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New Combination Prolongs Survival in Previously Treated Patients with Advanced Colorectal Cancer
Previously treated patients with advanced colorectal cancer who received the
anti-angiogenesis agent bevacizumab (Avastin) in combination with an
oxaliplatin (Eloxatin)-based chemotherapy regimen lived longer than patients
who received chemotherapy alone, researchers announced yesterday. The Data
Monitoring Committee (DMC) overseeing the NCI-sponsored clinical trial in which
the patients were enrolled, E3200, recommended that the results of a recent
interim analysis be made public because the study had met its primary end point
of demonstrating improved overall survival.
Patients in the trial who received the combination of bevacizumab and a
chemotherapy regimen called FOLFOX4 (oxaliplatin, 5-fluorouracil, and
leucovorin) had a median overall survival of 12.5 months compared with 10.7
months for patients treated with FOLFOX4 alone, a 17 percent improvement.
Combination therapy patients had a 26 percent reduction in the risk of death
compared with those who received chemotherapy alone.
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Progress on HPV Vaccine Offers Great Hope to Developing Countries
Data published earlier this month have created an opinion among many in the
public health and research communities that we are on the brink of
significantly eliminating the threat of cervical cancer. This would be a public
health boon to many developing countries, which bear the brunt of the 230,000
annual deaths from this cancer.
According to the results of a phase II clinical trial published earlier this
month in The Lancet involving more than 1,100 women, a human papillomavirus
(HPV) vaccine was safe and effective at preventing viral infections, as well as
the abnormalities in the cells often associated with them. The vaccine targets
two HPV types, 16 and 18, which together cause about 70 percent of all cervical
cancers. Although the women in the Lancet study were only followed for 27
months, the study provides evidence that immunization with this type of HPV
vaccine can confer a high degree of protection against infection with specific
types of HPV and could be a valuable tool in the battle against the primary
cause of cervical cancer. Encouragingly, similar results with longer follow-up
were reported a few weeks ago at an American Society of Microbiology meeting
with an HPV vaccine that targets HPV type 16.
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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
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