I study of UFT and JM-216 administered daily over 14 consecutive days with leucovorin (90 mg/d). Ease of administration and continuous drug exposure are potential advantages of this regimen. Several disease specific investigations may be warranted given demonstrated feasibility in this phase I study.[ONCOLOGY 11(Suppl 10):26-29, 1997]

This phase III study compares leucovorin plus fluorouracil (5-FU) 425 mg/m2, days 1 through 5, 28-day cycle, with oral leucovorin plus oral UFT (tegafur and uracil) 300 mg/m2, days 1 through 28, 35-day cycle, in terms of

Despite recent progress in surgery and chemotherapy, advanced gastric cancer carries a poor prognosis. Although several antitumor agents have some clinical activity, responses are usually of short duration and fail to

Thirty-nine patients with locally advanced or metastatic gastric carcinoma received oral UFT (tegafur and uracil) plus leucovorin. Treatment consisted of UFT 360 mg/m2/day plus leucovorin 25 mg/m2/day, given orally in divided