And the Survey Says… Click here to see the results of the 2007 NCI Cancer Bulletin reader survey.

A genomic test may help some women with early-stage breast cancer gauge the risk of a recurrence and the potential benefit of additional chemotherapy even when the disease has spread to the lymph nodes, researchers are reporting.

The test, OncotypeDX, profiles the activity of 21 genes in a tumor and quantifies the risk of a recurrence over 10 years, assuming the patient receives 5 years of hormonal therapy such as tamoxifen.  
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"No individual is alone responsible for a single stepping stone along the path of progress." This remark by Nobel Prize winner Ernest Lawrence comes to mind as we take stock of all that happened during this past year in cancer research.

In 2007, NCI put on full display the teamwork, collaborative effort, and maturation of scientific knowledge that, even in a time of constrained resources, helped ensure steady progress - with one discovery building on another. Certainly the Institute was forced to make some tough choices in order to redirect a less-than-inflation allocation of federal dollars toward our highest priority programs. Even with those limited resources, NCI's scientific accomplishments this past year were, to say the least, impressive.  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.