By E. Roy Berger, MD, FACP

Novel immunotherapy approaches to metastatic prostate cancer: Stimulating the immune response ex vivo with autologous antigen presenting cells.

The fields of oncology and biotechnology are entering a period of rapid growth and transformation. It is an exciting time for physicians, researchers, and allied healthcare professionals. We are honored to be apart of the process.

We are privileged to bring you such stories as the shrinking oncology workforce and the exciting news about Tykerb (GSK's advanced breast cancer drug) as we continue evolving our publication both in style and content.

With this and every issue of Oncology & Biotech News, we seek to provide clinicians with practical news with a global perspective. As we move forward, it is our goal to provide more information from markets outside the United States. Your input is essential to developing this publication into a useful tool for you in your daily practice.

With so many developments in the biotechnology industry, keeping up-to-date is more important than ever. Oncology & Biotech News is dedicated to helping practicing oncologists stay current on the latest therapeutic breakthroughs.

This issue of Oncology & Biotech News presents some of the most noteworthy and newsworthy information from the 43rd annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in Chicago.

In keeping with our goal of reporting on the practical aspects of oncology, in this issue we highlight the new National Comprehensive Cancer Network%u2019s (NCCN) updated clinical practice guidelines for kidney and cervical cancers.

Oncology & Biotech News provides updates from major oncology meetings because symposia remain an important means for disseminating new data. This issue, we highlight two important meetings: 2007 Breast Cancer Symposium (in San Francisco) and the World Conference on Lung Cancer (in Korea).

In this issue, we present updates from the 14th European Cancer Conference (ECCO), which took place September 23-27 in Barcelona, Spain. This year's meeting provided one of the largest multidisciplinary forums for discussing the entire spectrum of cancer research and management.

In this month's issue of Oncology & Biotech News, we report on the Chemotherapy Foundation Symposium, which was held in New York City. This excellent meeting highlighted emerging therapies in cancer treatment and the ways in which these treatments are changing our views and management of cancer.

This month we report from the American Society of Hematology's 49th Annual Meeting, which took place in Atlanta. Our pages provide summary coverage of meeting highlights, primarily focusing on notable research breakthroughs relating to hematological malignancies, including advances in multiple myeloma, leukemia, and lymphoma. Our regular columns--Global Reports, Clinical Trial Reports, Physicians' Financial News, and Reimbursement and Managed Care--offer practicing oncologists perspectives needed to keep current in the industry.

In this issue, Oncology & Biotechnology News' editors focus on the 30th Annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS), held in December. In addition,such departments and monthly columns as Physicians' Financial News, Global Reports, Clinical Trial Reports, The Academy, and Reimbursement and Managed Care News offer the practicing oncologist the perspectives needed to keep abreast of the industry.

In this issue our editors highlight the American Society of Clinical Oncology's 2008 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium held in January in Orlando, FL. As always, our departments provide a range of perspectives for the oncology professional--from Global Reports and Reimbursement and Managed Care to Clinical Trial Reports and Physicians' Financial News.

In this issue, we provide a general overview of the 13th meeting of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN)as well as session highlights,focusing on updated treatment guidelines. Our editors attended the Sixth International Symposium on Supportive Care in Oncology,Cancer Management in the Era of Targeted Agents,and present both the hope and the challenge of these "super drugs".

This issue's cover story focuses on the 100th annual meeting of the American Association of Cancer Research held April 12-16 in San Diego,providing a general overview of breaking new and session highlights.

This issue of Oncology & Biotech News presents significant sessions and posters from the 44th annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) plus stories on drive-through breast cancer surgery centers, cancer patients' out-of-pocket costs, and more.

This year's Biomarker World Conference in Philadelphia heralded exciting new advances in cancer care and emphasized the opportunities and challenges facing oncologists seeking to integrate these new predictive tools into practice.