View From ASCO: Cancer Advances Made in Baby Steps

This just in from WebMD News Watch….

• View From ASCO: Cancer Advances Made in Baby Steps, WebMD Guest Blogger Charlene Laino

“As Len Lichtenfeld, MD, deputy chief medical officer at the American Cancer Society, likes to remind me almost every time we speak, the field of cancer advances not overnight, but in a series of baby steps. And such was the case at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), which started Friday and ended Tuesday.”

Laino dubs ASCO “a five-day cancer marathon,” with some attendees literally racing in running shoes to hear as many of the over 4,000 presentations as possible

Among the advances Laino chose to focus on was early detection of lung cancer. She cites David M. Johnson, MD, deputy director of the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, who says that researchers at Vanderbilt are testing whether lung cancer patients will benefit from the targeted drug Avastin.