Verna Cox with Sen. Bob Casey in Washington
C3 Advocate Verna Cox was featured in the Philadelphia Daily News yesterday, and there’s a link to her story as well as links to the winning entries in the Get Screened Video Contest.
This week, we also report research showing that the elderly benefit from irinotecan chemotherapy treatments, a potential vaccine for travelers diarrhea, and no link between coffee drinking and colorectal cancer. Read the rest of this entry »
Cancer patients with only a few tumors that have spread to other parts of their bodies (metastases) will be part of a clinical trial to test precisely focused, high-dose radiation treatment called helical tomotherapy.
Researchers at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center want to know if helical tomography, focused on metastatic tumors, can destroy them and keep them from returning in patients whose tumors cannot be removed surgically or who are not willing to have surgery.
The trial is being conducted by the National Cancer Institute on the NIH Clinical Center campus in Bethesda, MD. Read the rest of this entry »
The American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) has published a provisional clinical opinion (PCO) advising doctors to test patients with colorectal cancer for KRAS mutations before treating them with medicines that include Erbitux® (cetuximab) or Vectibix™ (panitumumab).
The consensus of experts who reviewed recent research was that patients with metastatic colorectal cancer whose tumors have mutations in the KRAS gene do not benefit from treatment that targets the epidermal growth factor receptor (anti-EGFR therapy). Patients should be tested for KRAS mutations and, if those mutations are found, not receive anti-EGFR antibodies as part of their treatment..
A PCO, based on expert consensus, is designed to help decision-making for oncologists faced with major research results that can potentially change the way they treat patients. Read the rest of this entry »
When Avastin® (bevacizumab) was added to standard chemotherapy after surgery, it didn’t reduce the risk that early stage colon cancer would return, according to a press release this morning from Genentech.
NSABP C-08 randomly assigned patients with stage II or III colon cancer to FOLFOX chemotherapy with or without additional Avastin. During the Phase III clinical trial, all patients received FOLFOX (oxaliplatin, leucovorin, and infused 5-FU) every two weeks for six months. Half also got Avastin with each treatment plus an additional six months of Avastin only.
The study’s primary objective was disease-free survival, defined as lack of recurrence, another new cancer, or death for any reason. According to Genentech, adding Avastin to chemotherapy didn’t do any better job of meeting this goal than chemotherapy alone.
Information from the trial will be presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting at the beginning of June.
Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH)
Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) outlined his priorities for health care reform at a community forum last week in Ohio.
Senator Brown, who has been a long time supporter for reforming the American health care system said, “We need health reform to ensure that every American has access to high quality, affordable health coverage…As it stands, 46 million Americans are uninsured, and that is 46 million too many.” Read the rest of this entry »
