A Year of Major Advances in Cancer Cited

But government funding cuts threaten continued research progress, oncologists report

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter
Friday, December 8, 2006; 12:00 AM

Copyright © 2006 ScoutNews LLC. All rights reserved.

FRIDAY, Dec. 8 (HealthDay News) -- There were important advances in the detection and treatment of cancer this year -- more people than ever are now surviving the disease -- but cuts in government cancer research dollars could slow progress in the fight.

Those are the conclusions of new research released Friday by the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).

The report, Clinical Cancer Advances 2006: Major Research Advances in Treatment, Prevention, and Screening, identified six important advances in cancer research for the year, including five new drugs that prolong life.

But, despite such progress, ASCO executives are upset at recent cuts in federal funding for cancer research. To keep pace with inflation, the group is calling for a minimum annual funding increase of at least 5 percent both from and for the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH).

"In the last four decades, the investment in clinical cancer research has yielded major progress in prevention, detection and treatment of a wide variety of cancers," Dr. Robert F. Ozols, chairman of ASCO's Cancer Communications Committee, said during a teleconference.

Ozols, a researcher at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, noted that there are now 10 million cancer survivors in the United States, up from 3.5 million in 1970.

"For the first time in 70 years, the number of deaths in the United States due to cancer declined in 2003," he said. "In addition, we are treating cancer better and with less toxicity."

The ASCO report includes only the most important developments in the way cancer is understood or impacts patient care and survival, Ozols said. The most important advances in cancer treatment in the past year, according to the report, are:

• The HPV vaccine, Gardasil. As a preventive against human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, the cause of most cervical cancer, the vaccine has the potential to reduce the burden of cervical cancer, which is diagnosed in almost 500,000 women around the world each year. In addition, a 2006 study found the vaccine was also effective in preventing HPV-related vaginal and vulvar precancers.

• Targeted therapies that improve survival and response rates for hard-to-treat cancers. These include:

  For kidney cancer, the investigational drug temsirolimus (CCI-779), which improved survival when used as a first-line treatment for people with advanced, high-risk kidney cancer, and sunitinib (Sutent), which improved progression-free survival and response rates.

  For advanced breast cancer treatment, there is now Lapatinib (Tykerb). For leukemia patients, Dasatinib (Sprycel), which is effective in those who are resistant to imatinib. And last year, cetuximab (Erbitux) arrived, the first new treatment for head-and-neck cancer in 45 years.

• Significant advances in genetic tests that predict the outcomes of people with lung cancer.