This week Fight Colorectal Cancer is preparing for the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Conference in Chicago. LET’S GET READY TO ASCO…..!!!!!!!!!! The Fight CRC team is headed to ASCO to learn about groundbreaking medical and scientific research. Our goal is to ensure YOU (the patients, caregivers, friends, medical workers or others touched by this disease) have real-time information on what's moving us closer to a cure for colorectal cancer.

Prior Progress

clasicalcasemCRCAs we head into ASCO this week, it is important to think about the progress of the last 25 years that's advanced science. While prevention and treatment of colorectal cancer is important at all stages, part of our major focus at Fight CRC is identifying advancements in treating metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC). Much of this can be done thanks to the groundwork of prior years. Flashback 1980:  the overall survival rate for mCRC was 5 months. Today the overall survival rate is 30 months. If we plotted this progress on a graph, we would see years of small gains and then major spikes in improvement. The introduction of drugs like 5-FU and irinotecan offered major gains for colorectal cancer patients. Incremental, yet important, gains also came with drugs like capecitabine, oxaliplatin, cetuximab, bevacizumab, panitumumab, ziv-aflibercept and regorafenib that were introduced in the years to follow. This increase in new treatments is encouraging, but this is not enough! While we celebrate these gains, there is much work to be done to ensure that the classic case of mCRC has an overall survival rate beyond 30 months! We are looking for approaches and drugs that aren’t as hard on our bodies and might work in the first round of treatment. Surviving a mCRC diagnosis is the expected outcome and our objective while at ASCO.

What We're Looking For

So, what are we hoping to come out of ASCO this year? Here's the reality of where we are so far in 2015 and what to watch for at ASCO:
  • Some patients with stage IV disease can be cured by an interdisciplinary approach (many types of medicines and approaches working together).
  • The addition of biologics to chemotherapy has improved outcomes but not as much as we hoped.
  • In the palliative care setting, some drugs may help improve quality of life.
  • We are on the verge of individualized therapy based on molecular predictive factors and immunotherapy… ASCO might tell us more.

Live from ASCO - Dr. Deming!

DustinDeming
Dr. Dusty Deming (survivor AND oncologist) will be explaining the ASCO findings... sign up to be notified of the upcoming webinar!
We are thrilled to have Dr. Dustin (Dusty) Deming, who is a rectal cancer survivor and oncologist, provide real-time updates during the ASCO conference. Dr. Deming brings a perspective most docs don’t… he’s a survivor and fights each day just like you. But, he also brings his medical knowledge and survivor experience to us. Dr. Deming will be tweeting, blogging and helping unpack the findings of this year's ASCO conference for us in an upcoming webinar.

Join us! Yes - YOU!

Our team will be on the ground this week and sending live updates. Here's how to follow along and make sure you don't miss a thing:
  • Follow the ASCO 2015 Hashtag on Twitter (#ASCO15)
  • Follow Dr. Deming on Twitter for live-updates
  • Follow Keavy McAbee (our Patient Resource Manager) on Twitter
  • Follow Fight CRC on Twitter
  • Join our Patient's Resource Facebook Group for real-time updates & discussion
  • Sign up to receive notice about our upcoming ASCO webinar

One thought on “Let's Get Ready to ASCO

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