American Association of Clinical Oncology Conference

Last week was the annual gathering of cancer docs, to discuss the latest breakthroughs, studies, and to mingle and consider where to go now in the study of cancer. These meetings are very important, because as you know, if you are a cancer patient, information doesn't seem to get disseminated very well in the medical community.

There were several breakthroughs announced last week, including a vaccine for breast cancer that might work retroactively, and there are new medications that may be useful for lung cancer patients. One in particular, is an ALK Inhibitor that shows a high response rate in patients with advanced NSCLC harboring a specific gene alteration. A study featured in an ASCO plenary session shows that the majority of patients with advanced adenocarcinoma of the lung with a specific re-arrangement of the ALK gene responded to treatment with the investigational drug crizotinib (PF-02341066), which targets that genetic defect in the cancer cell. An estimated 5 percent of lung cancer patients have this ALK gene alteration.

In the world of esophageal cancer, however, the news was not good. We had hoped earlier this year to have Layne take Erbitux, as we heard it was the latest chemo showing great promise. However, A Phase III trial has found that adding cetuximab (Erbitux) to standard adjuvant (post-surgical) chemotherapy in patients with stage III colon cancer and normal KRAS gene activity does not prolong their lives, and the combination is associated with significantly more side effects. Cetuximab was previously found to improve survival for metastatic colon cancer patients with normal KRAS.

Sometimes the news is not all good, however, without studies, you can't find out what works and what doesn't work. Studies are very important, and the funding for studies is crucial.

For patients, the slow, methodical progress can be maddening. We need solutions yesterday, and most of the ground breaking research is only offering 3-6 more months to patients, not cures.

However, this is how breakthroughs are made. So it is important that patients volunteer for studies, and that we fight for dollars to make more studies a reality. For truly, a cure cannot come soon enough!