NEWS

Experimental Drug Benefits Patients with Advanced Prostate Cancer

The experimental drug cabazitaxel has improved the survival of some patients with advanced prostate cancer compared with those who received standard chemotherapy, according to results from a randomized phase III clinical trial presented last week at the Genitourinary Cancers Symposium in San Francisco. Although the benefit was modest (several months), there currently are no effective treatments for patients with this form of the disease, called metastatic castration-resistant, or hormone-refractory, prostate cancer. Read more > >

• Internal Radiation Effectively Reduces Local Recurrence of Some Endometrial Cancers

  Vaginal brachytherapy led to similar rates of recurrence but fewer side effects than external-beam radiation therapy

• Extensive Lymph Node Removal May Improve Survival in Some Women with Endometrial Cancer

  Researchers call for randomized trial to provide more definitive answers

• Children and Teens Less Likely Than Young Adults to Die of Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma

  A number of factors may contribute to the disparity, researchers said

• Older Women Are at Low Risk of New HPV Infections, Infections that Progress to Cervical Cancer

  Middle-age women unlikely to benefit from HPV vaccination

• People Continue to Trust Physicians, Despite Increasing Health Information Online

  Findings come from an NCI survey of how people access and use cancer-related information

COMMENTARY

Director's Update: Mapping a Strategic Scientific Vision for the National Cancer Program

When we at NCI cite the National Cancer Act of 1971, it is not simply as a recitation of history, but rather a recognition of the tremendous responsibility assigned to the Institute. That legislation, which launched what is often referred to as the “War on Cancer,” imparted a series of distinctions and special authorities to NCI as the leader of the National Cancer Program. Because of the 1971 law, the position of NCI director became a presidential appointment; the outstanding and much envied NCI-designated Cancer Centers Program came into existence; and the Institute gained the authority to prepare and submit directly to the President an annual budget for review and transmittal to Congress.

The act also established a new, powerful advisory board to both the President and the NCI director: the National Cancer Advisory Board. The NCAB, the act stated, would be a presidentially appointed panel of “leading scientific or medical authorities outstanding in the study, diagnosis, or treatment of cancer or in fields related thereto.” Read more > >