The year’s top advances in oncology include approval of a vaccine against human papillomavirus and development of a genetic test that can predict which patients with early-stage non-small cell lung cancer are likely to be cured or develop recurrence after appropriate therapy, according to the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).

The Society report, entitled Clinical Cancer Advances 2006: Major research advances in cancer treatment, prevention, and screening, is available on the ASCO website at www.plwc.org/cca2006 .

“ASCO’s second annual Clinical Cancer Advances report demonstrates that investment in cancer research pays off. Over the last year, we’ve seen significant advances in targeted therapies for hard-to-treat cancers, a vaccine to fight cervical cancer, and new tools in the fast-growing field of personalized medicine,” said Gabriel Hortobagyi, MD, FACP, ASCO President and Chair of Breast Medical Oncology at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.

The report was developed by a 20-person editorial board of leading oncologists, with two serving as Executive Editors: Robert F. Ozols, MD, PhD, Chair of ASCO’s Cancer Communications Committee and Senior Vice President for Medical Science at Fox Chase Cancer Center; and Roy S. Herbst, MD, PhD, Immediate Past Chair of ASCO’s Cancer Communications Committee and Chief of the Section of Thoracic Medical Oncology at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.

In addition to the vaccine, which may prevent cervical cancer and virus-related vaginal and vulvar precancerous neoplasms, top advances include a major first accomplishment in personalized medicine---a gene profiling test, the lung metagene model, which can predict which patients with early-stage non-small cell lung cancer are most likely to be cured or develop recurrence after appropriate therapy.

Several targeted therapies were proven effective against traditionally difficult-to-treat cancers. Two new highly-targeted therapies were effective against kidney cancer. Temsirolimus improved survival for patients with advanced, high-risk kidney cancer when used as first-line treatment, and sunitinib improved progression-free survival and response rates.

Another advance improved care for women with HER-2-positive breast cancer that progressed despite therapy with trastuzumab. A new study found that addition of lapatinib to chemotherapy controlled tumor growth better than chemotherapy alone. These findings produce a new treatment option for a type of breast cancer that accounts for 20 to 25 percent of breast cancer cases.

A phase I trial of the new agent dasatinib for patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia who could not tolerate or were resistant to imatinib found that 92.5 percent of patients had no evidence of disease after therapy. Dasatinib was approved for use in the USA in 2006 following publication of this key study.

Finally, in another advance using targeted therapy, a multinational study found that addition of cetuximab to standard high-dose radiation therapy for locally advanced head and neck cancers slowed progression and prolonged survival compared with radiation therapy alone.

In addition to honoring major advances, the Society issued a recommendation for researchers: increase access to biospecimens by improving guidelines for collection, storage, and use of blood or tissue samples. A related recommendation is development of national databases to share information across research institutions. In order to respond to debate over intellectual property rights involving biospecimens and related discoveries, the Society recommends creation of a centralized database for biospecimens and a collaborative effort to identify information-sharing strategies that will speed scientific discovery while protecting intellectual property rights.