We are please to have an awesome staff presence at the upcoming ASCO conference and even more pleased to have blogging for us: Christopher P. Adams, Ph.D. Chris is an economist at the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. He conducts academic-style research that has been published in peer-reviewed journals such as Marketing Science, Quantitative Marketing and Economics, Economics Letters, Health Affairs, Health Economics and the International Journal of Industrial Organization. Expect many similar high quality posts highlighting ASCO happenings and events, so without further adieu – take it away Chris!

I’m very excited because in two weeks I will be traveling to one of my favorite cities, Chicago, to attend my first American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) (http://www.asco.org/) annual conference. This is an enormous conference, with some 30,000 doctors and researchers attending.

I will be attending as a “patient advocate” representing Fight Colorectal Cancer and the Focus on Research.
ASCO recently whet our appetites by releasing summaries of the 5,000 different research projects that will be presented at the conference. ASCO’s patient advocacy program had a webinar discussing 5 of the most interesting research results. These projects discussed some of the latest ideas in cancer research including finding drugs that are effective against particular cancers not because of the cancer’s location but because of the cancer’s gene mutation. Other work suggests the combining new therapies may be more effective than the drugs would be on their own, including reduced side effects.

Two projects stood out to me. The first was a study using a relatively old drug called Olanzapine (Zyprexa) (Click HERE for details). You may guess from the name that this is an anti-psychotic. It had been noticed that patients taking this drug suffered from weight gain. The researchers wondered if it might therefore help chemo patients suffering from nausea. The answer seems to be yes. However, this was a small study. An interesting question is how whether the researchers will be able to find the large sum of money needed to run a larger trial. The drug went generic in 2011 so it is unlikely a drug company would be willing to spend the money on the trials in order to get the FDA to approve the drug for reducing chemo related nausea. I asked, but the webinar speakers did not know about whether the drug caused hiccups.

The second study did not actually look at a new (or even an old) therapy but rather looked at what oncologists and primary care physicians knew about the long terms side effects (“late effects”) of treatments for colorectal cancer and breast cancer (Click HERE for Details).

These late effects may include neuropathy or even cancer. The answer was that primary care physicians didn’t necessarily know that much about these things. In the webinar there was an interesting discussion about communication between oncologists and primary care physicians and efforts by ASCO and others to improve that communication. A big takeaway for me was that I need to start collecting information from my oncologist so that I can give it to my primary care physician or physicians as they see me over the next 10, 20?, 30??? years.

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Christopher P. Adams, Ph.D.
https://sites.google.com/site/christopherpadams/

Ask almost anyone after their first colonoscopy, and they’ll tell you, “The procedure was nothing, but the prep was awful.”

Now patients are reporting that combining MiraLAX®, an over-the-counter laxative, with 2 quarts of Gatorade tastes better and is easier to take than the standard 4-quart Golytely colonoscopy preparation. In a randomized clinical trial , almost 100 percent said they would repeat it again, compared to 1 out of 4 who wouldn’t take GoLYTELY® in the future.

In addition, doctors found no differences in how thoroughly the two preps clean the colon.

Splitting the dose between the night before the colonoscopy and the morning of the procedure did improve colon cleansing. But there was no difference in cleansing between split-dose GoLYTELY and split-dose MiraLAX with Gatorade. Read the rest of this entry »

My friend Janet asked me last week if there were still things I wished I could do, any unfinished things on my bucket list. I thought for a minute before I said, “No.”

I’m sure Janet expected something like a wish to visit the Grand Canyon or take that cross-country sleeper train trip I’d always promised myself. What I really wanted to say, the first thing that came to mind: “I want to be strong enough to go upstairs and do a load of laundry.” Inconsequential as it seems, climbing the stairs to do laundry is where my head went when asked about my bucket list.

I never had a formal bucket list; instead, I created long-term goals. Despite all the goal-maker’s advice, mine were never written down, and were flexible, but I did get to most of them. I didn’t make yearly resolutions; I made training goals for my dogs. I set goals to pay off credit cards and become debt-free (and did it). I set a goal to pay off my condo in 10 years (and did it). Read the rest of this entry »

Dr. Indran Krishnan and Georgia Governor Nathan Deal

Indran Krishnan, MD, FRCP (London), FRCP(C), FACP, FACG is fighting colorectal cancer on many fronts. As a gastroenterologist, he personally screens people every week. As an associate professor at Emory University, he trains the next generation of physicians. As an advocate, he serves on Fight Colorectal Cancer’s Board of Directors, and was a founding member of the Georgia Colon Cancer Coalition. In the first 4 months of 2012, Indran stepped up his efforts by:

• Meeting with Georgia Governor Nathan Deal and members of the Georgia legislature to introduce them to Fight Colorectal Cancer and spread the word about screening;
• Attending this year’s Call-on Congress, our annual advocacy training and lobby day; Read the rest of this entry »

Click Here to Get updates from Fight Colorectal Cancer

The first four sites where colorectal cancer patients can get regorafenib are now open.  Bayer Healthcare expects to open additional sites in the next two or three weeks.

Colorectal cancer patients whose cancer has gotten worse on all standard treatments can now be considered for the Regorafenib Extended Access program.

Bayer Healthcare has applied for FDA approval of regorafenib to treat colorectal cancer, but until it is actually approved and on the market, the expanded access program is the only way patients who might benefit can receive it.

Last fall, early results from the randomized Phase 3 CORRECT clinical trial showed colorectal cancer patients who received regorafenib lived longer than a similar group who got a placebo. Read the rest of this entry »