Last Updated: 09/17/07
2007 News
Two Acting Associate Directors Appointed
Posted: 09/10/07
Two DCTD staff members have been appointed to serve as acting associate directors following the retirements of Dr. Michaele Christian and Dr. Daniel Sullivan earlier this summer. Dr. Jeffrey S. Abrams is fulfilling the role of acting associate director for the Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program, and Dr. James L. Tatum has been selected as acting associate director for the Cancer Imaging Program.
Irinotecan Not Effective in Adjuvant Therapy for Colon Cancer
Posted: 08/21/07
Final results from a Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB) trial show that irinotecan should not be added to 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) and leucovorin in the adjuvant treatment of stage III colon cancer. In the CALGB 89803 trial, led by Dr. Leonard B. Saltz and colleagues at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, no survival benefit was seen in the adjuvant setting. These results appear in the August 10 Journal of Clinical Oncology. More…
Moving Ahead with Translational Research
Posted: 07/10/07
The recent release of the final report of the Translational Research Working Group (TRWG) and its approval by the National Cancer Advisory Board, marks an important milestone for NCI. After 2 years of work, we're hopeful that TRWG's recommendations, along with activities already taking place as a result of recommendations made 2 years ago by the Clinical Trials Working Group (CTWG), will lead to more rapid progress in translating important research findings into new, effective interventions. More…
Two Associate Directors Retire
Posted: 06/26/07
Two DCTD associate directors, heading up key program areas, retire at the end of June. Dr. Michaele Christian, associate director of the Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program (CTEP), who has led a major program in early drug development, leaves NCI after more than 20 years of service. As he concludes 10 years at the Institute, Dr. Daniel Sullivan, associate director of the Cancer Imaging Program (CIP), moves to the Radiological Society of North America to become a senior science advisor. More…
New NCI Experimental Therapeutics (NExT) Program Heralds Shortened Timeline for Anticancer Drug Development
Posted: 06/13/07
A new compound, called ABT-888, has passed the first stage of clinical examination using a new model for drug development that promises to shorten -- by up to six to 12 months -- the timeline for taking anticancer drugs from the laboratory to the clinic, according to a team of researchers at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health. This result (abstract #3518) was presented June 3, 2007, at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in Chicago, Ill. More…
Meetings and Lectures
Posted: 06/13/07
Children Survive Neuroblastoma with Less Intensive Treatment
Posted: 06/12/07
On Sunday, June 3, researchers from the Children's Oncology Group presented results at the ASCO annual meeting from a multinational study showing that a treatment regimen more patient-friendly than the current standard can achieve comparable survival rates among infants and children with intermediate risk neuroblastoma. More…
Cisplatin Improves Survival for Women with Cervical Cancer
Posted: 05/29/07
Long-term follow-up results from a Gynecologic Oncology Group clinical trial that compared cisplatin-based chemotherapy with hydroxyurea in addition to radiation therapy for locally or regionally advanced cervical cancer, published online in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, showed that cisplatin-based chemotherapy significantly improved both progression-free and overall survival compared with hydroxyurea alone. The percentage of women experiencing late side effects did not significantly differ between the treatment groups. More…
Dr. Collins to Give Kaplan Lecture in Nuclear Medicine at Harvard in April
Posted: 04/06/07
Jerry M. Collins, Ph.D., associate director, Developmental Therapeutics Program, DCTD, will present the Thirteenth Annual William D. Kaplan Lecture at Harvard Medical School on April 24, 2007.
Charting the Course for Preoperative Breast Cancer Therapy
Posted: 04/03/2007
Preoperative systemic chemotherapy has become firmly established as part of the standard of care for locally advanced invasive breast cancer and inflammatory breast cancer. There is also considerable interest in the community in using preoperative therapy — also known as neoadjuvant therapy — in a wider population of women with earlier stages of breast cancer. More …
MRI Detects Cancers in the Opposite Breast of Women Newly Diagnosed with Breast Cancer
Posted: 03/28/07
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans of women who were diagnosed with cancer in one breast detected over 90 percent of cancers in the other breast that were missed by mammography and clinical breast exam at initial diagnosis, according to a new study. Given the established rates of mammography and clinical breast exams for detecting cancer in the opposite, or contralateral breast, adding an MRI scan to the diagnostic evaluation effectively doubled the number of cancers immediately found in these women. More…
DCTD Program Accomplishments 2006
Posted: 03/02/07
Cancer clinical research is changing, and a large part of the transformation is being spearheaded by the Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis (DCTD), an extramural component of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) with the responsibility of overseeing much of NCI’s infrastructure for clinical trials and drug development. This summary of DCTD accomplishments is made possible by the many talented and dedicated staff members in programs throughout the division.
National Cancer Institute to Host Meeting on Preoperative Therapy in Invasive Breast Cancer March 26-27
Posted: 03/01/07
"Preoperative Therapy in Invasive Breast Cancer: Reviewing the State of the Science and Exploring New Research Directions" will seek to determine the state of the science on this topic because preoperative therapy is increasingly being administered to women with breast cancer. Controversies exist, however, regarding optimal approaches.
SWOG Closes Prostate Cancer Trial
Posted: 01/30/07
The NCI-sponsored Southwest Oncology Group (SWOG) announced that it has closed a phase III prostate cancer treatment clinical trial because the new treatment under investigation was associated with a rare but dangerous side effect.
