Myriad RBM Announces the Launch of OncologyMAP® v. 2.0

Myriad RBM Announces the Launch of OncologyMAP® v. 2.0

Myriad Genetics (NASDAQ: MYGN) announced today that Myriad RBM, a wholly owned subsidiary of Myriad Genetics, has launched OncologyMAP® v. 2.0, a powerful research tool developed with funding and direction from the National Cancer Institute and the Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas. OncologyMAP® v. 2.0 is a comprehensive, cost-effective testing service that builds on the success of the original OncologyMAP® service by increasing the scope and diversity of biomarker analysis for drug re-tasking, indication expansion, and patient stratification studies and provides researchers with the ability to accelerate the pace of discovery, validation, and translation of cancer biomarkers into clinically useful tests......................

open access: NCI’s provocative questions on cancer: some answers to ignite discussion - Oncotarget

National Cancer Institute has announced 24 provocative questions on cancer.......

view article for more information - eg.   PQ-19: Why are some disseminated cancers cured by chemotherapy alone?; PQ-5: Given the evidence that some drugs commonly and chronically used for other indications, such as an anti-inflammatory drug, can protect against cancer incidence and mortality, can we determine the mechanism by which any of these drugs work? (aspirin...); PQ-1: How does obesity contribute to cancer risk?.......

U.S. - Planned Cooperative Group Merger Is Generating Concern - NCI clinical trials - gynecologic oncologists, funding, more common cancers, GOG....

A proposed overhaul of the National Cancer Institute’s clinical trials system has created anxiety among gynecologic researchers who fear projects in women’s cancer will be diminished in a scramble for funding with more common malignancies.......

Video Guide: How to Use the NCI Clinical Trials Search Form - National Cancer Institute

Video Guide: How to Use the NCI Clinical Trials Search Form
The NCI Clinical Trials Search Form allows you to search a list of more than 8,000 clinical trials now accepting participants. The list includes trials supported by NCI, pharmaceutical companies, academic institutions, and other research organizations. The following two videos show users how to use the form and review the results. For additional guidance, see
Help Using the NCI Clinical Trials Search Form.

Clinical Cancer Research Programs Merge To Accelerate Research

The American College of Radiology's Imaging Network (ACRIN) and the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG), National Cancer Institute (NCI) Clinical Trials Cooperative Group members, have announced their intent to merge their clinical cancer research programs.

The groups plan to form an alliance that combines their complementary strengths. The new organization will include three areas of research emphasis: early detection and diagnosis of cancer; biomarker-driven Phase II and Phase III therapeutic studies for multiple cancer types and stages; and genetic, molecular and imaging marker research to predict and monitor treatment response........cont'd

PharmaLive: Topotarget Announces Updates on Belinostat in Two Clinical Trials - NSCLC and Ovarian Cancer (negative study ovarian/Belinostat/Carboplatin)

Ovarian cancer – GOG 0126-T (NCI-driven study)

Preliminary analysis of GOG 0126-T trial has not shown enough activity to enter into second stage. Consequently the study will be ended.

The study

The study is an open-label single-arm phase II trial with belinostat in combination with carboplatin given to patients with ovarian cancer who progress during or shortly after first-line treatment with platinum containing chemotherapy. The trial is sponsored by the GOG with support from the NCI. Belinostat is administered as a 30-minute daily IV infusion on day one through five with carboplatin being administered on day three. Treatment is given every third week and is repeated until disease progression......

Director's Page - National Cancer Institute - Update to the National Cancer Advisory Board (December 2010) 9 minutes

Also: To view the NCAB Meeting discussions in their entirety, visit http://videocast.nih.gov/launch.asp?16326 (5 hrs and 51 minutes)

revamped website: (U.S.) Science Serving People - National Cancer Institute

	Cancer Research Progress Information on research advances and a look at the future of cancer prevention, detection, treatment, and survivorship.
	NCI Budget Information National Cancer Institute (NCI) budget requests, data on NCI spending, and an overview of how the institute’s annual budget process works.
	Cancer Research in Your Community Clinical trials and NCI collaborations as well as state-specific cancer information.
	Understanding Cancer Statistics Key facts about the human and economic cost of cancer and resources to help make the data more understandable.
	How Cancer Research Works A look at the process of conducting cancer research — from basic science in the laboratory to treatment in the clinic.
	Policy Highlights Updates on federal cancer news and congressional testimony.

Fred Hutchinson Researchers Win $17.5M from NCI's Early Detection Research Network

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Researchers from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle have won $17.5 million from the National Cancer Institute's Early Detection Research Network in five-year awards toward ongoing coordination of the EDRN, as well as projects centered on colon cancer biomarker discovery and breast and ovarian cancer biomarker validation.........Christopher Li, a member of the public health sciences division, received $2.5 million to lead a clinical epidemiology and validation center for breast and ovarian cancer – one of nine such centers in the US. Li plans to validate breast and ovarian cancer biomarkers with phase III studies, as well as share the center's breast and ovarian cancer tissue repositories with collaborators, said the Hutch...cont'd

NCI Cancer Bulletin Insurance Coverage Expanding for Cancer Clinical Trials/costs

NCI Cancer Bulletin for May 18, 2010 - SPECIAL ISSUE

Additional Clinical Trials Resources

Cancer Clinical Trials at NIH

NCI supports cancer clinical trials across the country (U.S) through its extramural research program. Meanwhile, on NIH’s main campus, the Institute’s intramural researchers in the Center for Cancer Research (CCR) conduct hundreds of trials each year at the NIH Clinical Center in Bethesda, MD, and these trials often differ from those available elsewhere.
While some cancer centers also offer early-stage clinical trials, the difference is that CCR focuses almost exclusively on early-stage trials, said Dr. Bill Dahut, CCR’s clinical director.

NCI’s intramural program is able to pay the transportation costs for patients who are enrolled in Clinical Center trials. This allows CCR to see many more patients with rare cancers, or rare subtypes of common cancers, than other research sites because CCR can fly in patients from around the country to be treated in investigational studies.

One commonly cited barrier to entering clinical trials is the worry among both patients and their physicians of losing control. “An important point about treatment at NCI is that everything we do here for patients is done in close collaboration with their local physicians back home,” Dr. Dahut explained. “Our physicians provide expert clinical care to patients while they are being treated on protocol at NCI, but our physicians can see patients only while they are at the Clinical Center. Thus, continued care by local physicians is incredibly important to allow patients to access standard treatments or other trials not available here. Local physicians must remain closely involved with patients on NCI studies because side effects, from the cancer or the therapy, may occur when the patient is home and far from Bethesda.”

Patients and physicians interested in exploring cancer clinical trials at NIH can visit CCR’s clinical trials Web site. The site includes detailed descriptions of clinical trials currently recruiting patients; information for the general public about clinical trials and participating in trials at NCI; and information for health professionals about referring patients, the Center’s clinical programs and investigators, and ways to keep up to date with CCR research and opportunities.

“We’d really like to encourage physicians to join our mailing list,” said Susan McMullen, patient outreach and recruitment coordinator for CCR’s Office of the Clinical Director.  “One of the barriers to recruiting patients at NIH is that our doctors don’t have a patient base outside of clinical trials to draw from, so we rely on community doctors to refer patients to us.”

Family Cancer Registries

For some families, the tragedy and sorrow of losing a relative to cancer is repeated as family member after family member is diagnosed with the same disease.
To determine what genetic factors may be at work and how environmental influences alter those genetic risks, researchers rely on those affected by familial cancer to participate in family cancer registries.

“Our major goal in studying these families is to identify what are called high-risk susceptibility genes,” explained Dr. Peggy Tucker, director of the Human Genetics Program and chief of the Genetic Epidemiology Branch in NCI’s Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics (DCEG). “We then try to understand the function of those genes, how they confer risk, and what other factors within the family modify risk.

“Ultimately, we want to be able to alter the risk of cancer in these families either by identifying susceptibility factors we can modify—for example, avoiding sun exposure in melanoma families—or designing interventions that can affect risk—such as prophylactic oophorectomy for women in families with high risk of both breast and ovarian cancer,” she said.

Family cancer registry studies can also help inform researchers about cancer susceptibility risks in the general population. For example, researchers identified dysplastic nevi as a major risk factor for melanoma by studying families at high risk of melanoma.

Researchers at NCI first began conducting family registry studies in the mid-1960s. These long-term studies follow families through successive generations, and allow researchers to examine the role of inherited high-susceptibility genes and cancer. Today, DCEG researchers are studying families with a number of inherited cancers or cancer-susceptibility syndromes, and researchers in NCI’s Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences (DCCPS) sponsor the Breast and Colon Cancer Family Registries.

Whereas DCEG’s family registries are conducted at the NIH Clinical Center, the family registries based in DCCPS are found throughout the United States, Australia, and Canada. “Currently, we have about 78,000 men and women from nearly 26,000 families participating in these registries,” said Dr. Sheri Schully, program officer for the DCCPS family registries program. “The main objective of these registries is to identify and characterize cancer susceptibility genes, but the investigators also look at gene–gene and gene–environment interactions as well.”

Although family registry studies do not provide treatment to participating families, investigators often provide test results that can help family members learn which of them may be at higher risk because of certain susceptibility genes, such as mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes or those associated with Lynch syndrome, said Dr. Schully.
Additionally, the studies are an opportunity for people who are often desperate for answers to ask questions.

“We like to think it’s a positive experience for them because they have a whole day at NIH to meet with physicians and nurses who know a lot about the disease,” Dr. Tucker explained. “We try to keep them updated with new findings about the diagnosis and management of the cancer that affects their family, and they know they can always come to us for referrals for care of the disorders that we’re studying.”

Learn More About Clinical Trial Enrollment....

Clinical Significance of Microsatellite Instability in Sporadic Epithelial Ovarian Tumors

Abstract: CONCLUSION: MSI was infrequent in ovarian tumors, including both borderline and malignant tumors. MSI was found to be uncommon in sporadic ovarian tumors, even by using additional MSI markers. The clinical significance of MSI is not strong in patients with sporadic ovarian tumors.

Link to full text (pdf file):

DISCUSSION
....MSI is caused by mutations in the mismatchrepair genes (MMR). MSI has been implicated in the pathogenesis of colon, endometrial, and gastric
carcinomas that occur in the setting of HNPCC (Lynch Syndrome), and also in a subset of sporadic cancers such as upper urinary tract, stomach, colon, andendometrial carcinomas.
In ovarian cancers, the reported incidence of MSI ranges from 0 to 37%, depending on the number and type of markers. Sood et al. first
reported the incidence of MSI in ovarian cancer using the NCI criteria.....Therefore, further study of molecular events that are correlated with ovarian tumors is needed."

In the News (U.S.) NCI will offer cancer e-care record for providers

"The EHR is based on a early reference implementation of the Patient Outcomes Data Service, an open source “ultra-light record” derived from standards of NCI’s Cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid (caBIG).
The record, which is set up to provide data on patient demographics, disease and treatment results, could be used by providers and even consumers for data exchange.
“Because we use standards, anybody can push it or receive it,” Buetow said in remarks at a conference sponsored April 12 by the World Health Care Congress
The specifications and the software are available now through the NCI site but are not consumer-friendly, Buetow said. NCI plans to make it easily accessible to providers and consumers who would want to use it, within 60 days.
NCI is working with SAIC and Microsoft on the project, he added"

NCI IoM Committee Recommends Overhaul of NCI Clinical Trials Cooperative Group Program

Journal of Oncology Practice - Home Page - Survey of Cooperative Groups regarding NCI trials

Note: as of the timing of this post, these articles are freely available

Early Release Articles *NEW*

1) Timing Is Everything Zon
2) Challenges to National Cancer Institute–Supported Cooperative Group Clinical Trial Participation: An ASCO Survey of Cooperative Group Sites Baer et al

NCI Improving the Efficiency of Clinical Trials: Decreasing Activation Times by Fifty Percent

new Website - NCI - submit your ideas....

NCI is proud to announce an “evolution” of our flagship Web site, Cancer.gov.  We are calling it an evolution rather than a site redesign because it is not a one-time change. Instead of a massive overhaul, meaningful and significant Web site enhancements will be rolled out in phases.