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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

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

Recent strategies to improve the outcome of fluoropyrimidine chemotherapy for patients with cancer have focused on better selection of patients likely to respond to such therapy and on protracted exposure to 5-fluorouracil (5-FU). Cellular

Metastatic colorectal cancer to the liver develops in over 50,000 US patients each year and is rapidly fatal if untreated. Even the most active chemotherapeutic agents rarely prolong survival for more than 3 years. Liver

Cutaneous lymphomas comprise a spectrum of diseases characterized by infiltration of the skin by malignant lymphocytes. The clinical manifestations of cutaneous lymphomas vary, and they can mimic benign dermatoses,

Metastatic colorectal cancer to the liver develops in over 50,000 US patients each year and is rapidly fatal if untreated. Even the most active chemotherapeutic agents rarely prolong survival for more than 3 years. Liver

Cutaneous lymphomas comprise a spectrum of diseases characterized by infiltration of the skin by malignant lymphocytes. The clinical manifestations of cutaneous lymphomas vary, and they can mimic benign dermatoses,

The cycle-specific schedule-dependent antimetabolite 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) has been in clinical use for 40 years and has evolved as an important agent in the treatment of a large spectrum of tumors, including all gastrointestinal

Over the past several years, the pyrimidine catabolic pathway and, in particular, the first enzymatic step involving dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase (DPD) have been recognized as being critical in determining the ultimate

The treatment of advanced colorectal cancer has been evaluated in a series of randomized trials, including infusional and modulated 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), and three meta-analyses encompassing trials of 5-FU plus

Discussed herein are selected oral fluorinated pyrimidines that are converted to 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) in vivo to exert antitumor activity. These agents include capecitabine (Xeloda), tegafur-uracil (UFT) plus leucovorin (Orzel), and S-1 (BMS247616). These agents offer the convenience of an orally administered therapy with potentially fewer toxic effects than conventional bolus regimens of 5-FU plus leucovorin. These oral agents provide prolonged 5-FU exposure at lower peak concentrations than observed with bolus intravenous administration of 5-FU and may confer pharmacoeconomic advantages by reducing administration costs and toxicity-related hospitalizations. These regimens also have the potential for improved therapeutic activity by achieving higher 5-FU concentrations in the tumor or by biochemically modulating 5-FU. Phase III trials in patients with advanced colorectal carcinomas are comparing the antitumor activity of these agents with that of intravenous 5-FU plus leucovorin. [ONCOLOGY 12(Suppl 7):48-51, 1998]