SUMMARY OF ACTIVITIES

The Cancer Treatment Program Area continued to become progressively more multidisciplinary during the past year, balancing modality-oriented and disease-oriented seminars and exchanges. Radiation oncology continues to be of increasing importance in the exchange as both countries work in the exciting areas of High LET, radiation sensitizers, radiation protectors, and hyperthermia. The exchange of information between Japanese and American scientists in this area is helping to move the science more rapidly in both countries and is setting the stage for potential future collaboration.
Cancer chemotherapy still remains a major focus of the treatment area. There continues a vigorous exchange of drugs and data in the preclinical area, which is developing an important coordination of activities and helping both countries to make more rapid progress. Vigorous exchange also continues on the clinical level. Studies on Aclacinomycin A, based on the Japanese experience, have begun in the United States; and clinical studies on PEP-bleonycin, also based on the Japanese clinical experience, will soon begin. Both countries are putting emphasis on new anthracyclines, fluorinated pyrimidines, and nitrosoureas. Comparison of clinical and preclinical data between the two countries continues to be a highlight of the annual chemotherapy meeting held during the annual program review.
From a disease-oriented perspective, emphasis is given to lung cancer, breast cancer, gastric cancer, and bladder cancer. The collaborative protocol in advanced gastric cancer between the Northern California Oncology Group and Japanese investigators has been completed and is being prepared for publication. It demonstrates an important comparability of Japanese and American data in the chemotherapy of advanced gastric cancer. A second generation protocol has been developed and has just been activated.