Update from 2008 ASCO Meeting in Chicago

A study presented during the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting showed that adding IV infusions of calcium and magnesium to oxaliplatin treatment reduced peripheral neuropathy.

Eloxatin® (oxaliplatin) is part of the FOLFOX treatments for colorectal cancer.  As doses accumulate, patients begin to experience tingling and numbness in their hands and feet.  Some patients will find it difficult to use their hands for small tasks like buttoning or will have problems with pain, balance or walking.  Often patients have to stop treatment before the full benefit is reached because of this difficult side effect. Read the rest of this entry »

Update from 2008 ASCO Meeting in Chicago

Some thoughts from Kate Murphy. . .

We’ve known for a long time that cancer isn’t one disease and that colorectal cancer isn’t one disease either.  Too often the only way to know if a treatment would work for a patient was to give it to them and wait.  Meanwhile, the patients struggled through side effects, not knowing if the treatment was going to really help or not.  And — even worse — lost valuable time that might have been spent with a more effective therapy.

Probably the most important theme at ASCO this year for colorectal cancer is that we now have real tools to target the right therapy to the right patient.

On Sunday at the Plenary Session — the big meeting for everyone where the most important cancer breakthroughs are discussed — Dr. Eric Van Cutsem presented the results of the Crystal trial with a special focus on KRAS. Crystal randomized patients who had not be treated for metastatic colorectal cancer before to FOLFIRI or FOLFIRI plus Erbitux® (cetuximab). Read the rest of this entry »

Update from 2008 ASCO Meeting in Chicago

Some thoughts from Kate Murphy. . .

A very full day at ASCO.  I began with by stopping for juice and a muffin in the Advocates’ Lounge, which is a special service provided by ASCO through their programs for people living with cancer via Cancer.Net. Advocate participation in the ASCO Annual Meeting is encouraged with scholarships, the Advocates’ Lounge, and special booth in the Exhibit Hall.

A somber but very meaningful first session on The Path to Self-Healing: Delivering Bad News designed to help oncologists learn how to help their patients find meaning in difficult diagnoses at the end of life included a wonderful documentary by Ruth Yorkin Drazen featured the life of Dr. Peter Morgan, a young oncologist with sarcoma.

“My spirits are soaring,” Dr. Morgan wrote in his diary the day that he returned to caring for patients on crutches and with a cap covering his mostly bald head.   Read the rest of this entry »

Update from 2008 ASCO Meeting in Chicago

Some thoughts from Kate Murphy . . .

I’m in Chicago for the 2008 American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting.  It’s huge!  More than 30,000 doctors and researchers from all over the world here to find out about the latest cancer research.

Read the rest of this entry »

Advance Abstracts from ASCO 2008

How far a colon or rectal cancer penetrates through the wall of the bowel may be more important in deciding survival risks than current staging that focuses on positive lymph nodes.

Five year survival statistics for a large number of rectal and cancer patients verified an earlier study that found some stage III colorectal cancers had better prognosis than stage II cancers that extended through the bowel wall but did not invade nearby lymph nodes.

The information has implications for treating colorectal cancer after surgery.

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