At the 2007 meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, results were presented from a clinical trial that stated -- Continuous maintenance therapy may improve survival among patients with metastatic colorectal cancer.

Maintenance therapy is used when a patient's cancer is stable and not exhibiting signs of progression. Researchers want to find a way to improve survival, but they also want to find a program that is not too intense and will have limited side effects.

This brings us to the study that was done on 202 patients with metastatic colorectal cancer. The patients were split in two groups, one group received continuous maintenance chemotherapy with a drug called Eloxatin (oxaliplatin). The second group was only treated again with chemotherapy once their cancer had started to progress.

Now here's some good news for Tamoxifen-taking, hot-flash suffering women. A new study finds women who have lots of hot flashes during treatment with the breast cancer drug Tamoxifen have a lower risk of recurrence than women who don't suffer from the annoying waves of heat commonly associated with menopause.

"This study provides the first evidence that hot flashes may be an indicator of a better prognosis in women with early stage breast cancer," said study author John P. Pierce, Ph.D., from the University of California at San Diego. "Our data supports the possibility of a significant association between hot flashes and disease outcome."

More study is necessary to determine whether or not hot flashes -- which may predict better outcomes than severity of cancer, hormone receptor status, and age -- are associated with Tamoxifen and breast cancer progression.

New cancer drug Torisol was approved on Wednesday by the FDA for use with renal cell carcinoma, an advanced form of kidney cancer.

Torisol, also known as temsirolimus, is an enzyme inhibitor made by Wyeth Pharmaceuticals and has shown promise for prolonging patient survival. It's the third kidney cancer drug approved in the past 18 months -- the other two are Nexavar, intended to delay disease progression, and Sutent, for tumor size reduction.

Many kidney cancer patients are cured by surgery. About 35 percent of patients, however, experience a recurrence or a spread of the disease. Until just recently, there were no effective drugs to control these issues. Now there are several -- and Torisol is the one showing modest improvement in survival for patients with the most advanced tumors. Further study will indicate whether or not the drug is useful for patients with less extensive metastatic disease.

Breast cancer drug Herceptin has been approved in Europe for use with hormonal therapy for postmenopausal patients with HER2 and hormone receptor positive metastatic disease.

Herceptin, made by Swiss drugmaker Roche Holding AG, is already approved in Europe for early and metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer.

This new approval is based on data from an international late stage clinical trial showing the combination of Herceptin with hormonal therapy doubled the median progression-free survival time.

Metastatic colorectal cancer is commonly treated with a regime called FOLFIRI, consisting of 5-fluorouracil, Camptosar (irinotecan), and leucovorin. Long term survival with this treatment has shown to have mediocre results.

Erbitux (cetuximab) is a type of targeted therapy called a monoclonal antibody. Erbitux targets EGFR, the epidermal growth factor receptor, and can reduce the spread of cancer.

The addition of Erbitux to the chemotherapy regime FOLFIRI can improve progression free survival compared to just receiving FOLFIRI alone. The CRYSTAL study compared Erbitux/FOLFIRI to FOLFIRI alone for treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer. One thousand patients who had not received any prior therapy after learning of the spread of the disease were enrolled in the Phase III clinical trial.

The study concluded that it was indeed a good idea to include Erbitux with the FOLFIRI in first line treatment for metastatic colorectal cancer. Progression free survival was significantly improved.

More and more we are hearing about monoclonal antibody's like Erbitux. Here is some other information posted on The Cancer Blog about Erbitux:

200 companies, 340 immunotherapy drugs, 600 clinical trials

Terminal cancer patients question worth of remaining life

UK patients angry as new bowel cancer drugs are rejected

First time in 45 years new drug for head and neck cancers

Cancer Drug May Prolong Survival

The combination of breast cancer drugs Tykerb and Xeloda are effective at slowing the progression of metastatic breast cancer after the drug Herceptin fails -- but the drug duo is only effective at extending the lives of patients for a few months, according to the results of a recent international clinical trial.

The trial, led by Charles E. Geyer, M.D., of Allegheny General Hospital, Pittsburgh and published in the December 28 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine, focused on 324 women whose breast cancer had spread to other organs. The women had already been treated with Herceptin for a median of 42-44 weeks -- and then half received Xeloda chemotherapy and half received both Xeloda and Tykerb.

Women who received the drug combination had more than a 50 percent delay in disease progression. Their cancer spread after a median 8.4 months, compared to 4.4 months for women who received only Xeloda.

Targeted drugs Herceptin and Tykerb are major advances in the fight against breast cancer -- for the 20 percent of diagnosed women with the aggressive HER2 positive disease -- and they are also quite expensive. While some say they are worth every penny if they offer a cure, others question the cost if they only delay the disease progression for a few months. Such was the case in this study.

Perhaps the greatest potential for these agents is for use before breast cancer spreads, when they may improve the chance for a cure.

A Phase III clinical trial will study whether using the CellSearch test can help physicians determine more quickly whether a woman's advanced breast cancer is responding to chemotherapy treatment.

The National Cancer Institute will study whether women with metastatic breast cancer that have elevated levels of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) after their first chemotherapy treatment can live longer by changing to a different chemotherapy regimen immediately rather than waiting until their disease progresses.

An earlier study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology suggested that the presence of CTCs may help doctors determine the aggressiveness of a women's breast cancer. For example, a blood sample that contains fewer than five CTCs may indicate a cancer that will be slower to spread; a blood sample with five or more CTCs may suggest a cancer more likely to progress quickly.

The test CellSearch measures the number of circulating tumor cells in a sample of blood. Many women affected by metastatic breast cancer undergo initial chemotherapy to fight the cancer. In most cases, the women will receive a specific treatment until the cancer begins to progress. Researchers hope that by measuring the CTC count before a women begins treatment and following it over time, they may be able to determine whether the treatment is working before symptoms of progression appear.

The latest Phase III study of Roche's cancer treatment Xeloda -- featuring 627 previously treated colorectal patients -- has reached its primary endpoint of progression-free survival.

Study results show that the chemotherapy combination XELOX (Xeloda plus oxaliplatin) was as effective as the combination FOLFOX-4 (infused 5-FU/leucovorin plus oxaliplatin) in delaying disease progression -- a result that will be used in worldwide submissions of the drug.

Xeloda, an oral chemotherapy agent that can be taken at home, is already used in previously untreated colorectal cancer patients. It has also been approved for treatment of early stage colon cancer and for breast cancer that has spread to other parts of the body.

Last week The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Taxotere (docetaxel) for the use in combination with cisplatin and fluorouracil prior to radiation therapy for the treatment of patients with inoperable, locally advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck.

A trial was conducted that included 358 patients with previously untreated, inoperable, locally advanced head and neck cancer. The patients were divided into two groups. One group received Taxotere in combination with cisplatin and fluorouracil and the other group received only cisplatin and fluorouracil. Chemotherapy was administered before radiation treatments. The patients that received the Taxotere experienced a longer survival time and a longer time to disease progression.

Steven Galson, M.D., director of FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research said "Today's approval will provide prescribers with a new treatment option that has been shown to help slow the spread of the disease and prolong patient's survival."

A type of Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) called mantle cell lymphoma accounts for about five to ten percent of all lymphomas. According to an article recently published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Velcade (bortezobib) is an effective treatment option for patients with mantle cell lymphoma that has stopped responding to prior treatments.

Velcade is an agent known as a proteasome inhibitor. Proteasome inhibitors are drugs that block the action of proteasomes, proteins found in virtually all cells that regulate several aspects of cellular activity. By blocking the activity of proteasomes it can lead to the death of cancer cells. Bortezobib is the first therapeutic proteasome inhibitor to be approved for use in the United States.

Researchers conducted a clinical trial to evaluate Velcade in the treatment of fifteen patients with mantle cell lymphoma that has recurred or progressed following prior therapies. Anticancer responses occurred in 33 percent of patients and after over 13 months follow up, over half the patients were still surviving.

Postmenopausal women with HER2 positive breast cancer that also have hormone receptor positive disease can benefit significantly when treatment involves adding Herceptin to the drug Arimidex. Combining these two drugs can lengthen the time women with advanced breast cancer live without their disease progressing.

The full findings were released on Monday at the European Society for Medical Oncology Congress in Istanbul. Roche Pharmaceuticals had announced back in May that Herceptin plus Arimidex combination had produced good results.

"The results are very positive" said Dr. Bella Kaufman of Israel's Chaim Sheba Medical Center who led the research. "In breast cancer, there are not many trials that show double progression-free survival."

When cancer originates in the liver it is called hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). In advanced HCC the cancer has spread to distant places in the body.

Biological pathways that are believed to be associated with cancer growth and spread can be targeted by Nexavar. A clinical trial was conducted consisting of 137 patients who have received no prior therapy and were unable to undergo the surgical removal of their cancer.

According to the article in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Nexavar may provide anticancer activity in some patients with liver cancer and is well tolerated.

Also, a measure of 18 genes that were identified can help predict who will benefit from the drug Nexavar. Future clinical trials are being planned to evaluate the use of Nexavar in advanced hepatocellular carcinoma patients.

New approaches are needed to treat advanced melanoma. Melanoma is the type of skin cancer that can be deadly if it travels to distant parts of the body. Survival is usually only 6-9 months for patients with metastatic melanoma.

Synta Pharmaceuticals says that an agent called STA-4783 when added to Taxol can double the progression free survival compared with using Taxol alone. STA-4783 can enhance the cancer killing effects of the immune system.

Researchers from 21 clinical sites in the US recently conducted a clinical trial to evaluate the addition of STA-4783 to Taxol in patients with Stage IV melanoma. Anticancer responses occurred in 15 percent of patients treated with STA-4783 and Taxol and only 4 percent had anticancer response from the Taxol alone.

Patients should ask their physicians about the clinical trials that are available for STA-4783 plus Taxol.

Reuters has just issued an update on Eli Lilly's announcement that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, FDA, approved the use of Gemzar in the treatment of recurrent ovarian cancer, questioning why the company omitted information that the FDA approval goes against the advice of an FDA advisory panel earlier this year that strongly recommended against approval of the drug for this use.

The FDA approved use of Gemzar in combination with carboplatin, in chemotherapy treatment for women with advanced ovarian cancer that has relapsed at least six months after initial therapy. The reason the FDA advisory panel voted against the approval of the use of Gemzar in combination with carboplatin, were due to questions raised about Lilly's trial data and the way the company conducted the 356-person clinical study. The panel was concerned that patients in the late-stage clinical trial failed to survive longer than those taking carboplatin alone. The FDA went ahead and approved it after the drug company provided additional information.

What needs to be made clear is that Gemzar does not seem to prolong the life of women with recurrent ovarian cancer, and the drug company is only stating that Gemzar provides longer progression-free survival than patients taking carboplatin alone. Progression-free survival measures the time before the disease recurs or worsens.

According to Reuters, when a spokesperson for Lilly was asked why they did not mention in its release that the FDA advisory panel had voted against the approval of Gemzar, or the drug's failure to prolong life, he said, "I'm not sure that needed to be the focus."

Past research has shown that folic acid, a synthetic form of folate, might be beneficial in protecting against the development of a number of cancers, including breast, prostate and colon cancers. New research is offering more in the way of substantial study results that show folic acid might be essential in preventing the progression of all cancers. And what an easy fix folate, or folic acid is, since it can be found in a number of whole foods or simply taken as a daily vitamin supplement.

According to nutritional experts, folate deficiency is the most common vitamin deficiency in the United States. Researchers continue to discover evidence of the link between folate deficiency, serum homocysteine elevations, and a number of cancers.

Folate is found in dark green leafy vegetables, legumes, citrus fruits, citrus juices, fortified breakfast cereals and grain products. The highest concentration of folate is found in black-eyed peas, spinach, great northern beans, asparagus and broccoli. Research found folic acid in supplements is better absorbed by the body than the folate naturally occurring in foods.