A new direction for breast cancer research?
Breast cancer researchers have been challenged to re-focus their efforts into the search for a hormonal treatment that could be given in early adulthood, potentially reducing women's breast cancer risk for life. Epidemiologist Valerie Beral (University of Oxford) told the recent European Breast Cancer Conference: "That's where we'll get the big wins."... MORE

EJC INTERVIEW: Obesity 'increases risk of breast cancer recurrence'
Many studies to date have suggested that women who are obese at the time of breast cancer diagnosis have a higher risk of recurrence and related mortality compared to leaner women. Jennifer Ligibel (Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts) suggests that obese women may be receiving insufficient doses of chemotherapy for their weight... MORE

EJC News Focus – May 2012
Advances in the treatment of early breast cancer have revolutionised the outlook for many patients. But an important minority - around one in three - still progress to the advanced stage, which is treatable, but almost never curable. Women and men with advanced breast cancer have an illness associated with significant symptoms and one for which, in contrast to the early setting, there are few recognised therapeutic standards. An international, multidisciplinary group has now produced the first consensus guidelines, and they were presented at the European Breast Cancer Conference (Vienna, Austria; 21-24 March 2012).

Lead author Fatima Cardoso (Champalimaud Cancer Center, Lisbon, Portugal) explains why she strongly believes that widespread implementation of these guidelines will lead to better survival outcomes in advanced breast cancer.

EJC EUROFILE: Should we welcome the EC initiative to speed up access to new medicines?
The European Commission has taken the first steps to reduce the time taken for national decisions on drug pricing and reimbursement in order to speed up patient access to innovative medicines. But cancer patient groups are concerned the move raises as many questions as it answers... MORE

EJC INTERVIEW: The need for scientific input into policy
Cornelis van de Velde (Leiden University Medical Centre, the Netherlands) took over the presidency of ECCO on January 1st, 2012. He has extensive experience in oncology healthcare and cancer group management and is a former president of the European Society for Surgical Oncology (ESSO). On becoming president of ECCO, he stresses the challenges facing oncology professionals ‘in treating an increasingly ageing and diverse population, especially in an era of targeted therapies'... MORE

EJC News Focus – April 2012
Scientific advances in breast cancer which will not only improve outcomes but also make a real difference to patients' experiences of care, were presented at the 8th European Breast Cancer Conference (EBCC-8) in Vienna, Austria (21-24 March 2012). Highlights included a study of ultrasound-guided surgery, which led to a significant decrease in re-excisions, mastectomies and extra radiotherapy (compared with standard palpation-guided excisions); and new data on subcutaneous trastuzumab, which gave the same benefits as the drug given intravenously, while being more convenient for both patients and clinicians, saving time and resources all round.

In this month's EJC News Focus, EJC's Breast Cancer Editor, Kathy Pritchard (Sunnybrook Regional Cancer Center, Toronto, Ontario) discusses these and other key presentations.

EJC EUROFILE: Science Europe is launched, but questions go unanswered
A new body representing European researchers is to start work in Brussels this year. Comprised of Europe's largest national research and funding organisations, Science Europe aims to establish the scientific community as a voice in EU research policymaking, alongside governments and the European Commission. However, its birth leaves a question mark over the scientific activities funded by the two bodies it was created from: the European Science Foundation and Eurohorcs... MORE

EJC INTERVIEW: Fifty years of opposition to smoking
It is 50 years since the launch of ‘Smoking and Health’ by the UK’s Royal College of Physicians (RCP). This groundbreaking report, based on the earlier published evidence of Sir Richard Doll and Sir Austin Bradford Hill, established in the public mind the impact of smoking on health. But John Britton (Nottingham University, UK), Chair of the RCP tobacco advisory group, stresses that smoking is still the biggest avoidable killer in the UK ... MORE

EJC News Focus – March 2012
EORTC has pioneered multidisciplinary cancer research and pan-European collaboration for half a century; on this 50th anniversary, Director General Françoise Meunier discusses the challenges faced today by clinical researchers in cancer. She outlines key changes needed in the ongoing revision of the Clinical Trials Directive - in particular, the need for a risk-based approach to trials, and for Member States to harmonise their implementation of the Directive - and she describes the essential features of a suggested new partnership between academia and industry. She also covers the role EORTC will continue to play in developing the early careers of investigators.

More light, less heat, in the breast screening debate?
Debate about the benefits and harms of breast screening programmes, which has rumbled on for decades, has entered a new phase of scrutiny on both sides of the Atlantic. In the UK, an independent review of the National Health Service (NHS)’s breast screening programme is due to report in the next few months... MORE

EJC EUROFILE: Cancer care suffers as Eurozone spending cuts bite
As Eurozone countries wrestle with continuing financial crisis, signs are emerging that care for cancer patients is being adversely affected. In 2011, Greece, Portugal, Ireland and Italy were forced to take a series of austere measures in order to stave off bankruptcy and qualify for bailout loans from the European Union and International Monetary Fund. Under the loan terms, each country agreed to cut its spending on healthcare in 2012 and beyond... MORE

EJC News Focus – February 2012
The largest ever screening trial in lung cancer reported last year that screening with low-dose CT reduces mortality from the disease. This impressive trial, from the US’ National Lung Screening Trial Research Team, demonstrated that CT scans could detect both early stage and advanced disease. So - does that mean that lung screening is set to become a reality in many countries? Not in the short term, says EJC’s Lung Cancer Editor, Mary O’Brien (Royal Marsden Hospital, Sutton, Surrey, UK). She told Helen Saul that other ongoing trials will take between 5 and 10 years to report, and that these results will be needed to answer outstanding questions before expensive screening programmes can be considered. But in the meantime, she applauds the trial and says it holds important messages for both clinicians and patients.

EJC EUROFILE: A second chance to influence the Clinical Trials Directive
The European Commission has given its clearest indication yet of likely changes to the EU law governing clinical trials. Academia and the medical community is mobilising to make its voice heard as the Commission moves to fill in the detail... MORE

EJC INTERVIEW: Elderly breast cancer patients 'risk treatment discrimination'
Women diagnosed with breast cancer late in life "are at risk of being under-treated, which is leading to worse breast cancer outcomes than among younger women." Lead author Christos Markopoulos (Athens University Medical School) discusses the implications of the new research... MORE

EJC News Focus – January 2012
The combination of targeted agents in hormone-sensitive breast cancer may be the way ahead; results from the CLEOPATRA and BOLERO-2 trials, presented at the recent San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (Dec 6-10, 2011), suggest that some combinations may dramatically increase progression-free survival.

Also at the meeting, several studies reported on the role of bisphosphonates in the adjuvant setting, which may resolve previous confusion about which women will benefit.

In this month's EJC News Focus, Rob Coleman (University of Sheffield, UK), who was at the meeting, discusses the implications of the new data with Helen Saul. MORE

Will 2012 be a turning point for clinical trials research?
Reports of the death of the clinical trial in Europe may be greatly exaggerated, but the region is losing out to competition from overseas, and intervention is urgently needed. Helen Saul looks at ideas for change discussed at a forum at the recent ECCO meeting in Stockholm... MORE

EJC EUROFILE: Reduced commitment to cancer in new IMI agenda?
A revised strategic research agenda has been released for the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI), the EU scheme to speed up the process of drug development in Europe. Cancer remains a priority, but there is no assurance of further dedicated calls for proposals in this area. Saffina Rana reports that it leaves cancer research to compete with other disease areas for funding... MORE

EJC News Focus – December 2011
Manuela Schmidinger (Vienna, Austria), says that improved understanding of the molecular background of renal cell cancer has led to a flurry of new agents and, indeed, a paradigm shift in treatment. She discusses the new options clinicians have and the tools available for helping them decide which to use. MORE

New approaches to breast cancer treatment
Diverse new approaches to the treatment of breast cancer were presented at the 2011 European Multidisciplinary Cancer Congress (Stockholm, Sweden; 23-27 September 2011). Possibly the simplest advance came from a large UK trial, which demonstrated that altering the schedule of established therapies could have a dramatic effect on local recurrence rates. At the other end of the spectrum, an innovative antibody-guided agent could become the first in a new class of cancer drugs... MORE

EJC EUROFILE: Negotiations begin on new European research programme
The EU's next multi-billion research programme, starting in 2014, is expected to allocate in excess of 370 million Euros to cancer activities. With political negotiations over the content and funding due to start in December 2011, Europe's cancer organisations have put forward essential areas for funding as well as the reform of current EU funding practices... MORE

EJC News Focus – November 2011
Many studies presented at the 2011 European Multidisciplinary Cancer Congress (Stockholm, Sweden - 23-27 September, 2011) take us a step closer to the reality of personalised medicine and an individual treatment regimen for each patient. Breast cancer has been in the vanguard of progress; once considered a single disease, it is now thought to comprise 8, or even 12 subtypes, many of which are treated differently.

This stratification has been partly responsible for steadily improving outcomes, and at the opening session, Gordon Mills (MD Anderson Centre, Texas, USA) said this success demonstrates the potential of the approach. But he also said that personalised medicine is more challenging than we're acknowledging and it could be a long time before it becomes broadly applicable. MORE

New hope for patients with advanced prostate cancer
A first-in-class alpha-pharmaceutical, which could change practice in advanced prostate cancer, was one of several new agents for the disease highlighted at the 2011 European Multidisciplinary Cancer Congress (Stockholm, Sweden (23-27 September 2011). A phase III trial on radium-223 chloride (Alpharadin) was stopped early after a pre-planned interim analysis demonstrated an improvement in overall survival surpassing the pre-defined threshold... MORE

EJC EUROFILE: European Academy gets to work
The European Academy of Cancer Sciences was launched in September 2009 to provide evidence to policymakers. While it has been slow to start work, releasing its first advice in 2011, policymakers see a niche for its specialist evidence on cancer policy. Initiated under the auspices of ECCO, the European Academy of Cancer Sciences (EACS) is an independent body that has set itself the task of becoming a reference point for advice on decisions regarding cancer in Europe... MORE

EJC INTERVIEW: Positive results from BOLERO-2
The findings of the BOLERO-2 study were described as "the most important advance in breast cancer since trastuzumab". Lead author José Baselga, discusses the implications... MORE

EJC News Focus – October 2011
Healthcare costs associated with cancer are spiralling out of control in developed countries, say the authors of a Commission published by The Lancet Oncology (2011; 12:933-80).

Ageing populations are a key factor; age is the single biggest risk factor for cancer and by 2040, between 25 and 32% of the developed world will be aged 65 years or older. Increasingly expensive technological innovations are becoming available, and, further, this is all set against the background of a shift in cultural attitudes. Demand from the general public for these high end expensive therapies is rising, along with increasing political willingness to deliver.

The Commission was launched at the 2011 European Multidisciplinary Cancer Congress in Stockholm and in this month's EJC News Focus, lead author Richard Sullivan (King's College Integrated Cancer Centre, London UK) explains why the situation is unsustainable. MORE

Advances in personalised medicine
Personalised medicine, set to be one of the key themes at the forthcoming ECCO-ESMO 2011 European Multidisciplinary Cancer Congress (Stockholm, Sweden; 23-27 September, 2011), has made significant progress in the past few months. Data presented at the recent ASCO Annual Meeting suggests that it is feasible to test every patient's tumour for driver mutations, that patients may benefit immediately, and that the process is a necessary part of developing drugs for the future... MORE

Swiss-US celebration of achievements in breast cancer
Two EJC stalwarts had their contributions to medical science recognised in a double celebration earlier this year. Professor Hans-Jörg Senn (Tumor and Breast Center ZeTUP, St Gallen, Switzerland) and Professor V Craig Jordan (Georgetown University, Washington DC, USA) were honoured, respectively, in the US and Switzerland... MORE

EJC News Focus – September 2011
Personalised medicine is set to be one of the key themes at the forthcoming European Multidisciplinary Congress (Stockholm, Sweden; 23-27 September, 2011).

In this month's EJC News Focus, Scientific Co-Chair Anne-Lise Børresen-Dale discusses progress made so far, but also explores the limitations of current approaches.

One fundamental problem, she says, is that genomic analysis is conducted on tissue samples removed by surgery, rather than on cancer cells in vivo. She outlines a vision for the future in which a patient's cancer genome could be elucidated from a simple scan. MORE

EUROFILE: The knock-on effects of recognition?
On 24 March 2011, medical oncology became a recognised professional qualification in 18 of the 27 countries of the European Union. While this marks a legal milestone in the 30 year campaign to establish the recognition and free movement of medical oncologists around Europe, the nine nations opting-out represent a large proportion of Europe in which foreign oncologists may require intensive periods of re-training... MORE

EJC INTERVIEW. The new one-stop-shop for cancer information: ecancerHub.eu
Gordon McVie introduces ecancerHub, a new website aimed at giving patients, scientists, clinicians and policy makers across Europe easy access to cancer information. It is due to be unveiled at the forthcoming ECCO Congress in Stockholm... MORE

Leukaemia news from ASCO
Novel combinations for traditionally difficult-to-treat leukaemias were presented at ASCO. One involved an interesting approach to induction chemotherapy in acute myeloid leukaemia patients aged between 62 and 86 years. This age group is the focus of much current investigation to find less toxic regimens than those tolerated by younger patients... MORE

EJC News Focus – August 2011
This months' EJC News Focus explores why researchers need to start using a common language to describe toxicities in phase I trials. The principles underlying early research were devised decades ago to evaluate toxicity associated with chemotherapy. But novel targeted therapies often have quite different side effect profiles, and may be taken for months or years on end. In order to ensure that the agents most likely to succeed are selected for further research, Jean-Charles Soria, EJC's Drug Development Editor, says it is time for a new consensus on how to assess toxicities. MORE

Ipilimumab heralds new era of immune modulatory agents in cancer
At ASCO's 47^th Annual Meeting (Chicago, 2011), the phase III study of ipilimumab in the treatment of advanced metastatic melanoma garnered inordinate interest. The data from study 024 showed that patients treated first line with ipilimumab in combination with dacarbazine (DTIC) had greater overall survival than those on the solo standard treatment. At three years, approximately 21 % of patients were still alive in the ipilimumab/DTIC arm compared with 12 % in the DTIC arm.

"It's the long term follow-up that gives us real confidence in these results," said Jedd Wolchok, from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center... MORE

EJC EUROFILE: IMI and C-Path agree to pool efforts
Europe's Innovative Medicine's Initiative (IMI) and the Critical Path Institute (C-Path) in the USA are to develop a scientific consensus on research and testing methods in order to accelerate the development of targeted drug therapies. The agreement, established in June 2011, follows a European Commission commitment to fund research into supporting personalised medicine in current and future EU research programmes and improve the regulatory environment... MORE

EJC News Focus – July 2011
The July issue of EJC News Focus is an interview with our editor-in-chief, melanoma expert Alexander Eggermont. Advances in the treatment of melanoma stole the limelight at the recent ASCO Annual meeting; after decades of unsuccessful research, data was presented showing that two drugs with completely different mechanisms of action – ipilimumab and vemurafenib – could improve overall survival in advanced disease. EJC News Focus explores these and the other developments in the pipeline that look set to usher in a new era in melanoma research. MORE

Difficult times for large adjuvant trials?
As delegates gathered for this year's ASCO Annual Meeting, some may have been remembering the drama of 6 years ago, when trials suggested that the addition of adjuvant trastuzumab to standard chemotherapy could cut the recurrence rate in breast cancer by almost 50%. The symposium was packed; people were standing and clapping or even crying, because the effect of the drug was so dramatic in HER-2-positive cancer. The results were the sort of milestone in research into novel adjuvant treatments that can spur researchers on to even greater success. But in fact, conducting similar trials is becoming increasingly difficult... MORE

EJC EUROFILE: A secure future for ERC grants?
Despite fierce competition, European cancer researchers have done well in winning prestigious European Research Council (ERC) grants since their launch in 2007. Member states are now considering the future of the grants, along with the EU's research programme, which funds them... MORE

EJC INTERVIEW: Biomed Alliance challenges policymakers
Michael Baumann, ECCO President, discusses the organisation's role in the Biomed Alliance, which aims to hold policymakers to their previous commitments to increase spending on biomedical research. MORE

EJC News Focus – June 2011
This month's EJC News Focus features Jean-Yves Blay, who is now half-way through his term as President of EORTC. He discusses the changing nature of clinical cancer trials, the challenges this poses, and the ways in which EORTC is adapting to the new environment for research. MORE

Chernobyl: 25 years on
As efforts continue to prevent further leakage from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi power plant, fears about the potential health consequences of radiation exposure are widespread. But in fact, much is known about the effect of unintended exposure to radiation. By a strange coincidence, it is now 25 years since the unprecedented and tragic accident at the Chernobyl power plant in Northern Ukraine, and scientists have conducted meticulous studies into the health of the exposed populations. Most of their findings are reassuring; others are intriguing and could open up new lines of research into, and treatment for, cancer... MORE
For more information, see http://www.journals.elsevierhealth.com/periodicals/chernobyl

EJC EUROFILE: How to improve end-of-life care in Europe
Cancer experts have presented policymakers in Brussels with a European research agenda to better support end-of-life care for patients. The agenda is the result of a three-year pan-European collaboration on palliative care and a response to increasing cancer mortality, forecast by the World Health Organisation to rise from the current figure of 1.7 million to around 2.1 million deaths a year in Europe by 2020. The PRISMA project... MORE

EJC INTERVIEW: The long road to recognition
Paolo Casali, ESMO Public Policy and European Affairs Chair, discusses the implications of the EC's long-awaited recognition of medical oncology as a specialty. MORE

Thinking smart: The potential of personalised cancer medicine
A sea change is underway in oncology; therapeutics are moving from the old model of one-size-fits-all blockbuster drugs to a new era of personalised medicine with treatments targeted according to a patient's individual genetic tumour profile. Initiatives to screen tumours for panels of mutations are underway, and experts are predicting that routine screening of the entire cancer genome of individual patients could be just round the corner. But for targeted therapy to become a clinical reality, Janet Fricker finds that good infrastructure will be key... MORE

• The state of play
• The front-runners
• Linking patients to clinical trials: The Sarah Cannon Research Institute experience
• Stratified Medicine Innovation Platform
• Next generation sequencing technologies
• The view from the bench

Big grants pave the way for long term research in France
More than 100,000 people in France are expected to join two groundbreaking research cohorts. The national 'Investissements d'avenir' programme is to invest a total of €22 million in the projects. The first, CANTO (Cancer toxicities), will look at the long term costs of toxicity -psychological, social and/or economic - following treatment for early breast cancer... MORE

EJC News Focus – April 2011
In this month's EJC News Focus, Helen Saul discusses exciting developments in the treatment of castration-resistant prostate cancer* with EJC's editor for genitourinary cancers, Cora Sternberg (San Camillo and Forlanini Hospitals, Rome, Italy). MORE

Time for reform of drug pricing in Europe?
A wave of change in health technology appraisals (HTAs) and pharmaceutical pricing is sweeping through Europe, with increased concerns about cost containment. Across Europe, health economic problems are universal due to aging populations and the introduction of novel, expensive medical technologies. "There's growing recognition of the need to ensure... MORE

EJC INTERVIEW:  What happens to women in cancer research?
Adriana Albini, past President of the Italian Cancer Society, discusses the progress and promise of – and the obstacles faced by – women in science. MORE

EJC News Focus – March 2011
This month's EJC News Focus video comes from the International Congress on Anticancer Treatment in Paris. Helen Saul discussed the disappointing findings of recent trials of bevacizumab in colon cancer* with EJC's editor for gastrointestinal cancers, Professor Eric van Cutsem (Leuven, Belgium). MORE

All change at NICE!
In England and Wales Health ministers have recently confirmed that the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) will be "moved" from its central role in health technology assessments to make way for a system of value-based pricing of medicines. Changes at NICE can be set against a European landscape... MORE

EUROFILE: A new era in paediatric oncology research?
This year, International Childhood Cancer Awareness Day on 9th February dawns with Europe's top paediatric oncology institutions banding together in a new EU-funded collaboration. It aims to provide the infrastructure necessary to introduce a new generation of less toxic, biologically targeted drugs into standard care for... MORE

EJC INTERVIEW: Take home messages from San Antonio
EJC's new Breast Cancer Editor, Professor Kathleen Pritchard discusses the most interesting results presented at the recent San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. MORE

EJC News Focus – February 2011
In this month's EJC News Focus video, we explore a recent paper in The Lancet,* comparing cancer survival rates in different countries, with lead author Professor Michel Coleman from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. MORE

Will prevention of chronic diseases take off in 2011?
A moment of confusion arose during my one of my conversations for this article. Was I referring to the Global Non-Communicable Disease Network (NCDnet)? The Global Alliance for Chronic Disease? Or the Non-Communicable Disease Alliance? No? Then perhaps the European Chronic Disease Alliance? There has certainly been a spate of recent collaborative... MORE

EUROFILE: A translational Cancer Research Platform for Europe
Twenty-three of Europe's biggest clinical and pre-clinical cancer centres will formally be joining forces in January 2011 to collaborate as the European Platform for Translational Cancer Research, pooling resources and infrastructures to undertake large-scale translational research projects. The initiative – which also involves five pan-European cancer organisations – will receive 12 million € of seed funding from the... MORE

EJC INTERVIEW: New faces for a new era at EJC
EJC's new Editor-in-Chief, Professor Alexander (Lex) Eggermont speaks with news editor, Helen Saul, about his vision for the journal. MORE

EJC News Focus: Lung cancer screening
EJC's news editor, Helen Saul, talks to Professor Jan Willem Coebergh about the NELSON Trial and the impact of lung cancer screening in high risk populations. MORE