GLG News by Hematologists who Treat Myelodysplastic Syndromes

Roche Holding may well be leading the way to make gene analysis more cost effective and individualize cancer care by targeting the mutations!!

Merck intends to market this viral vaccine to "protect" women from the risk of cervical carcinoma.

Avastin will be used in the therapy of "advanced" metastatic breast cancer, despite controversial data. In a disease with multiple options and a variable course it is virtually impossible to prove improved survival!!

This acceptance implies that the drug has the potential for widespread use in relapsed low grade NHL . However,there are some provisos to the acceptance by a wide audience of physcians. The low toxicity rate and ease of delivery make this drug very attractive to use as do the high response rates...

1) This article is a bit confusing as in the beginning it refers to hormone sensitive disease,when in fact,later in the text,it is the HRPC(hormone refracory prostate cancer) cells that are targetted. 2)That being said,the mechanism of action and animal data look interesting and certainly worth pursuing...

The Nexavar lung cancer trial was terminated by the data monitoring committee PLUS it caused increased deaths in the squamous cell subgroup. Future in lung cancer?? PLUS: recent info also has shown cardiac events in Nexavar making it a potential loser in the race for kidney cancer dollar.

The FDA will be deciding on Treanda in CLL next month and with a litttle luck NHL in the fall of this year

Genentech has it's fingers crossed Re: approval or rejection of Avastin in breast cancer. If rejected it will lose it's compendia listing also adversely effecting insurance reimbursement.

Picoplatin + Taxotere (Sanofi) appears in a Phase I trial, to be better than Taxotere alone in reducing PSA levels in metastatic prostate cancer (MPCA.)      (Comparing historical, not head to head data)

Immunologic response translated into improved survivals in 1/2 of the trial subjects!