The results of two new large European clinical trials challenge the conventional thinking on the initial treatment of patients with advanced colorectal cancer, particularly those undergoing treatment almost strictly for palliative purposes, the studies' leaders say.

Published in the July 14 Lancet, the trials' results suggest that using either fluorouracil or capecitabine as single agents for first-line treatment in this patient population is no less effective and potentially less toxic than using a combination of two chemotherapy drugs, as is commonly recommended in the United States and Europe. Read more  

The theme of this issue of the NCI Cancer Bulletin is cancer health disparities, in conjunction with NCI's Cancer Health Disparities Summit 2007 held last week.

The summit convened a transdisciplinary cadre of more than 700 cancer health disparities investigators, health care providers, community partners, program managers, project staff, and civic leaders from across the country. NCI grantees from such programs as the Community Networks Program and the Patient Navigation Research Program were at the forefront of the 3-day event, discussing collaborations and partnerships, communications and bioinformatics, community engagement, managing and sustaining programs, and training and education. 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.