Dr. Helen Chen

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  sabin.org/files/cvc/cvc_2007_09.htm - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 9/1/2007    Last Visited: 12/15/2007  

  Helen Chen, MD, CTEP, NCI

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  hmiworld.org/hmi/issues/July_aug_2005/forum.html - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 8/1/2005    Last Visited: 11/12/2007  

  Helen Chen, MD, a senior investigator in NCI's Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program, said that these drugs are difficult to test because anti-angiogenesis drugs don't directly kill tumor cells.Chen, who is involved with clinical trials of anti-angiogenic drugs, said, "In terms of drug development, these agents are not easy to develop because . . . the main mechanism of action is to slow down the growth of the tumor.That type of activity can be challenging to measure in the early clinical trial phase using traditional criteria based on tumor size shrinkage."The success of an anti-angiogenic drug is measured by "whether it can slow down tumor growth and whether it improves survival.And usually that requires larger studies," said Chen.
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  Fidler, Schnipper, and Chen believe that anti-angiogenic agents will be used in combination with other therapies, in the immediate future with chemotherapy.
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  They need to be combined with other agents to potentiate or magnify their usefulness, " said Chen.
  
  The future of anti-angiogenic therapiesAnti-angiogenic therapies have so far been given primarily to patients with advanced cancer-cancer that has spread throughout the body-who have a bad prognosis.Clinical trials are now in progress to test the power of these drugs as adjuvant therapy, which, as Chen explains, "is for patients who have had a tumor surgically removed.
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  While there has been some hope that anti-angiogenic drugs will be useful in cancer prevention, Fidler, Schnipper, and Chen think this is unlikely to happen any time soon.
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  "The anti-angiogenic therapy approach is to target the soil," said Chen.
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  According to Chen, the most exciting event in angiogenesis in recent years has been the clinical validation of the seed and soil hypothesis and of Folkman's work by the clinical success of the drug Avastin."For the first time, we have some clinical evidence for that approach to cancer therapy," she said.

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  Faculty » FacultyList - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 9/25/2008    Last Visited: 9/25/2008  

  Helen Chen, M.D.National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Md.

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  HMI World | Forum - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 8/1/2005    Last Visited: 11/9/2008  

  Helen Chen, MD, a senior investigator in NCI's Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program, said that these drugs are difficult to test because anti-angiogenesis drugs don't directly kill tumor cells. Chen, who is involved with clinical trials of anti-angiogenic drugs, said, "In terms of drug development, these agents are not easy to develop because . . . the main mechanism of action is to slow down the growth of the tumor. That type of activity can be challenging to measure in the early clinical trial phase using traditional criteria based on tumor size shrinkage." The success of an anti-angiogenic drug is measured by "whether it can slow down tumor growth and whether it improves survival. And usually that requires larger studies," said Chen.
  ...
  Fidler, Schnipper, and Chen believe that anti-angiogenic agents will be used in combination with other therapies, in the immediate future with chemotherapy.
  ...
  They need to be combined with other agents to potentiate or magnify their usefulness, " said Chen.
  
  The future of anti-angiogenic therapies Anti-angiogenic therapies have so far been given primarily to patients with advanced cancer—cancer that has spread throughout the body—who have a bad prognosis. Clinical trials are now in progress to test the power of these drugs as adjuvant therapy, which, as Chen explains, "is for patients who have had a tumor surgically removed.
  ...
  While there has been some hope that anti-angiogenic drugs will be useful in cancer prevention, Fidler, Schnipper, and Chen think this is unlikely to happen any time soon.
  ...
  "The anti-angiogenic therapy approach is to target the soil," said Chen.
  ...
  According to Chen, the most exciting event in angiogenesis in recent years has been the clinical validation of the seed and soil hypothesis and of Folkman's work by the clinical success of the drug Avastin. "For the first time, we have some clinical evidence for that approach to cancer therapy," she said.

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  NCI, CTEP Drug Development Meetings - Spring 2002 - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 4/4/2001    Last Visited: 6/9/2002  

  Helen X. Chen, M.D.; National Cancer Institute

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  New Wonder Drugs - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 12/2/2006    Last Visited: 12/2/2006  

  "Avastin is a significant step forward in cancer treatment," says Helen Chen, M.D., a senior investigator with the National Cancer Institute's Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program.It's not only the first angiogenesis inhibitor, she explains.It's also a highly targeted treatment, a rifle shot instead of the shotgun blast of traditional chemotherapy.
  
  Avastin's possible side effects include internal bleeding, high blood pressure, heart attack, stroke and perforation of the bowel.But compared with other chemotherapy drugs, it has a lower rate of serious side effects.
  
  "Avastin," Dr. Chen says, "is a major advance."

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  Strategic Partnerships for Oncology Clinical Trials -... - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 1/14/2005    Last Visited: 4/17/2006  

  Helen Chen, Investigational Drug Branch, Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program, DCTD, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health

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  Study finds Herceptin may have role in bladder cancer... - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 5/14/2005    Last Visited: 5/14/2005  

  Other study authors were Daniel Petrylak, M.D., Columbia University; Ulka Vaishampayan, M.D., Wayne State University; Primo N. Lara Jr., M.D., University of California-Davis; Gurkamal Chatta, M.D., University of Pittsburgh; David Nanus, M.D., Cornell University; L. Michael Glode, M.D., University of Colorado; Donald Trump, M.D., Roswell Park Cancer Institute; and Helen Chen, M.D., National Cancer Institute.

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  Third-line bevacizumab disappoints in colorectal... - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 10/1/2004    Last Visited: 8/29/2008  

  When Helen Chen, MD, reported the disappointing results at the 40th annual meeting of American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in June, at the median follow-up of 7.7 months (range, 7.2-9 months), she noted that the median time to disease progression was 15.1 weeks.Participating sites reported that just four patients had a partial response to treatment; the NCI's independent review confirmed one response and listed the other three as stable disease.However, survival data were not considered to be mature.
  
  Dr. Chen, a senior investigator at the NCI's Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program (CTEP), would not completely dismiss further clinical evaluation of bevacizumab after the early stage of metastatic colorectal cancer, however."Adding it to an inactive chemotherapy agent doesn't seem to work," she said in an interview."However, it is unclear at this time whether bevacizumab may had any added value when combined with anti-tumor agents that are active in the second- or third-line setting.
  
  This multicenter trial was unusual, since it was organized by the NCI's CTEP and involved the Treatment Referral Center network of NCI-designated cancer centers and selected community cancer centers to achieve geographic coverage.It was conducted in collaboration with Genentech, Inc. and in consultation with patient advocacy groups.
  
  Dr. Chen said that the trial was initiated in response to tremendous public interest in bevacizumab after the ASCO 2003 meeting, when Dr. Herbert I. Hurwitz, assistant professor of medicine at Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina, reported the pivotal trial results in the first-line setting, which demonstrated a 5-month survival advantage conferred by the addition of bevacizumab to fluorouracil-based therapy.
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  Explaining why fluorouracil/leucovorin were chosen for the combination with bevacizumab, Dr. Chen said, "Given the lack of data to support bevacizumab monotherapy, it was considered important to use bevacizumab in a combination regimen.
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  On the basis of these results, Dr. Chen's team concluded, "In the third-line setting of [colorectal cancer], bevacizumab should only be used in additional clinical trials with other agents."Dr. Chen pointed out that a combination regimen of great interest is bevacizumab with cetuximab.Cetuximab, a monoclonal antibody, has been shown to shrink colorectal tumors when used alone and with irinotecan.She noted that Leonard Saltz, MD, of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, is conducting a CTEP-sponsored study with bevacizumab/cetuximab with and without irinotecan in patients who have irinotecan-refractory colorectal cancer.This trial is actively accruing, and the results are eagerly awaited, she added.

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  iSBTc: Meetings & Programs - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 10/3/2008    Last Visited: 11/10/2008  

  Helen Chen, MDNational Cancer Institute, CTEPAnnual Meeting Faculty

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