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This publication of Meniscus Limited is for health care professionals who are interested in emerging therapeutic strategies in oncology. Meniscus Limited provides educational activities and communications vehicles for health care professionals by health care professionals, many of which offer multidisciplinary continuing education (CE) credit for physicians, nurses, and pharmacists. Several of the back issues of Horizons in Cancer Therapeutics™ can be downloaded free at the Meniscus website and deal with such interesting topics as Immunotherapy, Angiogenesis, Genetic Predisposition, and Cell Cycle Inhibition. The articles in each issue are accompanied by excellent figures and charts to aid the reader.
Adolescent and Young Adult Symposium 2004 The focus of the Adolescent and Young Adult Symposium 2004 is “Sarcomas in Adolescents and Young Adults”. The symposium will be held at MD Anderson Cancer Center on April 16-17, 2004. We’ll report on the highlights of this meeting in our next issue.
Information for Oncology Nurses The Onconurse.com website provides free information for oncology nurses to share with their patients. Among the various “fact sheets” available are ones on Childhood Bone Sarcomas, Childhood Soft Tissue Sarcomas, Siblings of Children with Cancer, Cognitive Late Effects, and Complementary and Alternative Medicine.
The CancerActionNow.org website contains, among other things, useful information on compassionate and expanded use programs. The phrase “compassionate use” refers to using a scientifically-tested drug outside of a clinical trial and prior to FDA approval. Drug companies provide such access via an “expanded access program” or a “single patient access program”. Their webpages discussing “Getting a Developmental Drug” are also worth reading.
The premiere issue of HEAL will be published in summer 2004. HEAL will be the sister publication to CURE. According to the publisher, “HEAL will take readers to the heart and soul of living well when cancer has come into their lives. The powerful, in-depth writing will inspire, educate, and entertain.” Further, “HEAL explores the dynamic issues of survivorship. While CURE focuses on those newly diagnosed and in treatment, HEAL picks up when treatment ends and survivorship begins. It will be written with verve, hope, and power to say “life goes on” and there are ways to cope with the after effects of cancer—and to find the new person who emerges from the cancer experience.” Click here or call 800-210-2873 to sign up for a free subscription. Keep a look out for the Summer 2004 issue of CURE as it will have a feature article on sarcoma. The issue will also have a special focus on the young adult population that is going through and surviving cancer.
Angiogenesis Weekly and Angiogenesis and Cancer [Editor's Note: These publications are no longer available 10/2005] As a follow-up to the article on angiogenesis that appeared in the Q&A on Angiogenesis column of the first issue of ESUN, those of you who would like to follow the most recent news in angiogenesis can subscribe to the Angiogenesis Weekly® headlines at the TargetVEGF website. There is also an interesting tutorial, Understanding Angiogenesis, which is accompanied with numerous figures, in the Science Behind the News section of NCI's website.
More on the use of the Internet In the last issue of ESUN, we mentioned an article, The Impact of the Internet on Cancer Outcomes, in which Dr. Eysenbach provided a "conceptual framework summarizing the factors involved in a possible link between Internet use and cancer outcomes". A related article by Ms. Ziebland et al, How the Internet affects patients’ experience of cancer: a qualitative study (BMJ, VOLUME 328 6 MARCH 2004), discusses a wide variety of situations when people use the Internet, including: to seek reassurance that the doctor is doing the right tests, to prepare for results, to improve the value of the consultation, to gather information about the cancer, to seek advice about how to tell children, to contact online support groups, to seek second opinions, to make sense of the stages of the disease, to interpret what health professionals have said, to tackle isolation, to get information about treatment options and side effects, experimental treatments, research, and alternative and complementary treatments, and to find out what to take to hospital, what will happen, what it will be like, what to expect of recovery, how to identify and to prepare questions to ask the doctors. We believe that both of these articles are worth reading.
Genetic Testing for Cancer Susceptibility: The Promise and the Pitfalls In the “Future Directions and Challenges” section of their article, Genetic Testing for Cancer Susceptibility: The Promise and the Pitfalls (Nat Rev Cancer 4(3):235-241, 2004, Nature Publishing Group), Caryn Lerman and Alexandra Shields state, “It is possible that research on genetics and cancer-risk behaviours could ultimately lead to more effective forms of individualized cancer-prevention strategies; for example, diet, exercise, pharmacological interventions and frequency of screening can be tailored to each individual based on their genotype. … Despite the potential medical and psychosocial benefits of genetic testing for cancer susceptibility, the widespread application of this technology in practice faces several barriers. Concerns about privacy and genetic discrimination, particularly with respect to affordable health insurance, remain a deterrent for both patients and providers. The communication of cancer genetics research that identifies certain sub-populations must also be addressed with care, lest this information lead to sub-optimal care or increase the risk of discrimination for members of identified communities. Further development of provider guidelines for cancer-susceptibility testing, as well as improved provider education, are needed.” This interesting article contains useful charts and tables.
NCI’s Cancer Centers Program The National Cancer Institute’s Cancer Centers Program comprises more than 50 NCI-designated cancer centers engaged in multidisciplinary research to reduce cancer incidence, morbidity, and mortality. Three types of centers are supported: (1) Comprehensive Cancer Centers, which conduct programs in all three areas of research—basic research, clinical research, and prevention and control research and have programs in community outreach and education; (2) Clinical Cancer Centers, which conduct programs in clinical research; and (3) Cancer Centers, which conduct basic research or cancer control research, but do not have clinical oncology programs. A list of the NCI-designated cancer centers can be found by clicking here.
NCI’s Cancer Facts The National Cancer Institute maintains a collection of “Cancer Facts” sheets that give information on a wide range of cancer topics. The fact sheets are free, downloadable in PDF format, and are updated and revised on a regular basis. Click here to access a list of the Cancer Facts.
Informed Consent™: A Guide to the Risks and Benefits of Volunteering for Clinical Trials This book, by Ken Getz and Deborah Borfitz, is written to aid patients, their family and advocates in making informed decisions before volunteering for a clinical trial. It is a 300-page guide including topics such as: your rights as a volunteer, and how to protect them, a detailed review of the clinical trial process, how to determine if a clinical trial is right for you, how to find and evaluate clinical trials, special considerations for vulnerable populations including children, prisoners and the elderly, and what to do when things go wrong. It also contains useful and practical reference information in the appendix.
V1N2 ESUN Copyright © 2004 Liddy Shriver Sarcoma Initiative.
V1N2 ESUN Copyright © 2004 Liddy Shriver Sarcoma Initiative.
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