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NEW YORK-“There are no minimum standards for the quality of the psychosocial care given at institutions,” said Jimmie C. Holland, MD, leadoff speaker at the Pan-American Congress of Psychosocial and Behavioral Oncology. “We would never let that happen with infectious disease,” said Dr. Holland, Wayne Chapman Chair of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

WASHINGTON-The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has issued a final rule that defines what research data the public can demand to see under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). To the relief of many in the biomedical sciences, the White House agency did not include data from research in progress or any information that could be used to identify particular persons in a research study.

Approximately 35,000 stem (progenitor)-cell transplants are performed annually worldwide, with an estimated yearly growth rate of between 10% and 20%.[1] Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma remains the second most common indication for stem-cell transplantation, and Hodgkin’s disease ranks approximately seventh overall.[1]

Cervical cancer has a high incidence and is a rapidly progressive illness among human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected women. This cancer has received increasing attention since 1993 following its addition to the list of AIDS-defining illnesses monitored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).[1] With increased heterosexual transmission of HIV and frequent co-infection with the human papillomavirus (HPV),[1] invasive cervical cancers will appear more often among HIV-infected women.

BALTIMORE-Johns Hopkins Medicine has dedicated a new $125 million home for its comprehensive clinical cancer services. A decade in the planning, the half-million square foot Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Building is the largest structure on the East Baltimore medical campus. It was designed from the ground up to meet the complex and exacting specifications of cancer specialists and their patients, Johns Hopkins said in a press release.

WASHINGTON-By imposing taxes on tobacco products and mandating health warnings on cigarette pack-ages, did the federal government, in effect, collaborate with the tobacco industry in causing smoking-related diseases in millions of Americans?

BETHESDA, Md-The National Cancer Institute (NCI) has announced plans for a large-scale, randomized phase III trial of a patient-specific therapeutic vaccine against B-cell lymphoma. The decision came as the result of findings from a recently completed phase II study at the NCI.

MINNEAPOLIS-Medtronic, Inc. and the National Comprehensive Cancer network (NCCN) have announced that they are partnering in an effort to shed light on a key concern of cancer patients and their families: the best way to control cancer pain while preserving patients’ quality of life.

A three-day interdisciplinary cancer conference will be held March 2 through 4, 2000, at the Best Western Gateway Grand in Gainesville, Florida. The seminar will emphasize the latest advances in radiation therapy techniques and results. It will include refresher courses by senior faculty, panel discussions, and new departmental research results. Visiting Professor will be Professeur Jean-Pierre Gerard, Service de Radiotherapie-Oncologie, Hôpitaux de Lyon, France. Other presentations will be made by clinicians from the University of Florida Department of Radiation Oncology.

WASHINGTON-The Congressional Families Action for Cancer Awareness honored three individuals for their dedication to cancer prevention outreach at its Seventh Annual Awards Luncheon.

VIENNA, Austria-The substantial drop in breast cancer incidence reported in the NSABP P-1 trial of prophylactic tamoxifen (Nolvadex) contrasted sharply with the negative findings of the earlier Royal Marsden and Italian trials. Whether the P-1 results can be confidently and routinely applied to all high-risk women was the focus of a debate between Royal Marsden investigator Trevor Powles, MD, and NSABP investigator Bernard Fisher, MD, at the 10th European Cancer Conference (ECCO 10).

MINNEAPOLIS-Of the many possible reasons why cancer patients choose not to enter clinical trials, worries about whether the cost will be reimbursed by their health plan may actually rank low on the list, or so the experience of Minneapolis-based UnitedHealth Group suggests.

WASHINGTON-Cancer survivors, their families, and friends gathered in front of the Lincoln Memorial for “Rays of Hope,” a candlelight vigil to mark the first anniversary of The March. That event brought tens of thousands to Washington last September to a rally aimed at making cancer the nation’s leading research priority.

SAN FRANCISCO-A clinical trial reported at the 39th Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC) suggests that people infected with HIV who are taking complicated protease-inhibitor-containing regimens to suppress the virus may be able to safely switch to a simplified maintenance regimen requiring only two pills twice a day.

BETHESDA, Md-In a rare public confrontation with the media, the National Cancer Institute denied a report in the Wall Street Journal that its scientists had failed to replicate the work of Judah Folkman, PhD, showing that endostatin, an antiangiogenesis compound, dramatically shrinks tumors in mice.

EAST HANOVER, NJ-The driving force behind Novartis Oncology’s new oncology/hematology website is practicality-providing practical information in an easily accessible manner. The new site, for oncologists, hematologists,nurses, patients, and consumers, is located at www.novartisoncology.com.

SEWICKLEY, Penn-NOMOS Corporation has been granted an exclusive license by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to commercialize its Peregrine technology. Peregrine is a Monte Carlo-based dose calculation system designed specifically for radiation therapy planning (see photo).

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) is about to embark on a series of “quality care” initiatives designed to identify the best medical care approaches for various cancers. The NCI strategy was laid out to the Senate Cancer Coalition by Robert Hiatt, MD, PhD, on September 16. Hiatt, who is the deputy director of the Division of Cancer Control and Population Studies at the NCI, disclosed that the NCI will be issuing a request for applications (RFA) for consortiums of investigators, presumably composed of oncologists, cancer centers, university medical centers, state cancer registries, and medical associations. Each team will be provided with core support to carry out innovative, in-depth analyses consistent with a series of recommendations made in the past year by both the National Cancer Policy Board and the President’s Cancer Panel. These recommendations include: developing a cancer data system that provides quality benchmarks for use by systems of providers; supporting national studies of newly diagnosed cancer patients, which yield data that relate care to outcomes; and trying to find out why some population segments are not receiving quality cancer care.

The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) applauded patient protection legislation passed recently in the US House of Representatives that would provide much-needed improvements in cancer patients’ access to high-quality care and treatment, including therapies offered in clinical trials. The Bipartisan Consensus Managed Care Improvement Act (HR 2723), introduced by Representatives Charlie Norwood (R-GA) and John Dingell (D- MI), passed by a vote of 275 to 151.

BETHESDA, Md-Twenty-four cancer research centers in the United States will receive a total of $4.1 million from the National Cancer Institute to purchase the necessary equipment to establish DNA microarray facilities. The new and technically challenging research tool enables scientists to assess expression levels of a large subset of the human genes in a cell or tissue.

ORLANDO-At the Digestive Disease Week meeting, University of Tokyo researchers reported on the largest single-institution study of the use of percutaneous ethanol injection therapy (PEIT) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The research group studied 849 patients hospitalized for HCC at their institution between 1985 and 1997.

VIENNA, Austria-Most long-term breast cancer survivors who have had adjuvant radiotherapy are likely to have significant pain or functional impairment even 10 to 16 years after treatment, but fewer than one third receive pain medication, Ulf E. Kongsgaard, MD, of the Norwegian Radium Hospital, Oslo, said at the 9th World Congress on Pain.

ANNAPOLIS, Md-“Showing sick patients the direct connection between smoking and their disease symptoms can powerfully motivate them to quit,” said Daniel E. Ford, MD, MPH, associate professor of medicine, epidemiology, and health policy and management, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

SILVER SPRING, Md-The Food and Drug Administration’s Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) has voted 9 to 2 against recommending approval of Evacet (doxorubicin HCl liposome injection, The Liposome Company) for the first-line treatment of metastatic breast cancer in combination with cyclophosphamide. The vote against Evacet came after Liposome presented three controlled, randomized studies.

VIENNA, Austria-When cure or prolongation of survival is no longer a reasonable possibility, enhancing the cancer patient’s quality of life becomes the preeminent objective of treatment, Ian Tannock, MD, of the Princess Margaret Hospital, Toronto, said at the 10th European Cancer Conference (ECCO 10). “Quality of life is not a soft endpoint and, when measured appropriately, is every bit as reproducible as so-called objective measures such as tumor response,” he said.

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC-Zofran (ondansetron HCl), Glaxo Wellcome’s 5HT3 antagonist antiemetic, has received FDA approval for a new indication and a new tablet strength

BETHESDA, Md-Representatives from government, industry, and aca-demia met for a day and half to discuss the barriers that limit more rapid development of imaging techniques needed by cancer researchers and physicians-and possible ways to overcome them.

BUFFALO, NY-Recent advances in adjuvant therapies have begun to improve survival outcomes and quality of life for patients with gastrointestinal tumors such as pancreatic carcinomas and colorectal cancers metastatic to the liver. But the role of the surgeon remains critical.

NEW YORK-A Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center public forum held to introduce the public to the hospital’s new complementary medicine service drew repeated bursts of applause and expressions of thanks from the patients, family, and community members who attended. The audience not only heard from practitioners but also saw slides of relaxing visual imagery, meditated to the sound of a crystal bowl rim being rubbed, and listened to the music of a trio of music therapists.

ATLANTA-Administration of DepoCyt, a novel sustained-release formulation of cytarabine (ara-C), proved favorable with acceptable safety in the first randomized, controlled trial of any drug for lymphomatous meningitis, Stephen B. Howell, MD, said at the 35th annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).