An experimental antiangiogenesis drug may improve the treatment of the most common and deadly type of adult brain cancer, researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School reported this week at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) annual meeting in Los Angeles.

The promising clinical results were buttressed by imaging and biomarker analyses that support a theory that the value of antiangiogenic agents may not be limited to halting the development of blood vessels that feed tumors, but that the drugs also can "normalize" them to the point where the delivery of standard treatments to the tumor may be improved.  Read more  

I had the opportunity once again to provide the NCI Director's update at the American Association for Cancer Research meeting in Los Angeles.

It was an honor as a long-standing member of the organization to participate in the annual meeting as the NCI Director. I am pleased to see the significant growth and outstanding progress made by our organization.

During my talk, I took the opportunity to discuss some areas of research that I find particularly intriguing - including cancer stem cells and potential diagnostic applications of chromosome location mapping, for example - and to address some of the issues that are part of the conversation in the scientific community about the NCI budget and its potential impact on the future of cancer research.  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.