On this page, Cancer.Net offers news for patients about the cancer care and treatment advances announced during the American Society of Clinical Oncology's (ASCO) Annual Meeting each year.
The ASCO Annual Meeting is the premier educational and scientific event where physicians, researchers, and other health-care professionals gather to discuss the latest in cancer care. News announced during each meeting includes the latest findings from cancer clinical trials, including new drug studies, that could change current standards of care. Cancer.Net's information helps people with cancer, and their families and friends, put into context such results and other news that is announced during the meeting.
The next ASCO Annual Meeting will be held May 29 - June 2, 2009 in Orlando, Florida. The 44th ASCO Annual Meeting was held May 30 – June 3, 2008. For information on ASCO Annual Meeting Patient Advocate Programs, please email patientadvocates@asco.org.
Using the drop-down menu below, learn more about news from ASCO's Annual Meetings since 2002. You can select a specific year and/or a specific topic, such as a type of cancer. Selecting "All" will take you to a complete list of articles that appear under all categories.
In addition to the highlighted studies below, thousands of scientific abstracts are released each year at the ASCO Annual Meeting. To search the entire collection of meeting abstracts, visit ASCO’s website.
Researchers analyzed tumors from 587 patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (cancer that has spread) for a mutated (changed) KRAS gene to determine which patients will benefit the most from treatment with a combination of chemotherapy and cetuximab (Erbitux).
In a study of 1,125 patients from 30 countries, researchers looked at adding cetuximab (Erbitux) to chemotherapy with cisplatin (Platinol) and vinorelbine (Navelbine) for patients newly diagnosed with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
Researchers looked at the long-term effectiveness of treatment with a single dose of chemotherapy compared with radiation therapy, the current standard of care, for men with early-stage testicular cancer.
Researchers looked at adding the targeted therapy bevacizumab (Avastin) to chemotherapy with docetaxel (Taxotere) for women newly diagnosed with locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer (breast cancer that has spread outside of the breast and nearby lymph nodes).
Researchers looked at whether zoledronic acid (Zometa) lowers the risk of breast cancer recurrence (cancer that comes back after treatment) for premenopausal women with early-stage breast cancer.
In a large clinical trial of adjuvant therapy (treatment after surgery) for early-stage pancreatic cancer, researchers evaluated whether treatment with gemcitabine (Gemzar) helped patients live longer.
Dutch researchers compared the use of vaginal brachytherapy (radiation therapy given internally, using implants) to external-beam radiation therapy (radiation given from a machine outside the body) to treat uterine cancer that has a higher risk of recurrence (cancer that comes back after treatment).
Researchers evaluated whether treatment with the targeted therapy drug everolimus (Certican) could slow the growth and spread of renal cell carcinoma (a type of kidney cancer) when other targeted therapies, such as sunitinib (Sutent) and/or sorafenib (Nexavar), stopped working.
Canadian researchers performed a genetic analysis of frozen, banked tumor samples from 133 patients with early-stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) to identify a set of genes that could predict whether a patient would benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy (treatment after surgery).
Researchers looked at the connection between vitamin D levels at the time of breast cancer diagnosis and the occurrence of metastases (areas where the cancer has spread) and survival in 512 women diagnosed with breast cancer between 1989 and 1995.
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