All News

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla--Unlike the piecemeal development of clinical practice guidelines in the United States--by individual institutions, networks, or managed care plans--in Canada, guidelines development is a provincial effort, with the resulting product applying to all oncologists in the province, Mark Levine, MD, said at the first annual conference of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN).

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla--Interest in neurotoxins derived from marine cone snails has led to development of a calcium-channel blocking agent that could potentially be used as an alternative to opioid analgesics for patients with cancer pain. Early clinical studies with the agent (SNX-111, being developed by Neurex Corporation, Menlo Park, Calif) have found it to be more potent than morphine and free of opioid side effects, Richard W. Tsien, DPhil, said at a conference on gene technology organized by the University Biochemistry & Molecular Biology Foundation, Inc. and Bio/Technology Magazine.

HOUSTON--The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center will hold its second medical oncology conference in Spanish on May 22-24, 1996. The educational conference will bring together physicians from Spain and Latin American with the M.D. Anderson faculty, said Richard Pazdur, MD, associate professor of medicine and co-director of the conference along with Alejandro Preti, MD, assistant professor of medicine.

The use of antibodies as immunodelivery systems is still in its infancy, Sydney Welt, MD, said at a symposium on Monoclonal Antibodies and Cancer Therapy, sponsored by the Cancer Research Institute.

Efforts to improve the rate of remission and reduce the risk of relapse in patients with advanced hematologic malignancies are focusing on interleukin-2 (IL-2, aldesleukin, Proleukin), said Alexander Fefer, MD, of the University of Washington Medical School and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle.

SEATTLE--All of the government manipulations of the US health-care system will have little impact on the more potent forces--demographic, social, scientific, cultural, moral, and legal--that shape the American way of health and fuel its cost, says former Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare Joseph A. Califano, Jr.

FORT LAUDERDALE--Attendees at the first annual conference of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) were enthusiastic about the presentation of the Network's preliminary guidelines for eight different cancers, calling the meeting "excellent," "informative," and "the first comprehensive effort at devising guidelines we can all live by."

FORT LAUDERDALE--Evaluations of new treatments using traditional endpoints such as response or survival may not be appropriate in advanced solid tumors that are highly symptomatic but essentially incurable, Howard A. Burris III, MD, said at the National Comprehensive Cancer Network conference.

An experimental approach combining immunotherapy with conventional chemotherapy may succeed in delivering a "one-two punch" to many common tumors of epithelial origin.

Today, the US health-care system is being driven by a desire to contain escalating health-care expenditures. Oncology has not been spared, and the cancer burden on this country is great in terms of monetary costs as well as human morbidity and mortality.

As managed care grows, oncologists will have to decide who to "bond" with, then learn how to develop financially sound contracts with their new partners, Lee E. Mortenson, DPA, said at the 1995 Oncology Symposium of the Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC).

WASHINGTON--As managed care health plans continue to proliferate, the need has increased for ways to differentiate and compare plans, and give purchasers and consumers information on which to base decisions about medical coverage.

In the 30 years since the first Surgeon General's report, progress has been made in educating the public about the dangers of tobacco use.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla--Rather than increasing the number of medical liability cases, good practice guidelines should actually decrease the number of lawsuits, particularly frivolous ones, Frances H. Miller told attendees at the first annual conference of the NCCN (National Comprehensive Cancer Network). The meeting served as a showcase for the Network's preliminary practice guidelines for eight different cancers.

Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) trial 93-05 started slowly, but is now accruing on target, enrolling three patients per month, says Dr. Luis Souhami, chair of the study. To date, 40 patients are enrolled in the study.

BETHESDA, Md--Data on a single slide presented in November, 1994, led quickly to a key change in the hormone arm of the Women's Health Initiative (WHI), sponsored by the National Institutes of Health.

PARIS--Perfusion of an isolated limb with tumor necrosis factor (TNF)- alpha and melphalan (Alkeran) can avoid amputation in more than 80% of patients with nonresectable soft tissue sarcomas of the extremities, Alexander Eggermont, MD, PhD, reported at the Sixth International Congress on Anti-Cancer Treatment (ICACT).

NEW ORLEANS--In presentations at the Society of Gynecologic Oncologists meeting, Canadian researchers confirmed a small increased relative risk for uterine cancer in patients taking tamoxifen (Nolvadex), while investigators from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center showed that office endometrial biopsies may be sufficient to protect tamoxifen users by findings abnormalities early.

PALM SPRINGS, Calif--Women often develop idiosyncratic ideas about their risk for breast cancer, Mary Jane Massie, MD, said at the Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine in a session on counseling high-risk women. And the higher the perceived risk, the less likely these women may be to confront their fears and comply with preventive regimens such as breast self-exam (BSE).

Drs. Finlayson and Eisenberg provide a timely, in-depth review of total pelvic exenteration in the palliation of incurable pelvic cancer. The authors conclude that total pelvic exenteration has a role as a palliative treatment for patients with recurrent pelvic cancer-a conclusion that I believe remains unproven.

We strongly agree with the authors that, although there is no compelling evidence to suggest that nonionizing electromagnetic fields represent a public health hazard, there is sufficient evidence of magnetic- and electric field-induced biologic effects to continue scientific investigation of this issue.

Do not resuscitate (DNR) orders have become an integral part of the care of the terminally ill patient. Often, the decision whether or not to resuscitate a patient in the event of cardiopulmonary arrest must be made by the patient's family members. This is a difficult decision that is made at an emotionally trying time. Our study investigated the satisfaction, understanding, and feelings of families who sign DNR orders for their relatives. We are not aware of any other studies that have evaluated this aspect of the DNR order.

The discussion by Freifeld and Pizzo is a comprehensive summary of an important recent trend: the attempt to identify low-risk patients with fever and neutropenia and relax their therapy appropriately. It is not surprising that a summary from these authors would be definitive. Dr. Pizzo and his colleagues have defined many central elements of the therapy of fever and neutropenia: that broad-spectrum antibiotics should be continued after patients become afebrile while they remain neutropenic [1]; that an antifungal agent, amphotericin, should be added to prevent potentially serious fungal superinfection when patients remain febrile and neutropenic after 7 days [2]; and that monotherapy using ceftazidime alone is as effective as combination therapy with a semisynthetic penicillin and an aminoglycoside, particularly for low-risk patients [3]. Their current review catalogs recent attempts to define less aggressive, costly, and restrictive therapy for low-risk patients with fever and neutropenia. I would add only a few comments based on our work at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Treatment of fever and neutropenia in cancer patients has been recognized for 30 years as a medical emergency, requiring prompt in-hospital evaluation and institution of broad-spectrum intravenous (IV) antibiotics. This action

Low-frequency electromagnetic radiation had previously been thought to cause human injury only by generation of excess heat or by shock from direct contact with electric current. Information accumulating over the past few

NEW YORK--Dexrazoxane (Zine-card), which was developed in Great Britain in the 1960s as an anticancer drug, is extremely effective in blocking the cardiotoxic effects of doxorubicin, said James L. Speyer, MD, professor of clinical medicine, Department of Oncology, New York University Medical Center.

FLUSHING, NY--The New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center has appointed Dattatreyudu Nori, MD, a pioneer in the subspecialty of brachytherapy, to the position of professor and chairman of the Department of Radiation Oncology.

Screening methods and programs are critical strategies for the early detection and timely treatment of some cancers. Established methods for early detection of cancer include mammography, clinical breast examination (CBE), the Papanicolaou (Pap) test, proctosigmoidoscopy, fecal occult blood test (FOBT), and digital rectal examination (DRE). To examine changes in the reported use of selected cancer screening tests, the National Cancer Institute analyzed data from CDC's National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) for 1987 and 1992 to calculate rates of use and compared these rates with the national health objectives for the year 2000. This analysis suggests that, although the use of these tests increased, substantial progress is needed to meet the objectives.

BALTIMORE--Academic medical centers must now operate in a health-care environment that "has become increasingly unfriendly, even hostile economically," said former New England Journal of Medicine editor Arnold S. Relman, MD.

WASHINGTON--Nancy L. Kasse-baum (R-Kan), chairman of the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee, expects the Committee to complete action in late March on her bill to reform the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The bill would then be forwarded to the full Senate for a vote.