This past year has been exciting and busy for our clinical cancer research programs. As part of the collaboration between the Albert Einstein Cancer Center and the  Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson, a new affiliate network has been formed to promote clinical research studies within the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG).

Through this network, cancer patients are offered the most promising new therapies at Einstein, Jefferson and eight other network hospitals. Einstein also continues to maintain its main institution status within the other cooperative groups, RTOG and NSABP, and offer these protocols to many of our patients. Einstein oncologists also serve as principal investigators for industry-sponsored trials and our own innovative research studies.

We have worked especially hard in the area of supportive care studies, searching to improve ways of managing cancer-related pain. A multidisciplinary approach continues to make advances in the area of combined modality therapy, with the goal of eradicating tumors while minimizing organ damage. Of particular interest, we continue our work involving conformal radiation therapy, a technique designed to provide optimal radiation while minimizing normal tissue injury. Medical oncologists have initiated trials of new drug regimens that show promise at controlling difficult diseases, such as hormone-refractory prostate cancer and advanced lung cancer.