On January 26, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the experimental drug sunitinib (Sutent) for treating an uncommon gastrointestinal cancer in patients who are resistant to or unable to take the primary treatment, imatinib (Gleevec).

Many patients with this cancer, gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST), become resistant to imatinib within 2 years.

Sunitinib is a targeted therapy that inhibits multiple proteins involved in the growth of cancer cells and the formation of blood vessels that supply tumors with nutrients, a process called angiogenesis.  Read more  



Guest Update by Dr. John E. Niederhuber

NCI's Intramural Program: A Cornerstone for Success

To the public, NCI is often thought of in terms of being the largest supporter of cancer research in the world. That is clearly one of NCI's most important functions. Perhaps the untold story, however, is the outstanding research being carried out by the talented scientists and clinicians in the institute's intramural program, the foundation of which entails the Center for Cancer Research (CCR) and the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics (DCEG).

NCI's intramural researchers perform essential basic, clinical, and epidemiologic research, upon which a great deal of extramural research is eventually based. Much of this work is rooted in multidisciplinary, collaborative science that takes advantage of the breadth and depth of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) research environment. In many cases, the research conducted by the intramural program is both high risk and high impact, involving complex investigations that offer tremendous promise conducted in the most thoughtful, rigorous fashion to ensure meaningful results. The intramural program also serves as the training ground for thousands of investigators launching their careers in science.  Read more  

The NCI Cancer Bulletin is produced by the National Cancer Institute (NCI). NCI, which was established in 1937, leads the national effort to eliminate the suffering and death due to cancer. Through basic, clinical, and population-based biomedical research and training, NCI conducts and supports research that will lead to a future in which we can identify the environmental and genetic causes of cancer, prevent cancer before it starts, identify cancers that do develop at the earliest stage, eliminate cancers through innovative treatment interventions, and biologically control those cancers that we cannot eliminate so they become manageable, chronic diseases. For more information on cancer, call 1-800-4-CANCER or visit http://www.cancer.gov. NCI Cancer Bulletin staff can be reached at ncicancerbulletin@mail.nih.gov.