Breast cancer research needs to investigate how a person’s ethnicity influences their response to treatment and its outcome, according to a new Comment piece in The Lancet (18 July) by researchers from Imperial College London.
Emerging evidence suggests that particular drugs may benefit people from one ethnic group more than others, because of differences in their genetic makeup. However, most key trials looking at treatments for breast cancer have been carried out in predominantly white populations in Europe, North America and Australasia.

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The 2008 American Society for Microbiology (ASM) Abbott Laboratories Award in Clinical and Diagnostic Immunology was presented to Steven A. Rosenberg, Chief of Surgery, National Cancer Institute, Professor of Surgery, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, and Professor of Surgery, George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences. Sponsored by Abbott Laboratories Diagnostics Division, this award recognizes a distinguished scientist in clinical or diagnostic immunology for outstanding contributions.

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Scientists at a Duke University medical school in Singapore have found a new way to study cancer that could be very useful for developing targeted therapies against cancer and possibly many other diseases.
“Because all you need for this approach is gene expression data to compare both diseased and normal tissues, you could apply it to cancer or any other disease, if you have the data,” said co-author and researcher Patrick Tan, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Singapore. “Just replace the word ‘cancer’ with ‘diabetes,’ ‘obesity,’ and so on.”

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The U.S. Pharmacopeial (USP) Convention is pleased to announce that its chief science officer, Darrell Abernethy, M.D., Ph.D., will be honored with the American College of Clinical Pharmacology’s (ACCP) Nathaniel T. Kwit Memorial Distinguished Service Award at the 2008 ACCP Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, Pa., September 14-16. Dr. Abernethy is being recognized for his lasting contributions to cardiovascular clinical pharmacology.
As chief science officer of USP, Dr. Abernethy leads the development of documentary standards that comprise USP’s publications, including the United States Pharmacopeia-National Formulary (USP-NF) and the Food Chemicals Codex (FCC).

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The 2008 American Society for Microbiology (ASM) ICAAC Young Investigator Award will be presented to Eric Skaar, Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee. Sponsored by Merck, U.S. Human Health Division, this award recognizes early career scientists for excellence in research in microbiology and infectious diseases.
While a graduate student at Northwestern, Dr. Skaar focused on the molecular mechanisms of antigenic variation in the Gram-negative pathogen Neisseria gonorrhoeae. His research described novel systems used by N. gonorrhoeae to combat the oxidative stress response of the host.

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ImClone Systems Incorporated (NASDAQ: IMCL), a global leader in the development and commercialization of novel antibodies to treat cancer, today announced that ERBITUX® (cetuximab) has received marketing authorization in Japan for use in treating patients with advanced or metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC). Specifically, this approval allows for the use of ERBITUX to treat patients with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-positive, curatively unresectable (inoperable), advanced or recurrent CRC, and allows the use of ERBITUX plus irinotecan in second and further lines of mCRC. With this approval, ERBITUX is the first ever EGFR-targeted monoclonal antibody to be submitted for and receive marketing authorization in Japan.

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UroToday.com - Muscle infiltrating bladder cancer is a life-threatening disease. Despite diagnostic and surgical advancements in the last decade, after cystectomy 5-year disease recurrence rate is 30-40% even in referral centers. The introduction of orthotopic neobladder has greatly improved the quality of life and self-perception of patients undergoing cystectomy.
To date, radical cystoprostatectomy is the standard treatment of muscle-infiltrating bladder cancer. Although less aggressive cystectomy surgical techniques have been proposed, like seminal- and sexual-sparing cystectomy, they have been criticized for oncological risks.

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UroToday.com - In this online publication by Dr. Alberto Briganti and associates that appears in European Urology, the authors hypothesized that surgical volume (SV) is related to the detection rate of lymph node invasion (LNI) in a single-institution cohort of men treated with radical prostatectomy (RP) and extended pelvic lymph node dissection (ePLND).

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Patients benefit from a team approach at the new Coleman Foundation Comprehensive Clinic for Gastrointestinal Cancers at Rush University Medical Center. Experts in gastroenterology, medical oncology, surgery, radiation oncology, pathology and psychosocial oncology as well as nutrition and genetics come together to meet with new patients and develop a defined treatment plan.
This comprehensive clinic dedicated totally to the care of patients that are at risk of, or diagnosed with, gastrointestinal cancers, provides patients with one center for all of their care.

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University of Rochester Medical Center researchers found a new protein produced excessively in malignant melanoma, a discovery that is particularly relevant as skin cancer rates climb dramatically among young women.
The protein, IMP-3, is not over-expressed in harmless moles but is increased in the most dangerous types of skin cancer, and in a subset of lesions that can be difficult to predict called thin melanomas.

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