Maybe disease won't be 'cured,' but will be 'controlled,' like arthritis

By Jim Forsyth, WOAI 1200

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

  San Antonio cancer researcher Dr. Anthony Tolcher, in Orlando for the annual American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting, says decades of research into cancer has turned the corner, and he can see a time when the disease can be treated much like we now treat diseases like arthritis and diabetes, making them treatable if not curable, 1200 WOAI news reports.

   "These are new, targeted therapies that patients could take, that can control their cancer if it can't cure it," Tolcher said.  "Many of these new treatments are just on the horizon."  

Tolcher is the clinical director for San Antonio's START Center for Cancer Care, the region’s leading cancer research facility.  

Tolcher also presented new research on the use of an agent called MK-2206, which is in trials at START, which shows evidence of anti cancer activity, especially in patients with ovarian cancer.  He says three out of three patients with ovarian cancer in the Phase One clinical trial showed evidence of response.  

But Tolcher says the greater picture is positive too in the cancer war.  

"We are going to start treating cancer much more along the lines of its biology, rather than just treating breast cancer, or ovarian cancer, or lung cancer," he said.  

START currently has more than forty open Phase One trials of some of the most innovative new cancer agents.