Each year, discoveries in clinical trials (research studies involving people) help doctors and researchers find better ways to prevent, diagnose, and treat cancer. Editors from the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) explain the biggest advances this year in the report, Clinical Cancer Advances 2009: Major Research Advances in Cancer Treatment, Prevention, and Screening.

Highlights this year in cancer research

Personalized medicine and targeted therapy, new standards of care, and cancer prevention and screening emerged as top highlights from the report.

Personalized medicine and targeted therapy. Personalized medicine involves selecting treatments based on a person’s unique genetic makeup and the genetic makeup of the tumor. One aspect of personalized medicine is a targeted therapy—a treatment that targets faulty genes or proteins that contribute to cancer growth and development. Here are some of the top advances from clinical trials in personalized medicine and targeted therapy:

• A breast cancer drug helped some patients with stomach cancer live longer. The targeted therapy, trastuzumab (Herceptin), was effective for patients with HER2-positive stomach cancer. A HER2-positive tumor shows high levels of the human epidermal growth factor receptor two (HER2) protein, which causes cancer cells to grow. Approximately 25% of stomach tumors are HER2-positive.
  
  
• A cancer treatment vaccine reduced the risk of recurrence (return of cancer) and improved survival for patients with high-risk neuroblastoma, a cancer of the nervous system that is usually found in children. This vaccine is a new way of treating children with this type of cancer.
  
  
• Adding a targeted therapy to chemotherapy for advanced head and neck cancer (cancer that has grown and spread) helped patients live longer. The drug, cetuximab (Erbitux), works by blocking the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), another tumor protein that helps cancer cells grow.
  
  
• A targeted therapy slowed the growth of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in patients with a mutation (change) in the EGFR gene. However, the drug, gefitinib (Iressa), was not as effective as standard chemotherapy in patients without the EGFR mutation.

Read more facts about personalized cancer medicine and understanding targeted treatments.

New standards of care. Results of clinical trials this year helped doctors establish standards of care for some types of cancer. A standard of care (also called best practice or standard therapy) is a treatment that is widely accepted by experts as appropriate for a type of cancer. Here are some of the top advances:

• A chemotherapy combination for advanced biliary duct cancer (gallbladder and bile duct cancers) helped patients live longer. The clinical trial studied the combination of the drugs gemcitabine (Gemzar) and cisplatin (Platinol) for people whose cancer spread beyond the biliary duct.
  
  
• Treatment with a maintenance therapy after standard chemotherapy helped patients with NSCLC live longer. The drug, pemetrexed (Alimta), provides a new treatment option for some people with lung cancer that has spread outside of the lung. A maintenance therapy is a treatment given to help keep cancer from coming back after it is no longer detected after the first treatment, or treatment given to keep an advanced cancer from growing or spreading.
  
  
• Radiation therapy after surgery to remove the prostate reduced the risk of the cancer spreading and helped men with early-stage prostate cancer live longer, compared with surgery alone. This discovery changed the way early-stage prostate cancer is treated in men.

Cancer prevention and screening. Research studies this year also helped doctors and patients better understand the benefits and risks of some tools for screening and preventing cancer. Here are some examples:

• The results of two large clinical trials brought new questions about the value of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) tests in prostate cancer screening. Learn more about the controversy and tips on talking with the doctor about PSA screening.
  
  
• A study found that women who have completed ovarian cancer treatment may not need regular CA125 blood tests. CA125 is a tumor marker (a substance found at higher than normal levels in the blood, urine, or body tissues of some people with cancer) for ovarian cancer and other types of cancer. Starting treatment early for ovarian cancer recurrence based on CA125 protein levels alone did not increase survival, compared with delaying treatment until a woman has symptoms of a recurrence.
  
  
• The human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine Gardasil was shown to reduce the risk of HPV infection and cervical cancer in women aged 25 to 45 who have not been previously infected with the HPV strains targeted by the vaccine.

In addition, researchers made significant discoveries and progress in the following types of cancers:

Brain cancer

• The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved bevacizumab (Avastin) for glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer.

Breast cancer

• In older women with early-stage breast cancer, the standard combination chemotherapy was found to be more effective than the drug capecitabine (Xeloda) alone.

Kidney cancer

• The FDA also approved bevacizumab and everolimus (Afinitor) for the treatment of advanced kidney cancer.

Melanoma

• A vaccine helped patients with melanoma (a type of skin cancer) that has spread to other parts of the body live longer. Patients who received a specialized treatment vaccine with interleukin-2 (IL-2; a standard treatment for advanced melanoma) lived almost five months longer than patients who received only IL-2.

What this means for patients

Each year brings several new advances in cancer care, and it can be difficult to keep up with the news on the latest advances. Talk with your doctor to learn more about which advances may help you, and visit Cancer.Net for more information about preventing, diagnosing, and treating cancer.

About Clinical Cancer Advances 2009

The annual report was developed by an 18-member editorial board of leading oncologists. The editors reviewed research studies published in peer-reviewed, scientific journals and the early results of research presented at major scientific meetings from October 2008 to September 2009.

To learn more about highlights this year in cancer research, check out this podcast or video, or read the full report, Clinical Cancer Advances 2009: Major Research Advances in Cancer Treatment, Prevention and Screening.

More Information

ASCO Annual Meeting—News for Patients

Clinical Trials

Medical News: How to Know if It’s Accurate

Clinical Cancer Advances 2008: Major Research Advances in Cancer Treatment, Prevention, and Screening

Last Updated: November 09, 2009