The launch today of a new clinical trial is being hailed by some of the nation's leading breast cancer researchers as an important step toward more individualized treatment of cancer based on factors such as the expression of specific genes within patients' tumor cells.

The NCI-sponsored trial, dubbed TAILORx, will use the results of a new test that measures the activity of 21 genes in tumor samples from women with early-stage invasive breast cancer that is estrogen-receptor positive and lymph node-negative to assign participants to their treatment regimen.  Read more  

Lung cancer continues to be one of the biggest public health challenges facing the United States and many other countries. Although incidence rates have stabilized, more than 173,000 new cases of lung cancer will be diagnosed this year, and it will continue to be the most common cause of cancer death among men and women, with more than 163,000 people succumbing to the disease each year.

NCI recognizes the public health imperative of ensuring that we are doing the most with available resources to tackle this formidable challenge. This recognition led to the formation in 2004 of the Lung Cancer Integration and Implementation (I2) Team, one of a handful of special groups including NCI staff and extramural researchers focused on high-priority areas of research. In a Director's Update last summer, Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach praised the Lung Cancer I2 team for their work in identifying gaps and opportunities to accelerate our efforts against lung cancer. I am continuing to lead this effort by creating a base of scientific cohesiveness within the Institute around lung cancer, and will host regular meetings with extramural lung cancer researchers and advocates about our progress in this area and our future agenda. The original I2 team will continue to participate in this effort via monthly conference calls.  Read more  

The NCI Cancer Bulletin is produced by the National Cancer Institute (NCI). NCI, which was established in 1937, leads the national effort to eliminate the suffering and death due to cancer. Through basic, clinical, and population-based biomedical research and training, NCI conducts and supports research that will lead to a future in which we can identify the environmental and genetic causes of cancer, prevent cancer before it starts, identify cancers that do develop at the earliest stage, eliminate cancers through innovative treatment interventions, and biologically control those cancers that we cannot eliminate so they become manageable, chronic diseases. For more information on cancer, call 1-800-4-CANCER or visit http://www.cancer.gov. NCI Cancer Bulletin staff can be reached at ncicancerbulletin@mail.nih.gov.