RESEARCH ABSTRACT
The Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB) is an NCI sponsored national cooperative group whose goal is to conduct clinical trials of new treatments for neoplastic diseases and related science questions. Protocols are developed with intensive peer review and conducted at over 400 hospitals nationwide, in Canada, and in Europe. The SUNY-Health Science Center Network including the Syracuse VA Medical Center is consistently among the top main member institutions in terms of overall accrual of patients to CALGB studies. CALGB conducts phase I, II, and III multimodality treatment trials, as well as innovative correlative science studies. Current trials test new therapies for cancer of the breast, lung, colon/rectum, bladder, prostate, lymphoma, and leukemias.
Prognostic Factors in Patients with Non-small Cell Lung Cancer. With B. Poiesz, A. Tatum, N. Newman and L. Kohman.
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related mortality in both men and women in the United States. Seventy-five to eighty percent of cases are of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) histology (adenocarcinoma, squamous cell and large cell anaplastic carcinoma). The well established negative prognostic factors for patients with NSCLC include higher stage, weight loss, poor performance status and the presence of systemic symptoms. During the past several years, our laboratory has investigated the potential prognostic significance of a number of pathological and biological variables in a large group (n=260) of patients with surgically resected stage I (n=193) and II (n=67) NSCLC. Multivariate analysis of this retrospectively studied group of patients has yielded a small number of independent prognostic factors. The following predicted for overall survival and disease free-survival: N-stage, T-stage, antigen A, age, mucin and Ki-67.
We hypothesize that there are important clinical, pathologic, and biological factors that predict for patient outcome and that such factors will be clinically useful for identifying patients that could benefit from additional therapy.
Selected References
Mehdi S.A., Tatum, A.H., Newman, N.B., Gamble, G.P. Etzell, J.E., Weidner, N., Kern, J.A., Sorscher, S.M., Kohman, L.J., and Graziano, S.L. Prognostic markers in resected stage I and II non-cell lung cancer: an analysis of 260 patients with 5 year follow-up. Clinical Lung Cancer, 1:59-67, 1999.
Lilenbaum, R.C., Herndon, J.E., List M.A., Desch, D., Watson, D.M., Miller, A.A., Graziano, S.L., Perry, M.C., Saville, W., Chahiniam, P., Weeks, J.C., Holland, J.C., and Green, M.R. Single-agent versus combination chemotherapy in advanced non-small -cell lung cancer: The Cancer and Leukemia Group B (study 9730). J Clin Oncol 23:190-196, 2005.
Graziano, S.L., Herndon, II, J.E., Socinski, M.A., Wang, X., Watson, D., Vokes, E., and Green, M.R. Phase II Trial of Weekly Dose-Dense Paclitaxel in Extensive Stage Small Cell Lung Cancer: Cancer and Leukemia Group B Study 39901. Journal of Thoracic Oncology, 3:158-162, 2008.