ASCO - Report of Activities

[Joe]

The HER2 Support Group has completed our first appearance at the prestigious ASCO meeting in Atlanta and wish to report that it was a very successful endeavor.

Here are some, but not all, of our accomplishments:

Met with representatives of GSK and Genentech. We presented them with our future plans and projects. That have promised to support us as much as possible. Our group had been in contact with GSK in order to make their new drug Tykerb available for compassionate use. They have announced that they will launch their program on June 12th. GSK will also apply to the FDA for approval of Tykerb shortly. The FDA has already fast tracked the application, so we are expecting approval around the end of 2006.
For those who are unfamiliar with this new drug, it is a dual kinase inhibitor intended to treat those patients who do not respond to Herceptin. GSK will also apply to the FDA to conduct adjuvant trials of Tykerb shortly.

We have also approached GSK to assist us in presenting our first teleconference program. It will be titled "Tykerb, Is it right for me?"
We hope that GSK will provide an oncologist to describe the drug and then open the venue for a Q & A session.

Genentech presented us with their SPOC program which is designed to provide their major cancer drugs for free or at a reduced cost to those who cannot afford it or whose insurance companies refuse to pay for them.

Our group was also invited to provide a speaker for a Bayer/Oncogene Science press conference to speak about our organization and its impact among breast cancer patients.

We also met with Nexcura and we will be hosting their Patient Profiler program on our website. This program matches patients with available clinical trials and notifies them about new trials as soon as they are announced.

During the event, our group distributed an awareness paper about CNS tumors designed to educate the clinical oncologist and patient about the detection and treatment of metastatic brain tumors. It was well received and initiated much dialogue among the healthcare professionals. I have attached a copy of this paper.

It is now apparent that we are a major (and the only) breast cancer advocacy group representing patients who overexpress the HER2/neu gene. We will now begin our transition from our "mom and pop" status to becoming a major professional organization.

Our future plans will depend on a major influx of funds. Please let us know of any grant providers who would be interested in supporting our organization and we will contact them. Many pharmaceutical companies are making a major effort to develop drugs and tests to diagnose and treat the women that we represent. Our group is a valuable tool to help them develop their products.

Dr. Devon Webster of the University of Washington Vaccine Study Group stopped by our exhibit during ASCO. She currently has 20 candidates enrolled in her phase I clinical trial of a cancer vaccine for women who are HER2 positive. 10 of these candidates were enrolled through our website. This is a major accomplishment.

Hugs
Christine