SWOG Update
August 5, 2009
Contents  
Welcome to edition #1 of the 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.

 
Chair's Corner  
Why we do what we do
Laurence H. Baker photo Our mission is straightforward: to make progress in the prevention and cure of cancer through clinical research. Our research objectives define how we work to accomplish our mission. [more]

Study Updates  

S0500: Counting CTCs to evaluate breast cancer treatment
How effective of a barometer is CTC level in measuring the efficacy of treatment in a clinical setting, and can that measurement be used to extend lives? [more]

cetuximab molecule S0819 adds a new drug to a standard lung cancer therapy
SWOG's newest study will compare outcomes for lung cancer patients given an accepted standard treatment to outcomes for patients given the same treatment plus cetuximab. [more]

 
In the News  
You, your colleagues, and your cooperative group in the media ...
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New committee chairs: Thompson for GU, Kurzrock for Early Therapeutics

Ian Thompson, M.D. Ian Thompson, M.D., Chair, SWOG Genitourinary Committee (Photo: UTHSC)
Ian Thompson, M.D., who had been serving as interim chair of SWOG’s Genitourinary Committee, was formally appointed as chair of that committee this spring.

Thompson is chair of the Department of Urology at the University of Texas Health Science Center, where he holds the Glenda and Gary Woods Distinguished Chair in GU Oncology and the
Henry B. and Edna Smith Dielman Memorial Chair in Urologic Science. He also serves as chair of the Residency Review Committee for Urology and vice-chair of the Early Detection Research Network of the National Cancer Institute.

Thompson was principal study coordinator on the Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial (PCPT) and is principal investigator of the San Antonio Centers for Biomarkers of Risk of Prostate Cancer (SABOR).


Razelle Kurzrock, M.D. Razelle Kurzrock, M.D., Chair, SWOG Early Therapeutics Subcommittee (Photo: MDACC)
Razelle Kurzrock, M.D., is the new chair of SWOG's Early Therapeutics Subcommittee.

Currently housed within the Translational Medicine Committee, this subcommittee is charged with developing and integrating early therapeutics into disease-specific clinical trials research, a key aspect of SWOG’s translational research strategy.

Kurzrock is founding chair of the Department of Investigational Cancer Therapeutics and director of the Phase I Program at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, where she has been on staff for twenty-five years and where she previously served as chief of the Section of Cytokines in the Department of Bioimmunotherapy. She is also director of the Human Biology and Patient-Based Research Doctoral Program in the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Texas Health Science Center.

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