The American Society of Clinical Oncology's annual meeting, held this year in New Orleans, is the premiere oncology educational and scientific event, attracting more than 25,000 attendees from around the world.

Temodar Improves Survival in Brain Tumors
Patients with malignant brain tumors like glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) are usually treated with surgical removal of the tumor followed by radiation to the brain (see CURE, Spring 2004). Despite this, the survival of patients with this tumor remains poor. But a phase III clinical trial testing the addition of the oral chemotherapeutic drug Temodar^® (temozolomide) to radiation therapy reported promising results at the 2004 meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in June. In this trial, which included more than 500 patients at 85 centers worldwide, the addition of Temodar increased median survival by three months (15 months) compared to patients who received surgery plus radiation alone (12 months). The combination therapy resulted in nearly three times as many patients surviving two years (10 percent versus 27 percent). Further, the addition of Temodar was well tolerated by most patients. Although this new treatment does not provide a cure, it does represent a significant advance in the fight against GBM. For more information on Temodar, visit www.temodar.com. —Susan Peck, PhD

New Treatments Promising in Kidney Cancer
As reported in the Summer 2003 issue of CURE, there is currently only one approved treatment for kidney cancer—Proleukin® (interleukin-2). But that could soon change thanks to promising results presented at this year’s ASCO meeting. A drug known as SU11248, which is also being used to treat a rare form of sarcoma (see “Singling Out Sarcoma”), was shown to shrink tumors by at least 50 percent in 21 of 63 advanced kidney cancer patients. A separate phase II trial in advanced kidney cancer patients with the drug BAY 43-9006 showed tumor shrinkage of at least 50 percent in 13 of 89 patients. Another 24 patients had their tumors shrink by at least 25 percent. For more about SU11248 and BAY 43-9006 clinical trials, visit www.clinicaltrials.gov, and for more on kidney cancer, go to www.kidneycancerassociation.org.
— Melissa Weber

Erbitux Prolongs Survival in Head and Neck Cancer Patients
Erbitux^TM (cetuximab) is a monoclonal antibody that binds to a protein called the epidermal growth factor receptor, which is involved in stimulating a cell’s growth. Erbitux was recently approved for use in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (see CURE, Spring 2004). At ASCO this year, the drug was shown to improve the survival of patients with head and neck cancer as compared to patients who got radiation therapy alone. In the current study, Erbitux was combined with high-dose radiation therapy to treat patients with advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the larynx (voice box), oropharynx or hypopharynx (areas at the back of the mouth) that spread through the head and neck region. Two years after treatment, the percentage of patients who were free of cancer was greater for those who received Erbitux in addition to radiation therapy. More importantly, those patients treated with combination therapy lived longer (median of 54 months) than those receiving only radiation therapy (median of 28 months). These results represent a promising advancement in the treatment of head and neck cancer. For more information on Erbitux, visit www.erbitux.com. —Jennifer Klem, PhD

Rituxan Improves Outcome in B-cell Lymphomas
New data presented at the 2004 ASCO meeting showed Rituxan® (rituximab) improves outcome when added to chemotherapy in patients with diffuse large B-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. These results follow the impressive benefit previously seen in elderly lymphoma patients treated with Rituxan and chemotherapy. Patients in the current study were 60 years of age or younger and received CHOP-like chemotherapy either alone or with Rituxan. More than 800 patients participated in the study. Complete remission was seen in about 85 percent of patients receiving Rituxan, compared with 65 percent of patients treated with chemotherapy alone. After two years of follow-up, 95 percent of the Rituxan-treated patients were still alive versus 85 percent of the chemotherapy-only patients. For more information on Rituxan, go to www.rituxan.com.
— David Lee, PhD