Philadelphia, PA -- The Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) has 13 presentations slated for this year's American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting taking place May 31-June 4 at McCormick Place, Chicago, Illinois. During the meeting's plenary session on Sunday, June 2, RTOG Principal Investigator (PI) Mark R. Gilbert, M.D. (University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas), will present the primary aim results of the RTOG 0825 trial (A phase III double-blind placebo-controlled trial evaluating bevacizumab in patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma). "It is very gratifying to see the excellent work of many RTOG investigators recognized at this prominent venue. My congratulations to all of the research teams whose work will be featured at ASCO and a special commendation for the RTOG 0825 team on the selection of the trial's primary results report as one of the five oral presentations," says Walter J. Curran, Jr. M.D., RTOG Group Chair and executive director of the Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University in Atlanta.

Three additional reports of RTOG 0825 analyses are offered during the meeting. In a "Late-Breaking Abstract" presentation, Erik P. Sulman, M.D., Ph.D. (University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center) will present the results of molecular profiling investigations done to date to identify predictive markers of bevacizumab response. Additionally, Terri S. Armstrong, Ph.D., A.N.P.-B.C. (University of Texas Health Science Center), co-PI for the trial's quality of life component will present the analysis of the patient-reported outcomes between the trial's two arms, and co-PI for neurocognitive function (NCF), Jeffrey S. Wefel, Ph.D., A.B.P.P. (University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center), will report on the NCF outcomes.

Rounding out the oral presentations of RTOG brain tumor research is a report by RTOG 0424 PI Barbara Jean Fisher, M.D. (London Health Sciences Centre, London, Ontario, Canada), of the trial's (A Phase II study of a temozolomide-based chemoradiotherapy regimen for high risk low-grade gliomas) preliminary results. Two additional oral presentations include the radiation dose results of the RTOG 0617 trial (A randomized phase III comparison of standard-dose [60 Gy] vs. high-dose [74 Gy] conformal chemoradiotherapy +/- cetuximab for stage III non-small cell lung cancer) presented by trial PI Jeffrey Bradley, M.D. (Washington University, St. Louis, Mo.) and Christine H. Chung's, M.D. (Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md.), meta-analysis of p16 expression as a human papillomavirus-independent prognostic biomarker of nonoropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma.

To obtain a full schedule of RTOG presentations at ASCO, visit RTOG at 2013 ASCO