P Therasse

..There is much less academic research conducted in Europe, there is a lot of discrepancy and inconsistency in the implementation of the directive across member states and there is no apparent direct benefit for the patients...

..The findings of this review, together with experience acquired thus far and the results of some ongoing research projects, have paved the way for RECIST 2.0 to be hopefully announced later this year...

..In conclusion, response criteria as defined by RECIST are adequate to measure response and progression in non-GIST soft tissue sarcoma and can be used instead of the modified WHO criteria...

..The real challenge of the next coming years resides in recruiting large number of patients from specific subgroups to validate tailored therapies...

..Communication between requestor and involved collectors is started with automatically generated e-mails...

..A system of complete pathology review supporting biorepositories is described, based on the implementation of this technique in the European Human Frozen Tumor Tissue Bank (TuBaFrost)...

..In this paper, we show the importance of performing sensitivity or supportive analysis to support conclusions drawn from the primary analysis...

..With more than 40 ongoing HRQOL studies in the EORTC, we expect HRQOL to play an even greater role over the coming decade in helping establish the optimal treatment and care approach for cancer patients...

..A system of complete pathology review supporting bio-repositories is described, based on the implementation of this technique in the European Human Frozen Tumor Tissue Bank (TuBaFrost)...

..In this paper, the most interesting drugs under development in each of the three organisations are being described and discussed...

..Methods of assessing tumor lesions are better codified, briefly within the guidelines and in more detail in Appendix I. All other aspects of response evaluation have been discussed, reviewed, and amended whenever appropriate...

..To collect oncologists' experience and opinion on adjuvant chemotherapy in elderly breast cancer patients...

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..Over the past decade, 76 research fellowships have been appointed at the EORTC Data Center. This paper shows an overview of the activities of one EORTC/GCG medical fellow...

..Recently, a specific EORTC Intergroup Office started its activity devoted to solve the issues related to the intergroup co-operation. This office will have an increasing role to promote and help in conducting intergroup studies...

..Being part of the EU TubaFrost project, the EORTC will provide a common international platform for the use of tissues for research purposes, finding a balance between different laws and assuring scientific progress...

..However, there has been no attempt to harmonise these initiatives across the different medical specialties. The EORTC will have to address this problem within its short-term scientific strategy...

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..To compare the efficacy of a standard anthracycline-based regimen to a dose-intensified anthracycline regimen in locally advanced breast cancer...

..More recently, the EORTC QA Committee proposed a minimal set of quality control procedures to be implemented by all EORTC groups...

..In the following paper, we therefore examine past experience in EORTC QOL studies, with a focus on the challenges presented and the improved approaches that are being implemented to obtain more meaningful outcomes...

..Most of the studies use registry data, while only a few use discharge data or data available from clinical trials...

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..The second objective of this study was to identify which HRQoL indicators are linked to patients' perception of overall quality of life...

..EBCG is a founding member of the Breast InterGroup (BIG)...

..Finally, some future perspectives and topics for further statistical methodological research will be presented in order to spur statisticians to meet the challenge of efficiently designing and analysing the clinical trials of tomorrow...

..Thereby, improving availability of large amounts of high quality samples of a highly specified or rare tumor types and contact opportunities for cooperation with other institutes...

..Adjuvant radiotherapy in mastectomised patients was associated with both a significantly superior locoregional control and overall survival. The effect of adjuvant radiotherapy was most profound in patients who had 1-3 positive nodes...

..With this general purpose in mind, the rules and responsibilities for collectors, requestors and central office were generated...

..The operational framework for TuBaFrost has drawn upon the best practice of standard workflows and operating procedures employed by members of the TuBaFrost project and key initiatives worldwide...

..An overview of the development of the European virtual frozen tissue bank infrastructure is described in this paper. The various key aspects are described in more detail in a series of articles to appear in this Journal...

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..In contrast, there were more distant metastases in the MRM group, but with a similar overall survival in both groups. The results of this trial give cautious support for the use of WLE+T for selected older women...

..This paper reports the results of a study assessing the potential prognostic or predictive value of HER-2, p53, cyclinD1, MIB1, ER and PgR expression by immunohistochemistry from patients included in an EORTC-NCIC-SAKK trial...

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..0001). Overall survival of the two groups was similar. The results indicate that tamoxifen alone leads to an unacceptably high rate of local progression or relapse...

..This coordinating rule has a sound basis in EU law in general and will solve the problems related to diverging national regulatory regimes in the case of cross national research with residual tissue...

..Consequently, these findings might imply a considerable change in cancer treatment strategies because the routine use of adjuvant therapies could be questioned...

..In addition, new infrastructure plans have been developed and the first preparatory steps have been set. For biobanks the BBMRI project has started aiming for Pan-European Biobanking and Biomolecular Resources Research Infrastructure...