GLG News by Oncologists (EU)

Hepcidine is a key regulator of iron balence. Despite the availability of some iron makers (ferritin, sideremia and transferrin), hepcidine dosage can aid in the interpretation of complex clinical cases. However, its use could be limited to very particular clinical cases.

Lenalidomide is recently proving that its potential is not limited to myeloma, but can be used also in other B-cell malignancy settings such as lymphoma and CLL. CLL, in particular, needs light and yet efficacious treatments, particularly in the setting of pretreated (at times heavily) patients.

  The FLEX trial, a randomized phase 3 study comparing cisplatin-vinorelbine versus the same regimen plus cetuximab, recently showed that the addition of the monoclonal antibody to chemotherapy significantly prolong survival in chemonaive NSCLC. Several aspects could limit the wide use...

Biological efficacy has been shown for a number of cancer vaccines. Clinical efficacy has been shown in few of them. Clinical benefit just in one: idiotype vaccine for B-cell lymphoma. TroVax still has to clear the last hurdle, and likely also the second one.

RSV infection is very difficult to confirm. In my hospital we use molecular determination of RSV genome from nasal secretions. This approach is expensive, time consuming and it does not offer a quick diagnosis. We treat mainly onco-hematological patients, who are at high risk of RSV infection. In the...

The use of immunoconjugates in the development of monoclonal antibodies has been long tested with toxins but not with pro-drugs

Early detection of ovarian cancer is of paramount importance

All major clinical trials in  patients with pancreatic cancer have generated questionable actual benefit

The high cost of all the new agents is a major problem, especially in developing countries

The role of immune system remains important and shouhd never neglected even with all these new molecules