Among the highlights in the Feb. 2000 Cancer Watch issue are: Angiogenesis Inhibitor: Squalamine, Transcriptional Regulation by Autoinhibition, Cell Death Regulation, DNA Repair in Cancer, Hormone Replacement Therapy and Breast Cancer Risk, Docetaxel -Doxorubicin Combination in Advanced Breast Cancer Treatment, Radical Prostate Surgery Causes Urinary and Sexual Dysfunction, Powerful Microarray Technology Distinguishes Two Distinct Diseases in a Common Cancer, New Therapy Thwarts Chronic Leukemia, Timed Therapy Works for Refractory Leukemia, Retreatment of Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma With Rituximab, Targeting Tumor Cells for Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, Rituximab and CHOP Synergy in Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, To Smoke or not to Smoke ...is not a Question, Clinical Trials: Where Do We Stand?.

• Another Angiogenesis Inhibitor: Squalamine
• Transcriptional Regulation by Autoinhibition
• Cell Death Regulation
• DNA Repair in Cancer

• It is found that the combined use of estrogen and progestin among postmenopausal women increases breast cancer risk over estrogen use alone.

• Weekly administration of docetaxel in combination with doxorubicin is a well-tolerated and effective regimen for the treatment of advanced breast cancer, according to preliminary results of a phase II trial presented at the 10th International Congress on Anti-Cancer Treatment (ICACT) in Paris, France, on Jan. 31 – Feb. 3, 2000.

• A new population-based study suggests that radical prostatectomy is associated with significant erectile dysfunction and some loss in bladder control. This information will be helpful to physicians and patients who are faced with difficult treatment options.

• Current tumor classification based on appearance of the cells may not identify subgroups that are distinctly different on molecular analysis and may have significantly different clinical outcome. Such molecular heterogeneity has been discovered in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma that explains why some of the patients with seemingly the same disease respond to therapy and have prolonged survival while the rest succumb to the disease

• Preliminary results suggest a dramatic breakthrough in the treatment of chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML). The significance of this new oral agent extends beyond CML, however. One of the goals of cancer research has been to identify differences between cancer cells and normal cells so that these differences can be targeted with more effective, less toxic treatments. The discovery of this new treatment is one of the first examples of translating this concept into reality.

• Refractory leukemia patients, especially those with poor cytogenetics, seem to respond to timed, sequential chemotherapy.

Leukemia Society of America Changes Name to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

Retreatment of Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma With Rituximab

• The general experience with chemotherapy in cancer is that retreatment with the same agent produces a weaker response. A trial of patients with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) re-treated with rituximab, a human/murine (mouse) monoclonal antibody, however, shows a substantial portion to respond as favorably as with initial treatment.

• New biologically directed therapies are targeting tumor cells for Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma (NHL) patients without affecting normal cells, according to two reports presented at the 41st Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology in New Orleans.

• Separately, both CHOP chemotherapy and the monclonal antibody rituximab are known to have activity in low-grade lymphomas. A trial of the two combined shows synergy in non-Hodgkins lymphoma with high response rates and prolonged decline in tumor size.

• If, for every word written against smoking there were one single person who really had stopped – there would be no smokers in this world. Everybody in the Western World recognizes that tobacco-related diseases are the biggest preventable health problem of this century; yet, adolescents and young enjoy the privilege of youth that nothing can harm them anyway (from not wearing seatbelts to smoking!) and the imperceptible increase in Asian and developing countries affluence manifests itself in higher cigarette consumption per capitem. In Europe, between 25 and 30% of all cancer deaths are due to tobacco smoking. The WHO estimates that about one third of the global population, some 1.l billion adults, are smokers. This number is expected to increase and the worldwide death toll is already greater than from HIV, tuberculosis, maternal mortality, motor vehicle accidents, suicide and homicide combined.

• In contemporary oncology, the conduct and evaluation of clinical trials has become a precise ritual, with exact and rigid guidelines. Any attempts to bypass or short-cut the established system is considered unlawful or at least unethical; official recognition and acceptance of a drug or procedure into conventional use depends on adherence of a set of strict rules. This is expected to ensure the safety and efficacy of novel therapeutic modalities - but does it?

• A glossary of unfamiliar words and jargons in Cancer Watch, February 2000.