By Diane West

This month we report on presentations made at the BIO (Biotechnology Industry Organization)CEO & Investor Conference (February 11-14, 2007, New York, NY).

This month we report on presentations made at the Association of Community Cancer Centers 33rd Annual National Meeting (March 28-31, 2007, Rockville, MD) and at a colorectal cancer meeting held at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins University (March 28-31, 2007, Baltimore, MD).

Like the Vikings of old, scientists are hoping a new "longboat" drug delivery system will compromise the walls of resistant cancer cells and fight them with high-dose chemotherapy released only when they are inside.

An experimental intra-arterial delivery system injects high-dose chemotherapy directly into the ocular tumor and may not only save the eye, but the vision as well.

Identifying head and neck cancer patients who possess the FcyR genotype may help predict whether they will respond to monoclonal antibodies, which work by killing cancer cells bearing epidermal growth factor receptors (EGFR) on their surface.

The ability to predict how the course of cancer will likely play out in an individual patient based on genetic factors is already changing the way certain cancers are approached. As highlighted at the recent Biomarker World Conference in Philadelphia, clinical oncologists have an increasingly integral role.