USC Norris Doctors Advance Cancer Research

A number of physician researchers from the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center in Los Angeles were collaborators on more than 70 research projects presented at the 2012 annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.About 30,000 oncologists from around the world attend the meeting to review the latest developments in their field.Advances in the treatment of cancer and patient care were set forth in more than 4500 abstracts presented or published at the gathering.Topics of the papers included targeted therapy;clinical trial results for a wide rage of cancers;and patient quality of life.The meeting took place at McCormick Place in Chicago from June 1-5.
One of the more promising studies presented was collaborated on by Heinz-Josef Lenz,associate director for clinical research and co-leader of the gastrointestinal cancers program at the USC Norris CCC.It was an international phase III trial of regorafenib,a candidate drug that has been found to significantly improve overall survival in metastatic colorectal cancer patients who are unresponsive to other approved therapies.It is believed that the drug,pending FDA approval,will raise the standard of care for these patients.
Regorafenib is an oral drug developed by Bayer AG.Its stock trades on the OTC pink sheets in the U.S. under the ticker symbol BAYRY.The company is well known as the maker of Bayer aspirin products.Indeed,Bayer AG was the first producer of aspirin tablets.