Most of the abstracts are now available online at http://abstract.asco.org/abst_files/HeadNeck_5500-5601.pdf for those with interest. Below, you will find a summary of the three clinical science symposium abstracts and the poster discussion abstracts. There’s a lot to cover…
I enjoyed Dr. West’s summary of upcoming ASCO highlights for lung cancer and so decided to copy him for the oral head and neck session, where the most important abstracts are broken:
#5503-Vandetanib (VAN) in locally advanced or metastatic medullarythyroid cancer (MTC): A randomized, double-blind phase III trial (ZETA).
-Medullary thyroid cancer, once incurable, is hard to treat. Results with chemotherapy (doxorubicin) have been unimpressive, with <40% response rate, short duration of response, and toxicity. The phase II results with vandetanib, a pill tyrosine kinase inhibitor to VEGF, RET, and EGFR were promising and so I await anxiously the results of this 331 patient trial.
