SWOG Update
October 2009
Contents  
Welcome to the October 2009 SWOG Update.

For all members and friends of the Southwest Oncology Group, the SWOG Update will keep you informed of what's happening with the Group. News to report? Send it to communications@swog.org.

View a one-page version for printing.
 
Chair's Corner  
How should we spell success?
Laurence H. Baker photo Questions of how we define success in cancer research and how costs should factor into that definition have been much in the news. [more]

Study Updates  

S0702: Zoledronic acid and ONJ risk
Patients taking zoledronic acid seem to face an increased risk of osteonecrosis of the jaw, or ONJ. S0702 seeks answers. [more]

Dawn Hershman, M.D. S0715: Does ALC prevent neuropathy?
Pain and numbness in hands and feet is a common side effect of taxane-based chemotherapy. Can the dietary supplement acetyl-L-carnitine prevent it? [more]

 
Don't Miss It  
Visualization of MCF-7 genome depicting somatic breast tumor chromosomal rearrangements. (Hampton, et al. Genome Res. 2009 Feb; 19(2); 167-177.) The War on Cancer: Raise the bar, or move the goal line?

Plenary Session
SWOG Fall 2009 Group Meeting
Friday, October 23, 12:15 - 2:45 pm
Gold Level, Regency B - D
Hyatt Regency Chicago
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Federal stimulus funds reach SWOG studies

NCI grant to integrate patients with HIV into S0816

S0816 has received additional NCI funds to support the participation of cancer patients who are HIV-positive. The funding comes as part of an NCI initiative to integrate the HIV patient population into cancer clinical trials, where possible.

Sites can receive up to $4,000 in additional funding for each HIV-positive patient they enroll to S0816.
The Southwest Oncology Group has received its first awards from NIH grant programs set up to distribute funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), the federal government's economic stimulus program.

The NCI's ACTNOW (Accelerating Clinical Trials of Novel Oncologic Pathways) program awarded two $800,000 grants to support imaging components in two recently launched SWOG trials.

The first is S0816, a phase II advanced Hodgkin lymphoma study incorporating centralized review of PET scans to determine adaptation of treatment, which opened in July. S0816 is an intergroup study with CALGB and ECOG.

The second ACTNOW grant went to S0800, a neoadjuvant trial for breast cancer, activated in September, that incorporates a centralized review of diffusion MRI scans.

Recovery.gov: Track the money


Got news to tell? Send it to communications@swog.org.