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Targeted Drug Shows Dramatic Results for Follicular Lymphoma
The targeted drug, iodine-131 tositumomab (Bexxar), which is easier to take and less toxic than standard chemotherapy, could one day be the treatment of choice for people with late-stage follicular lymphoma. That's the view of the researchers who originally developed Bexxar, based on results from a phase II clinical trial reported in the February 3 New England Journal of Medicine.
Bexxar is currently approved to treat follicular lymphoma after chemotherapy fails, but researchers at the University of Michigan believe it has potential as a first-line treatment.
The phase II trial included 76 patients with advanced-stage follicular lymphoma. Nearly all of the patients (95 percent) responded to treatment, and three out of four were free of the disease after a single course of treatment, the study found. Five years later, most of the patients were in remission, the researchers added.
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Looking Back on HHS-NCI Collaborations
When I came to the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in January 2002, I was privileged to join a consortium of agencies guided by the dynamic leadership of U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Tommy G. Thompson. Secretary Thompson has supported NCI's strategic commitment to eliminate the suffering and death due to cancer and initiated steps that would enable us to accomplish this by 2015. Our shared vision also included the belief that the fruits of scientific progress must ultimately be spread beyond our nation's borders and benefit the entire world.
Over the past 3 years, I've had the pleasure of working with the Secretary on a number of critical initiatives, including international cancer programs, prevention initiatives, bioterrorism research and planning, advanced technology programs, HHS public health efforts, and interagency collaborations.
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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.
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