Here's what Reuter's had to say about ASCO:
U.S. cancer meeting to highlight new advances
Reuters, Thursday, May 14, 1998 at 21:29
By Mark Egan
LOS ANGELES, May 14 (Reuters) - The world's largest cancer
conference starts this weekend with close to 20,000 doctors
discussing breakthroughs they hope will lead to a cure for the
killer disease.
Cancer treatments have made big news recently as a new
drugs and vaccines have offered new hope doctors may be close
to curing the disease second only to heart attacks as a cause
of death in the United States.
The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) expects
doctors from all over the world to attend its 34th annual
meeting in Los Angeles where 2,000 presentations are planned
over the four days starting from Saturday through Tuesday.
Topics expected to take center stage include potential new
treatments for the prevention of breast and prostate cancer.
About 180,000 cases of breast cancer are diagnosed annually,
according to ASCO.
New approaches to treating cancer will be discussed
including widely publicized anti-angiogenesis drugs, which kill
tumors by depriving them of blood supply, as well as using
monoclonal antibodies to enable the body's immune system to
attack cancer cells.
The Los Angeles meeting will also discuss doctors' views on
the controversial issue of physician-aided suicide.
Results from human trials of new cancer drugs seeking
regulatory approval will be presented at the conference
including data on lung cancer and colorectal cancer.
About half of those diagnosed with cancer do not survive.
In 1998 about 1.2 million patients in the United States are
expected to be diagnosed with cancer with about 565,000 people
expected to die of the disease this year, ASCO said.
The most prevalent form of cancer in women is breast cancer
with about 44,000 deaths per year in the United States. Results
will be presented on the potential prevention of breast cancer
through the use of the drugs raloxifene and tamoxifen.
Tamoxifen, marketed by Zeneca Group Plc (ISEL:ZEN) as
Nolvadex, is already widely used in early and late-stage breast
cancer and is seeking approval to be used as a preventive drug.
Trials in the United States of tamoxifen as a drug to
prevent breast cancer were called off early when successful
results were reported.
Results of that trial will be discussed in detail at the
meeting as will a two-year trial of raloxifene.
Raloxifene is marketed by Eli Lilly & Co. (NYSE:LLY) as Evista
to treat osteoporosis. Data will be produced on the drugs'
potential for preventing breast cancer in post-menopausal
women.
In recent weeks anti-angiogenesis drugs have been hailed in
some quarters as a potential "miracle cure" for cancer.
The drugs, which kill cancer by starving tumors of their
blood supply, have been a talking point since it was revealed
that EntreMed Inc.'s (NASDAQ:ENMD) drugs, angiostatin and
endostatin, had cured cancer in mice.
Since then a number of other companies have announced
similar drugs that have cured cancer in mice. Many experts have
played down this potential cure by noting the drugs have been
known for years and it is much more difficult to cure cancer in
humans than mice.
In order to grow larger than a pinpoint, tumors need to
form new blood vessels. At ASCO's meeting presentations will be
made showing encouraging early results on the safety of
anti-angiogenesis drugs on human patients.
Data on new vaccines that fight cancer by stimulating the
immune system will be publicized as well as new information on
gene therapy, which tries to fix damaged DNA or add new DNA in
an attempt to mend faulty genes. |
