Results from a Canadian-led clinical trial suggest that a standard chemotherapy combination regimen for breast cancer is not as effective as chemotherapy regimens more commonly used in Canada in preventing recurrence of breast cancer. The preliminary findings were presented by the lead researchers December 17 at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

The trial involved 2,104 women under age 60 in Canada and the U.S. who were diagnosed with lymph node-positive or high-risk, node-negative breast cancer, which accounts for almost 50 percent of breast cancer cases in North America. Following surgery, they were randomly assigned to one of three different 6-month, intravenous treatment regimens: AC/T (doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide followed by paclitaxel administered every 3 weeks), one of the standard of care regimens used in the United States; CEF (cyclophosphamide, epirubicin and fluorouracil), which was developed and used in Canada; or the experimental regimen dose-dense EC/T (epirubicin and cyclophosphamide followed by paclitaxel).  Read more  

With budgets declining in 2005, 2006, and now, apparently, in 2007, there has been an absolutely essential NCI-wide effort to downsize. This process has, of course, affected our extramural grantees, but every effort has been made - and continues to be made - toward downsizing the infrastructure that supports the activities of the Institute, as well. For example, efforts are underway to improve work efficiency, to ensure that we are spending every infrastructure support dollar wisely, and to streamline how specific NCI offices work together as a team, so that we can continue to respond to changing needs, both within and outside the Institute. We recognize that the realities of a decreasing annual appropriation, the increasing demands of an expanding extramural research community, and the changes at NIH resulting from the recent passage of the NIH reauthorization bill require immediate action.

The Office of the Director (OD) is the home of almost all of NCI's support structure and, therefore, has been the subject of much of our reviewing and planning over the past 6 months. Using the recommendations of the Executive Committee (EC) based upon a series of staff presentations and detailed personnel and budget reviews, we have been working through a reorganization of the OD, with the ultimate goal of enhancing how it supports NCI - and doing so at significant cost savings.  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.