Fight Colorectal Cancer

Some colorectal cancer patients will have their cancer spread into the tissue within their abdomen or to the surfaces of abdominal organs.  This condition, called peritoneal carcinomatosis, can be treated successfully if it is recognized early.  Unfortunately, it is often not seen on routine scanning and not diagnosed when surgical treatment is possible.

A clinical trial at the NIH Clinical Center in Bethesda will see if a second surgery to look for peritoneal carcinomatosis in high-risk patients can find the disease earlier, treat it appropriately, and  improve survival.

Eligible patients for the trial will have already had surgery that removed all visible tumor and are considered to have no evidence of disease (NED). However, their cancer will have some high-risk features that makes it more likely that they might develop peritoneal carcinomatosis in the future.

The trial is not intended for patients who already have peritoneal carcinomatosis. Read the rest of this entry »

Fight Colorectal Cancer board member Dr. Indran Krishnan is a recent graduate of the Georgia Physicians Leadership Academy (GPLA).

GPLA was developed by the Medical Association of Georgia to develop physician leaders to improve health care delivery for their patients, communities, and the medical profession.

As a project for the year-long class, Dr. Krishnan set up a process to get high risk uninsured  Georgians free colonoscopies. Read the rest of this entry »

The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction.

Mukherjee writes.

Cancer’s life is a recapitulation of the body’s life, its existence a pathological mirror of our own.Down to their innate molecular core, cancer cells are hyperactive, survival-endowed, scrappy, fecund, inventive copies of ourselves. Read the rest of this entry »

Kate Murphy

Fight Colorectal Cancer’s Director of Research, Kate M. Murphy will be joining a distinguished list of guest speakers at the Colon Cancer Alliance’s upcoming national conference this June in Denver, Colorado.  Her participation as a panelist will provide attendees with information on genetic risk factors and genetic testing, the importance of knowing your family history and an overview of HNPCC and FAP.  She will be joined by panelists from the American Cancer Society and the Patient Advocate Foundation during the conference’s opening session.

The Colon Cancer Alliance’s conference, “Family Matters: What Every Family Needs to Know,” is being held in Denver, Colorado from June 23-25, 2011.  Full and partial scholarships are available with an application deadline of May 13^th. The event brings together experts from throughout the nation covering a wide range of topics such as genetic risks, designing a treatment plan, advanced disease treatment options and tips for living with colon cancer. The annual event is designed to bring families and friends together and encourage awareness and conversation around the disease.  For more information on the conference, visit: www.ccalliance.org.

Advanced colorectal cancer is now an FDA approved indication for Fusilev® (levoleucovorin) in combination with 5-FU.

According to a news release from its manufacturer, Spectrum Pharmaceuticals, the FDA agreed to include metastatic colorectal cancer on the Fusilev label on April 29, 2011.

Although Fusilev has been used off-label during the leucovorin shortage, it is now fully FDA-approved for the palliative treatment of advanced colorectal cancer that has spread beyond the colon or rectum. Read the rest of this entry »