This independent, continuing medical education (CME) symposium has been planned and is conducted by the Oncology Learning Center, Inc., which is a CME provider fully accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education.

The following four malignancies will each be reviewed as a challenging clinical case study: breast cancer, non-small cell lung cancer, pancreatic cancer, and metastatic melanoma. The latest clinical data regarding the treatment of these tumor types with novel taxane therapies will be reviewed. The potential to use biomarkers, including those involved in the bio-distribution of chemotherapy to tumor cells as predictive factors for response to treatment or to assess the risk of disease progression will be discussed.

The format of this symposium is highly interactive and utilizes adult learning principles. Four medical oncology experts who use biomarkers and novel taxanes to treat solid malignancies will each present one challenging clinical case and then engage the audience with a few patient treatment questions using the Audience Response System (ARS). Next, the entire faculty will comment on the answers, and the presenting faculty member for each case will review some additional data to provide the most up-to-date clinical and scientific information for clinicians. After each case there will be an opportunity for further questions from the audience.

Before the symposium begins, a pre-activity educational test consisting of several patient care, treatment strategy questions with multiple-choice answers will be asked of the audience to determine the baseline of how they currently treat their patients with these malignancies. This testing will be accomplished using ARS. These questions will be asked at the conclusion of the symposium using ARS, and asked yet again of willing participants three to four months following the symposium to determine how the symposium has changed their practices.

Despite the increasing availability of novel or targeted anti-cancer therapies, the backbone of treatment regimens for most solid tumors remains chemotherapy. Nevertheless, many cancer patients still fail to achieve a complete response or a partial response to systemic treatment. And many patients who achieve an initial response relapse due to the presence of residual disease.

Molecular biomarkers are becoming increasingly important as predictive and as prognostic factors to help increase the overall efficacy of systemic anti-cancer therapy with taxanes and with other chemotherapy agents for many solid malignancies.

There are several potential biomarkers that may help predict response to taxane therapy. And at least two different approaches to novel taxane therapy are being evaluated, liposomal taxane formulations and a nanopartical, albumin-bound taxane formulation. However, only the nanoparticle, albumin-bound taxane is available commercially. High beta-tubulin expression has been linked to resistance to docetaxel. And high expression of SPARC by the tumor, and expression of caveolin-1 may enhance the value of nanoparticle, albumin-bound paclitaxel therapy.

Because of the improved efficacy and safety profiles of novel taxane formulations, clinical trials are ongoing to validate their role for improving therapy for several solid malignancies including breast cancer, lung cancer, pancreatic cancer and melanoma. The optimal use of biomarkers to help maximize the use of novel taxanes in multiple tumor types is an educational need that is the focus of this symposium.

Because solid malignancies are treated by a team of specialists, the content is focused on medical oncologists and hematologists/oncologists, but attendance is open to all who care for patients with cancer. New developments in cancer treatment are evolving at a rapid pace. Therefore, scientists also may decide to participate in this educational activity to learn about the newest trends and evidence available. Potential participants may also include researchers, nurses, pharmacists and other members of the interdisciplinary cancer care team.

At the conclusion of all of this live activity you should be able to:

• Determine the optimal role of gene expression profile assays, molecular biomarkers and clinical information in the development of personalized treatment for patients with solid malignancies.
• Explain why novel formulations of taxane-based chemotherapy can overcome barriers to achieving higher response rates and how these novel formulations can enhance the biodistribution of taxane-based chemotherapy and help localize the anti-cancer drugs to the site of the tumor.
• Assess the role of cellular proteins in the biodistribution of taxane-based chemotherapy and evaluate the role of these proteins as predictive biomarkers for the efficacy of novel chemotherapy formulations in personalized regimens.
• Evaluate the impact of dose and dose schedule on the optimal clinical use of taxane-based regimens in the treatment of solid tumors.
• Compare and contrast the clinical efficacy, tolerability and safety of novel taxane formulations with that of conventional solvent-based paclitaxel and docetaxel for the treatment of solid malignancies.
• Evaluate the role of personalized taxane-based therapies in combination regimens for patients with breast cancer and other solid tumors.

The Oncology Learning Center is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

The Oncology Learning Center designates this educational activity for a maximum of 2 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. Physicians should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

This live activity features an interactive learning format that is designed to maximize the use of adult learning principles in order to reinforce the transfer of knowledge and competence to the symposium’s participants. This is accomplished through the use of a hand-held Audience Response System (ARS) for the symposium’s participants to select treatment and patient care options based upon patient characteristics contained in the Case Studies. Moreover, we will utilize panel discussions for the faculty to provide their advice on the optimal treatment strategies associated with each case and Question & Answer sessions with the symposium’s participants.

Not an official event of the 2009 ASCO Annual Meeting. Not sponsored or endorsed by ASCO or The ASCO Cancer Foundation.