Women who received chemotherapy directly in their abdomens as part of treatment for advanced ovarian cancer lived more than a year longer than women who received the same chemotherapy intravenously, researchers reported last week.

The findings confirm and expand recent research showing that intraperitoneal (IP) chemotherapy, which delivers drugs directly to the abdominal cavity through a catheter, can significantly increase survival for some women with the disease.

In the study, women who received chemotherapy intravenously and through an IP route lived on average 16 months longer than women who had IV chemotherapy only, according to findings in the January 5 New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).  Read more  



Guest Update by Dr. John E. Niederhuber

Supporting Cancer Drug Development

NCI has an important role to play in the drug development process in the United States. From its expansive clinical trials program to the drug discovery research it performs and funds, the institute believes it has an essential duty to expedite the discovery and development of interventions that will save lives.

Outside of academic and industry circles, very little attention is paid to the multiplicity of steps and tasks required to take a molecule of interest or a therapeutic vaccine concept from initial laboratory investigations to preparation of patient-grade agents ready for testing in appropriate patients. But the public expects - and we want to deliver - more effective and less toxic interventions to prevent and treat cancer, and we are determined to dramatically increase the speed of this process.  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.