Fox Chase Cancer Center News

PHILADELPHIA (August 2, 2012)—The Risk Assessment Program at Fox Chase Cancer Center, part of the Center’s Department of Clinical Genetics, has a new educational website available to help patients understand the personal and family risk factors that may put them at higher risk for cancer. By utilizing the website, patients and their family members can learn about their risk factors and what they can do to lower their chances of getting cancer.

Philadelphia (August 1, 2012)—Three hospitals from Fox Chase Cancer Center Partners—Fox Chase’s affiliate network of community hospitals—have qualified to take part in the National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) Affiliate Research Project (ARP). Developed by the NCCN Oncology Research Program (ORP), the project is dedicated to improving patient outcomes and advancing clinical research through collaboration among NCCN; the 21 NCCN member institutions, including Fox Chase Cancer Center; and their community-based affiliate networks.

PHILADELPHIA (July 17, 2012)—Fox Chase Cancer Center has been listed among the top 50 cancer hospitals in the nation in U.S. News & World Report’s annual Best Hospitals rankings, with nephrology designated as a high-performing specialty area. The Center also ranked 6th among all hospitals in the Philadelphia metropolitan area.

(Philadelphia, PA) – As of July 1, 2012, Fox Chase Cancer Center became a part of Temple University Health System, one of Philadelphia’s leading academic health centers, providing access to quality care through its hospitals and multi-specialty satellite facilities while supporting excellence and innovation in education and research.   

PHILADELAPHIA, PA (June 26, 2012)—Surgery and radiation therapy are the two most common forms of treatment for newly diagnosed, non-metastatic prostate cancer. Now, an entirely new treatment for prostate cancer is under investigation at Fox Chase Cancer Center—a vaccine therapy called ProstAtak™.

PHILADELPHIA, PA (June 11, 2012)—The biological rule that people receive half of their genetic material from their fathers and half from their mothers does not always apply, it seems.

In the first such case on record, researchers at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia have identified a child with a severe form of immune deficiency due to having received two copies of a disordered gene from his mother. Indeed, the child inherited two entire copies of the same chromosome, made up of thousands of genes, from his mother alone, with no contribution from his father.

CHICAGO, IL (June 2, 2012)––Though it would seem logical, cancer patients don’t always choose therapies with the best chance for survival—cost and side effects are also major considerations.   Little has been known about the extent to which cost and side effects influence a patient’s treatment decision.

CHICAGO, IL (June 2, 2012)––A new compound that targets anaplastic lymphoma kinase-positive (ALK+) non-small cell lung cancer is well-tolerated by patients and is already showing early signs of activity, including in patients who no longer respond to crizotinib—the only approved ALK inhibitor.  Results of this Novartis-sponsored sudy will be presented by a researcher from Fox Chase Cancer Center during the 2012 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology on Sunday, June 3.