The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has published final guidance on the use of pemetrexed for the treatment of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The guidance recommends pemetrexed in combination with cisplatin as an option for the first-line treatment of patients with NSCLC that has spread to the surrounding tissues or other parts of the body and if it has been confirmed as being a type of tumour known as an adenocarcinoma or large-cell carcinoma.

People who are currently being treated with pemetrexed for NSCLC but who do not meet this criteria should have the option to continue their therapy until they and their clinicians consider it appropriate to stop.

Dr Carole Longson, Health Technology Evaluation Centre Director said: “Lung cancer is one of the most common cancers in the UK, with around 38,000 people diagnosed every year. The independent Appraisal Committee carefully considered testimonies from clinical specialists and patients as well as available evidence on the clinical effectiveness of pemetrexed. They concluded that pemetrexed could potentially be an important treatment for this group of patients and represented a cost effective use of NHS resources. This guidance means that those patients with adenocarcinoma or large-cell carcinoma will have a further treatment option.”

Source
NICE

During the American Thyroid Association’s (ATA) 80th Annual Meeting September 23-27, 2009, held at The Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach, Florida, David S. Cooper, MD, professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, will present the ATA’s revised guidelines for the management of thyroid nodules and differentiated thyroid cancer covering nodule evaluation, surgery, therapy and criteria for being “free of disease.”

Dr. Cooper will refer to a number of case studies.

Differentiated Thyroid Cancer (DTC) Guidelines cover nodule evaluation, surgery, follow-up therapy and monitoring.

Following the update by Dr. Cooper, Richard T. Kloos, MD, chair of the ATA Medullary Thyroid Cancer (MTC) Guidelines Task Force, secretary and chief operating officer of the ATA will present an update on the guidelines for treating medullary thyroid cancer.

“Medullary thyroid cancer is a rare, challenging and complex disease accounting for about four percent of all thyroid cancer cases in the U.S.,” says Dr. Kloos, who also serves as co-director of the Ohio State University Thyroid Cancer Unit. “The ATA guidelines promote optimal medical care grounded in evidence-based literature by an international and interdisciplinary panel.”

The guidelines cover diagnosis and therapy, genetic testing, surgical management and post-surgical treatment and long-term follow-up.

The symposium for guidelines updates is Saturday September 25 from 9:00 a.m. to 10:15 a.m.

The American Thyroid Association (ATA) is the lead organization in promoting thyroid health and understanding thyroid biology. The ATA values scientific inquiry, clinical excellence, public service, education, collaboration, and collegiality.

A non-profit medical society founded in 1923, the ATA fulfills its mission through supporting excellence and innovation in research, clinical care, education, and public health. ATA members are physicians and scientists who work to enhance the understanding of thyroid physiology and pathophysiology, improve the diagnosis and treatment of thyroid diseases, and promote the education of physicians, patients, and the public about thyroid disorders. The official journal “Thyroid” of the ATA is published monthly. “Clinical Thyroidology” is published online monthly for the benefit of clinicians and scientists around the world.

Thyroid diseases are among the most common disorders of the endocrine system, affecting almost 13 million Americans alone. The ATA has extensive online information for patients on thyroid disease (in English and Spanish) serving the clinician as a resource for patients and the public who look for reliable information on the internet. To further benefit patients, the ATA publishes an online journal “Clinical Thyroidology for Patients.” The Alliance for Patient Education was formed in 2002 to offer an exchange of information between the ATA and patient education groups: ThyCa: Thyroid Cancer Survivors’ Association, Inc.; the Light of Life Foundation, and the Graves’ Disease Foundation. A public forum is held each year in conjunction with the ATA annual meeting.

Source: American Thyroid Association

Agent-based models (ABMs) are powerful computer-simulation modeling techniques that used increasingly to understand a broad range of biological phenomena, such as tumor growth, the immune system, and the spread of infectious diseases through a population.

Researchers will gather Dec. 1-3 at the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS) on the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK), campus to discuss ways to develop mathematical control theory methods for ABMs. The deadline is Oct. 1 for applying to attend the NIMBioS Investigative Workshop: Optimal Control and Optimization for Individual-based and Agent-based Models.

ABMs simulate the actions and interactions of autonomous individual parts, or agents, with a view to assessing the effects on the system as a whole. By simulating the simultaneous operation of multiple agents, ABMs can re-create and predict the actions of complex phenomena.

In order to study the effectiveness of possible interventions, such as vaccination and quarantine schemes, in biomedical problems, ABMs must be simulated numerous times to compare alternative intervention scenarios, which is a limitation of ABMs. Results of ABMs are not optimal solutions, but rather scenarios with various assumptions. Applying analytic methods to study how possible interventions affect system dynamics might be more useful. Thus, the goal of the workshop is to discuss the possibility of developing control-theoretic approaches for ABMs, which could be applied in studying interventions.

The ABM Workshop is organized by Filippo Castiglione from the Institute for Computing Applications, Rome; Volker Grimm from UFZ Center for Environmental Research, Leipzig; Reinhard Laubenbacher from the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute; and Suzanne Lenhart, NIMBioS Associate Director of Education and Outreach and UTK Professor of Mathematics.

NIMBioS Investigative Workshops involve 30-40 participants, of which about half are invited. Individuals with a strong interest in the topic can also apply to attend. For more information about the Agent-based Models Workshop and how to apply, visit http://www.nimbios.org

Source:
Catherine Crawley

National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS)