GLG News by Physicians who Treat Malignant Melanoma (US)

VMAT is the answer to Tomotherapy and more. This new VMAT technology improves on current IMRT and Tomotherapy.

This Phase II study of a novel dendritic cell melanoma vaccine shows a significant yet not overwhelming response rate of just under 10%. An additional 20% of patients had stable disease. The progression free survival is in-line with other recent melanoma studies in this population as is the 1 year survival....

Asuragen is a contract lab with apparently high capabilities in gene expression profiling, miRNA detection, and other molecular diagnostic techniques. This news item announces a business arrangement between Merck and Asuragen, to develop a biomarker assay using pharmacogenomics for use in cancer clinical...

This is a big hit for Pfizer - a costly product they licensed due to lack of good pipeline products.   Unfortunatley, I don't think they anticipated the issues surrounding the complexity of inhaled insulin, properly marketed the product, or did enough research on the patient side (ie compliane,...

Cardiovascular disease in breast cancer is a real risk.   As our population is aging, and breast cancer is one of the most comon cancers, it is up to us to minimize risks of treatment related morbidity.

While the data between avastin and lucentis is pending, it's interesting to see Genetch trying to defending profits at the expense of patients.   Genetech has impeded this trial, so that they could defend sales of Lucentis. Before lucentis was approved, avastin was used for macular degeneration...

This article reports on two related prospective studies of Remicade treatment for refractory ulcerative colitis. The data suggest that Remicade therapy reduces the short term (one year) need for colon surgery in these difficult to treat patients. Further follow-up is needed to better understand the...

Glioblastoma multiforme are one of the worst tumors one can have - period.   Even with aggressive surgery, chemotherapy and radiation, most of these patients succumb to their disease within 1 year.   Initial results of Avastin + Irinotecan look promising as a second line regimen.  ...

This reports on a small scale pilot study of combination therapy with Avastin and Irinotecan in patients with an aggressive brain cancer, glioblastoma multiforme, who have already failed standard treatment with chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Although comparing only to historical controls, the results...

Genasense is an antisense compound that is pro-apoptotic in cancer cells. A large scale Phase III trial in patients with metastatic melanoma was not considered approvable by the FDA in spring 2004. However, subsequent analysis along pre-specified stratification points (ie LDH level) show striking survival...