CCR Grand Rounds July 5: No Lecture July 12: Dr. Crystal Mackall, Head, Immunology Section, Pediatric Oncology Branch, Center for Cancer Research, NCI "Integrating Immunotherapy into Existing Cancer Therapies: Challenges and Opportunities" July 19: Dr. Max S. Wicha, Director, University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, Distinguished Professor of Oncology, University of Michigan Medical School "Stem Cells in Normal Mammary Development and Breast Cancer" CCR Grand Rounds are held 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. at the NIH campus in Bethesda, Md., in the Clinical Center's Lipsett Amphitheater.

New CAM Brochure Available
Thinking About Complementary and Alternative Medicine, a new brochure from NCI, helps cancer patients and their families find information on this often confusing topic. The booklet is a joint project between NCI's Offices of Education and Special Initiatives and Cancer Complementary and Alternative Medicine and the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. Written in plain language, it is designed to help cancer patients, caregivers, and health professionals find reliable CAM information and resources.

NCI conducted focus groups and interviews with patients who used complementary treatment with, or instead of, conventional treatment. As a result, the booklet identifies the major CAM domains, provides guidance on evaluating the available cancer CAM information, identifies reliable government sources for CAM information, and gives advice on how to speak with conventional health care providers about CAM and find a suitable CAM practitioner.

Thinking About Complementary and Alternative Medicine is available online at http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/thinking-about-CAM. Free copies can also be ordered online or by phone at 1-800-4-CANCER (1-800-422-6237).

Science Writers' Seminar Highlights Blood-Borne Cancers
On June 20, NCI's Press Office hosted a science writers' forum at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, the latest in NCI's series of educational seminars. The seminar was attended by journalists from the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, HealthDay, and other media outlets in New England. Researchers from Dana-Farber and NCI discussed issues such as allogeneic stem cell transplantation to treat certain types of leukemia, old therapies used in new ways to cure multiple myeloma, and the new methods to treat 40 different types of lymphomas. Speakers included Drs. Ken Anderson and Robert Soiffer of Dana-Farber and Dr. Wyndham Wilson of NCI. The seminar can be viewed via archived webcast at http://videocast.nih.gov/PastEvents.asp.

Web Site Matches Patients to Trials
Breastcancertrials.org (BCT) is a Web-based service for matching breast cancer patients to clinical trials. The nonprofit service is sponsored by NCI; the University of California, San Francisco Comprehensive Cancer Center; and the Center of Excellence for Breast Cancer Care. BCT was launched as a pilot project earlier this month.

Breast cancer patients enter their cancer histories into BCT's secure online database. They are then matched with trials for which they may be eligible. Clinical trial staff make the final determination as to whether a patient is accepted for a trial.

The pilot launch of BCT includes only trials located in the greater San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento, Calif., but is open to all U.S. patients. For more information, go to http://www.breastcancertrials.org.

New Booklets Available
NCI has updated two booklets in its award-winning What You Need To Know About Cancer series. Revised versions of What You Need To Know About Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma and What You Need To Know About Cancer were recently posted on NCI's Web site at http://www.cancer.gov/publications. Print copies can be ordered online or by calling 1-800-4-CANCER (1-800-422-6237).

The series of 25 booklets is intended to answer the questions of cancer patients and their families about symptoms, diagnosis, staging, and treatment. Some booklets in the series are as long as 75 pages, and several are available in Spanish.