European Journal of Cancer: Highlights of Issue 40:09

Angiogenesis - a target for intervention?

Angiogenesis-a target for intervention?

Is angiogenesis in gastrointestinal tumours and their metastases a target for intervention? That is the question posed in a Review in this issue by Garcea and colleagues. The authors outline key inhibitory and stimulatory players involved in maintaining the fine balance that typifies angiogenic pathways and discuss potential sites of action for anti-angiogenic agents such as tyrosine kinase inhibitors and antibody therapies. Anti-angiogenic therapy has the potential to become an important adjunct to present treatment modalities for solid gastrointestinal tumours, but until the results of phase III trials become available, this potential has yet to be fully realised in the clinic, they said. Drs. Veronese and O'Dwyer agree with this assessment. In another Review published in this issue on the use of monoclonal antibodies in the treatment of colorectal cancer they say "The future of this approach in solid tumours is promising".

Fluconazole better than itraconazole in treating oropharyngeal candidiasis

Oude Lashof and colleagues randomised 279 non-neutropenic cancer patients in an open, multicentre study between treatment with fluconazole (100 mg per day for 10 days) and itraconazole (200 mg per day for 15 days). The clinical cure rate was 74% for fluconazole and 62% for itraconazole (P=0.04). The mycological cure rate was 80% versus 68% (P=0.03). "Fluconazole has a significantly better clinical and mycological cure rate compared with itraconazole".

Increasing incidence rates for childhood cancers in Sweden

Incidence rates for childhood cancers increased by +1.01% per year (95% Confidence Interval 0.80, 1.22) over the period of 1960-1998, a study reports in this issue. These included leukaemias, lymphomas, Central Nervous System tumours, Sympathetic Nervous System tumours, hepatic tumours and germ cell and gonadal tumours. Dreifaldt and colleagues examined data from 1960-1998 extracted from the Swedish Cancer Registry for children aged 10-14 years (n=9298). "Changes in diagnostic criteria and better diagnostic tools may have contributed to these results", they said.

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