DUARTE, Calif., June 2, 2009 — City of Hope researchers are presenting data from more than 30 studies on cancer biology, treatment and survivorship at the 2009 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in Orlando, running from May 29 through June 2.
Research highlights include:
“Dasatinib plus capecitabine (Cap) for progressive advanced breast cancer (ABC): Phase I study CA180004”
Abstract# 1012
Phase I clinical trials of a combination therapy for advanced breast cancer demonstrate safety and may develop into a potential new option for patients. Dasatinib, approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat chronic myeloid leukemia, has shown activity in other studies against breast cancer cells. Capecitabine was approved by the FDA for the treatment of breast cancer. George Somlo, M.D., professor, director of breast oncology in the Department of Medical Oncology & Therapeutics Research and co-director of City of Hope’s Breast Cancer Program, is the lead author of this Bristol-Myers Squibb-sponsored study, and sought to determine the side effects associated with treatment and the maximum dose patients could tolerate in order to establish recommended dosages for continuing phase II trials. The trial enrolled 31 patients. To date, 20 patients have continued treatment for six weeks and nine patients for 12 weeks. The most frequently reported side effects were nausea, fatigue, headache, vomiting and pleural effusion.
“We found that combination treatment with dasatinib and capecitabine was well tolerated and few patients required dose reduction in later stages of their treatment cycle,” said Somlo. “We will continue with the phase II efficacy portion of the trial at doses of capecitabine 1000 plus dasatinib 100 QD.”
“Differential survival after prostate cancer by race: Role of NCI-designated comprehensive cancer centers.”
Abstract# 6520
Prostate cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in men. Incidence and death rates are declining overall, but a significant gap still exists between Caucasian and African-American men in prostate cancer mortality. While the cause currently remains unclear, researchers have identified several factors that may impact the health disparity such as socio-economic status, different underlying biology and response to treatment. City of Hope research indentifies another possible factor that may reduce the mortality gap. Can-Lan Sun, Ph.D., assistant research professor and Smita Bhatia, M.D., chair and professor, Division of Population Sciences, City of Hope, and their team examined data from the Los Angeles Cancer Surveillance Program and focused on 18,790 men diagnosed with prostate cancer between 1998 and 2003. Analysis revealed that treatment at a National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center (NCICCC) was associated with lower prostate cancer mortality, and lower overall mortality. African-American patients were less likely to seek treatment at an NCICCC. There are currently 40 NCICCCs around the country.
“When we adjusted for socio-demographic, tumor biology and treatment-related factors, we found that African-American patients and Caucasian patients have comparable overall and prostate-specific survival,” said Bhatia. “We need to better understand what may be keeping African-American patients from seeking out care from NCI-designated comprehensive cancer centers.”
“Geriatric assessment of older adults with cancer: Baseline data from a 500 patient multicenter study”
Abstract# 9546
Cancer is primarily a disease of aging and the U.S. population is aging. It is generally recognized that chronological age tells relatively little about an older adult’s “functional age.” Oncologists need a comprehensive measure of the “functional age” of a given geriatric patient in order to quantify the risk of adjuvant chemotherapy toxicity based on factors other than chronological age and to develop interventions to decrease this risk. No such tool exists today.
A team of physicians from City of Hope, University of Rochester, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Case Western University, Wake Forest University and Yale University are working to establish a better measure than chronological age to evaluate patients for treatment. The study reports on a cancer-specific geriatric assessment (GA) that evaluates factors other than age which can predict morbidity and mortality in older adults. Across the seven participating institutions, 500 cancer patients between the ages of 65-91 completed the GA prior to the start of a new chemotherapy session. The mean time to complete the GA was 27 minutes, with 90 percent of the participating patients reporting that they were satisfied with the length of the survey and 70 percent were able to complete the survey without assistance.
“The geriatric assessment we developed is largely self-administered and can help identify important issues and problems that are not captured in a routine history and physical. Our next step in this ongoing study is to determine whether this cancer-specific geriatric assessment can predict which older adults are vulnerable to complications from chemotherapy,” said Arti Hurria, M.D., director of City of Hope’s Cancer and Aging Research Program and lead author of the study. “We have demonstrated that this assessment can be simply integrated into standard care.”