NCI CAMNews

Fall 2007

Vol.2 - Issue 2

In this issue:

1

Feature

3

News from the Field

5

Funding Opportunities

6

Research Resources

7

Research Highlights

9

CAM Information

10

Meetings

12

Featured Scientific

Meetings

National Cancer Institute

U.S. DEPARTMENT

OF HEALTH AND

HUMAN SERVICES

National Institutes

of Health

The Newsletter of the Office of Cancer Complementary and Alternative Medicine

From Dust to Discovery

Dr. David Newman, chief of NPB,

shows Dr. Phil Tonkins, OCCAM

scientific program analyst, a nautilus.

In a gigantic freezer in a warehouse

about 30 miles from the NIH main

campus, coral from the quiet depths

of the South Pacific, leaves from a

rare tree in southern China, and

bacteria from a crustacean of the cold

Atlantic waters sit frozen in time,

waiting their turn to possibly treat,

cure or even prevent two of the

planet’s worst ailments: cancer and

AIDS.

[ousands of plant, marine, and

microorganism specimens collected

from a myriad of places in the world

are sent to the National Cancer

Institute’s (NCI) Natural Products

Branch (NPB) each year. “We are the

hub of a hub-and-spoke operation,”

says Dr. David Newman, chief of the

NPB. Here, they are kept frozen

until sent out and tested by NCI

researchers - as well as other

researchers around the world -

looking for natural agents to fight

cancer and AIDS.

Researchers looking for these new

drugs have plenty of reasons to be

sifting through nature. Traditional

Chinese Medicine, which deals

mostly with natural products, has

been producing remedies for a

variety of diseases for years, including

the herbal remedy from the plant

“sweet annie” (Artemisia annua),

which has been used in China for

almost 2,000 years. Its main, active

constituent, artemisinin, has been

found to be effective against fevers

and resistant malaria. And today,

over 75 percent of the world’s

population uses some fashion of

alternative, or traditional, medicine

involving natural products, the

World Health Organization (WHO)

reports.

“[ere is no question that

Traditional Chinese Medicine has its

value,” Dr. Newman says. But there

is a difference between the traditional

usage of natural products and what

NPB is looking for, Dr. Newman

explains.

NCI breaks specimens down to an

unrecognizable pile of dust, aiming

to study the active components,

whereas traditional practitioners use

the original, intact specimen for

1

continued on next page
remedies. “We’re interested in

finding those active compounds

within the organism, not necessarily

the extract as a whole,” Dr. Newman

states.

But cancer researchers studying

complementary and alternative

medicine (CAM) still learn from the

discoveries stemming out of NPB.

“Knowing the basic components and

mechanisms of action of a natural

product benefits cancer CAM

researchers,” says Dr. Jeffrey D.

White, director of the Office of

Cancer Complementary and

Alternative Medicine. “It’s the

investigation of the natural agents’

activities – whether it’s the entire

specimen or just one part of it – that

helps researchers determine which

cancer treatments are worth

pursuing.”

Modern, FDA-approved drugs have

their fair share of plant life in them,

too - even if it’s not in their entirety.

According to the WHO, about onequarter of today’s drugs are derived

from plants first used traditionally.

Popular drugs that fight cancer like

camptothecin and rapamycin were

derived from a plant and fungus,

respectively, and several drugs on the

market are synthetic versions of

certain agents in plants.

“So many things come from plants,

even the indigo in blue jeans...,”

comments Dr. Newman. “It’s things

like these that lead to novel

treatments of cancer.”

Take the bark of a tree, for example.

Back in 1962, researchers from the

U.S. Department of Agriculture

recovered bark from a Pacific yew in

the Pacific Northwest, which led to

multiple tests by NCI and NCI

contractors, including the Natural

Products Laboratory in Research

Triangle Institute, N.C., and

subsequent clinical trials of the active

compound. [e result was a drug

known as paclitaxel (Taxol®), which

is used to treat breast, ovarian, and

lung cancer, and is perhaps the

biggest success for NCI-funded

natural products research.

Since 1986, NPB has received tens of

thousands of samples from the

branch’s contractors, which for plants

includes the University of Illinois at

Chicago, the Missouri Botanical

Garden in St. Louis, Morton

Arboretum in Lisle, Ill., World

Botanical Associates in Calif., and

the New York Botanical Gardens. For

marine collections, the Coral Reef

Research Foundation in Palau and

the Australian Institute of Marine

Sciences are the two major

contractors.

Specimens collected from these

teams are almost immediately

shipped – frozen if marine and airdried if plants – to NPB’s repository,

and stored in a freezer set at -18

degrees Celsius (about zero degrees

Fahrenheit), where they stay until

ready for extraction – the process

that involves grinding down a sample

with everything from hammer mills

to meat grinders, and mixing it with

water or an organic solvent.

[e NPB’s Extraction Laboratory,

headed up by [omas McCloud of

SAIC-Frederick, Inc., is responsible

for getting whole specimens down to

that pile of dust, into those solutions,

and ready for research.

“We are building a library of

extracts,” McCloud says. We’ve had

over 200,000 extraction samples

available in the repository just over

the last 20 years for cancer, AIDS,

and other disease-oriented research,

McCloud adds.

After the samples are whittled down,

they are placed into one of the

facility’s 10, two-story freezers, which

are tucked away in a warehouse,

along with the extraction lab, at the

NCI-Frederick campus on the Fort

Detrick military base. And with an

open door policy, any National

Institutes of Health (NIH) Institute

or external research center can

request these specimens, with a

Material Transfer Agreement, which

protects the rights of the countries of

origin. [at agreement, based on the

NCI Letter of Collection, was in

place three years prior to the

Convention on Biological Diversity

agreement that was signed by over

150 nations at the United Nations

Earth Summit in 1992.

With less than 10 percent of the

world’s plant and marine species

investigated, and thousands of

specimens at NPB still waiting to be

tested, it’s safe to say that researchers

have their work cut out for them.

But with samples coming in and out

almost every day, Dr. Newman

reports, the chances of finding the

next great discovery from nature are

only getting better. ❧

from previous page

2

Knowing the basic components and

mechanism of action of a natural product

benefits cancer CAM researchers.

Dr. Jeffrey D. White, Director of the Office of Cancer

Complementary and Alternative Medicine

“

”
News from the Field

Introducing - Dr. Zia!

Meet the newest addition to

OCCAM! In September 2007, Dr.

Farah Zeba Zia became the new

Director of OCCAM’s Practice

Assessment Program (PAP).

[e two main activities of PAP are

the NCI Best Case Series (BCS)

Program and the Practice Outcomes

Monitoring and Evaluation System

(POMES) Program. [e NCI BCS

Program reviews data from CAM

practitioners who have used

alternative medical approaches to

treat cancer patients, while the

POMES Program determines

whether a phenomenon observed in

a retrospective case review is

reproducible in a larger population.

[ese two programs allow OCCAM

to determine the best suited CAM

practices for possible future NCIinitiated research.

As PAP Director, Dr. Zia works with

PAP Coordinator, CDR (USPHS)

Colleen Lee, to find the most

appropriate projects that may

warrant further investigation within

NCI.

“We’re excited to have Dr. Zia take

over the responsibilities of this

program,” says OCCAM Director

Dr. Jeffrey D. White. “Her presence

will give us a greater capacity to

explore the potential for clinical

work in NCI’s intramural program.”

“[ere are several CAM studies that

show promise,” Dr. Zia says. “My

interest and goal would be to actually

put some of the promising

treatments into clinical trials at

NCI.”

Dr. Zia obtained her bachelor’s and

master’s degrees from George

Washington University (GWU), as

well as her doctorate of medicine

degree from GWU’s School of

Medicine. After her residency in

internal medicine there, Dr. Zia

headed to NIH. In 2000, she began a

fellowship at NCI and the National

Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute,

where she worked in the oncology

and hematology wards, as well as

developed and implemented clinical

trials with the breast oncology team.

After NCI, Dr. Zia became a fulltime staff oncologist with the MidAtlantic Permanente Medical Group

practicing in northern Virginia

hospitals. Her solid background in

oncology and clinical trials will

undoubtedly be a great asset to

OCCAM and PAP.

“[is position has a lot to offer,” Dr.

Zia says. “[e wealth of diverse

knowledge and expertise available at

Dr. Farah Zia, OCCAM’s first

Practice Assessment Program director.

NCI make this a great place to work,

and I am very excited to be back here.”

During her time at Mid-Atlantic as a

community oncologist, many of her

cancer patients asked about

alternatives to their treatment and

recovery.

“Cancer patients are looking for hope

and there are a lot of things (in CAM)

that can be mentally helpful for

them,” Dr. Zia says. “I want to help

oncology patients lead a better life.”

Besides evaluating data on cancer

patients treated with unconventional

therapies, Dr. Zia is also very

interested in fostering collaborations

between cancer researchers and CAM

practitioners. A focus on building

connections between the practice

community and the research

community is a very important factor

to advance the science.

For more information on the NCI’s

Program Assessment Program, please

visit www.cancer.gov/cam/

research_pap.html.

Contact Information

Office of Cancer Complementary

and Alternative Medicine

6116 Executive Boulevard

Suite 609

Bethesda, Maryland 20892

ncioccam-r@mail.nih.gov

http://cancer.gov/cam

3
Traditional Chinese Medicine Conference Cultivates International Collaboration

[is year, NCI gained a new fellow,

Dr. Jie Li, from Beijing, China as a

direct result of the OCCAMsponsored conference Traditional

Chinese Medicine and Cancer

Research: Fostering Collaborations;

Advancing the Science, which took

place in April 2006.

Dr. Li of the Research Center of

Oncology at Guang An Men hospital

in Beijing attended the TCM

conference as a participant, along

with the director of his department,

Dr. Hongsheng Lin, a guest speaker

who presented her clinical study of

improving median survival time of

lung cancer with a TCM

intervention. Dr. Li’s specialty is

utilizing the TCM mixture Sheng Qi

formula, a Chinese medicine

compound, to decrease the side

effects of chemotherapy.

During the conference, Drs. Lin and

Li met with Dr. O.M. Zack Howard,

a staff scientist with the Laboratory

of Molecular Immunoregulation

(LMI), Cancer and Inflammation

Program, Center for Cancer Research

at NCI-Frederick, who had an

interest in Drs. Li and Lin’s work and

similar work with Chinese herbs.

Not long after their introduction, the

topic of potential future

collaboration came up during the

conversation.

“We thought we might have some

common, interesting research to do

in the future,” Dr. Li says.

At the end of the conference, Drs.

Lin and Li visited NCI-Frederick to

explore the facilities. After

discussions between LMI, OCCAM

Director Dr. Jeffrey D. White, and

Guang An Men hospital, all parties

agreed that a co-funded postdoctoral

training at NCI, sponsored by the

Office of International Affairs, was a

good way to begin collaborating on

this specific area of cancer CAM

research.

Guang An Men hospital selected Dr.

Li as the candidate for the fellowship.

For the last eight months, he’s been

working with Dr. Howard, exploring

the anti-cancer effect and immune

stimulating effects of the Sheng Qi

formula, a mixture of herbs often

used at Guang An Men hospital to

decrease the side effects of

chemotherapy. A novel aspect of Drs.

Howard and Li’s project is the use of

a murine model of inflammatory

breast cancer to assess the impact of

the herbal formula on the function

of myeloid immunosuppressive cells.

“I feel very happy to work with Dr.

Howard,” Dr. Li says. “We are going

smoothly with our research plan, and

I think our study will benefit cancer

patients.”

Due to the success of Dr. Li’s

research, the Chinese government’s

Ministry of Science and Technology

has agreed to provide funds to extend

his fellowship.

First Transagency Cancer CAM Fellow

Dr. Scott Miller

[e National Center for

Complementary and Alternative

Medicine (NCCAM) and NCI

welcomed its first CAM oncology

fellow in July 2007. [e three-year

fellowship provides an opportunity

for physicians to do a traditional

oncology fellowship while also

gaining expertise in CAM and cancer

research, policy and regulatory

affairs, and clinical investigations.

CAM approaches for cancer

treatment and prevention are

increasingly being used by patients to

the point where oncologists need to

be versed in the use, benefits, and

risks of CAM practices. Because of

this, NCCAM and NCI created this

fellowship to train oncologists and

encourage clinical research in cancer

CAM practices.

[e fellowship was awarded to Dr.

Scott Miller of Iowa City, Iowa, who

graduated from the University of

Iowa College of Medicine, and

completed a residency in family

medicine at Loma Linda University

Medical Center in California, known

for its health and wellness research.

His combined interests in oncology

and CAM brought him to NIH.

continued on next page

4
“[ere is no other fellowship that has

a research focus on CAM and

oncology,” Dr. Miller says. “It was a

unique position.”

Right before coming to NIH, Dr.

Miller completed the first year of his

medical oncology fellowship at the

University of Iowa. His next two

years will be spent mostly at NIH,

but will also include brief rotations at

the Naval Medical Center and the

Food and Drug Administration.

His fellowship will include time

working at OCCAM, where Dr.

Miller will be exposed to the grant

application and review processes and

the review of clinical CAM practices

used in cancer treatment via

participation in the NCI Best Case

Series Program, evaluating

documentation of patients treated

with CAM approaches to determine

if further research sponsored by NCI

is warranted.

Also over the two years, he will

design, formulate, and execute an

original clinical research project

pertaining to his area of interest,

which may include a proposal

looking at immune system

stimulation and medicinal

mushrooms.

“I’ve always had an interest in CAM,”

Dr. Miller says. He attributes this

interest to the influence of his parents

who practiced alternative medicine,

mostly home remedies.

After spending two and half years

working in Kotzebue, Alaska, for the

Indian Health Service, Dr. Miller

decided to return to training in

internal medicine and then oncology

with an interest to concentrate on

cancer and CAM specifically.

“My overall goal is to participate in a

team that is investigating CAM

modalities in cancer patients,” Dr.

Miller says. ❧

The results of a survey of

cancer researchers

regarding CAM will be

published in the Winter

edition of the Journal of

the Society for Integrative

Oncology. Selected

results from the survey

were presented at the 2nd

International Conference

of the Society for

Integrative Oncology in

October 2005.

U P D A T E

Cancer

Research

Survey

Funding Opportunities

National surveys estimate that onethird to two-thirds of Americans

have used some form of CAM for

health related purposes. While a

broad range of projected CAM use

among the general population is

known, there is relatively little

information known regarding CAM

use by racial and ethnic minority

populations. It is believed that

Traditional Indigenous Medicine and

CAM practices play an integral role

in some minority cultures. A better

understanding of these factors can

provide insight into the health

behaviors and beliefs of these

minority populations, which can aid

in generating information that may

inform the delivery of conventional

health care and lead to reduced

health disparities.

To gain insight into the potential role

of CAM practices either in reducing

and eliminating health disparities or

regarding minority health, a funding

opportunity announcement (FOA)

has been renewed across Institutes of

NIH. [e original FOA PAR-05-

152, issued in August 2005, was

spearheaded by the NCCAM and

was supported by the NCI and the

National Center on Minority Health

and Health Disparities.

[e renewed FY06 opportunity

PAR-06-372

(http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa

-files/PAR-06-372.html) supports

exploratory/develop-mental (R21)

research projects on basic science and

clinical research projects to

investigate the safety, efficacy, and

mechanisms of action of CAM

practices as they relate to minority

health or racial and ethnic health

disparities. Prior funding from either

a NIH or Agency for Healthcare

Research and Quality research center

on minority health or a research

center on health disparities is a precursor for this award. ❧

from previous page

5

NCI Continues Support of CAM at Minority of Health

Disparities Research Centers
One of OCCAM’s priorities is to

facilitate the development and

organization of the field of cancer

CAM research. In light of this,

OCCAM has created a searchable

directory of cancer CAM researchers,

the Cancer CAM Researcher

Directory, that will assist researchers

working in this growing field to

identify others with similar or related

research interests. OCCAM hopes

that this online tool will simplify at

least one aspect of forming

collaborations, finding a research

partner.

In order to be included in the

directory, researchers must register

and demonstrate that they have

published original research on a

cancer and CAM topic by providing

a literature citation. Once registered,

users will have full access to

information provided by other

registered users such as:

■ contact information

■ educational background

■ research topics of interest

■ types of research conducted

(in vitro, animal, etc.)

■ CAM modalities studied

Additional features provided to

registered users include access to

posted potential collaboration

opportunities as well as other

announcements including meetings

and events and job openings.

[e directory will also be searchable

by non-registered users, however the

type of information that can be

viewed will be limited to researcher

name, institution, research topics of

interest, types of research conducted,

and CAM modalities studied.

Dr. Jeffrey D. White, OCCAM

director, says, “I hope that this userfriendly directory will promote a

greater exchange of interests and

experiences among the growing

population working in this diverse

field of cancer CAM research.”

To join and search the Cancer CAM

Researcher Directory or to find out

information on the inclusion criteria,

please visit

http://occamdirectory.cancer.gov

Research Resources

Expert Opinions on Methodology: Development of Cancer

CAM Symptom Research Booklet Re-released

OCCAM has re-released the

publication Expert Opinions on

Methodology: Development of Cancer

CAM Symptom Research. [e 128-

page publication is based on a

meeting convened in November

2001, which focused on the

challenges of symptom management

research. Topics included the

development of appropriate shams or

controls for CAM interventions,

development of tools and

measurement issues, ethical issues,

and potential statistical concerns.

[e panel of experts that included

researchers, physicians, and

statisticians, from leading cancer

research and treatment centers

reviewed and discussed the stateof-the-science in cancer CAM

symptom management. An

executive summary and

supporting presentations are

provided in the publication.

To request a copy of Expert

Opinions on Methodology:

Development of Cancer CAM

Symptom Research, please email ncioccam-r@mail.nih.gov

or visit

www.cancer.gov/cam/

attachments/expert-panelreport.pdf. ❧

6

New Directory for Cancer CAM Researchers
would also be funded under an R01

grant, will analyze components in the

women’s diets, including the specific

foods that are being consumed.

“We don’t know the exact

combination of fruits and vegetables

that may decrease recurrence,” says

Dr. Ross. “Subgroup analyses...will

look at the differences in diet among

the women.” In the meantime, there

is no harm in increasing your

vegetable intake, she adds.

“We may not know what the best

diet is to prevent recurrence (in

breast cancer) is,” Dr. Ross says. “But

that doesn’t mean you should go have

a bad diet.” [ere are many benefits

to a healthy diet, including the

prevention of heart disease, she adds.

A supplement to the study funded a

survey of WHEL participants that

focused on their past and current use

of various CAM modalities,

including mind-body practices,

energy-based therapies, and

alternative medical systems, such as

homeopathy and naturopathy. A

database tracking nutritional

supplements that the women in the

study took was also compiled. [e

results of this supplemental study are

currently being analyzed and will be

ready for release in 2008.

WHEL Study Results

[e researchers from the Women’s

Healthy Eating and Living (WHEL)

study reported that women who

consumed a low-fat diet rich in

vegetables, fruit, and fiber after

treatment for breast cancer essentially

had the same risk of recurrence,

incidence of new primary breast

cancers, and risk of overall mortality

as women who consumed diets with

less servings of fruits and vegetables.

[e study was published in the

Journal of the American Medical

Association in July 2007.

[e NCI-sponsored study, which

followed 3,088 women with earlystage stage breast cancer over a sevenyear period, was a randomized

controlled trial that assigned women

to either a control group or an

intensive diet intervention group

who were counseled to maintain a

daily diet of five vegetable servings,

16 ounces of vegetable juice, 3 fruit

servings, 30 grams of fiber, and 15-

20 percent dietary fat. [e goal was

to substantially increase levels of

circulating carotenoids in the blood,

because previous research showed

that low levels of carotenoids are

associated with higher rates of breast

cancer recurrence.

Earlier findings from the WHEL

study, which was supported by an

NCI R01 grant (Grant No.

5R01CA069375), did find that

higher intake of vegetables and fruits

increased the carotenoid levels in the

women used in the study. “We have

doubled the circulating carotenoid

levels in the blood, which is much

more than any other study has

accomplished previously and will

allow us to properly test the

hypotheses,” principal investigator

John P. Pierce, Ph.D., director of the

Cancer Prevention and Control

Program at the University of

California, San Diego Cancer

Center, reported back in 2006.

Interestingly, the Women’s

Intervention Nutrition Study

(WINS), a randomized clinical trial

of 2,437 breast cancer patients who

maintained a low-fat diet, reported

results contrary to those of the

WHEL study. [e WINS results

showed a reduction in the relative

risk of recurrence in postmenopausal

women, especially those whose

cancers do not respond to estrogen

(ER-negative). “[ese results suggest

that an intervention aimed at

reducing dietary fat consumption

can reduce the risk of cancer

recurrence,” said principal

investigator Rowan T. Chlebowski,

M.D., Ph.D., of the Los Angeles

Biomedical Research Institute in

California. “Although further

confirmation is needed, a low-fat diet

may offer other health benefits, such

as modest weight loss.”

Dr. Sharon Ross, NCI’s program

director of the WHEL study,

describes the results as unfortunate

and says that the next study, which

continued on next page

7

Research Highlights
from previous page

continued on next page

Fom June 2-5, 2007, the American

Society of Clinical Oncology

(ASCO) held its annual meeting in

Chicago with over 30,000

participants in attendance. During

the four-day conference, several

NCI-sponsored CAM studies for

cancer prevention and treatment

were presented – an area that does

not normally receive much attention

at ASCO annual meetings.

A phase III clinical trial looking at

the use of shark cartilage in cancer

patients was one CAM study

presented at the meeting.

“It’s uncommon to have phase III

cancer CAM clinical trials with

survival endpoints, and it’s also

uncommon for CAM trials to be the

subject of oral presentations instead

of just posters at ASCO,” says Dr.

Jeffrey White, OCCAM director.

“It’s good to see this, because it raises

the level of awareness for CAM

research.”

[e idea that shark cartilage could

help treat non-small cell lung cancer

was put to the test in a study led by

Dr. Charles Lu from the University

of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer

Center. Held at multiple sites in the

U.S. and Canada, the trial accrued

over 380 patients. All patients

received conventional platinumbased chemotherapy with or without

radiation therapy but were also

randomized to receive either

Neovastat, a drug containing a liquid

extract of shark cartilage, or a

placebo. [e results of the study

showed that the Neovastat did not

affect survival rates for cancer

patients. An earlier study had

indicated that patients who took

Neovastat had a decrease in the

formation of new blood vessels, a

process known as anti-angiogenesis.

Several other drugs with antiangiogenic effects are currently under

investigation as potential anti-cancer

agents.

A preliminary study involving

flaxseed and its affect on prostate

cancer was also presented at the

meeting. [is study found that men

who added flaxseed to their diet had

slower tumor growth rates compared

to those who didn’t, suggesting

flaxseed may have the potential to

fight early prostate cancer.

One clinical study, funded by NCI’s

Community Clinical Oncology

Program, found that certain doses of

American ginseng can be effective in

alleviating cancer-related fatigue.

[e abstracts of these NCI studies

and information about the 2007

ASCO meeting can be found at

www.asco.org.

8

NCI CAM Studies Presented at ASCO

Preventing Chemotherapy-Induced Neuropathy

Reprinted from the Cancer Bulletin, April 3, 2007

www.cancer.gov/ncicancerbulletin/NCI_Cancer_Bulletin_040307/ page7

Name of the Trial

Phase III Randomized Study of

Alpha-Lipoic Acid in Preventing

Platinum-Induced Peripheral

Neuropathy in Cancer Patients

Receiving a Cisplatin- or

Oxaliplatin-Containing

Chemotherapy Regimen (MDACCC-0327). See the protocol

summary at

http://cancer.gov/clinicaltrials/

MDA-CCC-0327.

Principal Investigator

Dr. Ying Guo, University of Texas

M.D. Anderson Cancer Center

Why 2is Trial Is Important?

Peripheral neuropathy is

characterized by sensations of pain,

tingling, burning, numbness, or

weakness that usually begin in the

hands or feet. It can be caused by

certain illnesses, for example,

diabetes. It can also be a side effect of

treatment with platinum-based

chemotherapy drugs.

Chemotherapy-induced peripheral

neuropathy can be either acute or

chronic. Acute peripheral neuropathy

may begin during or shortly after

administration of a platinumcontaining drug and usually goes away

on its own after several days. Chronic

peripheral neuropathy may arise weeks
from previous page

Striving to stay connected to the

ever-growing field of cancer CAM,

OCCAM periodically likes to take

the pulse of its audience by polling

the opinions of its stakeholders. In

the past, methods of receiving input

from cancer researchers and CAM

practitioners have included surveys

and focus groups. During the spring,

OCCAM added a new method of

gathering input, the public comment

forum.

[e public comment forum allows

responders to volunteer to provide

open-ended feedback to statements

posted by the host of the forum.

OCCAM used the public comment

forum to gather input on two

different topics. One public

comment session sought input on

the necessity and utility of collecting

nationally representative data on

CAM usage by United States (U.S.)

cancer patients, while the other

sought assistance in identifying

factors associated with successful and

unsuccessful collaborations between

cancer researchers and CAM

practitioners.

[e two public comment sessions

ran concurrently for sixty days from

May 1, 2007, thru June 30, 2007.

During this timeframe, dozens of

unique responders provided

OCCAM with valuable information

to both public comment sessions.

Opinions received regarding the

utility and need of nationally

representative CAM use among U.S.

cancer patients will add to the

ongoing dialogue within OCCAM

on this topic. Comments collected

from statements focused on

collaborations between cancer

researchers and CAM practitioners

helped to shape the agenda and

discussion topics for the October 22-

23, 2007, OCCAM hosted

conference Cancer Researchers &

CAM Practitioners: Fostering

Collaborations; Advancing the

Science (www.cancer.gov/cam/news/

conference2007.html).

CAM Information

continued on next page

9

or months after chemotherapy

treatment and may be very difficult

to treat; in some patients, it may be

irreversible.

In this trial, researchers are testing

the ability of alpha-lipoic acid to

prevent peripheral neuropathy

caused by the platinum-containing

drugs cisplatin and oxaliplatin.

Alpha-lipoic acid is an antioxidant

produced naturally by the body; it

can also be found in some foods and

as a nutritional supplement. In

diabetes patients, it has been shown

to relieve symptoms of neuropathy.

"Peripheral neuropathy is a

potentially disabling condition that

affects many cancer patients treated

with platinum-based chemotherapy,"

said Dr. Guo. "We hope that alphalipoic acid will help prevent this

condition in patients being treated

with cisplatin or oxaliplatin."

Patients will be randomly assigned to

receive oral alpha-lipoic acid or a

placebo three times a day for at least

24 weeks.

Who Can Join 2is Trial?

Researchers will enroll 224 patients

scheduled to receive cisplatin-or

oxaliplatin-based chemotherapy for

cancer and who have not experienced

previous peripheral neuropathy. See

the list of eligibility criteria at

http://cancer.gov/clinicaltrials/

MDA-CCC-0327.

Study Sites and Contact

Information

Study sites in the United States are

recruiting patients for this trial. See

the list of study contacts at

www.cancer.gov/clinicaltrials/

MDA-CCC-0327

or call NCI's Cancer Information

Service at

1-800-4-CANCER

(1-800-422-6237)

for more information. [e toll-free

call is confidential. ❧

Taking the Pulse of Stakeholders
In May 2007, OCCAM Director Dr.

Jeffrey D. White presented at the

13th International Society for

Biological Cancer [erapy

conference, held in Heidelberg,

Germany. Focusing on the

communication between cancer

patients who use CAM techniques

and their physicians, the three-day

conference provided participants,

both patients and physicians, an

opportunity to learn how to interact

more efficiently with one another.

At the conference, Dr. White

represented NCI as he spoke about

OCCAM’s role at NCI, as well as the

office’s structure, mission, past and

current cancer CAM research

projects, accomplishments, and

online resources. In addition, other

presentations looked at motivation

and hope during illness, nutrition,

lifestyle change, and stress control

and prevention. [ere were also

interactive forums, including a

session in which patients asked

physicians questions and then

another session in which the roles

were reversed.

“[e main goal of May 2007’s

conference was to reduce the area of

conflict between orthodox medicine

and a holistic-biological approach to

medicine, as well as to encourage

dialogue between doctors and

patients. [e conference lectures and

seminars reflected the human being

as a unity of mind, body, and spirit,”

said Dr. Gyoergy Irmey, medical

director for the Society for Biological

Cancer [erapy, an organization

consisting of approximately 19,000

patients, physicians, and scientists

dedicated to the education and

research of complementary medicine.

An Opportunity for Outreach

Providing high-quality information

to the public is an important part of

OCCAM’s mission. One way in

which OCCAM participates in

outreach is by presenting at various

meetings attended by members of

the public. In support of this type of

Meetings

10

activity, OCCAM Director Dr.

Jeffrey D. White spoke this past July

at the Ovarian Cancer National

Alliance’s 10th Annual Conference in

Washington, D.C. Dr. White’s talk

“Approaches to Uncovering and

Studying Unconventional Cancer

[erapies: [e U.S. National Cancer

Institute Experience” demonstrated

to the attendees the many projects

and activities that NCI has

completed and has underway, which

increase the available amount of

evidence-based information on

cancer CAM therapies. ❧

OCCAM Director Attends Patient-Physician Dialogue Conference

Invited Speaker Series Booklet Released

Due to the popularity of the Invited

Speaker Series summaries, OCCAM

has released a new publication

Invited Speaker Series: 2002-2005, a

compilation of the summaries and

slides from all four of the lectures in

the series. [e lecture series, an

initiative created to present the latest

evidence-based cancer CAM data to

the NIH community, began in

January 2002 and commenced in

May 2005.

Each of the following lecture’s

materials was originally printed in

individual publications:

■ Acupuncture Research:

Examples of the State of the

Science from Bench to

Bedside

■ Melatonin, Chronobiology

& Cancer

■ [e State of Complementary

and Alternative Medicine in

United Kingdom Cancer

Care: Advances in Research,

Practice and Delivery

■ Traditional Chinese

Medicine for Cancer: [e

Road to China

[e new publication combines each

of the individual presentations into

one booklet, chronicling the series.

Copies of Invited Speaker Series:

2002-2005 can be ordered by calling

the Cancer Information Service at

1-800-4-CANCER. ❧
11

Two New Changes for

OCCAM’s Monthly Lecture Series

Starting in January 2008,

the OCCAM Monthly Lecture Series will be held

from 1:00 – 2:00 pm ET

on the second Wednesday of each month at

6130 Executive Plaza

1st Floor, Conference Room J

Bethesda, MD 20892.

OCCAM is also happy to announce that physicians who attend the OCCAM Monthly Lecture

Series can now earn Continuing Medical Education.

[e National Institutes of Health/Foundation for Advanced Education in the Sciences

(NIH/FAES) is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to

provide continuing medical education for physicians.

[e NIH/FAES designates this activity for a maximum of [12] AMA PRA Category 1 CreditsTM.

For more information on OCCAM’s Monthly Lecture Series, please visit

http://www.cancer.gov/cam/news/monthly-lecture-series.html.

Date

December 12, 2007

January 9, 2008

February 13, 2008

March 12, 2008

Speaker

Dr. Kara Kelly

Columbia University Medical

Center

Dr. Yung-Chi Cheng

Yale University

Dr. Hassan Mukhtar

University of Wisconsin

Dr. Judith Balk

University of Pittsburgh

Topic

Glutamine for Prevention and

Treatment of Vincristine Related

Peripheral Neuropathy

PHY 906

Prostate Cancer and Green Tea

Acupuncture and Cancer Related

Fatigue

Upcoming Lectures
To obtain a copy of this newsletter or for inquiries on

cancer and CAM, please contact

1-800-4-CANCER (1-800-422-6237).

NIH Publication No. 07-5854

Month 2007

12

Date Meeting Location OCCAM Staff

Attending

November 8-10, 2007

November 15-17,

2007

April 12-16, 2008

Oncology Nursing Society

Advanced Practice Nursing

Conference

Society for Integrative

Oncology 4th International

Conference*

American Association for

Cancer Research Annual

Meeting

Chicago, IL

San Francisco, CA

San Diego, CA

CDR (USPHS) Colleen

Lee

Shea Buckman

Steve Graff

Dr. Dan Xi

Dr. Libin Jia

*Indicates that an OCCAM staff member will be at the NCI or OCCAM exhibit booth.

Featured Scientific Meetings

To view sessions from OCCAM’s Cancer Researchers and CAM Practitioners: Fostering Collaborations Advancing

the Science conference held on October 22 and 23, 2007, check out the videocasts archived on our Web site at

http://www.cancer.gov/cam/news/conference2007.html. Also, look for highlights about the conference in the

next issue of our newsletter!