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BIG WEEK COMING UP


RAY A

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I havent heard any talk about what I think is one of the most important weeks of the year.

THE ASCO ANNUAL MEETINGS which will be held June 5th thru the 8th at the morial convention center in New Orleans Louisiana.

I know my Onoc will be there. I hope and pray new and better treatments come out of this meeting. You can keep on top of what is happening at the meetings by useing the link below.

http://www.asco.org/ac/1,1003,_12-002138,00.asp

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I am looking VERY forward to hearing the outcome of this year's session and am glad to hear that Dr. Stevenson will be attending!!! Thanks for posting Ray -- if they do anything like they did last year, we will actually be able to download a video of the actual conference and hear/see them in action!

I saw this on Penn's website today (www.oncolink.org):

New cancer strides to be unveiled at big meeting

Ransdell Pierson and William Borden

Reuters Health

Posting Date: June 2, 2004

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oncologists will meet in New Orleans this Saturday to present advances in cancer treatments, including several new drugs that prolong life without the serious side effects of chemotherapy.

An estimated 25,000 oncologists from around the world will attend the 4-day meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), the largest annual clearinghouse of information for results from clinical trials involving experimental drugs and treatments already on the market.

"This traditionally represents one of the most important meetings for the biotechnology sector," said Needham & Co. analyst Mark Monane, who expects more than 130 companies to make presentations.

Millennium Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Genentech Inc., two U.S.-based biotechnology companies, said they will present data at the meeting showing their respective drugs for multiple myeloma and lung cancer extended the lives of patients who were not helped by traditional therapies.

Millennium's drug, Velcade, and Genentech's drug, Tarceva, are among a new generation of drugs that target specific proteins that promote tumor cells growth without killing the body's healthy cells as chemotherapy agents do.

Genentech's Avastin, another targeted therapy, stole the limelight at last year's ASCO meeting, with data showing it prolonged the life of colon cancer patients by an average of almost 5 months. The injectable anti-angiogenetic drug won U.S. approval in February.

At this year's meeting, data showing Avastin's effectiveness against pancreatic cancer will be presented.

A mid-stage trial will examine whether Taxotere, an Aventis drug used to treat advanced breast and lung cancer, is as effective or more effective than standard treatments for prostate cancer.

Several other drug makers are combining their cancer drugs with Taxotere in an attempt to slow disease progression or improve survival.

The meeting will be important for GlaxoSmithKline as it presents phase II data on its dual kinase inhibitor, known by the code 572016, which is viewed by analysts as among its most promising experimental drugs.

The drug, which Glaxo hopes to market initially for breast cancer, blocks two biological switches involved in cancer growth that are inhibited separately by drugs such as AstraZeneca Plc's Iressa and Genentech's Herceptin.

Also in focus will be PTK 787, an experimental targeted therapy from Novartis and Germany's Schering AG that is currently in phase II trials. The colon cancer drug works by the same mechanism as Avastin.

And ImClone Systems Inc., the biotech company at the center of the insider trading scandal that led to Martha Stewart's conviction for lying to investigators, will present data on new uses for its recently approved colon cancer drug Erbitux.

(Additional reporting by Ben Hirschler in London)

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