Spreading the Word at ASCO and AACR Conferences 7.16.11
American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO)
In June, Clearity hosted an educational event and presented a research poster at the ASCO conference, a meeting that calls together leading oncologists to update them on the latest cancer research. Both events received a receptive audience and encouragingly, the front page of The Wall Street Journal on June 5th featured coverage of the conference focusing on the field of personalized medicine in cancer treatments, particularly on the use of molecular profiling. "A pattern is developing at an accelerated pace where we are able to match genetic information about a tumor to a new agent and get results," reports John Mendelsohn, president of MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX.
During the conference, Clearity hosted an educational event at theWit Hotel, called "Accelerating Progress Toward Individualized Treatment for Ovarian Cancer." The packed event featured speakers Beth Y. Karlan, MD, Ursula A. Matulonis, MD, and J. Tate Thigpen, MD and was generously supported by Abbott, Sanofi-aventis and Nektar. The following day, the Clearity team presented a research poster on the expression of biomarkers associated with treatment responsiveness in matched primary and recurrent ovarian specimens, available here.
Some other exciting research presented at ASCO included new findings about drugs used to treat ovarian cancer. Promising drugs on the horizon include Avastin, Olaparib, Iniparib, Aflibercept, EC145, and NKTR-102. Several of these drugs target specific biomarkers in various types of ovarian tumors, and all of them have exhibited benefits for specific types of patients (platinum-resistant, for example). Summary available here.
American Association for Cancer Research (AACR)
Earlier in April, The Clearity Foundation presented its research based on the expression of biomarkers in ovarian tumors at the American Association for Cancer Research. A summary of the presentation can be found here. More details about the biomarker study can be found at this link.