to be healthy and get stronger every day

Vogue Cuisine Vegetarian Chicken Soup & Seasoning Base 4oz - Low Sodium, Gluten Free, All Natural Ingredients

2012-01-30T23:10:00.000-08:00

Product Features

An instant, hearty broth great for soups, seasoning and marinades
An delicious seasoning for vegetables, pasta, tofu, yogurt, grains and beans
Gluten Free; Certified Vegetarian and Vegan
Low Carbohydrates; No Preservatives; No Additives
Made in USA

Miracle Greens-Nutrient-Rich Super Food Supplement

2012-01-30T23:08:00.000-08:00

Product Features
Size: (Kilo) 30 oz

Net quantity of 30 ounces
A nutrient-rich super food that optimizes pH for stimulant-free health
A complete phytonutrient herbal formula
Base consists of certified organic barley greens; an abundant source of antioxidants, co-nutrients and more
Made in the USA

Garden of Life Perfect Food

2012-01-30T22:59:00.000-08:00

Product Features
Size: 300 caplets

One bottle containing 300 capsules of super green dietary supplement
Includes antioxidant green grasses, spirulina and other micro-algae, sea vegetables, whole vegetables, grains, seeds, and legumes
An excellent source of natural vitamins A and C; ideal for those on low-carb diets or those unable to eat enough green foods
100% vegetarian
Includes no soy lecithin, apple fiber, flax meal, rice flour, artificial colors, or preservatives.

Ecological Labs MLLMPMD Microbe Lift Mini Pellets Fish Food

2012-01-30T22:46:00.000-08:00

Product Features

Microbe lift mini pellets
Contains stabilized vitamin C
Will not cloud water
Food for young fish under 4-inch
Montmorillonite Clay provides added minerals

Hollywood Miracle Diet Cookie Diet

2012-01-29T21:32:00.001-08:00

Erin Baker's Breakfast Cookies, Banana Walnut, 3-Ounce Individually Wrapped Cookies

2012-01-29T21:29:00.000-08:00

Taste of Home Comfort Food Diet Cookbook: New Family Classics Collection: Lose Weight with 416 More Great Recipes!

2012-01-29T21:28:00.001-08:00

Dr. McDougall's Right Foods Vegan Black Bean & Lime Soup, 3.4-Ounce Cups

2012-01-29T21:26:00.000-08:00

Garden of Life RAW Meal

2012-01-29T21:17:00.000-08:00

Turmeric may help beat brain disease

2007-07-19T20:46:00.000-07:00

Latest research shows that a chemical compound found in turmeric may help beat Alzheimer's, which is a brain disease that impairs memory.

Researchers isolated the compound 'bisdemethoxycurcumin' found in turmeric, which they claimed helps stimulate immune system cells that defend the body against infections and diseases.

It may be possible to infuse this compound into patients and treat the incurable and fatal brain condition, reported the online edition of Sky News.

The study might explain why Alzhimer's disease is so rare in India. Turmeric is frequently consumed in India and some other Asian countries as a dietary supplement, which allegedly cures stomach problems and other ailments.

Earlier research has shown that curcumin, an antioxidant found in turmeric, can help prevent the formation of tumours.

Writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Milan Fiala of the University of California, Los Angeles and his team said they had shown earlier that curcumin may affect the brain cells of Alzheimer's patients.

Using blood samples from Alzheimer's patients, the researchers found that the antioxidant boosted immune cells called macrophages to clear a protein called amyloid beta, which clogs the brains of Alzheimer's patients and kills brain cells.

source:www.hindustantimes.com

New Drug May Help Treat Crohn's Disease

2007-07-19T20:40:00.000-07:00

Two new studies show that a new drug called Cimzia may ease symptoms of Crohn's disease.

Cimzia hasn't been approved by the FDA yet. Patients would give themselves injections of the drug, which targets an inflammatory chemical called tumor necrosis factor (TNF) alpha.

The two new studies, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, highlight Cimzia's clinical trials in Crohn's disease patients.

The first study included 662 people with moderate to severe Crohn's disease. Half of the patients got Cimzia shots every two weeks for the first month, and then one shot per month for the rest of the six-month study.

For comparison, the other patients got sham shots (placebo) on the same dosing schedule. Patients in both groups kept diaries about their Crohn's symptoms and got regular checkups.

At the end of the study, Crohn's symptoms had eased for 23% of the Cimzia group, compared with 16% of those in the placebo group. Cimzia had a "modest improvement in the response rate, as compared with the placebo," write the researchers. They included William Sandborn, M.D., of the gastroenterology and hepatology division of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

However, patients taking Cimzia weren't more likely to achieve remission from Crohn's disease than those taking the placebo.

The second study focused on maintaining improvements in Crohn's disease symptoms over six months. The researchers included Stefan Schreiber, M.D., of the Hospital for General Internal Medicine at Christian Albrechts University in Kiel, Germany. They studied 668 people with moderate to severe Crohn's disease.

The study lasted for six months. For the first month, all of the patients got Cimzia shots every other week. During that time, Crohn's symptoms improved for nearly two-thirds of the patients.

After that, Schreiber's team focused only on the patients who had shown improvement with Cimzia treatment.

The researchers put the patients on a maintenance plan — a monthly shot of Cimzia or a placebo. Patients taking Cimzia were more likely to maintain their improvement in Crohn's symptoms during the six-month study, compared with those taking the placebo.

Infection risk may be higher with anti-TNF drugs.

In Schreiber's study, serious infections (including one case of tuberculosis) occurred in 3% of the Cimzia group, compared with less than 1% of the placebo group. In Sandborn's study, serious infections were reported in 2% of Cimzia patients and less than 1% of those taking the placebo shots.

Both studies were funded by UCB Pharma, which makes Cimzia. Both sets of researchers note financial ties to various drug companies, including UCB Pharma.

"If the drug is ultimately approved, where will it fit into current treatment strategies?" asks editorialist James Lewis, M.D., MSCE, in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Lewis works at the University of Pennsylvania's medical school. He writes that ideally, researchers would do studies that directly compare anti-TNF drugs for Crohn's disease.

"Unfortunately, it is unlikely that such comparative trials will be conducted," writes Lewis.

source:www.cbsnews.com

Listiana fights cancer

2007-07-19T20:33:00.000-07:00

Harry Potter and Listiana Srisanti have something in common: both have a strong fighting spirit.

Harry is determined to fight the evil wizard Lord Voldemort, who killed his parents as part of a plan to take over the wizarding world -- while Listiana has the strong determination to fight the cancer that almost killed her.

In 2004, a series of medical tests at a Central Jakarta hospital revealed Listiani had serious lung cancer.

"The oncologist told my husband I only had two to four months to live," she said.

Instead of crying and whining, Listiana made up her mind to fight the disease. She went to Singapore, where she learned her condition was even worse than she had been told in Jakarta. The cancer cells had spread to other parts of her body, indicating there was little hope for survival.

But Listiana refused to give up and kept her spirits high. After several operations and chemotherapy, her health improved drastically.

"I feel very healthy," said Listiana, whose hair that fell out during treatment has just started to grow back.

"I used to have cracked heels, but now they are smooth. My husband also said I have a better complexion," she said happily.

Listiana tries to always think positive and never lets herself be overpowered by emotions.

She recalls there were many times during her chemotherapy treatment when she forgot to wear her hat to cover her hairless head.

"I once went into a restaurant and many people stared at me. I realized I had left my hat in the car. So, I just turned around, went out to the car to get it and came back into the restaurant," she said with a laugh.

source:www.thejakartapost.com

Can Cancer Patients Living Longer

2007-07-19T20:16:00.000-07:00

Forty six out of 100 Korean cancer patients live more than five years after their diagnosis, a study has found. This figure is similar to the 43 percent in Japan who survive for five or more years, and lower than the 65 percent in the U.S.

According to the statistics, the rate of cancer among Korean men is 291.1 per 100,000 people, and 177.1 per 100,000 for women.

The study found that one out of four Korean men will get cancer if they live to 73 years old, which is the average life expectancy. One out of five Korean women will get cancer if they live to 81.

This is according to a joint study by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the National Cancer Center and the Korea Central Cancer Registry. The report used information from the national cancer database on 780,273 cancer patients from 1998 to 2002.

The study found that 46.3 percent of cancer patients lived more than five years after they were diagnosed between 1998 and 2002, up from 41.7 percent diagnosed between 1993 and 1997. This enhanced survival rate is attributed to a higher rate of early checkups and improved cancer diagnosis and treatment technology in Korea.

source:english.chosun.com

Low-fat diet high in vegetables does not improve cancer survival

2007-07-19T20:10:00.000-07:00

Among breast cancer survivors, adopting a low-fat diet high in vegetables, fruit and fibre does not prevent the cancer from returning or prolong survival, according to a paper in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Dr John P Pierce and his associates designed the Women's Healthy Eating and Living (WHEL) trial, based on evidence that plant-derived foods contain anti-cancer chemicals.

Pierce, at the University of California, San Diego, and his team describe the intervention as "a telephone counselling program supplemented with cooking classes and newsletters that promoted daily targets of five vegetable servings plus 16 ounces of vegetable juice; three fruit servings; 30 grams of fibre; and 15 to 20 per cent of" calories from fat.

Subjects in the comparison group received care as usual and were given publications from the National Cancer Institute and the US Department of Health and Human Services, describing the "5-A-Day" dietary guidelines.

In addition to five servings of vegetables and fruits, the diet recommends 20 grams of fibre and less than 30 per cent of calories from fat.

Between 1995 and 2000, WHEL investigators enrolled more than 3,000 women who were previously treated for breast cancer.

Follow-up continued until 2006. They report outcomes for 1,537 subjects randomly assigned to the intervention group and 1,561 assigned to the comparison group.

As noted, the special diet did not prevent breast cancer from returning and it did not improve survival.

Roughly 17 per cent of patients in each group had their cancer return and about 10 per cent in each died during follow-up.

In a related editorial, Dr Susan M Gapstur and Dr Seema Khan, from the Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, compared the WHEL study findings with those of the Women's Intervention

Nutrition Study (WINS).

According to WINS trial results, a low-fat diet imparted significant increases in cancer-free survival, which was associated with a 3kg weight difference between study groups at year three.

In the WHEL study, on the other hand, weight loss and amount of daily calories did not differ between the two patient groups, and the actual percentage of calories from fat increased during the trial in both groups.

The editorialists suggest that "these results call into question the validity of some components of the self-reported dietary data," and they attribute the negative findings at least partially to lack of adherence to the diet.

source:www.theage.com.au

Genetically Altered Cold Sore Virus Fights Cancer

2007-07-09T12:04:00.001-07:00

A modified version of the virus that causes cold sores is showing early promise in targeting colorectal and liver cancer cells, scientists report.

The herpes simplex virus is specially designed so that it grows in specific cancer cells, killing them in the process. The researchers report that the genetically altered virus is safe for healthy tissue.

The findings were presented July 7 at the annual European Society for Medical Oncology meeting in Lugano, Switzerland.

"It doesn't replicate in normal, healthy cells, so our hope is that it will help fight cancers without causing side effects in the rest of the body," Dr. Axel Mescheder, vice president of clinical research and development for MediGene, said in a prepared statement. MediGene is a German biotech company based in Munich.

Mescheder reported safety and efficacy results and described the case of a patient whose liver tumors appeared to be reduced six months after treatment with the virus.

Seven leading cancer centers in the United States are participating in the study.

Almost 40 percent of patients with colorectal cancer die, because cancer spreads to other parts of the body, particularly the liver. The results reported by Mescheder follow testing in the lab and in animals where the virus was shown to be effective at killing colorectal cancer and liver cancer cells.

In 2003, over 73,000 men and almost 71,000 women were diagnosed with colorectal cancer in the United States. That year, close to 28,000 men and 28,000 women died from the disease, which is the second leading cancer killer.

Scientists identify chromosome linked to colorectal cancer

2007-07-09T12:00:00.000-07:00

Researchers at the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research and Cancer Care Ontario hope their identification of a genetic variation on a chromosome associated with colorectal cancer may help them screen people for the disease.

The study was published in Nature Genetics involved researchers from around

the world who analysed more than 100,000 genetic elements from 10,000 people, including 2,400 Ontarians from the Ontario Familial Colorectal Cancer Registry.

Research on this chromosome has previously linked it to other forms of cancer, including prostate cancer, suggesting that individuals with this newly discovered variation may be at risk for a broad spectrum of cancers.

"This discovery will lead to better understanding of colorectal cancer biology and the cause of this disease," Dr. Tom Hudson, co-principal investigator and president and scientific director of the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research said in a statement.

"This information can be used to identify those at risk of colorectal cancer and direct them to screening at an earlier age."

Colorectal cancer is the second deadliest form of cancer in Canada.

"This breakthrough could lead to new methods of testing for colorectal cancer," said Dr. Brent Zanke, co-principal investigator and scientist at Cancer Care Ontario, adding the screening could be done through blood tests.

source:www.canada.com

New factor in breast cancer prediction

2007-07-02T22:29:00.000-07:00

A U.S. study suggests women with at least three sites of cellular atypia in breast tissue are nearly eight times more likely to develop breast cancer.

"The most commonly used tool for risk prediction in women with atypia is the Gail model, which may predict inaccurately because our study shows that family history does not change risk significantly in women with atypia," said Dr. Amy Degnim, a Mayo Clinic surgeon and study author. "Our findings indicate women with atypia have a higher absolute risk for breast cancer than previously estimated. This risk is 25 percent over 25 years and is much higher in women with multiple areas of atypia and calcification."

While the study found family history didn't further increase risk, age at diagnosis of atypia did affect risk, with women under age 45 more than twice as likely to develop breast cancer compared with women diagnosed with atypia after 55.

"With the ability to stratify the risk of breast cancer in women with atypia, we can have more informed discussions with our patients regarding their personal risk," said Degnim.

The study is reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

source:www.sciencedaily.com

Labs Mature Eggs From Girls With Cancer

2007-07-02T22:20:00.000-07:00

Doctors have removed eggs from young female cancer patients and for the first time brought the eggs to maturity before freezing them, giving the girls a better chance to one day have children. Previously, scientists had thought viable eggs could only be obtained from girls who had undergone puberty.

"We didn't expect young girls to have eggs that could withstand the process of maturation," which involves adding hormones, said Dr. Ariel Revel, who led the research at the Hadassah Hospital in Israel.

The research will be presented Tuesday at the annual meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Lyon.

In related work, Canadian doctors on Monday announced the first birth of a baby from eggs matured in a laboratory, frozen, thawed and then fertilized a key development that holds promise for infertile women.

The year-old baby girl was born to a woman in Canada, doctors told the conference. Three other women are pregnant from eggs that had been matured in a lab, frozen, thawed and then implanted, they said.

The 20 women involved in the study are infertile with an average age of about 30. None have a history of cancer. Until now, doctors did not know whether eggs matured in a lab could withstand the fertilization process, adding that the research is still in early stages.

"It has the potential to become one of the main options for fertility preservation," said Dr. Hananel Holzer, the study's lead author and an assistant professor in the department of obstetrics and gynecology at McGill University in Montreal.

In the study involving young girls with cancer, Revel surgically extracted the eggs and then artificially matured them in a laboratory, with the idea of re-implanting them one day should the patient wish to have children.

To obtain the eggs, Revel and his colleagues performed surgery on 18 patients ages 5 to 20. Of 167 eggs, 41 were successfully matured, including some from prepubescent donors. They were then indistinguishable from those of older women, Revel said.

"Any advance that enables young women to have children one day after having cancer is positive," said Simon Davies, head of Teenage Cancer Trust, a charity based in Britain. Davies was not linked to the research.

But as the extraction of eggs is an invasive operation, Davies said more information was needed about potential risks to young women fighting cancer. There might also be ethical concerns, as the decision to remove eggs from very young girls would likely be made by the parents, not the patient.

Experts think cancer treatments can affect female fertility. Chemotherapy usually affects all body cells, attacking not only the cancer, but other areas including the ovaries for which it is often deadly.

Unlike men, who produce sperm throughout their lifetime, women only have a set number of eggs from their birth, which decreases as they age. Young girls who undergo aggressive chemotherapy treatments often experience a sharp drop in the number of their eggs, and some become completely infertile.

The cure rate for childhood cancer can be as high as 90 percent, and doctors are investigating options for preserving patients' fertility. Another experimental method involves removing a thin layer of ovarian tissue for re-implantation later, but trials so far have resulted in only a handful of pregnancies worldwide.

Immature eggs from adult women have previously been matured in the laboratory, but until now, no one had ever tried it with eggs from young girls.

The real test will come when the girls on whom the treatment was performed might be ready to have children. "We will only know the final chapter of this story in about 10 years, when we hope to close the circle of this research," Revel said.

None of the eggs has yet been thawed, and experts are unsure if the process of artificial insemination could result in other problems such as chromosomal abnormalities. Additional surveillance, such as amniocentesis screenings to check the baby's development, probably would be necessary.

source:www.abcnews.go.com

General Health News

2007-06-28T08:36:00.001-07:00

The Danger in Candy Cigarettes

New research suggests that playing with candy cigarettes may favorably set the minds of some children towards becoming future cigarette smokers.

The study, reported in the July issue of Preventive Medicine, shows that in a nationally representative sample of 25,887 US adults, the percentages who had never consumed candy cigarettes were 12% in current and former smokers vs. 22% in never smokers, and the corresponding percentages of adults who had regularly (often or very often) consumed candy cigarettes were 22% in current and former smokers vs. 14% in never smokers.

Candy cigarettes are made of candy or gum, shaped into cylindrical sticks and sold in rectangular boxes roughly the size of cigarette packs. In the US they are typically displayed next to the bubble gum and the trading cards commonly sold in supermarkets and convenience stores.

Make-believe cigarette smoking may be considered illicit and mature by some children, but research suggests that playing with these edible “toys” cannot be considered as a benign parody of cigarette smoking. This new research is built on past research, such as focus groups in the US with 4 to 11 year-old children and a survey of 7th graders which indicated that playing with candy cigarettes may actually desensitize children to the harm of real smoking .

“Candy and gum look-alike products allow children to respond to tobacco marketing and advertising long before they are old enough to smoke a cigarette,” comments Dr. Klein, the corresponding author. “The continued existence of these products helps promote smoking as a culturally or socially acceptable activity.”

While countries including the UK, Australia, and Canada currently restrict candy cigarette sales, US federal and all but one state legislative efforts at banning candy cigarettes have been unsuccessful (the one exception was later repealed). Ironically, it appears that the responsibility for restricting candy cigarette sales in the US has been left up to large national retailers such as the Wal-Mart chain, which has a company-wide policy banning the sale of cigarette look-alike products to minors in all 50 states. Candy cigarettes cannot be considered simply as candy.

source:www.medindia.net

General Health News

2007-06-28T08:36:00.000-07:00

Health & Beauty..but Smoking is?

2007-06-28T08:33:00.000-07:00

Having smoked now for the best part of 17 years, I’ve finally decided to give up properly. This month, I turned 30 and with the forthcoming ban on smoking in enclosed places I felt I was ready to try (again) and kick the habit once and for all.

The main reasons for giving up are financial and health related. I smoke on average, 25 cigarettes a day. At £5.70 a pack of 20, that works out to almost £50 a week, or a whopping £2,500 a year. That’s a bloody good holiday and shopping spree paid for. Right now that money is literally going up in smoke.

The health benefits that I’m hoping for include: not being out of breath when running up a few flights of stairs; getting rid of the annoying cough in the morning and generally improving skin tone and circulation (and, of course, to avoid the dangers of heart disease and lung cancer).

This isn’t the first time I’ve tried to give up smoking. Our house contains almost every single brand product for helping giving up the habit.

In the bathroom there are: patches (itched and the adhesive was almost impossible to remove), some gum (tasted foul); a nicotine nasal spray (which made me sneeze so much I could hardly breathe, never mind smoke); a plastic cigarette with nicotine inhaler vials – which, in a moment of inebriation was lit up and inhaled (thus possibly causing more damage to my lungs than 17 years of smoking).

In the bedroom there are numerous self-help books and handy guides from the NHS stopping smoking service.

All of these approaches have previously failed, mostly I guess because the drive to give up smoking wasn’t really there. I have constantly toyed with giving up, whilst appeasing my long-suffering (and non-smoking) partner that, once again, his nagging had made me do something about my addiction.

However, I did concede (a few years ago), that once I turned 30 I would do something serious about giving up. Almost by coincidence, the government introduced the no-smoking regulations in England and now I feel a lot more confident that any attempt I’m making will succeed. Whilst I try and be a considerate smoker (and go outside to smoke if people around me are eating), smoking in bars is definitely my downfall.

It used to seem so right, cigarette in one hand, drink in another – that is until the next morning when your clothes still stink, your head is pounding and your throat feels raw from all the smoke. Thus, even as a smoker myself, I’m largely in favour of the ban.

The method I’ve chosen this time is the newly licensed drug, varenicline (or Champix). It was almost as a matter of ruling out those methods which I’d previously tried (and therefore might associate with failure), coupled with recent figures suggesting that users of Champix are three times more likely to succeed than willpower alone.

Whilst my NHS providers were unwilling to provide me with Champix (since I’d previously received some reduced-price nicotine patches), it is available via private prescription for a 12 week supply. You need to continue smoking for between 7 and 14 days after starting Champix.

As luck would have it, my quit date (1st July) nicely coincides with this date, which will hopefully mean less temptation around to deal with. Watch this space for updates on how I’m getting along and how I feel whilst taking Champix.

Dr Martin Broadstock

source:uk.gay.com

The American press is suffering from Bright's disease

2007-06-28T08:31:00.000-07:00

Like many people who read newspapers, I go to the sports page first, the sports page being a chronicle of achievements, and the rest of the paper consisting mainly as a chronicle of failures. Yet today's sports page has become a dark place to dwell as well, for alongside a picture of a great shot at Wimbledon, we are exposed to the dark underbelly of sports.

BASEBALL: Jason Giambi of the Yankees has agreed to cooperate with George Mitchell's investigation into the use of performance-enhancing drugs in Major League Baseball, apparently becoming the first active player who has consented to speak with Mitchell. CYCLING: The 2007 Tour de France starts July 7, and Versus is faced with carrying the elite event of a sport whose credibility is at a nadir. "I'd like to believe we're in the final death spasms of the doping era," said Gavin Harvey, the president of Versus, which has rights to the race through next year.

FOOTBALL: Pacman Jones surrendered in Las Vegas and posted $20,000 bail on felony charges resulting from a strip club melee that preceded a triple shooting.

The time has come for our national newspapers to institute a "Sports in the Courts Page," and return the sports page to those of us who don't want our RBI's mixed with DUI's. The fact that Tank Johnson, already suspended for the first eight games of the 2007 season, was pulled over at three o'clock in the morning and cited for being impaired is of no interest to me when I am reading the sports page. Put it on the Sports in the Courts Page!

And while my blood pressure is up I might also take this time to blast the national press corps for force-feeding us Ms. Hilton.

Reading about Paris Hilton is like eating cotton candy for dinner, it will give you Bright's disease of the mind. Here is a personage who has never done anything in her sordid life to deserve notoriety, except amplify an American lifestyle that brings jeers from around the world: "See? See what you get with globalization?!"

I say designate Hilton and her ilk to a "Celebrity Journalism Page," where one could turn to find out who's dumping on whom.

The only escape that I can find from a national press corps suffering from Bright's disease is in reading foreign and local journals.

I site this squib from the People's Daily of China: "A Chinese hospital that performed the country's first face transplant has conducted a liver transplant without removing the original, which the hospital claims to be the first such surgery in the world."

Now that's news! That's news that will make a body's very liver curl with enjoyment.

So don't despair, as I have on occasion, but turn a cold shoulder to our national press, and go to the St. Petersburg Times, the Copenhagen Post, and the North Lake Tahoe Bonanza for a breath of fresh journalistic air that will put a little spring in your step...

McAvoy Layne lives in Incline Village and visits schools throughout Nevada as the ghost of Mark Twain.

source:www.tahoebonanza.com

Fight against lung cancer

2007-06-28T08:28:00.000-07:00

As an American Lung Association of Florida volunteer, I commend Tampa Bay Newspapers and Dilsahd Merchant for speaking out about the dangers of lung cancer for not only

smokers, but also nonsmokers. Too often lung cancer is seen exclusively as a smoker’s disease, ignoring the plight of nonsmokers who also suffer.

Lung cancer is the No. 1 cancer killer in America, causing more deaths than the next three most common cancers combined (colon, breast and prostate).

The American Lung Association of Florida is committed to improving early detection methods of lung cancer and finding more effective treatments, as well as continuing research on the potential causes of lung cancer – from air pollution to smoking cessation.

The American Lung Association releases localized reports about air pollution and smoking trends annually and also conducts award-winning research aimed at improving life for everyone suffering from lung disease. We coordinate events, like the recent “Catch Your Breath” luncheon, where Ms. Merchant spoke, to educate at-risk groups about the dangers of lung disease.

Due to the hard work of sponsors and dedicated volunteers, the luncheon educated more than 110 local women about lung disease and raised funds for vital research efforts and other community programs. Until a cure is found, there are steps you can take to join the fight against lung cancer.

If you are a smoker, quit. Learn more about the other causes of lung cancer in nonsmokers and what you can do to protect yourself and your family by calling your local Lung Association at 1-800-LUNG-USA or by visiting www.lungfla.org.

source:www.tbnweekly.com

Cardiff breast service is best

2007-06-28T08:26:00.000-07:00

A surgical service developed at Cardiff which could save thousands of breast cancer patients unnecessary surgery has been named Best National Health Innovation for 2007.

GeneSearch Breast Cancer Intra-operative Diagnosis, pioneered by breast surgeon Professor Robert Mansel and colleagues at the School of Medicine, introduces a molecular pathology technique into routine surgery, and also offers the prospect of significant savings on NHS operations.

The service has just been named a winner at the 2007 Medical Futures Innovation Awards which celebrate and reward original thinking in healthcare.

Previously, a lymph gland would be removed from a breast cancer patient’s armpit during surgery and sent to a laboratory to check if the disease had spread. If the result was positive, the patient would be recalled for a second operation to remove the remaining lymph glands. Professor Mansel’s team has developed a service which uses the latest DNA technology to allow testing of the lymph gland in theatre at the time of the first operation. Surgery on the armpit can take place there and then.

Breast cancer affects more than 37,000 women every year. The new technique could save up to a third of them from having a second operation. The Cardiff team now aims to promote the service across the NHS. Another technique pioneered by Professor Mansel, sentinel node biopsy, which removed the need for armpit surgery altogether for many women, is being introduced to every UK hospital offering breast cancer surgery.

The Medical Futures Innovation Awards are among the most prestigious in the healthcare industry. The panel of judges include heart and lung transplant pioneer Sir Magdi Yacoub, former GlaxoSmithKline Chairman Sir Richard Sykes and Lloyds TSB Chairman Sir Victor Blank.

Professor Mansel said: “This award is a recognition of the benefits of GeneSearch in offering faster diagnosis to breast cancer patients. We are now working to ensure the service is adopted across the UK, improving patient experiences and saving significant costs.”

The award was presented at a high-profile ceremony in London hosted by Joanna Lumley and Rory Bremner.

source:www.newswales.co.uk

Cephalon to file cancer drug sooner than expected

2007-06-28T08:25:00.001-07:00

ephalon Inc. said Thursday it plans to file a marketing application for its experimental cancer drug Treanda earlier than expected.

The biotechnology company said that based on data from a late-stage European study, it plans to file a U.S. marketing application for Treanda to treat chronic lymphocytic leukemia in the third quarter.

Previously, the company said it planned to file a marketing application for Treanda based on a trial in non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in the fourth quarter. The company said the filing for that indication is still on track.

Cephalon said the leukemia filing will be based on a clinical trial conducted in Europe that compared bendamustine, the active ingredient in Treanda, with the chemotherapy chlorambucil in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia who have not been previously treated.

The Phase III trial met its main goal and full data will be presented at a medical meeting in December.

Cephalon holds the rights to market and sell Treanda in the United States. Bendamustine is marketed in Germany by MundiPharma International under the name Ribomustin.

Cephalon will elaborate on its pipeline of experimental products at its research and development day for analysts beginning at noon.

source;www.signonsandiego.com

Population Versus Cancer

2007-06-28T08:23:00.000-07:00

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare says the number of cancers being diagnosed each year is growing faster than the overall population.

Last year there were an estimated 106,000 new cases of cancer diagnosed in Australia, a 34 per cent increase over the past decade.

Prostate cancer has become the most common cancer diagnosed in Australia.

A new report from the Institute has found testing for prostate cancer has increased by 42 per cent over the last four years.

The Institute's Dr Mark Short says the increased testing has pushed up the number of cases diagnosed.

"The picture seems to be that GPs are perhaps referring men more often for these tests or men are going to GPs in particular asking for these tests, we're not sure, but if you test more you will find more cancers," he said.

"As our population of 70-year-olds and older gets bigger and bigger we're going to find more and more prostate cancer."

Rural areas

The report also found people living in regional Australia had higher rates of cancer from excessive sun exposure and smoking than their city counterparts.

Between 2001 and 2003 there was higher incidence of melanoma and lung, head and neck cancers amongst people living in rural areas.

Men also had significantly higher rates of cancer diagnosed in advanced stages.

The Cancer Council's Professor Ian Olver says it highlights the need for improvements to patient travel assistance and health facilities in regional Australia.

"Some radiotherapy equipment is being put out in rural areas and if those centres were developed into multi-disciplinary cancer centres it would bring the cancer expertise closer to the rural and remote patients," he said.

Professor Olver says the figures present a challenge for Government.

"More resources will have to be put into cancer as it becomes the predominant cause of death in Australia," he said.

source:abc.net.au

New course into cancer research

2007-06-28T08:22:00.000-07:00

A degree on cancer and the drugs used to treat the disease will be offered to students in a new course at the University of Bangor.

The cancer biology degree starting in September offers students the opportunity to work with the North West Cancer Research Institute.

The university says it is one of four degrees of its type in the UK.

It aims to allow undergraduates to pursue careers in the pharmaceutical industry and academic cancer research.

"Every week in the UK over 5,000 people are diagnosed with cancer," said Professor Nick Stuart, consultant medical oncologist at North West Wales NHS Trust.

"Added to this, the incidence of cancer in Wales tends to be higher than European average.

"We need to understand the fundamental mechanisms underlying this group of diseases in order to improve the treatments available for cancer sufferers and their survival," he added.

The students will learn skills to help their future careers, said course director Thomas Caspari.

"In addition to careers within the health service and cancer charities, cancer biologists are sought by a wide range of employers in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries and in the fields of intellectual property management, business development, project management, public relations, fundraising and marketing," he said.

"The pharmaceutical industry spend around £9m a day on cancer research and development, and there are a cluster of such companies in this region, so it's vital that we produce graduates with the skills necessary for this industry."

source:news.bbc.co.uk

Cervical cancer drug war

2007-06-28T08:18:00.000-07:00

THE foreign-made cervical cancer vaccine that will compete against Australian-developed Gardasil may prevent more cancers than the home-grown product, with new evidence showing it may protect women against other strains of the virus that causes the disease.

Gardasil, which was based on work by former Australian of the Year Ian Frazer, has proved to be 100 per cent effective in protecting women against types 16 and 18 of the human papilloma virus, which together are thought to cause 70 per cent of cervical cancers worldwide - and up to 80 per cent in Australia.

Gardasil is expected to reap hundreds of millions of dollars in royalties for CSL, which sells the vaccine in Australia and licensed it for worldwide sale through drug giant Merck.

However, interim findings from a large international study involving more than 18,000 women aged 15 to 25 - including about 500 women in Australia - has found that a rival vaccine, GlaxoSmithKline's Cervarix, not only protects against types 16 and 18, but also provides lesser protection against types 45 and 31.

Rachel Skinner, of the Vaccine Trials Group of Perth's Telethon Institute for Child Health Research, headed the Australian arm of the study. She said the other two types were responsible for a further 10 per cent of cervical cancers worldwide, although the equivalent figure in Australia was not known.

If the preliminary results are borne out, it may mean Cervarix could prevent more deaths than Gardasil. There are 750 new cases of cervical cancer each year in Australia, and 250 deaths.

Earlier this year, Gardasil began being provided to Australian schoolgirls under the National Immunisation Program. From Sunday, Gardasil will be made available free of charge to all women aged 18 to 26. GlaxoSmithKline has applied to have Cervarix also subsidised on the national scheme.

"The evidence of this broader protection (from Cervarix) is very exciting," Dr Skinner said.

"It more strongly suggests that this vaccine might ultimately be shown to provide broader protection against pre-cancerous lesions and cervical cancer, more than can be accounted for by (protection against) HPV 16 and 18 alone."

The latest findings, published online yesterday by The Lancet, were stronger confirmation of results published last year.

About half the 18,000 women in that study were randomly assigned to receive Cervarix, while the others received a hepatitis A vaccine. After 15 months, Cervarix was found to cut pre-cancerous lesions caused by HPV 16 and 18 by 90.4 per cent. Six-month persistent infections by HPV 45 were cut by 60per cent and for HPV 31 by 36 per cent.

However, Dr Skinner cautioned that it would be wrong to conclude that one vaccine was better than the other, saying Gardasil was also effective against two other strains of HPV, types 6 and 11, offering 90 per cent protection against genital warts. Cervarix has not been designed to protect women against those strains.

A spokeswoman for Gardasil's maker, Melbourne-based CSL, said several of the study's specific findings appeared to suggest a wide degree of uncertainty about the protection offered by Cervarix, and even opened the possibility that it might be less effective than Gardasil against some types.

"I'm not sure that this is such good news" for Cervarix, the CSL spokeswoman said.

source:www.theaustralian.news.com.au

S'pore to produce cancer drugs for Genentech, eyes growth in biologics

2007-06-28T08:16:00.000-07:00

US-based biotechnology firm Genentech said it will use Singapore as a base to produce drugs for cancer and a disease that causes blindness in older people for its US market by 2010.

At the groundbreaking of its new facility on Thursday, policymakers said they are confident of attracting more major biologics players to Singapore, especially to do higher value work.

Genetech is building a US$140 million microbial plant in Singapore.

"Beyond production, our hope is to attract development - for commercial development. Right now, the development is public research. Our hope is to attract companies to do cancer research. Singapore is becoming a centre for cancer research, cancer development and cancer drugs," said Philip Yeo, Special Advisor for Economic Development, Prime Minister's Office.

Singapore is now home to four biologics plants, and Genentech's latest facility will be the first biologics plant here to make medicine based on bacteria technology.

Officials believe that building a strong industry cluster in the emerging field of biologics will help attract related supporting industries.

"We do have a very strong pipeline of biologics project interests from companies. And we really see this to be the next wave of growth for the biomedical sciences manufacturing sector," said Yeoh Keat Chuan, Executive Director (Biomedical Sciences), Economic Development Board (EDB).

With half a billion US dollars of investments in Singapore already, Genentech said it's looking at pursuing further work here.

"With the great experience that we've had in Singapore, you can reasonably assume that we'll be talking in the future about other things. The right place to start will probably be in clinical development, where Genentech is looking at globalising our clinical development facilities and operations," said Patrick Yang, Executive VP of Genetech.

The new plant is slated to be operational by the end of 2009.

Soon after that, Genentech is planning to buy the Lonza plant next door once it's tested and qualified.

The plan is to have both plants contribute up to 40% of the company's total sales revenue over time. - CNA /ls

source:www.channelnewsasia.com

Connecticut's governor, herself a cancer survivor, vetoes medical marijuana bill

2007-06-20T07:40:00.001-07:00

Connecticut's governor, a cancer survivor, vetoed a bill that would have allowed people with certain serious illnesses to use marijuana, saying it was fraught with problems and sent a mixed message to children.

Gov. M. Jodi Rell said Tuesday that she struggled with the decision.

“I am not unfamiliar with the incredible pain and heartbreak associated with battling cancer,” the Republican said. Rell was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004, a few months after taking office, and she underwent a mastectomy.

The bill she vetoed would have allowed people older than 18 with medical conditions such as cancer, multiple sclerosis and AIDS to grow and use four marijuana plants after getting written permission from a doctor and registering with the state.

The issue pits broader patients' rights against concerns of legalized access to an illicit drug. Twelve states let some patients use marijuana despite federal laws against it.

“I think this is a big step backward,” said Republican state Rep. Penny Bacchiochi, a widow who risked arrest more than 20 years ago to obtain marijuana for her husband while he struggled with bone cancer.

TV talk show host Montel Williams, diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1999, lobbied at the state Capitol in support of the bill. He said he uses marijuana to help alleviate the pain and debilitating symptoms.

source:www.signonsandiego.com

Breast Cancer Genes Traced Back To Father's Family

2007-06-20T07:39:00.000-07:00

A new study of American women suffering from breast cancer has traced the roots of the disease to that of the father. The study authors say that many women with breast cancer are deprived of testing to identify faulty genes and clarify their medical decisions.

The study, appearing in tomorrow's Journal of the American Medical Association, looked at the genetic test results from 306 women diagnosed with breast cancer before age 50. It was concluded that the deadly gene's path can hide in a family tree when a woman has few aunts and older sisters, thus indicating the fact that it originates from the father's side of the family.

AP quotes study co-author Dr. Jeffrey Weitzel of City of Hope Cancer Center in Duarte, California as saying, "Interestingly, it's about Dad." Nearly half of genetic breast cancers are inherited from a woman's father, not her mother.

Weitzel also added that unless the father has female relatives with breast cancer, there is a possibility that the faulty gene may have been passed down silently, without causing cancer

The study also urges the insurance companies to change the rules for health claims and should include coverage for genetic testing to include the new findings. Genetic testing can cost more than $3,000.

Experts also recommend any woman who gets breast cancer before age 50, to get a genetic test that would help her decide whether to have the unaffected breast or her ovaries removed to prevent more cancer.

Dr. Noah Kauff, a cancer geneticist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. Told AP, "The study allows physicians and patients to make an argument to insurance carriers that, although there's not a family history of breast cancer, it's still reasonable to test and it should be a covered benefit."

source:www.allheadlinenews.com

Antibiotic Use in First Year May Increase Asthma Risk

2007-06-19T21:48:00.000-07:00

The use of antibiotics in the first year of life is associated with an increased risk for asthma at age 7, a new study has found, and the reason may be that antibiotics destroy not only disease-causing microbes, but also those that are helpful to the developing immune system.

Antibiotic use had a greater impact on children who would otherwise be considered at lower risk — children who lived in rural areas and those whose mothers did not have asthma — than on those who were already at increased risk because of an urban environment or genetic predisposition.

Studies of antibiotic use and asthma have been complicated. Because antibiotics are used to treat respiratory illnesses, which are often precursors of asthma, it has been difficult to determine the effect of antibiotics alone. But this study, of 13,116 Canadian children, found that the risk of asthma increased even in children treated with antibiotics for nonrespiratory illnesses in the first year of life. The study appears in the June issue of Chest.

Anita L. Kozyrskyj, the lead author and an associate professor of pharmacy at the University of Manitoba, said the findings supported what scientists call the microflora hypothesis — that “you need good bacteria in your digestive tract for normal development of the immune system so that you don’t end up with asthma,” as she put it.

The researchers tracked medications by examining prescription records, and determined asthma status by treatment for asthma or any asthma drug use in the year following the seventh birthday. Six percent of the children developed asthma by age 7.

After statistically adjusting for respiratory and nonrespiratory illnesses, sex, maternal history of asthma, urban or rural location and other factors, researchers found that one or two courses of antibiotics in the first year of life increased the risk of asthma by about 20 percent.

The more frequent the antibiotic use, the higher the risk. Three to four courses of medicine conferred a 30 percent added risk, and more than four courses of antibiotics increased the risk by almost 50 percent.

The findings were stronger for the use of broad-spectrum antibiotics like the cephalosporins and amoxicillin than they were for narrow-spectrum drugs like penicillin and erythromycin. “Lactobacilli, for example, are more affected by the broad-spectrum drugs,” Dr. Kozyrskyj said, referring to the beneficial bacteria contained in yogurt.

In a secondary finding using a small part of the sample population, researchers found that among children who had multiple courses of antibiotics in infancy, those who lived with no dog in the house had twice the risk of asthma compared with those who lived with one. The reasons are not clear, but it may be that having less contact with the germs that dogs carry results in lower microbial loads, making a child more sensitive to antibiotics. Dr. Kozyrskyj said in an interview that she found no decreased risk with the presence of cats or other pets.

Jeroen Douwes, a professor of epidemiology at Massey University in New Zealand who has published widely on asthma in children but was not involved in this work, cited the study’s strong methodology. “They had very good data on antibiotic use during the first year of life, and that’s actually quite rare,” he said. “They measured exposure before the disease occurred, while in most studies you have to rely on people’s recollections.”

The authors acknowledged that their findings do not conclusively confirm that antibiotic use is a cause of asthma, and that further work would be required to sort out the associations between the composition of normal intestinal bacteria, antibiotic use, childhood allergies and the development of the illness.

Dr. Kozyrskyj said this did not mean that antibiotics should be avoided. “During the first year of life, if there’s a severe infection, antibiotics are appropriate,” she said. “But broad-spectrum antibiotics probably increase the risk for asthma. It’s good clinical practice to start with the narrow-spectrum drugs first and then try the broad spectrum.”

source:www.nytimes.com

Again about Ovarian Cancer

2007-06-19T21:46:00.000-07:00

Ovarian cancer is known as a "silent killer" because it is usually discovered too late to save a woman's life. But three cancer groups in the United States have now agreed on a list of possible early signs of the disease.

The statement is the first of its kind to recognize what ovarian cancer survivors have long believed: that there are common symptoms. Researchers have found that these symptoms are more likely to happen in women with ovarian cancer than women in general.

One symptom is bloating, or expansion of the abdomen area. Pain in the abdomen or the pelvis can be another symptom. Also, researchers say women with early-stage ovarian cancer may urinate more often or with greater urgency. And the statement says another common symptom is difficulty eating or feeling full quickly.

Women who have these symptoms almost daily for more than a few weeks are advised to see a gynecologist or other doctor.

The cancer can affect one or both ovaries, the organs that produce eggs. Doctors say the main ways to find the disease early are recognizing the symptoms and getting a combination pelvic and rectal examination.

Ovarian cancer kills more than one hundred thousand women around the world each year. In the United States, ovarian cancer is the fifth leading cause of cancer deaths in women. Cancer experts predict that at least fifteen thousand women will die of it this year. And more than twenty-two thousand new cases will be found.

The Gynecologic Cancer Foundation led the effort for the agreement on common symptoms. The American Cancer Society and the Society of Gynecologic Oncologists also were involved. And a number of other cancer groups have expressed support for the statement.

Doctor Barbara Goff at the University of Washington in Seattle was a lead investigator of several studies that gave support to the new list. She says most of the time a woman with these symptoms will not have ovarian cancer. But the disease can spread quickly to nearby organs.

A few months can mean life or death. Doctor Goff notes that the disease is ninety percent curable when found in its earliest form.

And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. For a link to the full statement, and for more news about health and science, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Barbara Klein.

source:www.voanews.com

Medical Marijuana Measure Falls With Connecticut Governor’s Veto

2007-06-19T21:45:00.000-07:00

After struggling with what was described as one of the most difficult decisions in her three-year tenure, Gov. M. Jodi Rell vetoed a measure today that would have legalized the use of marijuana for certain medical conditions.

In a statement, Mrs. Rell, a breast cancer survivor, said, “I completely sympathize with the well-intentioned goal of alleviating pain and suffering, but legal alternatives are available.”

Supporters of the measure were quick to express their disappointment. Gabriel Sayegh, a project director with Drug Policy Alliance, an advocacy group, called the governor’s veto “unconscionable.”

“It guarantees the continued criminalization of people who are trying to relieve pain and suffering,” Mr. Sayegh said.

The law would have allowed residents 18 or older suffering from multiple sclerosis, cancer, AIDS and other diseases to grow marijuana in their homes with a doctor’s recommendation and a state permit.

In the past five years, the legislature has considered several bills that allowed the use of marijuana for medical purposes, but until now none had passed. Connecticut approved a measure in 1981 allowing doctors to prescribe the drug, but no pharmacies stocked it because it is still a federal crime to buy, sell or possess marijuana.

Connecticut was not the only state wrestling with the question of legalizing marijuana this spring. In New York, the Democratic-controlled State Assembly passed a bill last week that would allow eligible patients to legally acquire and use marijuana or grow up to a dozen plants at a time. Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who in the past had opposed the idea, said last week he would sign such a bill “if properly structured,” but it stalled in the Senate after the majority leader said he could not support the Assembly bill.

A dozen states have legalized the use of marijuana to ease the pain of a number of illnesses. In Maryland, patients are protected from going to jail for using marijuana, although they can still be arrested.

In earlier statements, Mrs. Rell said she would have been more comfortable with a bill that confined the use of marijuana to terminally ill patients. But such a compromise would not necessarily address her concern over patients and caregivers possessing marijuana in violation of federal law.

“There are no pharmacies, storefronts or mail order catalogs where patients or caregivers can legally purchase marijuana plants or seeds,” the governor wrote in her veto message. “I am troubled by the fact that, in essence, this bill forces law abiding citizens to seek out drug dealers to make their marijuana purchases.”

She also expressed concern that such a law would send the wrong message to Connecticut’s youth.

Penny Bacchiochi, a Republican state representative from Somers who said she bought marijuana for her late husband as he battled bone cancer in the 1980s, said she met with the governor shortly after the bill was approved by the legislature.

Ms. Bacchiochi said the governor “struggled deeply” with the decision, adding, “She completely understood the compassionate side of the bill, but couldn’t get over the fact that it was illegal on the federal level.”

She said she planned to try to work with Mrs. Rell in the next legislative session to reach a compromise.

But State Senator Andrew J. McDonald, a Democrat from Stamford who is the deputy majority leader, said after the veto was announced that the governor never raised her concerns as the bill was being drafted, when modifications could have been made.

“In many ways, a gubernatorial veto represents a failure of leadership by the governor rather than an exercise of leadership,” Mr. McDonald said.

Citing a 2004 survey by the University of Connecticut that found broad public support for the use of marijuana for medical purposes, he said, “The governor clearly stands apart from the vast majority of her citizens in opposing this legislation.”

source:www.nytimes.com

Study Questions Accuracy of Genetic Risk Models Used to Determine Testing

2007-06-19T21:43:00.000-07:00

Many breast cancer patients who have a genetic predisposition for the disease, but who do not have an obvious family link to breast cancer, are not considered candidates for genetic testing, new research shows.

The study challenges the accuracy of models used to determine who should be offered testing for the breast cancer gene mutation BRCA, finding the models to be poor predictors of risk for women with few female relatives over the age of 45.

The models assess risk based on known family history of breast cancer.

"You have to have a family to have a family history," researcher Jeffrey Weitzel, MD, of the City of Hope Cancer Center in Duarte, Calif., tells WebMD.

He added that women with few older female relatives on either their mother's or father's sides were not well served by the available models.
Mutation Uncommon

Inherited gene mutations play a role in about 5% of all breast cancers. But women with BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations have about a 50% to 85% lifetime risk of developing the disease, compared with a roughly 10% lifetime risk among the general population of women.

BRCAcarriers are also much more likely to develop breast cancers before the age of 50, and their risk for ovarian cancer is also greatly increased.

Identifying women with BRCA mutations is a proven strategy for reducing the risk of death from breast or ovarian cancer. But since the mutations are rare, testing all women or even testing all breast cancer patients may not be practical.

Most women who develop breast cancer before the age of 40 are considered for genetic testing, but clinicians often rely on the prediction models to determine whether women diagnosed in their 40s should be screened if they have no known family link to the disease.

Weitzel and colleagues assessed the accuracy of the prediction models in their study appearing in the June 20 issue of TheJournal of the American Medical Association.

A total of 1,543 breast cancer patients enrolled in a cancer registry between 1997 and 2007 were included in the study. Of these patients, 306 were diagnosed before age 50 and reported no known first- or second-degree relatives with breast or ovarian cancers.

When these women were questioned further about their family history, half of them (153) were determined by researchers to have too few close female relatives to accurately assess risk, defined as fewer than two females relatives age 45 or older on both their mother's and father's sides of the family.

Genetic testing revealed that these women had a 14% risk of having a mutation, compared with a 5% risk among women with a larger number of female relatives who survived to their mid-40s without developing breast cancer.

"The likelihood of finding a mutation was almost three times greater [among the women with fewer older female relatives]," Weitzel says. "We are clearly missing women who could benefit from knowing their genetic risk."
Understanding the Limitations

Cancer geneticist and gynecologist Noah D. Kauff, MD, of Memorial-Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, agrees.

"We have to understand the models and their limitations if we are going to use them," he says. "They likely still have a role in helping us identify patients who would benefit from genetic testing, but it is important that they are not used in isolation."

Breast cancer patients with BRCA mutations are generally treated more aggressively; they are at increased risk for another breast cancer and ovarian cancer.

The American Cancer Society now recommends annual breast screening with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) along with mammography for high-risk women, as determined by existing family-risk models.

Kauff tells WebMD that the recommendation illustrates the importance of finding better ways to identify women at increased risk.

"If these models are incomplete for testing, they are obviously incomplete for making decisions about who should be screened and treated," he says.

source:www.webmd.com

Fun in the sun: People are still not taking skin cancer seriously

2007-06-19T08:27:00.000-07:00

The area under Lawrence Rogers’ little fingernail was dark and discolored.

Two doctors later confirmed: It was melanoma. Last November, about half of that finger was removed, along with lymph nodes under his arms.

“It’s very rare in people with pigmentation in their skin, and I happen to be an African-American man,” says Rogers, 70, Indianapolis. He says he hadn’t worried about skin cancer before and had only used baby oil. Now, he uses sunscreen.

Rogers is an example of what doctors keep trying to emphasize: No one is immune to skin cancer.

Still, the message doesn’t always sink in — and the result can be deadly.

“We’re seeing a big increase in melanoma in females 20 to 29 years old,” says dermatologist Keeter Sechrist. “I think all of us are concerned that the reason is the tanning bed behavior of teenagers.”

Even though health care experts have promoted protection against sun damage for years, skin cancer remains the most common form of cancer in the United States, with about 1 million cases diagnosed yearly. Of those, the American Cancer Society projects, nearly 60,000 will be melanoma, the most serious skin cancer. It will cause 8,100 deaths, according to projections.

Prevention is the goal in combatting sun cancer, although some risk factors, such as being light-skinned and having lots of moles, can’t be controlled.

Melanoma often starts as small, dark, molelike growths that increase in size and change color. Jeff Wagner, a plastic surgeon-surgical oncologist and director of the Community Network Cutaneous Oncology Program in Indianapolis, says the lesion’s area isn’t as critical as its depth. If detected early, it can be cured, primarily with surgery; however, it can spread quickly. Then, treatment is limited, he says.

The two most common types, basal cell or squamous cell cancers, are highly curable if detected and treated early, usually by freezing or burning the lesions off. They generally don’t spread.

Sometimes the damage is done years before results show up. One blistering sunburn in childhood more than doubles a person’s chances of developing malignant melanoma, according to a 2006 report from the Mayo Clinic.

Consider Bill Baker, 53, also of Indianapolis.

Growing up in the 1960s and ’70s, Baker spent a lot of time in the sun. He played golf and frequently visited a lake cottage. Yet he, like many in those days, rarely applied sunscreen.

“I’d always got blistered up. I had some painful evenings,” he says.
Now, Baker is fighting melanoma. It first appeared in a mole behind a knee in 1984 and was removed. For 20 years, he was clear. Now, it has metastasized to his lungs, lymph nodes and groin.

In the past three years, Baker has had a lump removed, undergone immunotherapy at a National Institutes of Health trial in Maryland and had a cell transfer operation for a groin tumor. He just finished chemotherapy and immunotherapy.

“I’ve gotten great care,” he says. “But it’s been rough. You have to grin and bear it. It’s not easy, but you make do with what you’ve got.”

He’s among the majority of people diagnosed with melanoma — white men older than 50. But melanoma can strike dark-skinned people, too. And when it does, it’s more deadly because it’s more likely to be detected later.

People of color, like everyone else, need to wear sunscreen, Sechrist says, and do self-exams, looking for changes in moles and other skin irregularities.

The sun causes 90 percent of skin cancers. But a plethora of products are on the market to guard against harmful rays.

Some new products, including a sunscreen from Neutrogena, are made with helioplex, which stabilizes protection against ultraviolet A rays. Many cosmetic products, such as moisturizer or foundation, also are equipped with skin protection ingredients. You also can buy protective clothing. Dye-maker Rit offers Sun Guard, a laundry treatment that adds UV protection to clothing.

Sechrist said the biggest mistake people make is not applying enough sunscreen. They should use an ounce — a shot glass full.

But the bottom line, according to Wagner: Avoid excessive skin damage, whether it’s from the sun or tanning beds, and stop habitual or purposeful tanning.

“It doesn’t mean you have to become a vampire and just go out at night,” he says. “You will get a little bit of a tan, even if you put on sunscreen. But you have to use common sense.”

CHANGING YOUR SUN HABITS

Shaping up your sun protection takes planning and practice. Here are a few ways to make today the start of healthy habits rather than the unofficial start to sunburn season.

Make sunscreen a daily routine

For a normal workday (working indoors): SPF 15 on the ears, face and backs of the hands — the most common areas for skin cancer.

When outdoors: Apply water- and sweat-resistant SPF 30 to all exposed areas, reapplied every 45 to 60 minutes.

For extended exposure on the face: An SPF 30 sunscreen that blocks a wide spectrum of rays, such as products with titanium dioxide or zinc oxide (like Zinka).

For vacations close to the equator: SPF 45 to all exposed areas.

Reapply every two hours, even on cloudy days, and after swimming or sweating.

Other habits to develop

Retreat to the shade during peak UV hours, from about 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. If unsure of the sun’s intensity, take the shadow test: If your shadow is shorter than you, the sun’s rays are at their strongest.

Get your vitamin D from a healthy diet and vitamin supplements, not the sun.

Avoid tanning beds, which emit ultraviolet light, which causes skin cancer.

Try a sunless tanner. Products are now available in several shades — including some that gradually darken and modes of application.

If you can see light through a fabric, UV rays can get through, too. A typical lightweight T-shirt usually provides less protection than an SPF 15 sunscreen. Dark colors, tightly woven and dry fabrics are generally the most protective.

Wear a hat with at least a 2- to 3-inch brim on all sides. A baseball cap can protect the forehead and top of the head, but not the ears and back of the neck, where skin cancers often occur.

Sources: American Cancer Society; American Academy of Dermatology; Dr. Brian Adams, department of dermatology, University of Cincinnati.

source:www.dailysouthtown.com

Daily HIV/AIDS Report

2007-06-19T08:26:00.000-07:00

The HIV/AIDS Implementers' Meeting: Scaling Up Through Partnerships, a four-day conference that aims to improve HIV/AIDS services, opened on Saturday in Kigali, Rwanda, the New Times/AllAfrica.com reports. More than 2,000 delegates attended the conference, which was hosted by the Rwandan government and organized by the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and the Global Fund To Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Other organizers include UNAIDS, the World Bank, UNICEF and the World Health Organization.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame at the conference opening called on African leaders to increase funding for HIV/AIDS services. He also said that the fight against diseases like HIV/AIDS should be made in conjunction with efforts to address poverty and education. "We now have global consensus that the struggle against this disease can only bear effective results if tackled within the border framework of sustainable development," Kagame said (Musoni, New Times/AllAfrica.com, 6/17).

The conference participants shared best practices in the fight against HIV, according to Reuters. Participants on Saturday focused on ways to prevent the spread of the virus. "If we do not act now to make HIV prevention work better, the queues for HIV treatment will just get longer and responding to AIDS will get more expensive and more difficult," Michel Sibide, deputy executive director of UNAIDS, said.

Although East and West Africa have recorded declines in HIV prevalence in recent years, Southern Africa remains the most affected region on the continent, according to Reuters. David Wilson, a senior monitoring and evaluation specialist at the World Bank, said this in part is because male circumcision is not widespread in Southern Africa. He added that the region has not addressed HIV/AIDS-related stigma and discrimination as well as East Africa. Conference participants also discussed access to antiretroviral drugs, Reuters reports. "Treatment has made us complacent, and so what we need to do is redouble prevention efforts and make people aware treatment is only a partial solution," Wilson said (Asiimwe, Reuters, 6/16).

PEPFAR, WHO Announce New Approach To Fight HIV/AIDS
In related news, PEPFAR and WHO on Thursday ahead of the conference's opening announced a new approach, called "Task Shifting," to fight HIV in developing countries, the New Times/AllAfrica.com reports.

The new strategy will involve three elements: treat, train and retain, according to the New Times/All Africa.com. Treat will involve providing treatment, prevention, care and support services to health care workers who are affected by the virus. Train will involve implementing measures to empower health workers to provide universal access to HIV/AIDS services. Retain will include strategies to help public health systems retain workers through financial and other incentives, as well as occupational health and safety programs. Task Shifting also will seek to train community workers and volunteers. According to the New Times/AllAfrica.com, a meeting on the new approach is scheduled to be held between October and November (Buyinza, New Times/AllAfrica.com, 6/18).

Related Editorial
"Improving harmonization and placing a greater emphasis on 'making the money work'" for health workers "should be high" on the HIV Implementers' Meeting agenda, a Lancet editorial says. The conference also should address efforts to "ensure accountability from countries and from donors over the long term," the editorial says. The "participation of many international co-sponsors" and the "exemplary leadership" of the Rwandan government are "strong signal[s]" of the coordination and collaboration in the global response to HIV/AIDS, the editorial says, adding that only "through joint efforts from all sectors and at all levels will the move toward universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support be achieved" (Lancet, 6/16).

source:www.kaisernetwork.org

Smokers' Infants Have High Nicotine Levels

2007-06-19T08:23:00.000-07:00

In homes where at least one parent smokes, infants have 5.5 times higher levels of a nicotine toxin called cotinine in their urine than infants of nonsmokers, a British study finds.

Cotinine is created as the body tries to get rid of the nicotine in inhaled smoke.

The study of 104 12-week-old infants (71 with at least one parent who smoked and 33 with nonsmoking parents) also found that having a mother who smoked quadrupled urine cotinine levels. Having a father who smoked doubled cotinine levels in an infant's urine, the researchers found.

Sleeping with parents and lower-temperature rooms were also associated with increased cotinine levels in infants, said the study by researchers at the University of Leicester Medical School and Warwick University.

"Babies affected by smoke tend to come from poorer homes, which may have smaller rooms and inadequate heating," the study authors wrote. "Higher cotinine levels in colder times of year may be a reflection of the other key factors which influence exposure to passive smoking, such as poorer ventilation or a greater tendency for parents to smoke indoors in winter."

The researchers also noted that sleeping with a parent is a known risk factor for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). They suggest that one reason for this could be an infant's proximity to parents' clothing or other objects contaminated with smoke particles.

The findings were published online Tuesday ahead of print in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood.

source:www.forbes.com

Mosquito-killing effort targets 46,000 street drains

2007-06-19T08:22:00.000-07:00

Coming this summer to a water drain near you: a crew with a motorized tank full of mosquito-larva-killing bacteria and a specialized gun that releases small amounts of the agent with every shot.

The target: West Nile virus.

Seattle officials Monday announced that this 14-person crew will hit most of the city's 46,000 street water drains as the city gears up to fight what they worry could be an increase in cases of the disease.

Bellevue and Kirkland also will receive the preventive doses.

Only three people in Washington got West Nile virus last year, one of the last states in the nation to be affected. But health officials say they expect an increase because once the virus is present, chances of it spreading increase.

"The potential is definitely there," said Sharon Hopkins, a veterinarian for Public Health — Seattle & King County, as she joined other officials Monday on Queen Anne Hill to demonstrate the larvacidal technology.

Hopkins said the virus follows a certain pattern: For the first few years, it appears in birds and horses. Then a couple of cases appear in humans, followed by a few more human cases the next year. Then it tends to expand exponentially. In Idaho, for example, cases went from the single digits to more than 1,000 over less than four years.

So in hope of preventing that from happening here, the crews will fan out across the city to disperse the larvicide — little corn-based granules full of bacteria — into the water drains, a place where mosquitoes are known to breed.

When mosquito larvae eat the bacteria, the bacteria release toxins that cause the larvae to stop eating and starve.

City officials said they did two years of research and concluded that the method will have minimal impact on the environment.

The bacteria are harmless to other organisms, and will eliminate the need to use other sprays to kill mature mosquitoes, said Sheila Strehle, the city's West Nile response coordinator.

In 2006, three people in the state were confirmed with West Nile; none died. One horse and six birds have died from the virus in King County, according to the state Department of Health.

No cases — in humans or animals — have been reported this year.

But mosquito season really starts in July, when mosquito larvae begin to hatch. It hits its peak in August.

So the officials urged residents to use bug repellent, eliminate standing water in yards, and clean any clogged rain gutters, another often-overlooked place where mosquito larvae hatch.

Earlier this year, the state Department of Health also launched an advertisement campaign to educate people about the virus.

"It's time for people to take it seriously," said Tim Church, a spokesman for the department. "We're more concerned than ever because of what has happened in our neighboring states."

source:seattletimes.nwsource.com

Humidity Can Increase Risk Of Heart Attack

2007-06-19T08:21:00.000-07:00

Orlando's hot, sticky summer weather can be uncomfortable and ruin a good hair day. But it can also have a more serious impact on your health.

Experts says that such things as high blood pressure, obesity and family history can increase your risk of a heart attack. Now, you may want to add humidity to that list.

"This Greek study found the humidity with in the last month, prior to the occurrence of the heart attack had some correlation for not really clear reasons, the higher the likelihood of heart attack," said Dr. Carlos Saenz, a cardiologist with the Florida Heart Group.

The study, published in the British Medical Journal," Heart," looked at heart-attack related deaths in Athens in 2001 and compared them to the weather.

While there has been a link between heart attacks and extreme hot or cold temperatures, this is the first study to link heart attacks with humidity.

Though Saenz said with the Florida Heart Group said people over 70 appear to be most at risk, he can't say if there's a clear link here in Central Florida.

"I don't think we can say we have noticed more or less, documented the higher the density the population suffering from heart attack in the summer," Saenz said.

Saenz said that during the summer months there is a tendency for perspiration, and with increased perspiration comes the risk of dehydration, which can lead to a heart attack.

Saenz said that is why it is important to stay hydrated and try to avoid extreme heat or cold.

"While indoors, try to make use of the air conditioner or heating devices," Saenz said.

source:www.cfnews13.com

Study: Fewer kids need insurance program

2007-06-19T08:19:00.000-07:00

There are fewer low-income, uninsured children than previously believed, and that means tripling federal funding for a children's health insurance program is unnecessary, the Bush administration said Monday in touting a new study.

Democrats have made expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program a priority. The politically popular program is set to expire on Sept. 30. It serves children in families with incomes too high to qualify for Medicaid but not high enough typically to afford private insurance.

Democratic lawmakers want to triple its funding, an increase of $50 billion over five years. The administration has said that an increase of $5 billion is sufficient. Democratic lawmakers said the study, which was released shortly before the Senate Finance Committee was to take up legislation to renew the program, is flawed.

The Urban Institute estimated that about 4.9 million children under the age of 19 were uninsured for the entire year. That's a much lower estimate than the one compiled by the Census Bureau, which counts more than 8 million uninsured children.

"This study flies in the face of all accepted data on the number of uninsured American children who desperately need and could receive health coverage through a renewal of the (SCHIP) program," said Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., the chairman of the Finance Committee.

The report's authors said the primary difference between their estimate and the one that comes from the Census Bureau's Current Population Survey stems from the survey's underreporting of families that participate in government-sponsored health insurance - Medicaid or SCHIP.

The authors also attempted to calculate the number of children eligible to participate in Medicaid or SCHIP but not enrolled. They estimated that 1.1 million children uninsured for the entire year were eligible to participate in either of the two federal program.

That estimate also is lower than the Census Bureau numbers of uninsured children - about 5.5 million - who live in families below 200 percent of poverty. Generally, families with incomes below 200 percent of poverty are eligible for public coverage, but some states have more restrictive eligibility limits while others have more liberal eligibility limits.

The study's authors noted that their figures for uninsured children eligible for public coverage do not count 1.1 million uninsured children who are illegal or temporary immigrants as well as another 403,000 legal aliens who are ineligible due to a five-year ban on participation in public health programs. The Census Bureau does not make such distinctions when projecting the number of uninsured.

An administration fact sheet issued by the Health and Human Services Department said the program should be refocused to provide coverage to children in families at or below 200 percent of poverty - $41,300 for a family of four. Many states are expanding eligibility beyond that threshold.

"Unnecessary SCHIP expansion will force others from private insurance to public assistance," the administration's fact sheet said.

Democratic leaders of the committees with jurisdiction over the SCHIP program questioned the study's accuracy.

"Instead of wasting time skewing facts, I wish HHS would start working with Congress to protect the health of our kids," said Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

States use the grant money provided by SCHIP, along with their own dollars, to subsidize health coverage. On average, the federal government pays about 70 percent of the costs and states pay about 30 percent.

States have asked Congress to provide enough money to cover currently eligible participants as well as continue to give states flexibility to cover adults and children with higher incomes. In a recent letter to the committee, the National Governors Association said it was crucial that Congress give the states room to decide who the program should serve.

"I am committed to ensuring California leads the way in reducing the number of uninsured children," said Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, R-Calif., in a separate letter to Finance Committee leaders. "It is my goal to cover every uninsured child in California under 300 percent of the federal poverty limit using SCHIP funds."

source:seattlepi.nwsource.com

Good news on heart attack and chest pain

2007-06-19T08:16:00.000-07:00

People who suffer a heart attack or severe chest pain today are much less likely to die, or to experience long-lasting effects, than their counterparts even a few years ago, according to a new international study in the 3 May issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

It’s the first time that a study has shown a significant drop in the rate of heart failure and death over such a short time in this population.

The study finds that the change occurred at the same time that hospitals increased their use of certain drugs, tests and procedures that have been proven to help reduce the immediate and long-term impact of acute heart problems. The results suggest that concerted efforts to standardize heart care are working.

But, the authors caution, there are clouds in this sunny sky. Many patients who could benefit from all of the proven treatments aren’t getting them. Previous data have shown that the US actually lags behind some other countries in several aspects of acute coronary care.

The study is from the Global Registry of Acute Coronary Events (GRACE), which has collected data from 44,372 patients treated at 113 hospitals in 14 countries. The new paper is led by cardiologists from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, Hospital Bichat in France and the University of Michigan Cardiovascular Center.

All the patients had suffered either a kind of severe heart attack called ST-elevated myocardial infarction (STEMI), or had acute coronary syndrome (ACS), which includes non-STEMI heart attack and a kind of chest pain called unstable angina.

Between 1999 and 2006, the use of heart-protecting drugs in these patients increased markedly, including use of aspirin, cholesterol-lowering statins, clot-reducing drugs called glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitors, blood thinners such as clopidogrel and heparin, and blood pressure-reducing drugs including ACE inhibitors.

At the same time, the use of angiography to see blocked arteries in the heart and angioplasty as an emergency or secondary treatment to reopen blockages increased by more than 30 per cent in STEMI patients and around 20 per cent in ACS patients.

As the use of all these treatments increased, the death rate for patients both in the hospital and in their first six months after going home decreased significantly. So did the risk that patients would develop heart failure, have pulmonary edema, or suffer a stroke in their first six months after hospitalization.

“These findings are exciting because they provide good evidence that improved use of guideline- based treatments has resulted in fewer deaths and fewer patients with heart failure in those that present to hospital with heart attack or threatened heart attack," says Keith A. A. Fox, MB. ChB., FRCP, lead author of the paper, co-chair of GRACE and a professor of cardiology at Edinburgh.

“These data are extremely encouraging, and suggest that we’re definitely improving heart care and patients’ outcomes through the uniform use of evidence-based, proven treatments and the development of guidelines to help providers understand the evidence behind them,” says Kim Eagle, M.D., FACC, a co-author on the paper and co-chair of the publication committee for GRACE. He is the Albion Walter Hewlett Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at the U-M Medical School and a director of the U-M Cardiovascular Center.

“Yet, these data and other studies show that we still have a ways to go before every heart attack and ACS patient receives the full range of tests and treatments that we know can benefit them,” Eagle continues. He notes, for example, that only 85 per cent of STEMI patients and 83 per cent of ACS patients in the study received a statin in 2006, when virtually all such patients should receive the cholesterol-lowering drug. And only 53 per cent of STEMI patients received emergency angioplasty, when it has repeatedly been shown to be life-saving in such patients.

“The US especially has a lot of ground to gain, compared with European and Canadian hospitals, in reducing the time lag between hospital presentation and acute coronary artery angioplasty,” Eagle adds. “That’s why efforts to improve hospitals’ systems for providing this kind of care are so important.”

U-M heart specialists lead or co-lead several key efforts to increase the use of evidence-based STEMI and ACS care in the state of Michigan. Eagle, for instance, has co-led the Guidelines Applied in Practice – Myocardial Infarction project sponsored by the American College of Cardiology, which has improved heart attack care at dozens of Michigan hospitals and provided a model for hospitals nationwide. He recently received the Raymond Bahr award from the American Society for Chest Pain Centers in recognition of his leadership role in such projects.

At the same time, U-M CVC director of interventional cardiology Mauro Moscucci, M.D., has co-led the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Cardiovascular Consortium, which has focused on improving angioplasty care and has saved both lives and dollars. U-M heart failure specialist Todd Koelling, M.D., is leading a Michigan-wide effort to improve heart failure care. And U-M is heavily involved in the national D2B Alliance, which seeks to accelerate the use of emergency angioplasty by helping hospitals be ready to deliver the life-saving treatment as quickly as possible after a patient arrives.

So, as hospitals work to improve their heart care even more, the new study’s authors hope that additional gains in patients’ outcomes can be made. They are continuing to collect data on hospitalized STEMI and ACS patients in 30 countries around the world, and to contact patients at home after their initial hospitalization to get follow-up information. GRACE now includes 236 hospitals in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand.

Meanwhile, Eagle says, patients should ask their doctors and nurses questions about what drugs they should be receiving both in the hospital and after they go home. Aspirin, statins, beta blockers and ACE inhibitors should be on the medicine cabinet shelves of nearly every patient who has ever been hospitalized for chest pain or a heart attack – and patients need to make sure to keep taking those drugs long after they leave the hospital, perhaps for life.

At the same time, while the study did not include data on patients’ diet, exercise and tobacco habits, those lifestyle components are crucial to preventing further problems. Says Eagle, “We all have a role to play in making sure that the news in heart attack care continues to be good.”

source:www.medicexchange.com

Stroger has surgery to fight prostate cancer

2007-06-19T08:14:00.000-07:00

Cook County Board President Todd Stroger is fighting prostate cancer and has had surgery to have his prostate removed, his spokeswoman said Tuesday.

"He did undergo successful surgery to have his prostate removed," said spokeswoman Ibis Antongiorgi.

The Chicago Sun-Times first reported the 44-year-old's diagnosis in its Tuesday editions, saying Stroger underwent surgery Monday after cancer was found on a small portion of his prostate.

Stroger won the board presidency in November after his father, John Stroger, retired following a massive stroke.

The elder Stroger was diagnosed with prostate cancer and underwent years of treatment before beating the disease in 1994.

Stroger chief of staff Lance Tyson told the Sun-Times that the surgery went well and there's hope that the cancer did not spread.

"He's doing OK," Tyson said.

Tyson said Stroger is expected to spend the next two to three weeks recovering at home.

Antongiorgi said officials will provide an update on Stroger's condition later Tuesday morning.

The board president plans to start a public campaign to raise awareness about prostate cancer and the importance of early detection, Tyson said.

The newspaper reported that Stroger doesn't plan to transfer power during his recovery.

source:www.chicagobusiness.com

GSK to launch five new drugs to tackle cancer

2007-06-19T08:12:00.000-07:00

GlaxoSmithKline, Europe's biggest drug-maker, is to launch five cancer drugs in the next three years as it increases its exposure to a lucrative £20bn market.

The company, which has taken a hit in recent weeks after its diabetes drug Avandia was linked to an increased risk of heart attacks, has also unveiled plans to enrol the first patients in its lung-cancer vaccine trial, which will begin in September. Glaxo is competing with Germany's Merck to produce the first lung-cancer vaccine and will commence the largest late-stage study of a treatment for the disease, which kills around 1.3 million people worldwide each year.

The five new oncology products set for launch by 2010 are the cervical cancer vaccine Cervarix; the renal cancer drug Pazopanib; Promacta, an oral compound to help cancer patients build up their platelet count and reduce bleeding; Rezonic, which helps to control symptoms associated with chemotherapy such as nausea; and Ofatumumab, an antibody to treat leukaemia which has blockbuster potential.

Glaxo's head of research and development, Moncef Slaoui, called the target "an unprecedented objective for a pharmaceutical company". He said Glaxo was developing late-stage medicines in more than 12 types of cancer and had a significant number of compounds in early-stage discovery.

Glaxo aims to establish itself as a major player in the oncology market, which is growing by 20 per cent annually.

Recent developments at Glaxo have been overshadowed by the furore surrounding Avandia. Shares have lost 10 per cent of their value since a study in the New England Journal of Medicine in May linked the drug, the firm's second best seller, to an increased risk of heart attack. Although Glaxo disputes the findings, sales and prescriptions of the drug have been hit. Analysts have remained positive on the stock owing to the potential of the pipeline and said the share price fall due to the Avandia scare will prove to be excessive.

Julien Dormois, health and life science analyst at Bryan Garnier, said Avandia remains a blockbuster and the impact of falling sales has already been priced in. He added: "It is becoming clearer and clearer that Glaxo may become the second major force for oncology worldwide behind Roche."

For Glaxo's lung cancer trial, 2,200 patients diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer, the most common form of the disease, will be treated with the vaccine. It is hoped the vaccine may prevent the cancer from returning following surgery and will enable patients to live longer by helping their immune systems to recognise and destroy cancer cells. Lung cancer has one of the lowest survival rates, with 85 per cent of patients dying within five years.

source:www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk

Cancer Tips

2007-06-18T21:35:00.000-07:00

General Cancer Information

Alcohol Consumption
Chronic heavy drinking has been linked to an increased risk of cancer of the mouth, throat, esophagus, liver, pancreas and rectum. Consuming as little as three ounces of hard liquor every day for several years can cause damage.

Aspirin Linked to Reduced Lung Cancer Risk
Aspirin has already risen from the ranks of a mere pain reliever to become a highly valued heart attack and stroke prevention tool, and now researchers say preventing lung cancer may be added to its list of benefits.

Cancer and Nutrition
To prevent cancer, avoid dietary fats. Eat a diet rich in soy, fruits, vegetables and fiber.

Cancer Risk Factors
The following are various types of cancer and their risk factors:

* Breast- Family history of breast cancer, obesity, late childbearing and childlessness
* Bladder- Smoking (nearly half of cases), hair dye - bladder cancer is more common in men than women
* Cervical- First intercourse at an early age, multiple sexual partners, smoking, history of genital herpes
* Colorectal- Being over 50 with colon polyps or ulcerative colitis, family history of these disorders or colon cancer, high-fat, low-fiber diet
* Leukemia- Exposure to radiation, benzene and other chemicals
* Lung- Smoking (83 percent of cases), exposure to asbestos, radiation and secondhand tobacco smoke
* Lymphoma- Being over 50, no other known risk factors
* Oral- Smoking, chewing tobacco and heavy alcohol use
* Pancreatic- Smoking, high-fat diet
* Prostate- Risk increases with age; more than 80 percent of cases occur after 65
* Skin- Fair skin, severe sunburn in childhood, frequent sun exposure, family history of skin cancer
* Uterine- Being post-menopausal with a history of infertility, ovulation failure or abnormal bleeding, also obesity, hypertension and diabetes

Early Detection
The earlier cancer is detected, the greater the chance it can be treated before it spreads to other areas of the body. That's why self-examinations (such as checks of the breasts, testicles and skin) are important to build into your routine. And it's why regular medical screenings (such as mammograms, fecal occult blood tests, Pap smears and prostate exams) are crucial even if you feel perfectly healthy.

More Precise Cancer Treatments
Once, a cancer was a cancer was a cancer. Now, scientists have succeeded in using DNA to determine whether a particular type of cancer will be resistant to certain therapies, paving the way to choosing more effective, tailor-made treatments for patients.

Nutrition and Cancer Patients
A great tasting, nutritious milkshake for cancer patients requiring extra calories in small amounts is made by adding 2 large scoops of ice cream and 1 package of vanilla-flavored Carnation Instant Breakfast to 8 ounces of milk and blending until smooth.

Orange Zest and Cancer
Don't toss away that orange peel -- it may help protect you against cancer. Grated citrus zest -- the outmost layer of the peel, not the white pith -- includes compounds may provide health benefits, such as inhibiting development of some cancers and lowering cholesterol. Scrub the rind with warm water and a drop of soap before starting to grate. Press a piece of wax paper onto the grater to make clean-up easier; the zest accumulates on the paper instead of getting stuck in the holes of the grater. Best of all, you can use the zest for a flavor boost in low-fat baked goods, pilafs, salad dressings, marinades and fruit salads.

Seven Cancer Warning Signs
1. A change in bowel or bladder habits
2. A sore that does not heal
3. Unusual bleeding or discharge
4. Thickening or a lump in the breast or other area
5. Chronic indigestion or swallowing problems
6. An obvious change in a wart or a mole
7. A nagging cough or hoarseness

Startling Facts About Smoking and Cancer
Eighteen little-known facts about smoking might motivate even a veteran smoker to give up the habit:
1. Cigarette smoke contains tar, made up of over 4,000 chemicals, including 43 known to cause cancer.
2. Chemicals in smoke include cyanide (a deadly poison), methanol (wood alcohol), formaldehyde (a preservative), acetylene (fuel used in torches) and ammonia (found in fingernail polish remover). It also contains nitrogen oxide and carbon monoxide, both poisonous gases.
3. Smokeless tobacco (snuff) exposes a person to at least 10 times more cancer-causing substances than smoking does.
4. Smoking filtered cigarettes lowers the risk of lung cancer by only about 20 percent.
5. Smokers are more likely to get pneumonia than are nonsmokers.
6. Smokers are more likely to have and die from stomach ulcers than are nonsmokers.
7. Smoking causes and worsens heart disease, emphysema, bronchitis, sinusitis, and cancers of the lung, mouth, larynx (voice box), and esophagus (swallowing tube), and increases the risk of bladder, kidney, pancreas, stomach and cervical cancers.
8. Women smokers experience earlier menopause and have less dense bones, making them more susceptible to osteoporosis and hip fractures.
9. Children whose parents smoke are at a higher risk for pneumonia and bronchitis.
10. Diseases caused by cigarette smoking kill about one in four smokers.
11. By the time lung cancer is diagnosed, it has usually spread to other parts of the body. The survival rate is low: only 13 percent are still alive five years after diagnosis, fewer than 10 percent after 10 years.
12. Lung cancer now kills more women than any other type of cancer.
13. Smoking takes an average of seven years off a person’s life.
14. Smoking causes one out of every six deaths in the United States.
15. Nine out of ten smokers say they want to quit.
16. More men have quit smoking than women.
17. More than 43 million Americans have quit smoking, and–over the past decade–the percentage of smoking adult Texans has decreased from 31 to 22 percent.
18. Between 1964 and 1985, approximately 750,000 deaths were avoided or postponed as a result of decisions to quit smoking or not to start.
And That’s Not All!
Lung cancer is the leading cause of death from cancer in America, but it could be prevented 80 to 90 percent of the time if only people would not smoke.

Tea for Tumors
Research shows one kind of tea can be up to 100 times more potent at blocking growth of cancer cells than another. While all tea (green, oolong or black) contains antioxidant compounds called catechins that protect against cancer (especially of the lung, breast, colon, stomach and skin) by neutralizing free radicals, green tea contains about 7 times more catechins than black tea. Green tea also has unique catechins that block an enzyme involved in breast, prostate and colon cancers. Green tea is 10 to 100 times stronger than black tea in blocking the growth of cancer cells. Catechins also prevent heart disease and stroke, primarily by defending against the harmful effects of artery-clogging LDL cholesterol.

Understanding Blood Counts
Counting and examining blood cells are very important in the diagnosis of blood cell diseases. Blood has several different types of cells in it:
* Red blood cells pick up oxygen as blood passes through the lungs and release it to the cells in the body.
* White blood cells help fight bacteria and viruses.
* Platelets are the cells that form a plug in response to a cut or wound. The platelets aggregate and plug up the site of bleeding.

Normal blood counts fall within the range that has been established by testing healthy men and women of all ages.
The approximate normal ranges of blood cell counts for healthy adults are as follows:
* Red blood cell (RBC) count: 4.5 to 6.0 million red cells per microliter of blood in men, 4.0 to 5.0 million red cells per microliter of blood in women
* White blood cell (WBC) count: 4.5 to 11 thousand white cells per microliter of blood
* Platelet count: 150 to 450 thousand platelets per microliter of blood

Hematocrit is the percent of the blood that is composed of red cells:
* 42% to 50% is normal in men
* 36% to 45% is normal in women

Hemoglobin is the compound in the red blood cell that carries oxygen.
* 14 to 17 grams per 100 milliliters of blood is normal for men
* 12 to 15 grams per 100 milliliters of blood is normal for women

White cell differential count, sometimes referred to as a "diff," measures the proportion of the total white cell count that is composed of one of the five principal white cell types. The observer can also tell if the white cells in the blood are normal in appearance. The five types of normal white cells that are counted are neutrophils, lymphocytes, monocytes, eosinophils, and basophils. Blood contains about 60% neutrophils, 30% lymphocytes, 5% monocytes, 4% eosinophils and 1% basophils.

Vitamin E and Cancer
Vitamin E has been found to reduce cancer risk when consumed at recommended levels.

Want to Quit Smoking?
Most people who quit smoking have tried before, so don’t give up! Try these tips:
* List the reasons you want to quit. Refer to the list every time you want to smoke.
* Typical triggers to smoking include working under pressure, feeling depressed, having a drink, drinking coffee, driving a car, finishing a meal and watching someone else light up a cigarette. Learn to look for these triggers and then avoid them, for example, by cutting down on alcohol and caffeine.
* Reward yourself for not smoking. Spend the money saved from not buying cigarettes on a treat for yourself.
* Keep lots of low calorie snacks handy, including sugarless gum.
* Try taking a few deep breaths when you start to feel stressed.
* Quit smoking with a friend, bet someone you will quit, or get involved with a group having the same goal of quitting.
* Take your mind off smoking by keeping your hands busy with handwork or hobbies.

Watermelon and Cancer Prevention
Juicy, red watermelon is not only delicious, it may help prevent cancer. As long as you spit out the seeds, watermelon is the biggest supplier among fresh fruits and vegetables in the antioxidant lycopene, which is believed to play a big role in the prevention of the killer disease. Antioxidants such as lycopene work in your body by disarming free oxygen radicals, which are thought to contribute to the development of many cancers. A 2-cup serving of watermelon contains 15 - 20 milligrams of this vital plant pigment. Other sources include tomatoes, red grapefruits and guavas.

Breast Cancer

Breast Cancer and The Pill
Although birth control pills have been only weakly linked to breast cancer in some studies, new research shows that the hormone-heavy pills used 25 years ago may have significantly increased breast cancer risk among women with a family history of the disease.

Breast Cancer Facts
Breast cancer is the most common cancer among American women. One in nine women will develop breast cancer during her lifetime. (Men may also develop breast cancer, but just one in every 100 cases of breast cancer is in a man). Over 180,000 cases of breast cancer are diagnosed each year in the United States and that number is increasing.

Breast Cancer Risk Factors

Increasing age: As women grow older, their risk increases. Breast cancer is rare before the age of 30 and is most common in women older than 65. In fact, the biggest known risk factor is age.

History of previous breast cancer: A woman with a history of cancer in one breast has a higher chance of developing cancer in the other breast.

Family history of breast cancer: Close female relatives—a mother or sister, for example, increase a person's risk. Still, only about five to 10 percent of women who get breast cancer have a family history of the disease.

Absence of pregnancy: Both pregnancy and breast-feeding are associated with lowered risk and the earlier the pregnancy, the lower one's risk. Women who have a full pregnancy before the age of 18 have just one-third the breast cancer risk of women who give birth after age 30 or who have never had a child.

Breast Cancer Symptoms
Most people associate breast cancer with a lump, but the symptoms can include a thickening within the breast or the overlying skin, redness of the skin, a change in the shape of the breast, discharge from the nipple, or a change in the shape of the nipple or its retraction. (Eight out of 10 breast lumps are benign; that is, they are not cancerous).

Breast Self-Examination (BSE) Technique
Breast Self-Examination (BSE) should be done every month.

When to do BSE:
* If you still menstruate (have your period) the best time is two or three days after your period ends. These are the days when your breasts are least likely to be tender or swollen.
* If you no longer menstruate, pick the same day of every month. It will be easy to remember.
* If you take hormones, check with your doctor about the best time for your BSE.

Facing a mirror
Standing before a mirror to look for asymmetry in breast size, nipple inversion, bulging, or dimpling is the preferred method to maximize visualization. Note any skin or nipple changes, such as a hard knot or nipple discharge.

Inspect breasts in the following 4 steps:
* Arms at sides
* Arms overhead
* Hands on hips - Press firmly to flex chest muscles.
* Bending forward

Lying down

Right breast
* Place a pillow under your right shoulder.
* Put your right hand under your head.
* Check the entire breast area with the finger pads of your left hand.
* Use small circles and follow an up-and-down pattern.
* Use light, medium, and firm pressure over each area of the breast.
* Feel the breast with the surfaces of the second, third, and fourth fingers, moving systematically and using small, circular motions from the nipple to the outer margins.
* Gently squeeze the nipple for any discharge.

Left breast
* Repeat these steps on your left breast using your right hand.

In the shower

Breast self-examination (BSE) can easily be performed during bathing or showering, because some women discover breast masses when their skin is moist.
* Raise your right arm.
* With soapy hands and fingers flat, check your right breast.
* Use the same small circles and up-and-down pattern described earlier.
* Repeat on the left breast.

Breast Test
A new, simpler technique for detecting abnormal breast cells before they develop into life-threatening breast cancer is in the pipeline. Called ductal lavage, the procedure involves a doctor inserting a catheter the width of two human hairs into the nipple and washing out enough cells from milk-producing ducts to screen for precancerous changes. Scientists have known for years that milk ducts are a great place to test for these scary cells. Unfortunately, insurers don't always pay for the test, which can cost from $350 to $700.

Gene Defects Linked to Breast Cancer
Gene defects that trigger an extremely rare and deadly childhood disease may also signal an increased risk of breast cancer. The discovery could help doctors screen women for cancer risks. The disease, Fanconi anemia, affects only about 500 families nationally, but the study found that six genes known to cause it are directly linked to one of the two genes responsible for the inherited risk of breast and ovarian cancer.

New Breast Cancer Drug Hot on Tamoxifen's Heels
A new breast cancer drug shows early signs of being better than the best currently available treatment at helping postmenopausal women with early-stage disease live longer after having surgery to remove their tumors. Women who have taken a newer type of drug called anastrozole, brand name Arimidex, were more likely to be alive and disease-free three years after surgery than women who took what is now considered the "gold standard" in breast cancer prevention, tamoxifen.

October Means Mammogram
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Many hospitals and clinics offer free mammograms. Please have one today! It could save your life.

Preventing and Detecting Breast Cancer
Because 75 to 80 percent of women who get breast cancer have no known risk factors, early detection offers the best hope for surviving the disease. The first step is to understand your risk factors - age, family, and personal history of breast cancer. The next is to follow the early detection guidelines recommended by the American Cancer Society:

* Self-Examination - Women should examine their breasts monthly beginning by age 20. Over 90 percent of breast cancers are found by women themselves. But because fewer than one third of women perform regular breast self-examinations (BSEs), these cancers are often found when they are over an inch across. In general, the smaller the lump found, the better a woman’s chance of long-term survival.

* Physician Examination - An exam by a physician is recommended every three years until age 40, and then every year. This is an important part of an overall physical exam, but only a supplement to monthly breast self-examinations.

* Mammography - This examination is recommended once between the ages of 35 and 40 as a baseline (for comparison), and then once a year beginning at age 40. Studies show very high survival rates in women whose breast cancer was first detected by mammography. When a mammogram finds a small breast cancer, usually only the tumor is removed, not the whole breast.

Cervical Cancer

Cervical Cancer Causes and Risks
The cause of cervical cancer is unknown, but a variety of interacting factors are probably at fault. These include early sexual activity, multiple sex partners, and sexually transmitted diseases. Viruses associated with sexually transmitted diseases are also thought to play an important role, as are hygiene and douching practices. Smoking and a lower socio-economic status may also be involved.

Cervical Cancer Facts
Cervical cancer is a slow-growing, highly predictable cancer of the cervix, where the narrow, outer end of the uterus opens into the vagina. Caught early, it is easily cured. Each year in the United States, approximately 12,800 women are diagnosed with the disease and 45,000 more with carcinoma in situ, an early-stage cervical cancer. Many thousands more are treated for a pre-cancerous condition known as dysplasia.

Cervical Cancer Prevention
The risk for cervical cancer can be lowered by limiting the number of sexual partners, using condoms, avoiding sexually transmitted diseases, and getting regular Pap smears. Catching the disease early is simple and inexpensive, and in its early stages, cervical cancer can be completely cured. If you are at least 15 years old, if you are sexually active, and if you are not having Pap smears every year, do yourself this favor: make an appointment today for this important screening test.

Symptoms of Cervical Cancer
Symptoms of cervical cancer include painless vaginal bleeding, an unusual vaginal discharge, and painful intercourse. But often, the only way you will know is by having a Pap smear, a simple, accurate, inexpensive screening test used to identify the presence of abnormal cells in the cervix.

Colorectal Cancer

Colorectal Cancer Facts
Colorectal (colon and rectum) cancer is the second most common cancer in the United States. About 150,000 new cases are diagnosed each year. Most develop from polyps, growths that originate in the mucous lining of the colon or rectum. These grow slowly and can be detected by means of effective, easily performed tests, making colorectal cancer one of the most curable forms of cancer.

Colorectal Cancer Causes and Risk Factors
The cause of cancer of the colon and rectum isn't known, but it's believed that the disease is associated with a diet high in fat and low in fiber (roughage). Not surprisingly, colorectal cancer is more common in Western countries, where the diet tends to be highly refined, with less roughage. People over age 50 are more susceptible, and African-American men have a slightly higher risk. Anyone with a personal or family history of colorectal cancer, polyps in the colon, or ulcerative colitis is at particularly high risk and exposure to asbestos has been identified as a risk factor.

Colorectal Cancer Symptoms
The most common symptom is bleeding with bowel movements. Other symptoms include pain during bowel movements, change in frequency of bowel habits, change in stools, abdominal pain or swelling, fatigue, anemia, and weight loss.

Early Detection and Prevention of Colorectal Cancer
Colorectal cancer is very curable when found early and there are several things you can do to lower your risks:
* Eat at least 25 to 30 grams of fiber a day.
* Eat lots of fruits and vegetables.
* Have a digital rectal examination every year after age 40.
* Have a stool blood test every year after age 50.
* Have a flexible sigmoidoscopy at age 50, and then, after two normal examinations a year apart, every three to five years.
* If you are over 50 and notice blood in your stools, see your doctor immediately.

Endometrial Cancer

Endometrial Cancer Causes and Risks
The cause of endometrial cancer is unknown, but a significant factor seems to be prolonged exposure of the endometrium to the hormone estrogen. Menstruating women are exposed to estrogen every month. Thus, women who are at high risk for the disease are sometimes prescribed birth control pills to decrease their production of the hormone. In postmenopausal women, estrogen replacement, a common treatment, greatly increases the risk for endometrial cancer. But this risk can be reduced when progesterone, another hormone, is added to the estrogen. Women who are "on the pill" automatically decrease their risk of developing endometrial cancer, as do those who maintain their ideal body weight. Also at higher risk are menopausal women who have never been pregnant and those with a history of infertility, failed ovulations, irregular periods (menses), or irregular bleeding.

Endometrial Cancer Facts
Cancer of the endometrium (the membrane lining the uterus) is the most common of the female reproductive tract cancers, ahead of ovarian and cervical cancer. It occurs mainly in women older than 50 and affects about 35,000 American women each year.

Endometrial Cancer Prevention
Prevention of endometrial cancer involves maintaining ideal body weight, avoiding unnecessary estrogens and, if at high risk, being screened at menopause for early signs of endometrial changes that might lead to cancer.

Symptoms of Endometrial Cancer
The main symptom of endometrial cancer, abnormal bleeding, occurs early, a factor leading to early diagnosis. For this reason, the overall cure rate is high, 70 to 80 percent.

Liver Cancer

Liver Cancer Facts
There are two types of liver cancer: primary and secondary. Liver cancer is considered primary if the cancerous tumors develop in the liver. Primary liver cancer is rare, accounting for just one to two percent of malignant tumors in patients in North America. Secondary liver cancer, which is approximately 20 times more common, results when cancer cells from another part of the body (breast, lungs, etc.) spread or "metastasize" to the liver. A secondary liver tumor is often not found until it causes symptoms.

Liver Cancer Risk Factors
Liver cancer is more common among persons who consume large amounts of alcohol than among persons who do not drink. Liver cancer occurs more frequently in persons with hepatitis B, hepatitis C, cirrhosis (scarring of the liver) and other chronic liver ailments than in persons without those diseases. Between 50 percent and 70 percent of all liver cancer cases in the United States are associated with cirrhosis. Liver cancer is also more likely to strike men than women and persons of either sex over 40 years of age.

Liver Cancer Symptoms
The symptoms of liver cancer are similar to those of other liver diseases: pain, especially in the abdominal area; unexplained weight loss; loss of appetite; pain or swelling in the upper right abdomen; and jaundice (yellowing of the skin and the whites of eyes).

Ovarian Cancer

Ovarian Cancer Causes and Risks
The cause of ovarian cancer is not known. Several risk factors are known, however. Family history plays a huge role. When two or more close relatives (mother, aunt, or sister) have had ovarian cancer, the risk can jump from 1 in 70 to as high as 1 in 2. This relationship is still being studied. Women who have never been pregnant are also at higher risk.

Ovarian Cancer Facts and Symptoms
Ovarian cancer, a tumor of the ovaries, is the second most common gynecologic cancer and it's the deadliest. Ovarian cancer causes more deaths than any cancer of the female reproductive system. And it is the fourth leading cause of death from cancer in women, behind breast, lung and colon cancers. The mortality rate is so high because ovarian cancer spreads quickly. And even when symptoms appear, they tend to be ignored because they are so vague, such as pressure, swelling, bloating, and discomfort in the lower abdomen. A tumor in the ovary can grow for some time before it causes any serious problems. In more than 75 percent of cases, the cancer has spread beyond the ovary before it is diagnosed.

Ovarian Cancer Prevention
How can you protect yourself from ovarian cancer? Birth control pills and pregnancy protect you to some degree. But the only sure way to prevent ovarian cancer is the removal of the ovaries. This type of surgery is recommended mainly for women who are approaching menopause or who are past it, when they are having some other type of gynecological surgery and for women having a family history of the disease, after their childbearing years.

Prostate Cancer

Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH)
Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is the abnormal growth of benign (not cancerous) prostate cells. In BPH, the prostate grows larger and pushes against the urethra and bladder, blocking the normal flow of urine. BPH can sometimes lead to bothersome problems with urination, such as frequent daytime and nighttime urination, dribbling, and difficulty starting and stopping urine flow.

Early Detection of Prostate Cancer
Follow these early detection guidelines for the best results:
* Have a digital rectal examination every year after the age of 50.
(If you are an African-American male or you have a family history of prostate cancer, have this examination every year after age 40.)
* Have a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) blood test.
* Eat a low fat diet.
* See your doctor immediately if you notice any of the warning signs of prostate problems.

Prostate Cancer Causes and Risk Factors
Prostate cancer runs in families and is associated with a high fat diet. Prostate cancer is most common in Europe and in America, where African American men are at 30 percent higher risk. Increasing age is a factor, with men over 55 at greater risk. Other risk factors are multiple sex partners and venereal disease.

Prostate Cancer Facts
Cancer of the prostate gland is one of the most common cancers in men. It's estimated that one out of every 11 men will develop it. Fortunately, prostate cancer is usually a slow-growing type of cancer, and the highest risk is not until after age 55. Because of earlier detection and improvements in prostate cancer treatment, more than 90 percent of patients diagnosed early are alive five years after treatment.

Prostate Cancer Symptoms
There are usually no symptoms in the earliest stages of prostate cancer. Some symptoms of the condition benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH), a harmless, but annoying enlargement of the prostate that frequently occurs in older men, may be mistaken for symptoms of prostate cancer.

You should see your doctor if you experience:
* Weak or interrupted flow of urine
* Inability to urinate or difficulty urinating
* Need to urinate frequently, especially at night
* Blood in the urine
* Painful or burning sensation when urinating
* Continuing pain in the lower back, pelvis, or upper thighs

PSA (Prostate Specific Antigen)
An elevated PSA blood test does not always mean cancer. A temporary PSA elevation is found in prostate infection, benign enlargement, prostate surgery and urinary retention.

Skin Cancer

Skin Cancer Facts
For all forms of skin cancer, years of exposure to strong sunlight seems to be the main cause. Other causes of skin cancer include repeated exposure to radiation or certain chemicals, such as coal tars and asphalt, scarring from disease or burns, and genetic and hormonal factors. Skin cancer is one of the most common forms of cancer. There are two main types: melanoma and non-melanoma. Melanoma begins in skin cells that produce melanin, the pigment that gives skin its color. Two kinds of non-melanoma, basal cell and squamous cell carcinoma, originate in different types of cells in the epidermis, or outer skin layer. Melanoma is the "black mole" kind of skin cancer. It is less common and more dangerous because it tends to spread rapidly. Squamous cell carcinoma is less serious, but can also spread to other parts of the body. Basal cell carcinoma grows slowly, doesn’t spread quickly, and is usually not life threatening. Every year, about 32,000 new cases of melanoma and 700,000 cases of non-melanoma skin cancer are diagnosed in the United States. Skin cancer is the most easily detectable, curable and preventable cancer. The cure rate for non-melanoma skin cancers is about 95 percent when properly treated.

Skin Cancer Prevention
Skin cancer prevention tips:
* Avoid sun exposure and exposure to ultraviolet radiation from the sun.
* If you must be out in the sun, always use protection: wear a long-sleeved shirt or cover-up, a hat that shades your face and sunglasses.
* Always wear sunscreen (with a sun protection factor of at least 15) on exposed body parts, even during the winter, when sun reflected off the snow may be intense. Apply it 15 to 30 minutes (or more) before going out in the sun.
* Avoid sun exposure between 10 AM and 3 PM when the sun's rays are their most fierce.
* Check your skin monthly for unusual moles or changes in existing skin markings, using a full-length mirror and a hand mirror to see your back. See a dermatologist if you notice any changes and for regular skin checkups.
* Don’t use sunlamps or tanning centers.

Self-Examination:
The best way to detect skin cancer early is to perform monthly self-examinations. First, count and plot your moles so that you can note any changes. Then, each month examine each part of your body using a full-length mirror and a hand mirror. Be sure to check the front, back, sides, forearms, upper underarms and palms, backs of legs and feet, including spaces between toes, the back of the neck and scalp, under the hair and the back and buttocks.

Skin Cancer Risk Factors
Fair-skinned Caucasians living in sunny places are at greatest risk for developing skin cancer. People who work outdoors, the elderly, anyone who has had a severe sunburn and people repeatedly exposed to radiation or hydrocarbons found in coal tars, pitch, and asphalt are also at risk. Other risk factors include having skin damage or defects, being an albino and having a family history of skin cancer or a condition called dysplastic nevi syndrome, characterized by larger-than-normal moles that begin growing later in life. People whose immune systems are weaker than normal (such as chemotherapy patients and people with AIDS) are also at greater risk.

Symptoms of Skin Cancer
Any unusual skin condition, like a change in a mole or other pigmented growth or spot, or a wound that doesn't heal should cause concern. Scaliness, oozing, bleeding, a growing bump, itchiness, pain and tenderness are all possible symptoms of skin cancer. Melanoma may begin in or near a mole or other dark spot on the skin. Warning signs in moles are asymmetry (when the shape of one half doesn’t match the other half); ragged, irregular, notched or blurred borders; different shades of color and growth; and size (larger than a pencil eraser).

Testicular Cancer

Testicular Cancer Causes and Risk Factors
Testicular cancer runs in families. Young Caucasian men are at greatest risk for developing testicular cancer. Hispanics, Asians, and Native Americans are at medium risk, and African-Americans are at very low risk. Having an undescended testicle is the major risk factor. About 50 percent of men with testicular cancer have experienced trauma to their testes; however, it is not known whether trauma plays a causal role or whether it only brings attention to a pre-existing condition. Other factors that are possibly involved include having had the mumps, which often affects the testicles, having been born to a mother who was given estrogen or had X-rays during pregnancy and delivery, and having certain rare conditions affecting the sexual organs.

Testicular Cancer Facts
Cancer of the testes, the male reproductive glands, is the most common cancer in men between the ages of 15 and 35. There are different types of testicular cancer, most of which involve the sperm-producing cells. About 6,000 new cases are diagnosed in the United States each year, but with early detection and treatment, the cure rate for testicular cancer has increased greatly, to as high as 96 percent.

Testicular Cancer Prevention and Early Detection
Because of the increased risk from an undescended testicle, boys with this problem should have the condition surgically corrected before they reach the age of three. When corrected at a later age, the condition continues to pose higher risk.
Testicular cancer is very curable when found early. Your best protection is monthly self-examination, especially if you are in a high-risk group. Self-examination involves rolling each testicle gently between the thumb and fingers of both hands, and it is best done after a warm bath or shower. If you notice hard lumps or nodules, contact your doctor immediately.

Testicular Cancer Symptoms
There are usually no symptoms in the early stages of testicular cancer. A painless bump on the testicle or slight enlargement of a testicle and change in its consistency may be the first sign of a problem. Pain does not usually occur until a later stage of the disease, but a dull ache in the lower abdomen and groin, accompanied by a feeling of heaviness, may be an early warning sign.

source:www.meredy.com

GSK to launch five new drugs to tackle cancer

2007-06-18T21:27:00.000-07:00

Cancer Survivor Stresses Importance Of Early Detection

2007-06-18T02:27:00.000-07:00

Early detection of cancer through regular screenings can greatly increase survival rates because it identifies cancer when it's most treatable, according to the National Cancer Institute.

For that reason, survivors like Shara Fryer encourage others to get screened.

It certainly made a huge difference for Fryer. A journalist and former news anchor with KTRK-Channel 13 in Houston was diagnosed with early stage colorectal cancer in 2002 and treated at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.

Fryer had always been a strong believer of early detection and in adherence with recommended colorectal cancer screening guidelines, received her first colonoscopy shortly after her 50th birthday. Prior to the screening, Fryer had not been experiencing any of the common symptoms associated with colorectal cancer.

"Diagnosing my cancer at an early stage gave me overwhelming odds for successful treatment," said Fryer. According to the American Cancer Society, early stage colorectal cancer has an overall survival rate of 90 percent.

Survival rates are high for many other common cancers when detected early through screening.

-- Breast cancer has a 98 percent survival rate.

-- Prostate cancer has a nearly 100 percent survival rate.

-- Cervical cancer has a 92 percent survival rate.

Now about five years since her initial diagnosis, Fryer still makes regular cancer screening exams a strong part of your life. She goes in for annual check-ups and a colonoscopy every three years as part of her follow-up care after cancer treatment.

Fryer also follows recommended screening guidelines for other common cancers, including breast cancer. "My mammograms are annual," says Fryer.

Maintaining good health can be challenging for many cancer survivors who undergo intensive treatments. "I am continually worried about being struck with other "primary" cancers, but not overly so. For the most part, the issue is dealing with side effects from my radiation and chemotherapy treatment," says Fryer, who experiences muscle shortening and steno sis, and obtains additional testing every six months to monitor potential gynecologic abnormalities detected over the past three years.

"Being diagnosed with cancer has affected my career, but I don't recognize that anyone assigns a stigma to my status as cancer survivor," says Fryer, who left KTRK-Channel 13 earlier this year and is involved in various volunteer positions, including serving as president of the Houston World Affairs Council, a fellow of the American Leadership Forum, and an officer of the International Committee of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. She also maintains a busy schedule of speaking engagements for a variety of events and charities in Houston. "Most people are incredibly compassionate and supportive of my illness, recovery and, now, continuing good health."

Fryer's key message is to be aware of changes in your health and obtain regular screening exams. For those who receive a cancer diagnosis, she recommends seeking the best medical team and being open with family and friends because their support is crucial. "Get in touch with your faith, your loves, your sense of humor and your determination to survive," says Fryer.

"I will always be grateful for the positive attitude of my M. D. Anderson team of caregivers. Because they took the time to answer every one of my questions, I felt empowered when facing my disease and treatment."

source:www.medicalnewstoday.com

Scientists Find Breast Cancer Gene

2007-06-18T02:26:00.000-07:00

Scientists have stated that they have found a knew IKBKE gene that they say is responsible for 30 to 40% of all breast cancer cases

It is being reported that scientists have discovered a gene which is linked to many different types of breast cancer.

They state that the gene is responsible for up to 30% of all breast cancers and that by finding it, hope is there that someday a drug can be manufactured based on the gene to prevent breast cancer from occuring.

"If there's a 10 percent chance that this leads to a treatment for breast cancers that's going to be effective for 30 percent of women, in our way of measuring things that's a big advance." says Dr. Steven Narod, a University of Toronto professor and co-author of the original paper that identified the BRCA1 gene.

The new gene that has been identified is known as an IKBKE gene and in breast cancer patients was found to be present at a 10 time the ratio of normal cells that only contain 2 copies of the gene.

Multiple copies were "found in anywhere from 30 to 40 percent of breast cancers, a pretty large percentage," said Dr William Hahn of the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School in Boston, who led the research.

"If we can think of ways to target it, (IKBKE) can become potentially very useful in the future," he said.

The gene is responsible for coding for a certain kind of protein known as IKK-epsilon, which acts like a "control switch" to help control cell growth. When to many copies of the gene are found it can lead to the overproduction of kinase, over stimulating a series of growth signals resulting in the cell resisting death and multiplying.

source:www.dogflu.ca

Gene implicated in the development of cancer cells can be switched on using drugs

2007-06-18T02:23:00.000-07:00

A gene implicated in the development of cancer cells can be switched on using drugs, report researchers from the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center.

The finding could lead to a new class of targeted cancer therapies with potential to benefit many different cancer types.

Popular new drugs such as Herceptin and Gleevec more effectively treat cancer by targeting genetic mutations that express themselves in large amounts, causing cancer to develop. But cancers also arise because genes that control growth are turned off. While researchers can use these turned-off genes to identify or monitor cancer, currently no treatments actually target these genes.

U-M researchers found that a gene called Brahma, or BRM, is silent , but not missing , in some cancer cells. By exposing the BRM protein to an inhibitor drug, the researchers were able to turn the gene back on, allowing BRM to be expressed. The researchers found this gene is turned off in about 15 percent of tumors studied, including cells from lung, esophageal, ovarian, bladder, colon and breast cancers.

The researchers were able to use existing drugs, which showed some usefulness in turning on the BRM gene. But new drugs would need to be developed to be more effective in reactivating this gene in cancer cells. Still, researchers are excited about the potential this finding could have in leading to new targets for cancer treatment.

"This is a targetable target. We can detect it, but we need to find a better way to turn it back on. No drugs are designed to deal with a gene that's turned off. But it's a straightforward extension of current therapies that target genes that are turned on," says lead study author David Reisman, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of internal medicine at the U-M Medical School.

Results of the study appear in the advanced online publication of the journal Oncogene.

The researchers sought to understand why BRM is not expressed in certain cancer cell lines. They found no mutations to the gene but rather that it was just silent , essentially like a switch that had been turned off. Knowing that a class of drugs called histone deacetylase inhibitors, or HDAC inhibitors, can affect gene expression, the researchers applied these drugs to the cells and found the BRM expression could be restored , like flipping the switch back on.

While the existing HDAC inhibitors did return BRM expression, the effect was short-lived. Once the drugs were taken away, BRM expression decreased.

"The HDAC inhibitors are not the perfect answer, but in principle this tells us we can turn our gene back on. If we can turn the gene back on, it may not be a cure for cancer, but it could slow it down or make it responsive to existing drugs," Reisman says.

The researchers targeted lung cancer cell lines in particular, although they found similar results in a variety of other cancer cell lines tested. A potential target to treat lung cancer is particularly crucial as the death rate from lung cancer has not changed in 30 years. Newer treatments are much less toxic and extend lives by months, but the same people who died from lung cancer 30 years ago, would still succumb to this disease today.

Targeted therapies have dramatically improved cancer care in recent years, because they thwart the specific genes which drive the development and progress of cancers. They typically have few toxic side effects, unlike traditional chemotherapy, making them more tolerable as a long-term treatment or in combination with other drugs.

"Tumors are not the same from one person to the next, and even the cells within a single tumor are not the same. Giving a single drug or drug combination to 500 people is setting ourselves up for failure, much like a one-size-fits-all clothing store would never succeed," Reisman says.

"Targeted therapies are now opening the door, because they are essentially given only to those patients who have a high likelihood of response. Their low toxicity means the patient can be treated for long periods of time, which is unlike older and more traditional chemotherapy agents. Even if these new targeted therapies don't cure the cancer, we can at least have long-term survival," he adds.

source:www.news-medical.net

Ovarian Cancer :: Hormone therapy can extend life in ovarian cancer patients

2007-06-18T02:21:00.000-07:00

The targeted use of an anti-estrogen drug could prolong the life of some ovarian cancer patients by up to three years, and delay the use of chemotherapy in others, revealed by researchers at the University of Edinburgh.

The study is published in Clinical Cancer Research.

Letrozole hormone therapy attacks cancer by turning off its estrogen supply. But scientists now believe that in those ovarian cancers which are highly sensitive to estrogen, this blocking mechanism could slow the growth and spread of disease.

The study was funded by Cancer Research UK and involved 44 women with high estrogen receptor (ER) levels, whose cancer had relapsed after surgery and chemotherapy.

Scientists used a blood-borne tumour marker, CA-125, to track the progress of tumours during hormone treatment. They discovered that one quarter of the women showed no tumour growth after six months of anti-estrogen therapy, and 33 per cent of the group with the greatest ER values showed a positive response which delayed the use of chemotherapy.

John F. Smyth, Professor of Medical Oncology at the University of Edinburgh, led the research programme.

Ovarian cancer is the most commonly fatal of gynaecological cancers, affecting 1 in 48 women. Nearly 7,000 new cases are diagnosed in the UK each year.

Current treatment involves surgery and chemotherapy, but most ovarian cancers return within two years. Until now, further treatment options have been limited to a second course of chemotherapy, with serious implications for quality of life. It is hoped hormone treatment could offer life-extension with negligible side effects.

source:www.spiritindia.com

Testing for prostate cancer information

2007-06-18T02:19:00.000-07:00

Former NHL coach Pat Burns led a flood of marchers from the top of Montreal's Mount Royal on Saturday to raise awareness about prostate cancer.

"We've been working on this a little bit to try to get some men to understand that they've got to put the 'machoism' aside," the three-time NHL coach of the year said.

Burns, 55, said men have to get tested for prostate cancer since one in seven Canadians will be diagnosed with it.

"Being a cancer patient myself, I know how important it is," said a fit-looking Burns between signing autographs for fans. "Men are a little bit lazy when it comes to those things."

His 13-year NHL coaching career was cut short in the 2003-04 playoffs when he was diagnosed with colon cancer. In 2005, the disease struck his liver.

The Montreal native had two surgeries and chemotherapy and is in "great shape."

Joining Burns was Montreal Canadiens legend Guy Lafleur, who said his dad and a couple of uncles died of cancer.

source:www.hamiltonspectator.com

Colon Cancer Proteins Show Promise for Blood Test

2007-06-18T02:16:00.000-07:00

Searching for less invasive screening tests for cancer, Johns Hopkins scientists have discovered proteins present in blood that accurately identify colon cancer and precancerous polyps.

Initial studies of the proteins, CCSA-3 and CCSA-4, suggest they could be used to develop a blood test to identify at-risk individuals.

"The reality is that many people are not getting regular screening colonoscopies," says cancer researcher Robert Getzenberg, Ph.D. "So, ideally we'd like to identify those with some molecular for the disease and really need them."

Current screening guidelines for healthy people call for a baseline colonoscopy - colonic cleansing, fasting and heavy sedation followed by the insertion of a flexible, optical-scanning scope through the rectum into the colon -- at age 50, followed by re-screening at least every five to 10 years. Colonoscopy is not foolproof; cancers can develop between screenings.

First discovered by Getzenberg and colleagues at the University of Pittsburgh through a protein scan, the two blood-dwelling proteins are thought to be remnants of cellular debris castoff from dead cancer cells. Although the proteins' roles are not entirely clear, the Johns Hopkins scientists say they are part of the scaffolding that supports structures within a cell's control center, the nucleus.

Alteration of such nuclear scaffolding is a hallmark of cancer cells that is easily detectable under the microscope as a misshapen and discolored nucleus. That led Getzenberg to the notion that "there must be something at the molecular level that would form a molecular flag for cancer via a blood test."

To find the flag, Getzenberg's team drew blood samples from 107 apparently healthy individuals the day before their scheduled colonoscopies, and from 28 colorectal cancer patients.

Using a particular concentration of scaffold-proteins as a marker for disease, the Johns Hopkins team - which did not know the colonoscopy results in advance -- were 100 percent accurate in identifying the 28 existing cancers. Using the same protein markers, investigators also correctly identified 51 of 53 individuals (96.2 percent) with normal colons and 14 of 18 (77.8 percent) people with advanced precancerous polyps, which Getzenberg says are the most important to detect through routine screening.

When researchers combined samples, they correctly identified 42 of 46 (91.3 percent) containing both cancers and advanced precancerous polyps. Protein levels were accurate in correctly assessing additional blood samples from 125 people with benign conditions and other cancers.

"These proteins seem very good at separating normal samples from cancerous ones and identifying other groups with pre-cancers at high risk for disease as well," says Getzenberg, who is a professor of urology and director of research at Johns Hopkins' Brady Urological Institute. Results are published in the June 15 issue of Cancer Research.

The researchers are planning larger studies at several hospitals over the next several months. It may take several years to complete the full range of testing.

Getzenberg says that storing and processing the samples are among the major hurdles in biomarker development, a field that spans ongoing research on many cancers and various body fluids. "It is difficult to get many facilities to adhere to precise storage and processing conditions important for keeping proteins stable," he says. "Different conditions could create incorrect results." Researchers also differ in the type of biomarkers they seek, with some looking for proteins, like Getzenberg, and others searching for DNA components.

Additional authors are Eddy S. Leman, Grant W. Cannon, Lori J. Sokoll, and Daniel W. Chan at Johns Hopkins; and Robert E. Schoen and Joel L. Weissfeld at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute.

source:www.infozine.com

Brain-cancer-patient alert

2007-06-15T03:43:00.000-07:00

A radiation-therapy device error may affect people in France, U.S. Risk was downplayed.

Hundreds of brain-cancer patients in France and perhaps others in the United States may be contacted about their radiation treatments from malfunctioning machines, which were ordered shut down by the French government this week after a manufacturer's warning.

The maker of the equipment, Brainlab of Munich, Germany, downplayed the risks. The company's founder said it involved a small targeting error unlikely to cause problems for patients.

A company notification sent to a U.S. clinic warned the problem could cause "injury or death."

Brainlab officials said they believed the malfunction occurred in just seven models in use worldwide. Four hospitals in France, two in the United States, and one in Spain have the equipment, but the company would not name the U.S. hospitals. Brainlab would say only that U.S. health authorities and the affected U.S. hospitals, in Ohio and Washington state, were notified.

An official at the Cleveland Clinic said his center received an "urgent medical device" notice from Brainlab about a week ago.

Martin Weinhouse, a physics expert at Cleveland Clinic, said the problem involved a small aiming error that can occur when Brainlab's Novalis system is used with another manufacturer's head frame, a ring-shaped device that circles the head and is used in delivering radiation.

Weinhouse said the error involved a deviation of about 1.25 millimeters, which is similar to variations inherent in the delivery system, and he did not believe it would lead to serious problems.

Brainlab founder and chief executive officer Stefan Vilsmeier told the Associated Press that because doctors typically allow a certain margin of error in targeting a tumor with radiation, "we don't expect any problems with the patients."

The Food and Drug Administration had no immediate comment.

Some 550 Brainlab radiotherapy machines are in use worldwide - the largest number in the United States.

Radiotherapy treatment involves a one-time blast by a high-energy X-ray aimed from several sources and focused on one point to kill the tumor. It typically has a margin of error of 0.8 millimeters when used on brain tumors.

In malfunctioning French machines, the margin was found to have increased to 1.25 millimeters, Brainlab said.

"This security margin is always used to avoid critical organs: very important parts of the brain such as those that control sight," said Christian Carrie, coordinator of radiotherapy at the Leon Berard Cancer Center in Lyon.

Carrie said that with a security margin, "we cannot be sure, but we can hope" to avoid killing healthy brain tissue "even if there is a problem with the targeting of 1 millimeter."

source:www.philly.com

Many Patients With Operable Pancreatic Cancer Are Not Offered Surgical Treatment

2007-06-15T03:24:00.000-07:00

Analysis of data from the largest cancer database in the country has shown that a significant proportion of patients with operable pancreatic cancer are not being offered surgical treatment, even though an operation is the only potential cure for this type of cancer. Researchers from the National Cancer Database (NCDB) released their comments today on this groundbreaking study that found that 38.2 percent of patients with early-stage pancreatic cancer were not offered a surgical procedure as a treatment.

"As surgeons, the message we have been sending for many years is that surgical treatment for early-stage pancreatic cancer can have a positive impact on survival and quality of life. This study suggests, however, that the percentage of patients who should have an operation but don't get it, is alarmingly high," according to Mark S. Talamonti, MD, FACS, chief of the division of surgical oncology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, and co-researcher of the study.

Dr. Talamonti believes patients are not being offered an operation because of nihilism and skepticism on the part of medical professionals, including some surgeons, who question whether patients with pancreatic cancer can benefit from any treatment at all.

"For physicians who trained before the 1980s and 1990s when studies started to show some improvement in survival and quality of life from treatment for pancreatic cancer, the general idea was that there was no effective treatment for the disease. While this is a very formidable disease with considerable medical challenges, the reality is that not everybody has to die. Many patients do benefit by having the appropriate operation by sufficiently experienced surgeons in high-volume medical centers," Dr. Talamonti said.

"The pessimistic attitude toward pancreatic cancer and pancreatic cancer surgery is based on outdated data," explained Karl Bilimoria, MD, a research fellow at the American College of Surgeons (ACS) and Department of Surgery, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, focusing on surgical oncologic outcomes and lead author of the study. "Pancreatic cancer had terrible outcomes in the 1960s. The mortality and complications associated with surgical procedures for pancreatic cancer and the lack of effective systemic therapies made the short-term and long-term outlook for patients rather dismal. But there have been improvements over the last 30 to 40 years, to the point where postoperative mortality is less than 3 percent in many hospitals, and long-term survival rates are now about 30 percent after surgical resection for Stage I disease," Dr. Bilimoria added.

"We need to get the message out to the gatekeepers -- the primary care and internal medicine physicians, gastroenterologists, and medical oncologists who see these patients before they are referred to surgeons -- that it's better to operate than not to operate," Dr. Talamonti said.

Data for the study were obtained from the National Cancer Data Base (NCDB), which is maintained by the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer (CoC). The NCDB accounts for more than 75 percent of all cancers treated in the United States each year. The database includes information on more than 20 million patients with cancer who have been cared for at 1,440 hospitals in this country.

NCDB researchers examined data on 292,565 patients with pancreatic cancer. From 1995 to 2004, they studied 9,559 patients with Stage I disease who were potential candidates for an operation. Stage I pancreatic cancer is confined to the pancreas itself, and it typically occurs in 10 percent to 15 percent of patients initially diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, according to Dr. Bilimoria.

Although overall utilization of surgical procedures for pancreatic cancer increased during the period of the study by 14 percent, only 28.6 percent of patients actually underwent an operation. Of the remaining patients who did not have an operation, 51.7 percent did not have a documented or identifiable reason why they did not have the procedure. A total of 38.2 percent of patients were not offered an operation, and 13.5 percent did not undergo a procedure for unknown reasons.

Although the study could not fully explore why patients with operable cancer did not have a surgical procedure, it did at least identify some common underlying factors -- advanced age, race, socioeconomic status, and insurance status. Patients who were not offered an operation tended to be about 6 years older than those who had one -- 71.7 years versus 65.1 years on average. Patients also were less likely to have an operation if they were African American, had lower annual incomes or less education, and were covered by Medicare or Medicaid.

A surgical procedure also was not offered to many patients whose tumor was located in the head or the body of the pancreas. "This finding goes back to a previous perception that the Whipple procedure [also known as pancreatoduodenectomy, during which surgeons remove the head of the pancreas, the first portion of the small intestine (duodenum), part of the bile duct, and sometimes a portion of the stomach] was worse than the disease. But over the last 10 to 15 years, there have been unequivocal data that the operation is associated with improvement in quality of life and survival when done by experienced surgeons. The thought may still exist that the operation is a bad thing to subject patients to, even though the data show that is just not true," said Dr. Talamonti.

The American College of Surgeons is beginning to explore how it may respond to findings from this study. "ACS is looking at not just the Whipple procedure but cancer surgery in general to make sure segments of our population are not underserved and that the information that is disseminated about surgical treatment for pancreatic cancer is accurate," Dr. Talamonti, said. "It is imperative to get the information out that patients who need and qualify for this surgical approach are offered the operation."

"Pancreatic cancer surgeons should continue to give lectures about the efficacy of this type of surgery and treatment for pancreatic cancer to improve the medical community's opinion of what surgeons can do for patients with pancreatic cancer in 2007," Dr. Bilimoria, said.

Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of death due to cancer in this country. The American Cancer Society estimates that in 2007 more than 37,000 individuals will be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and more than 33,000 will die from the disease.

A complete report of these research findings entitled "National Failure to Operate on Early-Stage Pancreatic Cancer" will appear in an upcoming issue of Annals of Surgery. Other authors of the study include David J. Bentrem, MD, FACS (Northwestern University, Chicago, IL); Clifford Y. Ko, MD, FACS (University of California, Los Angeles, and VA Greater Los Angeles); Andrew K. Stewart, MA (American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer); and David P. Winchester, MD, FACS (American College of Surgeons).

The study was supported by the American College of Surgeons Clinical Scholars in Residence program and a research grant from the Northwestern University Department of Surgery.

The American College of Surgeons is a scientific and educational organization of surgeons that was founded in 1913 to raise the standards of surgical practice and to improve the care of the surgical patient. The College is dedicated to the ethical and competent practice of surgery. Its achievements have significantly influenced the course of scientific surgery in America and have established it as an important advocate for all surgical patients. The College has more than 71,000 members and is the largest organization of surgeons in the world.

source:www.medicalnewstoday.com

Be on alert for ovarian cancer

2007-06-15T03:04:00.000-07:00

Ovarian cancer is especially scary, since it's typically discovered at an advanced stage. So it's encouraging that experts have identified health problems that could be early warning signs.

These experts want women who have the symptoms for more than a few weeks to make an appointment with their doctor, the New York Times reported Wednesday. Bloating, pelvic or abdominal pain, trouble eating or feeling full fast and needing to urinate often or urgently may signal the disease's presence.

This new information could save lives and prolong survival rates but could also lead to unnecessary worry, tests and even surgeries. If women see their doctors, though, the trade-off will be greater peace of mind.

In 2007, the National Cancer Institute estimates there will be 22,430 new cases of ovarian cancer and 15,280 deaths in the United States. It is the fourth-leading cause of cancer-related deaths among U.S. women.

Currently, only about 20 percent of ovarian cancer cases are diagnosed early, according to the American Cancer Society. When found at an early, localized stage, 94 percent of patients live longer than five years.

While it's likely most women who have the symptoms will not have ovarian cancer, don't delay in finding out.

New, persistent problems are particularly important, Dr. Barbara Goff told the Times. She is director of gynecologic oncology at the University of Washington in Seattle and an author of studies that led to identification of the symptoms.

It's human nature to ignore health problems that could be deadly or could be nothing at all. Is that chest pain indigestion or a heart attack?

The quiet progression of ovarian cancer underscores the importance of erring on the side of caution.

source:desmoinesregister.com

Indonesia records 80th bird flu fatality

2007-06-15T03:00:00.000-07:00

The number of bird flu fatalities in Indonesia has risen to 80 with the death of a 29-year-old male in Riau province last June 12, a bird flu control official said.
“The number of confirmed bird flu patients has reached 100 and the number of those who died of the H5NI virus 80,” Indonesia’s Antara news agency quoted Bayu Krisnamurthi, executive chairman of the National Committee to Control Bird Flu and Preparedness in Facing the Influenza Pandemic, as saying here yesterday.

The man who died last Tuesday was a resident of Peranah sub district, Indragiri Hulu district, Riau province. He was positively infected with the H5NI virus according to tests conducted by the Health Ministry’s research and development unit and the Eijkman Institute, said Muhammad Nadhirin, an officer at the Health Ministry’s bird flu command post.

“The man began to show the symptoms on June 3, 2007 and was admitted to Arifin Ahmad Hospital on June 9 with a high fever, cough and breathing difficulties,” he said.

According to officers who conducted an investigation in the field, before falling ill, the man had contact with a sick chicken. He had slaughtered the chicken and later ate part of the chicken during a meal.

source:www.nst.com.my

New Study on Obesity

2007-06-15T02:57:00.001-07:00

Losing weight is an uphill battle — especially for the morbidly obese. Diet and exercise often fail. Drugs are not very effective. And in the end, many people suffer for years only to be left with one last and very expensive resort: surgery. That was certainly the case with Shawn Tarman, a 42-year-old woman from Willow Grove, Penn., who says she'd tried absolutely everything to lose weight. She finally resorted to gastric bypass surgery, in which WHAT TK IS DONE, and lost over 100 pounds.

In the last decade, bariatric surgeries — procedures that shrinks the stomach, which as gastric bypass — has become an acceptable method for treating the 15 million people in the U.S. who suffer from morbid obesity. "Obesity can be life threatening," says Dr. Philip Schauer, president of the American Society for Bariatric Surgery (ASBS). "And surgery is the next best step." Despite this, only 1% of patients who are eligible for surgery (those with a BMI over 40 or a BMI of 35 or more in conjunction with an obesity-related disease) actually get it. Sometimes, people just don't want to undergo a surgical procedure, but more often than not, obese patients are dissuaded by difficult insurance companies and are sometimes discouraged by doctors who feel they may not be the right age for the procedure.

But two new studies presented the annual meeting of the ASBS in San Diego, Calif., from June 11 to 16 show that adolescents and seniors, two age groups that have traditionally been urged to shy away from bariatric procedures, can actually benefit from surgical intervention. Another study shows that insurance companies could wind up spending less by approving bariatric surgery when compared to the life-long cost of obesity. And the latest piece of science shows that even though patients lose weight, they still need to be careful around certain indulgences — substances like alcohol have been found to have an even greater effect after surgery.

Researchers from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas have found that teenagers handle bariatric surgery even better than adults. The study of 309 adolescents and 55,192 adults found that only 5.5% of teenagers had complications after surgery compared with 9.8% in adults. "There has always been a lot of concern that doing surgery in a young person, however extreme the case is, will carry a lot of complications," says Dr. Esteban Varela, lead author of the study and director of Minimally Invasive Surgery at VA North Texas Health Care System. "But it is even safer." Between 2000 and 2003, the number of teenagers who had bariatric surgery tripled. While the number is growing, with 771 adolescents signing up in 2003, teenagers still represent less than 1% of all bariatric surgeries — a number that will begin to increase as more doctors view the practice as safe.

From the same center, a similar study of the elderly population showed that seniors do not experience significantly more complications than young adults. In fact, only 13% of patients, age 65 and older, who had laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding (LAGB) — a surgical procedure that inserts a hollow band around the stomach to limit food intake — had complications. Even more compelling, nearly two-thirds of patients lost their excess weight and significantly improved their obesity-related conditions like diabetes. "No one questions whether we should offer knee or hip replacements to people over age 65," says David A. Provost, an associate professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, who authored the study. "Weight loss surgery can provide similar quality of life improvements with less risk."

Even though Medicare and Medicare began covering bariatric surgery last year, many private insurance companies still do not want to pay for such an expensive procedure, which can cost anywhere from $10,000 to $40,000. However, a small preliminary study presented at the conference could change some of this thinking. Researchers found that the average cost of bariatric surgery is often completely recouped by the patient after three years, after which time the medical expenses of patients who did not have surgery are twice as high. "Patients who come in for surgery have a lot of medical problems," says Dr. Anita Courcoulas, lead author of the study. "It makes sense that it would end up costing less." A larger study still needs to be done, but this new research shows that surgery may actually be the cheaper option in the long term.

Most insurance companies will make patients jump through hoops before they will actually pick up the tab for bariatric surgery. Providers often require that patients lose a specified amount of weight by staying on a medically enforced diet plan. However, a new study from Duke University Medical Center found that 62% of bariatric surgery patients trimmed the excess fat regardless of whether they lost or gained 10 pounds before surgery. "There is no value in policies like this," says Dr. Eric DeMaria, the study's lead author. "If there is no value, we shouldn't use it as a requirement."

Bariatric surgery isn't a cure-all. There are still significant diet and lifestyle changes that need to be enforced. For example, a new study from Stanford University shows that patients who have gastric bypass are more susceptible to the effects of alcohol. Inspired by an episode of Oprah Winfrey in which most individuals who had undergone gastric bypass said they got drunk faster on less alcohol, the researchers decided to test this theory. The study found that for people who had the surgery, drinking 5 ounces of wine would give them an average blood alcohol level of 0.08, while the level of non-patients was only at 0.05. People who had the surgery also took 108 minutes to sober up, while non-patients only needed 72 minutes. Since the stomach is smaller after bypass, alcohol is absorbed faster and takes longer to clear the system.

It may be an uphill battle, but the evidence at this year's conference shows that gastric bypass surgery is more effective and safer that originally thought, and can significantly improve the quality of life for all ages. It certainly did for Shawn Tarman. "Eating used to be my life," Tarman says. "And surgery helped me get that life back."

source:www.time.com

Smaller waistline vs. side effects - diet drug debuts

2007-06-15T02:48:00.000-07:00

Vivian Cota leaned on her shopping cart in the diet aisle of a San Jose Walgreens, eyeing the thick, locked plastic case labeled "Alli."

She has tried numerous other boxes on this shelf - the green tea supplements, the 10-day Hoodia diet. And now, it's time for something new.

"I'm very interested in this," said the 65-year-old San Jose woman, unhappy that the drug couldn't be purchased until today. "You reach a plateau, and then you have to try something else."

As Alli, the first FDA-approved diet drug cleared for over-the-counter sale, arrives in drugstores nationwide today, doctors and nutritionists are trying to counter that intense consumer interest and a marketing juggernaut with some spin of their own, arguing that the drug's high cost and limited effectiveness may not be worth its notably unpleasant side effects.

Alli (pronounced "ally"), sold by GlaxoSmithKline, is a half-dose of the prescription drug orlistat. The drug has been marketed in prescription form by Roche Holding AG under the brand name Xenical since 1999, but it never turned out to be a blockbuster.

GlaxoSmithKline, however, expects Alli to ultimately rake in at least $1.5 billion in annual sales, and the company is expected to spend $150 million on marketing the drug in its first year. Television and magazine ads are already running. E-tailers Amazon.com and Drugstore.com report the drug, which has been pre-sold, already is a top seller - at a cost of $50 to $60 for a month's supply.

How it works

Alli blocks enzymes that digest fat, preventing the body from absorbing about a quarter of the fat eaten. The undigested fat is then excreted. One study of Alli showed that dieters who took the drug along with diet and exercise over a year lost about three pounds more than people who only dieted and exercised.

The company's message is that the pills, typically taken three times a day, are not a "magic bullet," and officials urge users to use Alli only along with exercise and a reduced-calorie, low-fat diet.

Because Alli can interfere with vitamin absorption, it can affect how medications act in the body, and users are advised to take a multivitamin supplement. The drug is not recommended for children younger than 18, people with kidney disease, patients on blood-thinners and certain other medications, and pregnant or breast-feeding women.

Then there are the side effects, which can include oily discharge, diarrhea and uncontrollable bowel movements significant enough for the company to recommend carrying an extra pair of pants until users have acclimated to the drug. The side effects alone can force users to eat less.

"We're skeptical about something like this going over the counter," said Rohini Ashok, a Kaiser Permanente-Santa Teresa physician and a leader of the HMO's new, doctor-supervised weight loss program. "It's not an unsafe drug, but it's not benign. The side effects are pretty gross."

Ashok says that although the drug may be helpful for a small group of people, such as patients with high cholesterol and poor diets, many Kaiser Permanente patients who have taken the prescription version of Alli generally do not refill their first prescription because they can't tolerate the side effects.

For now, Kaiser will not sell Alli as an over-the-counter product in its pharmacies, she said.

No miracle cures

As the American population grows ever fatter - about 65 percent of adults are either overweight or obese - pharmaceutical firms have tried to create a diet pill that is safe and effective, with only minimal success. A previous drug combination popularly known as fen-phen was pulled from the market in 1997 after reports of heart valve damage.

Earlier this week, an advisory committee to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommended against approval of the diet drug Acomplia, which has been approved in Europe but increases the risk of suicidal thoughts.

At a Weight Watchers meeting in San Jose on Thursday, Stephanie Vose, 23, said she and her friends had tried numerous diet fads over the years, only to experience strange side effects such as shaking or bursts of energy.

"It's not like it taught you how to eat right," Vose said. "So it all comes right back."

Was Alli worth a try, given its unpleasant side effects? No way, Vose said. "That's disgusting," she said. "I would not take that."

Doctors and nutritionists wish more of their patients shared Vose's attitude and willingness to try dieting the hard way: The Weight Watchers program emphasizes portion control, exercise and slow, long-term weight loss.

Alli "is not the solution to the obesity epidemic," said Christopher Gardner, a Stanford University Medical School nutrition researcher.

He painted a glum picture of how a stint with Alli might go:

The dieter starts out taking the drug but doesn't change her diet. Gradually, she begins to lose weight because her body isn't absorbing all of the fat she eats. Eventually, she achieves her goal and stops taking the drug. But she's in for a surprise - because she never changed her diet, her body will now absorb the fat that Alli helped reject, and her weight will balloon to where it was before.

This trap looks a lot like the ones from previous drugs, which have often worked for a small group of people and failed for everybody else, he said.

"If we had a great way for everybody to lose weight, we wouldn't need to have any of these discussions," Gardner said.

His suggestion? The usual: "Just eat less and exercise more."

source:www.mercurynews.com

Psychological Distress Ups Risk of Cognitive Impairment

2007-06-11T19:55:00.000-07:00

Mild cognitive impairment is more likely to develop in those who are beset by chronic mental distress than those who worry the least, concluded researchers here.

That's the conclusion of researchers here, who found that people who scored high on a test of chronic mental distress were more than 40% more likely to develop mild cognitive impairment than those who were the most laid-back.

In an analysis of prospective data from two large studies of aging and the brain, the risk of developing mild cognitive impairment over a 12-year follow-up increased by about 2% for every one-point increase on a measure of chronic distress, according to Robert Wilson, Ph.D., of Rush University Medical Center here.

Depression, on the other hand - although known to predict cognitive impairment and dementia - appeared in this study to be merely a "proxy for the enduring tendency to experience negative emotions," Dr. Wilson and colleagues reported in the June 12 issue of Neurology.

Mild cognitive impairment - considered a transitional step to full-blown dementia - implies mild memory or cognitive problems, but no significant disability, the researchers said.

"These findings suggest that, over a lifetime, chronic experience of stress affects the area of the brain that governs stress response," Dr. Wilson said. "Unfortunately, that part of the brain also regulates memory."

The findings come from data collected for the Religious Orders Study and the Rush Memory and Aging Project, two longitudinal cohorts. Volunteers (mean age of 76.8) had no dementia or mild cognitive impairment at baseline.

They completed a range of baseline tests, including the Mini-Mental State Examination, the Center Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale and the NEO Five-Factor Inventory, which is used as a measure of proneness to psychological distress. They also underwent yearly clinical examinations.

On the NEO test, volunteers rated their agreement to such statements as: "I am not a worrier"; "I often feel tense and jittery"; and "I often get angry at the way people treat me." Scores could range from 0 to 44, with a higher score indicating a higher level of chronic distress.

The study found:

* Over the 12 years, 482 of the 1,256 volunteers developed mild cognitive impairment.
* The mean distress score at baseline was 15.6, and was not correlated with age, sex, or education, but was significantly associated at P<0.001) with depressive symptoms.
* In a simple proportional hazards model, each one-point increase in distress score was associated with 2% increase in risk of mild cognitive impairment. The hazard ratio was 1.02, with a 95% confidence interval from 1.01 to 1.04.
* Depressive symptoms were associated with increased risk, but the association became non-significant when the researchers controlled for distress score. The hazard ratio associated with depressive symptoms became 1.02, with a 95% confidence interval from 0.96 to 1.09.

The bottom line, Dr. Wilson and colleagues said, is that a person with a high distress score of 24 would be 42% more likely to develop mild cognitive impairment than a person with a low score of eight.

"People differ in how they tend to experience and deal with negative emotions and psychological distress, and the way people respond tends to stay the same throughout their adult lives," Dr. Wilson said.

Because of that and other considerations, the researchers said, it's unlikely that a high distress score is simply a sign of encroaching disease. Instead, they said, it's probably a risk factor - although exactly how distress increases risk remains to be understood.

An unexpected finding is that that the association of distress with risk of impairment was higher in men than in women, although the sexes did not differ in the likelihood experiencing distress.

source:www.medpagetoday.com

Rice-based edible vaccine developed

2007-06-11T19:53:00.000-07:00

A strain of rice containing edible vaccine has been developed that could be used for large-scale and cost-efficient immunisation programmes.

Researchers said the cholera vaccine bound within the rice can be stored at room temperature over long periods and is immune to digestion.

They believe such rice vaccines could in future protect large populations against a wide range of infectious diseases.

Developing countries, many of which have rice as a staple food, were likely to benefit most.

The Japanese scientists carried out their experiments with a cholera vaccine because it was so well understood and studied.

The aim was to develop an edible vaccine that targeted the immune system's first line of defence, the "mucosal" sites of the nose, mouth, lungs or genito-urinary tract where many microbes and viruses typically enter the body.

Most existing vaccines are injected into the bloodstream and trigger immune responses against pathogens that have already broken through the mucosal barrier.

It is widely recognised that an effective mucosal vaccine would probably offer the best protection against infections such as cholera, Escherichia coli, HIV, influenza and SARS.

One of the big hurdles in the way of developing easy to administer edible vaccines is that they tend to be destroyed by digestive enzymes.

Another obstacle to large-scale immunisation in the developing world is the cost of storage. Traditional vaccines cannot be stored at room temperature, and the world-wide cost of refrigerating them is put at between £101 million and £152 million a year. The new vaccine is said to solve both problems. In tests it was resistant to the digestive enzyme pepsin, and it remained stable at room temperature for more than 18 months.

source:www.channel4.com

Blood Pressure Drug May Curb Parkinson's

2007-06-11T19:51:00.000-07:00

A drug used to treat high blood pressure may help prevent and treat Parkinson's disease.

A new study shows that the calcium-channel blocker DynaCirc may curb Parkinson's disease by making old brain cells act like younger versions of themselves. The study was conducted in mice, not people.

But the findings deserve more research, note the researchers, who included James Surmeier, Ph.D. Surmeier is Northwestern University's Nathan Smith Davis Professor and chairman of the physiology department.

"Our hope is that this drug will protect dopamine neurons, so that if you began taking it early enough, you won't get Parkinson's disease," Surmeier says in a Northwestern University news release. The drug strategy may also help Parkinson's patients, Surmeier notes.

For instance, he points out that the main Parkinson's treatment, a drug called levodopa (L-dopa), tends to lose its effectiveness over time. DynaCirc treatment may extend L-dopa's effectiveness, according to Surmeier.

"If we could double or triple the therapeutic window for L-dopa, it would be a huge advance," says Surmeier.

Parkinson's disease affects certain brain cells that make dopamine, a chemical that helps direct the body's movements. In Parkinson's disease, dopamine-producing brain cells die. That lowers dopamine levels, causing movement problems that gradually worsen.

Surmeier's team analyzed the inner workings of brain cells (neurons) affected by Parkinson's disease. As those neurons aged, they became unusually reliant on calcium channels. Healthy neurons need calcium channels to function, but not to the extent seen in Surmeier's study.

Relying heavily on calcium channels might stress those neurons, making them more vulnerable to Parkinson's' disease, the researchers reasoned.

Surmeier's team tested DynaCirc in mice.

First, the researchers split the mice into two groups. One group of mice got pellets implanted under their skin. The pellets slowly released DynaCirc. The other group got medicine-free pellets (placebos). Next, both groups of mice were exposed to chemicals that induce Parkinson's-like symptoms.

DynaCirc treatment cut neuron loss by half and "prevented the development" of movement problems in the mice, the researchers report.

DynaCirc made the neurons act like young neurons, which don't rely so strongly on calcium-channel blockers. The researchers call it a "rejuvenation" process for those neurons.

source:www.cbsnews.com

Antibiotic Use in Infants May Up Asthma Risk

2007-06-11T19:49:00.000-07:00

Giving antibiotics for a non-respiratory tract infection to an infant younger than 1 greatly increases the odds that the child will develop asthma, according to new research.

The study found that the risk was highest for those infants who received multiple courses of antibiotics and those who received prescriptions for broad-spectrum antibiotics. Broad-spectrum antibiotics tend to kill a wide range of bacteria -- both good and bad.

"Asthma is a multi-factorial disease, and we've found evidence of an association with first-year-of-life antibiotic use and asthma," said the study's lead author, Anita Kozyrskyj, an associate professor at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada.

One hypothesis, Kozyrskyj added, is that broad-spectrum antibiotics are killing off too many good bacteria.

"It may be that you need the presence of good bacteria during the first year of life for the immune system to develop normally, and the antibiotics are killing off some of the natural microflora in the gut," she said.

The study findings are published in the June issue of the journal Chest.

Each year, about 4 million American children have active asthma, resulting in about 14 million missed school days, according to the American Lung Association. Because asthma can't currently be cured, only controlled, researchers are focusing on factors that may play a role in the initial development of the lung disease.

For the new study, Kozyrskyj and her colleagues followed almost 14,000 children from birth in 1995 until 2003, when all of the children had reached 7 years of age. Data came from the Manitoba Health Services Insurance Program and included information on physician visits, prescriptions, hospitalizations and health diagnoses.

Additionally, the researchers linked this data to data on the mothers of these children to see if there was a maternal history of asthma. Parents also completed surveys on home and environmental exposures.

All of the children were from Manitoba. Half were male, and 57 percent lived in urban areas. One-quarter of the children were from low-income families; 90 percent had siblings; 5 percent had a maternal history of asthma, and 6 percent developed asthma by age 7, the researchers found.

Two-thirds of the youngsters had received at least one antibiotic prescription during their first year of life, many of them for broad-spectrum antibiotics, according to the study. And, the more antibiotics received, the greater the risk of asthma.

Kids who received one to two courses of antibiotics had a 21 percent increased risk of asthma; those given three to four courses of antibiotics had a 30 percent rise in risk; while youngsters given more than four courses of antibiotics had a 46 percent increased risk of asthma.

Children given antibiotics for non-respiratory tract infections, such as urinary-tract infections, were as much as 86 percent more likely to develop asthma than those treated for respiratory infections.

Other factors that increased the risk of asthma included a family history, living in an urban area and being male. Having a sibling conferred a slight protective effect, as did having a dog for children who received multiple courses of antibiotics. In kids who had more than four courses of antibiotics before age 1, having a dog decreased the risk of asthma by 28 percent. However, in kids who received fewer antibiotics, that protective effect wasn't there.

Dr. Alan Khadavi, a pediatric asthma specialist at New York University Medical Center, said that prevention of asthma isn't a reason to get a dog. "If you already have a dog, that's fine, but the studies are conflicting about whether they're helpful or harmful," he added.

As for antibiotic use, Khadavi said, "If your child under 1 year is sick, have him or her evaluated. Don't push for antibiotics. But. on the other hand, if it's a serious infection that needs to be treated, I wouldn't worry too much about the asthma risk. If it's a mild infection, a watch-and-wait approach won't be harmful if they're under a physician's care."

Dr. Sai Nimmagadda, an attending physician in the division of allergy at Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago, said this study points to the need for "more judicious use of antibiotics, especially broad-spectrum antibiotics in kids under a year."

"Once wheezing has developed, it's difficult to alter the course of asthma, so now we're looking back to see if there are any risk factors we can change," he said.

Kozyrskyj recommended that physicians start by prescribing narrow-spectrum antibiotics, such as amoxicillin, for their youngest patients, and then if necessary, try a broad-spectrum medication.

source:www.forbes.com

Worldwide Alzheimer's cases to quadruple by 2050

2007-06-11T19:46:00.000-07:00

The latest worldwide estimate of Alzheimer's disease prevalence shows that 26.6 million people were living with the disease in 2006, and researchers forecast that the number will quadruple by 2050.

The results were reported at the Second Alzheimer's Association International Conference on Prevention of Dementia in Washington, D.C. held from June 9-12.

Researchers from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health predict that global prevalence of Alzheimer's will quadruple by 2050 to more than 100 million, at which time 1 in 85 people worldwide will be living with the disease.

More than 40 percent of those cases will be in late stage Alzheimer's, requiring a high level of attention equivalent to nursing home care.

Researchers created a multi-state mathematical computer model using United Nations' worldwide population forecasts and data from epidemiological studies on the incidence and mortality of Alzheimer's.

The biggest increase is projected for densely populated Asia, home of almost half of today's Alzheimer's cases, 12.6 million. By 2050, Asia will have 62.8 million of the world's 106 million Alzheimer's patients, the study projects.

"The number of people affected by Alzheimer's disease is growing at an alarming rate, and the increasing financial and personal costs will have a devastating effect on the world's economies, healthcare systems and families," said William Thies, vice president of Medical and Scientific Relations with the Alzheimer's Association.

However there is hope. There are several drugs in Phase III clinical trials for Alzheimer's that show great promise to slow or stop the progression of the disease. This, combined with advancements in diagnostic tools, has the potential to change the landscape of Alzheimer's.

"But we need more funding for research to make this happen," Thies said at the conference.

Source: Xinhua

Fears over vaccines link to autism reaches U.S. court

2007-06-11T19:38:00.000-07:00

A hearing began Monday on whether vaccinations have caused autism in many children with its first test case in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in Washington, according to media reports.

More than 4,800 families filed against the government that routine childhood vaccines are linked to a rise in autism. Many of them contend that a preservative called thimerosal (thy-MEHR'-uh-sahl) is to blame for the impaired social interaction that is typical of autism.

Scientists weighed in heavily with strong evidence that there is no link between autism and vaccines containing thimerosal. But a very vocal group of people remains unconvinced.

Many parents say their children's symptoms did not show up until after their children received the vaccines, required by many states for admission to school.

The parents are seeking payment under the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, a no-fault system that has a 2.5 billion U.S. dollars fund built up from a 75-cent-per-dose tax on vaccines.

"Monday will mark the first time ever that evidence of autistic harm from childhood vaccines is examined and cross-examined in a court of law," activist David Kirby, who wrote a book about the purported vaccine and autism link, said in a statement.

No judges but instead three "special masters" will hear the test cases. They are Denise Vowell, a former U.S. Army chief trial judge; Patricia Campbell-Smith, a former environmental lawyer and clerk at the Federal Claims Court; and George Hastings a former tax claims expert at the Department of Justice.

The preservative is no longer used in routine childhood vaccines but is still used in some flu shots.

source:news.xinhuanet.com

One in every eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in her lifetime.

2007-06-11T07:42:00.000-07:00

In Tennessee, over 3,500 women each year receive new diagnoses of breast cancer.

The Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation is out to help women change that. The Komen on the Go tour camped out in Pigeon Forge this week for one of the stops in its 144-city, 36-week tour.

"What Komen is all about is really getting education out there," Lindz Pace, tour execution coordinator, said. "We are trying to spread that service to communities and college campuses where the information might not be as readily available."

After entering the pink Komen trailer, women were invited to be part of an interactive computer tutorial. The information provided included a step-by-step guide to breast self-examination.

After completing the tutorial, participants could then further explore the Web site, with links to local services available.

"Komen doesn't provide the services," Pace said. "But what we do is hand you the resources in order to help you find the needed services in your area on your own."

Komen on the Go was designed to create awareness about breast cancer prevention, especially to those who may think the information pertains to them.

"One of the major points of this service is to educate young women," Pace said. "Breast cancer is striking younger and younger women, so we're trying to really emphasize the need to make a habit of breast self-exams."

Taking a proactive stance about breast health could have a long-lasting impression on life.

"Women performing breast self-exams detect changes in the breast tissue earlier," Pace said. "Early detection means that there is a 96-98 percent rate of survival.

"All women need to do this regularly. It's a major step for protecting our own health."

source:www.zwire.com

Concern over breast cancer among men

2007-06-11T07:36:00.000-07:00

Breast cancer cases among men may be less than in women, but it is definitely causing a concern with doctors blaming it on the sheer lack of awareness.

Genetic disorder, obesity, alcohol intake, prior exposure to radiation, family history are some of the factors that has led to the spread of this rare disease.

According to the Delhi Cancer Registry more than three per cent of breast cancer deaths in 2001 were reported among men, which is more than the deaths occurred due to small intestinal cancer and thyroid.

Every year about 75,000 new cases of breast cancer are reported in India, out of which a small but increasing number is from men, said Sidharth Sahni, Consultant in the Surgical Oncology Department at Artemis Health Institute in Gurgaon.

"Cases of breast cancer in men is a reality and cannot be ignored. For many, breast cancer among men may sound bizarre as they compare it with women breast cancer," he said.

Men have all the same types of tissue in their breasts as women. "But they have fewer ducts and globules and these are not as developed as those in women. This is why the cases are less reported among men," he added.

According to Dr P K Julka, Professor of Oncology at AIIMS, Asian men are less susceptible to breast cancer, as compared to African American or Caucasian.

He said that one per cent of his patients were men in the past two years. "There is no need for panic. The cases have not risen dramatically. There is just a slight rise. But men should know they could be at risk and shouldn't think that it is just a women's disease," Julka said.

Julka said unmarried men could also be affected with the disease.

Infertile men or those whose liver has been damaged by liquor or due to other reasons, possibly through hormonal imbalances, could be affected with the problem, he said.

The oncologist said the Klinefelter's syndrome or chromosomal abnormality increases the risk of developing breast cancer by 50 per cent in men.

He said those who have genetic disorder should be careful as they could also be at high risk. "They should take it seriously when they see a painless lump or when they find bleeding from their nipple or discharge," he added.

Surgery is usually the common treatment followed by radiotherapy and chemotherapy and hormonal therapy.

"It is not right to say that this is confined to urban area only. We have seen an equal number of patients from rural areas too," Julka said.

Among men the cases are reported at the age of 60, while symptoms among women are seen at a younger age.

Doctors said hormonal imbalances and altered testicular function have been found to be the reason for all breast cancer deaths.

Gauri Kapoor, senior consultant in the Department of Surgical Oncology at Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute, said though it is a rare disease, they have seen many cases in the past few years.

"Most men are not even aware that they could also be affected with breast cancer and as they are not able to recognise the symptoms, they generally come for treatment at a very late stage when the cancer reaches their chest wall," she said.

source:timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Diet, exercise key in cancer fight

2007-06-11T07:34:00.000-07:00

Breast cancer survivors who eat a healthy diet and take exercise can slash their risk of dying from the disease by half, a new study suggests.

The research is the first to look at the impact of both diet and physical activity on breast cancer survival.

It found that healthy living reduced the chances of dying from breast cancer even if a woman was obese.

US scientists from the University of California at San Diego (UCSD) studied 1,490 women aged 70 and younger with an average age of 50.

The women, who had all undergone primary therapy for early-stage breast cancer, were taking part in the Women's Health Eating and Living (Whel) study looking at the effects of lifestyle on health.

The researchers found that women who were both physically active and had a healthy diet were much more likely to survive for between five and 11 years than the rest of the group.

Their death rate was 7% - about half that seen for the other women taking part in the study.

Dr John Pierce, from the Moores Cancer Centre at UCSD, said: "We demonstrate in this study of breast cancer survivors that even if a woman is overweight, if she eats at least five servings of vegetables and fruits a day and walks briskly for 30 minutes, six days a week, her risk of death from her disease goes down by 50%. The key is that you must do both."

The findings are published in the latest issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Because of the strength of the findings, the scientists now want to see if taking steps to change diet and physical activity affects breast cancer survival.

source:paktribune.com

E.Coli Forces Beef Recall in 11 States

2007-06-11T07:19:00.000-07:00

The last thing Manuela Lyon expected after eating her husband's spaghetti and meatballs was a trip to the emergency room.

"My fear was that I was gonna die," she said. Lyon is one of at least 14 cases of poisoning from E. coli, a potentially deadly bacteria linked to tainted beef from California-based United Food Group.

United Food Group originally recalled about half a million pounds of meat but then expanded the recall over the weekend to 5.7 million pounds. That meat was shipped to 11 states. Friday, Tyson Foods announced it was recalling 40,000 pounds of beef products shipped to Wal-Mart stores.

"It is small compared with the 24.7 billion pounds of beef that are produced each year in the U.S.," said David Goldman of the Food and Drug Administration.

While that may be true, there have been six recalls involving beef products in just the last two months. And critics fear recent problems involving other products like spinach, peanut butter and, most recently, pet food, have diverted attention away from beef.

"The heat has been off the USDA [U.S. Department of Agriculture] for the last nine months while [the] FDA was dealing with these high profile episodes," said Caroline Smith DeWaal, food safety director of Centers for Science in the Public Interest.

The beef industry dismisses the spike in recalls as a fluke, and points out E. coli cases have dropped 80 percent in the last seven years.

"We need to look a the big picture," said Beau Reagan of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association. "This is just really a snapshot."

But Lyon said the situation frustrated her.

"I hope nobody else has to go through this," she said.

Customers with questions about the recall can call United Food Group's hotline at 1-800-325-4164. Those with recalled products should throw the products away or return them to the point of purchase for a refund.

The meat was sold under five brand names: Moran's All Natural, Miller Meat Co., Stater Bros. Markets, Inter-American Products and Basha's. It has "sell by" dates of April 29, April 30 or May 6; "freeze by" dates of April 28, April 30 or May 7; or manufacture dates of April 13 or April 20. All will have a marking that says "EST. 1241" on the package.

The products were sold by California retailers including Albertsons, Sam's Club, Smart & Final, Stater Bros. and Superior Warehouse. The affected products were also sold in Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming and Montana, according to state and federal health officials.

You can protect your family from E. coli by cooking all ground beef to an internal temperature of at least 160 degrees. That will kill harmful bacteria and make the meat safe to eat. The California Department of Health Services is recommending consumers not cook these lots of recalled meat in an attempt to make the beef safe. The best way to be sure other ground beef is properly cooked is to use an accurate food thermometer.

source:www.abcnews.go.com

Girl Dies After Using Excess Of Muscle Cream

2007-06-11T07:14:00.000-07:00

Arielle Newman was the captain of the track team at Notre Dame Academy in Staten Island, N.Y.

"She was a good kid, an overall good kid, following the rules, just trying to do the best she could in school, in track," said Alice Newman, Arielle's mother.

The award-winning cross country runner, who was popular with friends and teachers alike, was found dead by her mother on April 3.

"I went upstairs to her room and found her on the floor," Newman said. "I tried to do mouth-to-mouth. I tried to do chest compressions, but I could tell that she'd been gone for a while."

Arielle's death came as a shock to family and friends. But, nothing could prepare them for the apparent cause of this tragedy -- an overdose of muscle-pain-relieving creams.

Millions of consumers use such over-the-counter products to relieve pain from aching muscles. But doctors say they contain a substance known as methyl salicylate, which if used in excess can prove harmful.

"If you had a toxic level of salycalate, you'd start with some nausea, vomiting, dizziness, some ringing in the ears," said Dr. Lewis Maharam, medical director of Elite Racing. "That would progress to a feeling of sleepiness and you could get seizures as well."

According to the New York City Medical Examiner's Office, this was the first time it has reported a death from the use of sports cream. Doctors said, used in moderation, the products are safe.

"They're only 30 percent salycalate, which is aspirin that gets absorbed by the skin -- and everybody uses aspirin," Maharam said. 'So in order to get this type of result, you have to take a tremendous amount of this stuff and be rubbing it on day after day, morning, noon and night, go through cases of it to get a level that would be detrimental."

For Arielle's mother, the idea that an over-the-counter product could lead to the death of her daughter is something she will have to live with for the rest of her life.

"There's nothing I can do now," she said. "My daughter's gone and I miss her terribly, but there's nothing I can do. I'm just thinking, 'What should I do now?'"

source:www.abcnews.go.com

Critics Say Cigarette Aimed at Young Girls

2007-06-11T07:06:00.000-07:00

Critic Calls Ad Campaign, 'The Pink Version of Joe Camel'; Company Denies Claims

The little black box is sleek and sophisticated. The name, Camel No. 9, sounds more like a perfume than a cigarette.
And then there are the ads.

"The colors are attractive," says Rep. Lois Capps, D-Calif., pointing to a glossy magazine ad with a bright pink border. "The words 'light' and 'luscious' make you think of a food product, something that tastes good, rather than some deadly product that's going to kill you."

Critics say Camel No. 9s, new cigarettes made by R.J. Reynolds, are clearly targeted at teenage girls. Last week, 42 members of Congress sent a letter to the editors of 11 major magazines, from Vogue to Cosmopolitan, asking them to stop running the ads.

Capps calls the ad campaign "the pink version of Joe Camel."

It's the latest round in the ongoing debate over tobacco marketing and kids.

Studies show that 90 percent of adult smokers started smoking while they were in their teens. And kids are more susceptible to advertising than adults.

Cigarette ads were banned from TV decades ago, and from billboards more recently. But print advertising remains legal, as long as it does not target minors.

R.J. Reynolds says its new product is aimed solely at adult women smokers.

"Camel No. 9 was developed in direct response to female adult smokers who told us that they wanted a product that better reflected their style and design and taste," said Cressida Lozano, vice president of marketing for Camel brands.

Critics say they've heard that line before. The controversial Joe Camel character was also supposedly aimed at adults. R.J. Reynolds ended that ad campaign as part of a court settlement.

"Every time we have tried to curtail tobacco industry marketing to kids they have found a new way to do so," said Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

Anti-smoking groups are also suspicious of the new Camel Signature line, cigarettes with flavors and Starbucks-inspired names like "robust" or "infused."

Congress is considering a bill to give the FDA authority to regulate tobacco and tobacco advertising. In the meantime, antismoking activists are hoping public pressure will lead more magazines to reject cigarette ads like those for Camel No. 9.

source:www.abcnews.go.com

Throat Cancer Research: Blood test may be useful to evaluate effectiveness of therapy

2007-06-11T07:02:00.000-07:00

A blood test that detects proteins commonly released by a growing tumor could one day become a useful tool for monitoring the effectiveness of chemotherapy and radiation treatment in people with advanced throat cancer, according to a study published in the June 1, 2007, issue of Clinical Cancer Research. Scientists in the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) and National Cancer Institute (NCI), two of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), in collaboration with researchers of the University of Michigan, found that throat cancer patients who showed a decline in several cancer-related proteins following chemotherapy and radiation treatment were more likely to remain in remission, while those who experienced a large rise over time in those proteins frequently exhibited a return of throat cancer. The findings could help lead to the development of a blood test that enables doctors to detect the recurrence of throat cancer early on, when there is still time to pursue a second line of treatment, such as surgery or drug therapy.

"Cancers of the head and neck are insidious because surgical removal of the tumor can severely impair a person's ability to talk and to swallow," said NIDCD Director, James F. Battey, Jr., M.D., Ph.D. "A blood test that enables doctors to closely monitor a patient's rehabilitation while sparing the patient's voice, speech, and swallowing ability is an excellent example of the predictive, preemptive, and personalized approach to medicine that the NIH strives for."

Roughly 20 years ago, the primary method for treating throat cancer was to surgically remove the tumor. Because this treatment can severely impair a patient's quality of life by damaging voice, speech, and swallowing, in many cases physicians and their patients are now opting for a combination of chemotherapy and radiation as a first line of treatment. However, there is no way to predict which patients will respond well to this treatment or whether a tumor will return later. Clinical exams, X-rays, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are currently used to monitor a patient's progress, but observation by these methods has been difficult due to the scarring that occurs from radiation.

"Finding better markers for detecting cancer as it begins and then monitoring the course of treatment is a major goal of the NCI and this research in head and neck cancer is an excellent example of the type of collaborative study between two NIH institutes that helps advance the field," said NCI Director, John E. Niederhuber, M.D.

It is estimated that more than 34,000 Americans will be diagnosed with cancer of the oral cavity and pharynx (the middle part of the throat that includes the soft palate, tonsils, and tongue) in 2007, and that 7,550 Americans will die from it. Alcohol and tobacco use are the most important risk factors for head and neck cancers, with tobacco use accounting for 85 percent of the cases. Just last month, other NIH-supported doctors reported that sexual transmission of human papillomavirus is strongly associated with throat cancer, especially in cancers arising from the tonsils and base of the tongue.

In the largest long-term study of its kind, NIH and University of Michigan researchers tested the blood of 30 patients who had undergone chemotherapy and radiation treatment for advanced throat cancer. Starting immediately before treatment and continuing every three months for 12 months, the researchers tested the patients' blood for five proteins that, in previous studies, had been found to occur at heightened levels in head and neck cancer patients. These include two cytokines known as Interleukin (IL)-6 and IL-8, and three growth factors known as growth-related oncogene (GRO)-1, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and hepatocyte growth factor (HGF). These cytokines and growth factors play an important role in the body's inflammatory response and in the growth of cells and new blood vessels. Because the researchers used a bioassay technology that can simultaneously analyze the concentrations of each protein, only a small amount of blood was required for the test.

The majority of the patients had a complete response to therapy. Patients whose blood levels of these cytokines and growth factors dropped and remained low following treatment were more likely to continue in remission. Patients who experienced large increases in protein levels were more likely to exhibit a return of the cancer or to die from it. For example, large increases in IL-6, VEGF, and HGF concentrations over time yielded a 3.8-fold, 3.0-fold, and 2.9-fold higher risk of dying of throat cancer, respectively. Patients with an increase in three or more factors were at highest risk for dying of throat cancer-more than twice as likely as patients with an increase in two or fewer factors. Finally, patients with the sharpest rises in protein levels had lower chances for survival, with patients who had a history of smoking experiencing the largest spikes. (For this reason, estimates of relative risk of death were adjusted to exclude the compounding effects of smoking.)

Because the production of these growth factors and cytokines is controlled by the same "master switch"-a regulator protein known as nuclear factor kappa B (NF-kappaB)-the researchers suggest that this protein may represent a new target for drug therapy. Drugs that help turn off NF-kappaB are currently being tested in clinical trials at NIH and elsewhere.

The researchers note that a few of the patients experienced elevations in cytokine levels related to other illnesses or injuries, and not to throat cancer; therefore, they caution that further studies are needed in larger groups of patients to confirm if this could be a useful tool to monitor for cancer, infection, or other complications. In addition, because IL-6, IL-8, VEGF, and HGF have been detected in the blood of patients with breast, cervical, ovarian, and other cancers, they suggest that this technique may have broader application in the monitoring of other forms of cancer. Further studies would need to be performed on patients with these types of cancer as well.

The NIDCD supports and conducts research and research training on the normal and disordered processes of hearing, balance, smell, taste, voice, speech, and language and provides health information, based upon scientific discovery, to the public. For more information about NIDCD programs, see the Web site at www.nidcd.nih.gov.

For more information about cancer, please visit the NCI Web site at http://www.cancer.gov, or call NCI's Cancer Information Service at 1-800-4-CANCER (1-800-422-6237).

The National Institutes of Health (NIH)-the Nation's Medical Research Agency-includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary federal agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and it investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.

source:www.cancernews.com

Lymphoma Treatment: Study indicates that radioimmunotherapy effective over long term

2007-06-11T07:01:00.000-07:00

Source: University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center (June 4, 2007)
U-M study finds lymphoma drug effective over long term
86% of patients treated with Bexxar survived after 8 years of follow up

Eight years after being treated with a new drug for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, 86 percent of patients were still alive and half had not had a relapse of their disease, according to researchers from the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center

The patients had follicular lymphoma, a type of cancer that is not considered to be curable using traditional treatments. Even if patients initially respond to treatment, the disease almost always comes back and becomes more difficult to treat.

The study followed 76 patients with follicular non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a cancer of the lymph system, who received the radioimmunotherapy drug Bexxar as their first treatment for the disease. Ninety-five percent of the patients saw their tumors shrink from the treatment and three-quarters of patients went into complete remission. Patients were followed for a median of eight years, and nearly two-thirds have remained in complete remission eight years after treatment.

"For years we have known radioimmunotherapy such as Bexxar is one of the most effective treatments for patients with relapsed follicular lymphoma. These data show Bexxar is particularly effective when used as a front-line treatment," says Mark Kaminski, M.D., professor of internal medicine at the U-M Medical School. Kaminski will present these results June 4 at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting in Chicago.

"These results compare quite favorably with those achieved with state-of-the-art chemotherapy regimens that take months to deliver. But Bexxar is given as a single treatment, completed within one week, which makes it an extremely convenient regimen for patients," Kaminski says.

Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, the nation's sixth leading cause of cancer death, is a cancer of the lymph system, which is part of the immune system. Follicular lymphoma is the second most common type of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Lymphoma spreads easily through the lymph system and the bloodstream and consequently tends to be widespread when it is diagnosed. Traditional treatment often involves intensive chemotherapy, or a combination of chemotherapy and the monoclonal antibody rituximab. These treatments are usually given every three weeks over a span of up to six months and can cause many unpleasant side effects, including nausea, hair loss and infections.

Bexxar, whose chemical name is tositumomab and iodine I 131 tositumomab, combines an antibody that seeks out cancer cells, and a radioactive form of the element iodine. When injected, it travels like a guided missile through the bloodstream to bind to a protein found on the surface of the cancerous cells. The radiation zaps these malignant cells with minimal exposure to normal tissues.

With the Bexxar therapeutic regimen, a patient receives an injected test dose of radioactive Bexxar, followed one to two weeks later with a custom-tailored therapeutic dose. After that, the therapy is considered complete. The most common side effect is a temporary lowering of blood counts several weeks after the treatment. There is no hair loss and nausea is rare.

Kaminski and his colleague Richard Wahl (formerly at U-M and now at Johns Hopkins University) developed the Bexxar regimen, which received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in June 2003 to treat follicular non-Hodgkin's lymphoma after other treatments have failed. The current results involve Bexxar as a first-line treatment for this disease.

In addition to Kaminski and Wahl, U-M study authors were Judith Estes, R.N., a nurse practitioner; Missy Tuck, clinical research coordinator; and Charles Ross, M.D., associate professor of pathology.

Funding for the study was from the National Institutes of Health and GlaxoSmithKline. The University of Michigan holds patents for the Bexxar therapeutic regimen, which is marketed by GlaxoSmithKline under a licensing agreement. U-M receives royalties on sales of Bexxar, a portion of which goes to Kaminski and his co-inventors.

For information about non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, visit our Non-hodgkins lymphoma web page or call the Cancer AnswerLine at 800-865-1125. For information about Bexxar from its manufacturer, call 877-4-BEXXAR or visit www.bexxar.com.

Reference: American Society of Clinical Oncology 43rd annual meeting, June 1-5, 2007, Chicago, Ill. Abstract No. 8033.

source:www.cancernews.co

Treatment for Early Prostate Cancer Associated with Type of Specialist Seen

2007-06-11T06:56:00.000-07:00

A new study analyzing men with localized prostate cancer shows that the specialty of the physician they see can influence the type of therapy they ultimately receive. The study, co-led by a urologist and a radiation oncologist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, found that patients aged 65 to 69 years old who consult a urologist are more likely to undergo surgery to remove the prostate, while those who consult a radiation oncologist and a urologist, regardless of age, usually receive radiation therapy.

"These practice patterns are no surprise but are notable because specialists who treat prostate cancer tend to favor the treatment they themselves deliver, despite the fact that no one has shown one treatment for early stage prostate cancer to be better than another," said Thomas L. Jang, MD, MPH, a physician in the Department of Urology, at Memorial Sloan-Kettering and co-lead author of the study. "It is very important for patients to receive an unbiased, balanced perspective on the full range of treatments."

The study, presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncologists, reviewed the records of 85,088 men aged 65 and older who were diagnosed with prostate cancer between 1994 and 2002 using information from the SEER (Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results) Medicare-linked database to determine the type of specialist they saw and the therapy they received. The treatments included radical prostatectomy (surgery to remove the prostate), radiation therapy, primary androgen deprivation (hormone) therapy, and expectant management (watchful waiting).

Among the men in the study, 50 percent were seen exclusively by a urologist; 44 percent by both a radiation oncologist and urologist; 3 percent by both a medical oncologist and urologist; and 3 percent by all three specialists. A high correlation was observed between the specialist patients saw and the treatment they received. This was especially true in the younger men aged 65 to 69 year old where 70 percent of men who saw only a urologist had a radical prostatectomy. However, if men in this group saw a radiation oncologist and a urologist, 78 percent had radiation therapy. If the men saw a medical oncologist and urologist, 53 percent had a prostatectomy and an almost equivalent number had either radiation therapy (17 percent), expectant management (16 percent), or primary androgen deprivation therapy (14 percent).

"Because outcomes for men are similar whether they have surgery or radiation therapy, there are often other factors that a patient considers when deciding their most optimal treatment," said Justin Bekelman, MD, a physician in the Department of Radiation Oncology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering and co-lead author of the study. "When speaking with physicians who have particular expertise in prostate cancer be they urologists, radiation oncologists, or medical oncologists men should seek a balanced perspective on the risks and benefits of all available therapeutic options."

"The treatments for early stage prostate cancer have different side effects, different recovery profiles, and involve a different commitment of time," said Deb Schrag, MD, a medical oncologist and health services researcher in Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center's Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and the study's senior author. "It is imperative that men be advised about the details of all options so that they can make an informed decision that is right for them."

In 2007, the American Cancer Society predicts that 218,890 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer. The 5-year relative survival rate for men with localized prostate cancer is nearly 100 percent. Treatment side effects vary. The most common are urinary incontinence and erectile dysfunction for prostatectomy; diarrhea and erectile dysfunction for radiation therapy; loss of libido, hot flashes and breast tenderness for hormone therapy. There are no physical side effects associated with watchful waiting.

Drs. Peter T. Scardino, Michael J. Zelefsky, Colin B. Begg, Peter B. Bach, Elena B. Elkin, Ethan M. Basch, and Yihai Liu of Memorial Sloan-Kettering participated in this study. It was funded, in part, by grants from the National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institute.

source:www.cancernews.com

Court Hearings Begin on Vaccine-Autism Link

2007-06-11T06:46:00.000-07:00

Thousands of families that allege vaccines caused their children's autism are preparing for their day in court, which could bring them vindication and compensation.

Since 1999, more than 4,800 families have filed claims with the government alleging their children contracted autism as a result of routine vaccinations. Most contend that a preservative called thimerosal is to blame for the impaired social interaction typical of the disorder.

If they prevail in the courts, the families are entitled to compensation from a multibillion-dollar trust fund. Previously, large scientific studies have found no association between autism and vaccines containing thimerosal.

The first of what eventually could be nine test cases from those claims is the subject of the hearing opening Monday in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. Three special masters appointed by the court will preside over the hearing, expected to last through June 29.

Monday's case addresses the theory that the cause of autism is the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine in combination with other vaccines containing thimerosal. The preservative, about 50 percent mercury by weight, is no longer found in routine childhood vaccines but is used in some flu shots.

source:www.abcnews.go.com

Indonesia finds asymptomatic H5N1-infected poultry

2007-06-11T06:45:00.000-07:00

Indonesia has found traces of H5N1 bird flu in apparently healthy-looking poultry, making it tougher to detect the disease in the country hardest hit by the virus, officials said on Monday.

Sick or dead chickens are used as a sign of H5N1 infection, but the appearance of "asymptomatic" chickens means humans could become more easily infected with bird flu. Indonesia has the world's highest death toll from the disease, killing 79 people.

"The poultry death rate is not so high, but there is a trend that chicken or poultry are infected by the virus but they don't die. So, the H5N1 virus is not fatal to poultry," Musny Suatmodjo, director of animal health at the agriculture ministry, told a news conference.

Bird flu is endemic in poultry in many parts of Indonesia, which has been struggling to contain the disease because millions of backyard chickens live in close proximity to people across the archipelago.

Contact with sick fowl is the most common way people become infected. Globally, 189 people have died of H5N1 infection since the virus reappeared in Asia in late 2003.

While bird flu is essentially a poultry disease, scientists are worried about the virus's ability to adapt to new environments and hosts. They fear this increases the chances of the virus mutating into a form that can jump easily between people, triggering a pandemic.

For the first six months of this year, 12,000 birds have died of bird flu or been culled, while last year about 1.75 million poultry either died of the disease or were culled, Suatmodjo said.

Authorities fear healthy-looking poultry could shed the virus in their faeces, increasing the risk of spreading bird flu to people.

"The poultry deaths have come down. But there's something that we need to be cautious about. There is concern shedding may occur," Bayu Krisnamurthi, the bird flu commission chief, told reporters.

"There are some cases where humans were infected with the virus although there was no sick or dead poultry in their surroundings. But it can't be a general conclusion yet," he said, adding the commission was being cautious about this indication.

Hong Kong-based researchers have also detected such "asymptomatic" chickens and other poultry in mainland Chinese markets in recent years, which they believe were responsible for most of the H5N1 human infections there.

One published study of faecal samples taken from healthy poultry in markets in China in recent years found that one percent were infected with the virus.

The Indonesian Bird Flu Commission said last week the H5N1 bird flu virus in Indonesia might have undergone a mutation that allows it to jump more easily from poultry to humans. (Additional reporting by Tan Ee Lyn in Hong Kong).

source:www.alertnet.org

Alzheimer's sufferers to quadruple by 2050

2007-06-11T06:44:00.000-07:00

The 26 million people worldwide thought to be living with Alzheimer's disease could quadruple over the next 40 years and swell to more than 106 million by 2050, researchers from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, predict.

"By 2050, one in 85 people worldwide will have Alzheimer's disease. However, if we can make even modest advances in preventing Alzheimer's disease or delay its progression, we could have a huge global public health impact," said Ron Brookmeyer of Johns Hopkins University, who led the study on how many people have the disease.

He warned that the biggest rise in cases would occur in Asia, where 48 percent of sufferers live. There, prevalence will grow from 12.65 million in 2006 to 62.85 million in 2050, accounting for 59 percent of all cases, the study said.

The disease is very difficult to detect until it has progressed from mild memory loss to clear impairment. Patients eventually lose all ability to care for themselves.

News of the predicted health crisis came as other experts unveiled a new test that can predict a person's risk of dementia in the next six years.

It combines medical history, cognitive function and a physical examination and is 87 percent accurate, according to the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center in California.

Christos Davatzikos and colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania used a combination of PET and MRI scans to diagnose Alzheimer's.

Positron emission tomography or PET scans can be used to measure blood flow in the brain in real time, while magnetic resonance imaging or MRI can clearly show the shape and size of physical structures in the brain.

"This abnormal pattern of brain structure and blood flow detected not only mild cognitive impairment but even earlier ... when they were clinically normal," Davatzikos said.

A combination of a few simple measures worked best. They included greater age, scores on a simplified version of a standard cognitive exam, the time it took to button a shirt and the time needed to walk 15 feet, being underweight, and not drinking any alcohol at all.

source:news.xinhuanet.com

Vaccine-autism battle shifts to federal court

2007-06-11T06:37:00.000-07:00

For more than a decade, families across the country have been warring with the medical establishment over their claims that routine childhood vaccines are responsible for the nation's apparent epidemic of autism. In an extraordinary proceeding that begins today, the battle will move from the ivory tower to the courts.

Nearly 5,000 families will seek to convince a special "vaccine court" in Washington that the vaccines can cause healthy and outgoing children to withdraw into uncommunicative, autistic shells — even though a large body of evidence and expert opinion has found no link.

The shift from laboratory to courtroom means the outcome will hinge not on scientific standards of evidence but on a legal standard of plausibility — what one lawyer for the families called "50 percent and a feather." That may make it easier for the plaintiffs to sway the panel of three "special masters," which is why the decision could not only change the lives of thousands of American families but also have a profound effect on the decisions of parents about whether to vaccinate their children.

A victory by the plaintiffs, public-health officials say, could increase the number of children who are not given vaccines and fall sick or die from the diseases they prevent.

Advocates of the theory that vaccines can cause autism have argued that the increase in cases was triggered by a mercury-based preservative in vaccines that, they say, is toxic to children's brains.

Under pressure from the advocates and to keep the issue from disrupting vaccination programs, U.S. officials began phasing out the additive, thimerosal, in children's vaccines around 1999 while maintaining that there was no hard evidence that it was dangerous.

About 20 experts are expected to testify in the case, which will involve a staggering amount of complicated epidemiology and biochemistry. Gary Golkiewicz, chief special master in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, said a ruling could be a year off.

Experts for the government will argue that epidemiological studies have found no link between vaccines and autism, as the prestigious Institute of Medicine concluded in a 2004 report.

Large international studies and preliminary evidence from the United States suggest that after thimerosal was removed from children's vaccines, autism rates continued to soar.

If thimerosal was the cause, removing it should have sharply lowered autism rates, scientists say. Although definitive national evidence is not in — children vaccinated after 1999 are just beginning to enter school, which is the point at which many receive a diagnosis — data from California suggest that autism rates are continuing to climb steeply.

The cases are rising, experts say, primarily because of better diagnosis and services: Parents and teachers are more attuned to the signs of autism, and doctors are better equipped to spot it than they were two decades ago. Also, the boundaries of the diagnosis have expanded to include a range of problems under an umbrella known as autism spectrum disorders.

The plaintiffs acknowledge that their case is far from airtight scientifically. But Kevin Conway, a Boston attorney representing the family of 12-year-old Michelle Cedillo of Yuma, Ariz. — whose claim was designated the opening test case for more than 4,800 plaintiffs — said that even if the science is equivocal, he has a good legal argument, which is all he needs.

"There is a difference between scientific proof and legal proof," Conway said. "One is 95 percent certainty, and the other is ... 50 percent and a feather."

Congress set up the vaccine court to provide compensation for individuals harmed by those side effects, because lawsuits were threatening to put vaccine makers out of business.

Conway said vaccines in general are a good thing. But Congress' efforts to shield makers from lawsuits over the rare but inevitable side effects have given the companies no incentive to make vaccines as safe as possible, he said.

source:seattletimes.nwsource.com

Genetic testing fights cancer before it strikes

2007-06-10T20:41:00.000-07:00

When her doctor first asked if she would consider DNA testing to see if she had a genetic abnormality, the woman from Maple Grove said: No way.

Michelle had just learned, at age 36, that she had breast cancer. And as a young mother, she couldn't handle any more bad news.

"I wanted nothing to do with it," she said. "I was just overwhelmed."

It took two years of chemotherapy, radiation and recovery before she was strong enough to seek out a genetic counselor and tell her: Now I'm ready.

It's estimated that 5 to 10 percent of breast cancer patients have a genetic mutation that will likely affect other members of the family. But finding and facing up to those genetic demons can be tricky.

Now, a team of specialists at North Memorial Medical Center in Robbinsdale is trying to make it a little easier.

Last year, the hospital launched a pilot project designed to seek out patients who may have inherited cancer and help them find answers.

Dr. Thomas Amatruda, who heads the genetic cancer program, said the project was prompted by concerns that they were missing an opportunity to help many high-risk families.

If doctors know that cancer runs in a family, they can have monitored its members more closely, and in some cases perform operations that reduce their risk.

"A lot of people who would benefit from testing don't get it," Amatruda said "This is life-saving information."

Genetic testing for breast cancer has been done since the early 1990s. But the North Memorial project was designed to reach out to women who may not have considered it before or realized the potential benefits of being tested.

Family reunion brings success

Last year, genetic counselors at North Memorial sent out surveys to more than 400 women who had breast cancer. Funded by $200,000 in grants from the Susan G. Komen Foundation, the survey asked about any known cancers in the family tree, along with other details such as age at diagnosis.

Essentially, they were looking for red flags, said Joy Larsen Haidle, a genetic counselor who headed the project. They included: breast cancer before age 50; three or more cases of breast cancer in the immediate family, or a pattern of breast and ovarian cancer.

The surveys, Haidle said, indicated that one in four of the women was at "high risk" for a genetic abnormality, though more testing would be needed to confirm each case.

Sometimes, the genetic link can seem painfully obvious.

Mary Malone of Blaine had no doubt that breast cancer ran in her family, even before her diagnosis at age 48.

"It's an understood thing. All of my mother's sisters died from it," said Malone, now 56. "It isn't if we get cancer, it's when."

Yet when she was first tested, there was no sign of a genetic mutation. Haidle, her genetic counselor, knew the test had to be wrong because the family history was too strong.

"We didn't believe the test result," she said. So they ordered more testing. Eventually, it took a family reunion -- where several dozen relatives agreed to have blood tests -- to find the culprit in the gene pool.

Scientists discovered a previously unknown mutation on a breast cancer gene in Malone's family.

Sorting out information

Many times, the family tie is harder to detect. The vast majority of breast cancer cases are not inherited, said Barb Kunz, another genetic counselor at North Memorial. And the clues, in a case like Michelle's, can be confusing.

Michelle, who asked to be identified only by her first name for privacy reasons, long suspected there was a cancer gene in the family. Her father's mother and sister both had breast cancer in their 50s or 60s, and she was worried enough to request a mammogram in her early 30s.

But a doctor told her -- incorrectly -- not to worry because it was on her father's side, she said.

She developed breast cancer at age 36. When she finally had a genetic test, she learned she carries a breast-cancer gene known as BRCA-2. She's now 40 and doing well, though she lives in fear of a recurrence.

It was Michelle's case that helped inspire the genetic counselors at North Memorial to launch the new project.

"Could we have given someone a warning sign before it happened?" Haidle said. "Could we prevent more cancers? That's when we started thinking about the [survey]."

Amatruda said many genetic programs are struggling to do the same thing: to find a relatively simple, standardized way to identify high-risk families.

They can't genetically test everyone, because the costs are so high (about $3,000) and the known mutations so rare, he said. So now, they hope to develop a computer program to identify high-risk patients.

Still, not everyone wants to know if they have a cancer gene, Haidle said. Some patients have ignored the letters telling them that they're at high risk. And that's their choice, she said.

"They might not be emotionally prepared," she said, or worried about getting life insurance. If that's the case, she added: "They shouldn't get the test done, because you can't unlearn it."

But Michelle has no regrets. "For my niece and my daughter, this is such a key piece of information," she said.

Malone agreed. In her family, women who have the mutation are taking extra precautions, such as frequent MRI exams. "It gives you power to take charge of your situation," she said.

And for those who don't have the mutation, Malone added, there's another benefit. "It provides a tremendous amount of relief."

source:www.startribune.com

WARNING SIGNS: WHEN A HEART ATTACK STRIKES

2007-06-10T20:40:00.000-07:00

Some heart attacks are sudden and intense — the "movie heart attack," where no one doubts what's happening. But most heart attacks start slowly, with mild pain or discomfort. Often people affected aren't sure what's wrong and wait too long before getting help. Here are signs that can mean a heart attack is happening:

# Chest discomfort. Most heart attacks involve discomfort in the center of the chest that lasts more than a few minutes, or that goes away and comes back. It can feel like uncomfortable pressure, squeezing, fullness or pain.

# Discomfort in other areas of the upper body. Symptoms can include pain or discomfort in one or both arms, the back, neck, jaw or stomach.

# Shortness of breath with or without chest discomfort.

# Other signs may include breaking out in a cold sweat, nausea or lightheadedness

Learn the signs, but remember this: Even if you're not sure it's a heart attack, have it checked out. Minutes matter! Fast action can save lives — maybe your own. Don't wait more than five minutes to call 911.

Calling 911 is almost always the fastest way to get lifesaving treatment. Emergency medical services staff can begin treatment when they arrive — up to an hour sooner than if someone gets to the hospital by car. The staff are also trained to revive someone whose heart has stopped. Patients with chest pain who arrive by ambulance usually receive faster treatment at the hospital, too.

If you can't access the emergency medical services, have someone drive you to the hospital right away. If you're the one having symptoms, don't drive yourself, unless you have absolutely no other option.

Cardiac arrest strikes immediately and without warning. Here are the signs:

Sudden loss of responsiveness (no response to tapping on shoulders). No normal breathing (the victim does not take a normal breath when you tilt the head up and check for at least five seconds).

If these signs of cardiac arrest are present, tell someone to call 911 and get an automated external defibrillator (if one is available) and you begin CPR immediately.

If you are alone with an adult who has these signs of cardiac arrest, call 911 and get an AED (if one is available) before you begin CPR.

source:www.thnt.com

Hospital Performance Not Improved By Extra Pay

2007-06-10T20:37:00.000-07:00

Paying hospitals extra money does not appear to significantly improve the way they treat heart attack patients or how well those patients do. But giving hospitals the information that they need to improve heart attack care does help.

A team of researchers led by the Duke Clinical Research Institute looked at whether financial incentives to hospitals for adhering to specific treatment guidelines would improve patient outcomes. They found no evidence that financial incentives were associated with improved outcomes, nor that hospitals had shifted their focus from other areas in order to concentrate on the areas being evaluated for possible increased payments.

These findings will add to the national debate over the use of "pay for performance" as a strategy for encouraging hospitals to use drugs and therapies that have been proven to save lives in large-scale clinical trials, the researchers said. The theory is that the possibility of receiving higher reimbursements will motivate hospitals to improve the quality of their care.

A study recently conducted by Premier, Inc., a group that represents hospitals participating in a large Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) pilot project of pay for performance, found that paying hospitals extra money for following specific guidelines led to better patient care and outcomes. However, that study did not include a group of hospitals not receiving incentives as a comparison. So the Duke team compared the CMS data with that of a registry of 105,383 patients treated for a heart attack at 500 hospitals involved in a national quality improvement effort.

"This is one of the first analyses of the impact of a pay for performance initiative on heart attack care," said Seth Glickman, M.D., M.B.A., first author of a paper appearing June 6, 2007, in the Journal of the American Medical Association. "We found that the pay-for-performance program was not associated with a significant incremental improvement in the quality of care or outcomes for patients with heart attacks beyond that seen with voluntary quality improvements."

"There are three important messages from this study," said cardiologist Eric Peterson, M.D., senior member of the research team. "On one hand, the data showed that care is improving overall in the United States, which is obviously good. However, we did not find that pay for performance alone will be the sole means of improving care. In fact, it all comes down to hard work by individual caregivers and institutions.

"Here, it appears that a voluntary effort to 'do good and improve care' was equally as powerful as the incentive for additional payment," Peterson said. "Finally, heart attack mortality declined significantly over time in pay-for-performance and non-pay-for-performance hospitals over time with better care processes. The bottom line is that patients win when health care providers are committed to improvement, no matter what the incentive is."

The researchers looked at how all hospitals performed in six measurements of quality: the use of aspirin and beta blockers both at arrival to the hospital and at discharge, smoking cessation counseling, and the use of angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors or angiotensin receptor blockers for weakened left pumping chambers. These measures were selected because clinical trials have proven that their use improves the outcomes for heart attack patients.

The monetary incentive for the CMS study was relatively small. Over a two-year period, a total of $17.55 million was paid to 123 hospitals the first year and to 115 hospitals the second year.

"Medicare's strategy of trying to use the payment system to improve performance of hospitals is certainly laudable," said Kevin Schulman, M.D., professor of medicine and business administration at Duke and study co-author. "However, we really need a robust research base to inform the design of the program and clearly we need to continuously monitor performance to ensure that we are achieving our clinical goals through these efforts."

Glickman noted that "additional studies are underway to identify hospital policies and organizational characteristics that are associated with a higher standard of care in order to develop more effective incentive based strategies."

The team plans to organize a larger effort involving the major cardiology associations.

"We've partnered with the cardiovascular professional societies to have an ongoing national heart attack quality improvement initiative known as ACTION," Peterson said. "No matter what incentive will ultimately be the driving force, ACTION will give hospitals and health care providers the tools and data they need to improve."

source:www.medicalnewstoday.com

Charleston prosecutor Hoisington dies after cancer battle

2007-06-10T20:35:00.000-07:00

Ralph Hoisington, solicitor for Charleston and Berkeley counties, died Saturday night after a battle with pancreatic cancer, said Bobbi Jo O'Neal, a deputy coroner for Charleston County. Hoisington was 59.

After he was diagnosed with cancer last year, Hoisington had remained optimistic about his chances for recovery and continued to advise on cases deep into the final stages of his illness, his friends say.

"Ralph has always been a champion for the victim in the courtroom," Charleston attorney Bart Daniel, a close friend for decades, told The (Charleston) Post & Courier for a story on its Web site Sunday.

Under state law, Gov. Mark Sanford will name a temporary successor, a nomination that will be subject to confirmation by the state Senate.

Hoisington's seat is up for election in 2008.

In 2000, Hoisington was elected as solicitor for South Carolina's ninth judicial circuit, defeating openly gay incumbent David Schwacke in the Republican primary and Democrat Bill Runyon in the general election.

As a young man, a career in law seemed far from likely for Hoisington, who worked as a construction crewman, machinery operator and movie extra _ even appearing in a parade scene of the film "Hello Dolly."

His biography on the solicitor's office Web site says Hoisington had previously worked in private practice, also serving as a deputy solicitor, an assistant U.S. attorney and as a municipal judge. He served a brief stint in the Army before graduating from the College of Charleston in 1977 and the University of South Carolina School of Law in 1980.

In a 2002 interview, Hoisington told The Post & Courier that, while he felt no compunction against seeking the death penalty, witnessing an execution brought home the realization that life is precious and uncertain.

"That sort of knowledge makes you a better prosecutor," he said.

Last year, Hoisington gave notice that he would seek the death penalty against a man charged with torturing another man to death. It will be Charleston's first death penalty case in five years.

Visitation for Hoisington is scheduled to be held from 5-7 p.m. at the Charleston County Courthouse. A funeral is scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday on the campus of The Citadel.

Hoisington leaves behind a wife, Michelle, and two sons, Tanner and Walker.

source:www.thetandd.com

Male Cancer Awareness

2007-06-10T20:33:00.000-07:00

WELSH cancer charity Tenovus is to launch a Male Cancer Awareness campaign to coincide with Fathers’ Day next Sunday.

Tenovus is asking all men to take time to focus on their health on the one day in the year that celebrates fatherhood.

The charity says most men ignore early symptoms of illness, delaying the visit to the doctor that could save their lives.

Half of all cancers in men happen under the age of 65. Lung, prostate and colorectal cancers are the most common male cancers.

In 2005, there were 19,457 male deaths from lung cancer in the UK. Prostate cancer was the second most common cause of cancer death in men, accounting for 13% of the male deaths, while colorectal cancer caused 8,637 deaths, which equates to 11% of all male cancer mortality.

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In 2003 men in Wales were diagnosed with 1,283 lung cancers, 2,002 prostate cancers and 1,130 bowel cancers. It is thought that these figures will rise every year.

By 2020, one in every two men is expected to be diagnosed with cancer at some point in their lives.

Simon Morgan-Jones, Tenovus oncology nurse specialist and education officer, said, “100,000 men could reduce their risk of cancer each year if they simply change their lifestyle, eating habits, alcoholic intake, stop smoking and take regular exercise. Many men ignore the early signs of the disease and often delay a trip to their doctor.

“Less than one in 20 men check their testicles for lumps, yet over 1,500 men in the UK develop testicular cancer every year. Improved self-awareness could mean cancer can be found early and cured more easily.”

A shocking 80% of men don’t know where their prostate gland is, but 32,000 cases of prostate cancer are diagnosed in the UK every year.

“Make an appointment with your doctor if you have any concerns and don’t sit on a heath problem, it could cost you your life, and your children their father,” said Tenovus.

source:icwales.icnetwork.co.uk

Prostate Cancer Treatment Can Speed Heart Attacks

2007-06-10T20:27:00.000-07:00

The male hormone-suppressing treatment used against aggressive prostate cancer may help bring on earlier heart attacks in older men, new research suggests.

"The new finding is that in men who have risk factors for heart attack, even six months of androgen-suppression therapy [and] maybe as little as three months, can cause a heart attack to occur sooner by about 2.5 years," said lead researcher Dr. Anthony D’Amico, chief of genitourinary radiation oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

That finding, which comes from analysis of pooled data of studies in the United States, Australia and New Zealand, does not mean that such men should not be treated to suppress the activity of androgens -- male sex hormones that spur the growth of prostate cancer cells, D’Amico said.

Instead, "the implication is that a man who needs hormonal therapy to avoid dying from cancer but also has risk factors for heart attack should be sent to a cardiologist for assessment and possible treatment of heart disease before starting hormonal therapy," he said.

"We’re doing that," D’Amico said. He noted that, "of about 50 men we referred in the last six months, five or six had significant coronary artery disease. They have had it treated and have gone through hormonal therapy without being affected."

Androgen suppression therapy (AST), as it is formally called, is reserved for men whose cancer is believed to have spread beyond the prostate or who have an aggressive form that is believed to have spread -- something that occurs in perhaps 40 percent of cases, D’Amico said. "You give these drugs to starve the prostate cancer, and it dies," he said.

Other side effects of AST are well-known. It can cause anemia, increase body fat, reduce muscle and cause an increase in harmful LDL ("bad") cholesterol and a decrease in helpful HDL ("good") cholesterol. But AST is also widely used, because it extends prostate cancer survival.

The new information on the treatment’s adverse cardiac effects comes from analysis of data from 1,372 men who received radiation treatment plus AST in three randomized trials and who were followed for at least five years.

A faster onset of heart attacks was observed in men over 65 who got AST for six months, the researchers found.

"This is one more reason to be careful when you recommend hormone therapy," said Dr. Eric M. Horwitz, clinical director of radiation oncology at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia. "They do have cardiac side effects."

But AST will continue to be used in many cases, he added. "There is clearly a group of men where the benefits outweigh the risks," he said. "This study shows that you have to weigh the pros and cons of the treatment, who gets benefits and who doesn’t."

Men who benefit most are those with "aggressive, bulky prostate cancers," according to Horwitz. "The benefits for them still outweigh the risk in terms of trying to cure the cancer. For men with less aggressive, less bulky cancers, you have to weigh the benefits versus the risks."

Other efforts to get the best effect from AST while minimizing the damage are under way, D’Amico said. One method under study is to stop the treatment now and then. "For advanced prostate cancer, we don’t expect to keep the treatment going forever," he said. "You can make it intermittent to get the same survival with less toxicity -- six months on and six months off," he said.

Also, some studies indicate that a shorter course of AST can be effective with fewer side effects -- at least for some patients, D’Amico said. "We need to be better at selecting men for therapy and directing its course," he said.

source:www.onlinenews.com.pk

Vitamin D can cut cancer risk

2007-06-10T20:26:00.000-07:00

Boosting vitamin D intake can dramatically reduce the risk of breast and other cancers, a new study has found, according to the HealthDay News.

The latest research adds to growing evidence that vitamin D can help protect against several forms of cancer as well as other diseases, Creighton University researchers said. However, an American Cancer Society spokeswoman has urged caution in interpreting the findings, saying it is premature to recommend that vitamins can reduce cancer risk.

Joan Lappe, a Creighton University professor of medicine and nursing and lead author of the study, said, “What we can say from our study is that 1,100 international units (IUs) a day of vitamin D definitely decreased the incidence of cancer.” The amount of the vitamin is nearly triple the recommended intake for the age group studied women 55 or older when the four-year study started. The study followed 1,179 postmenopausal candidates living in rural Nebraska. The women were free of cancers and were assigned into one of three groups. One group took 1,400 to 1,500 milligrams of supplementary calcium a day, another took the same amount of calcium plus 1,100 IUs of vitamin D daily and the third took placebo pills every day. After four years, women in the combination of vitamin D and calcium group showed a 60 percent lower risk of developing cancer compared to the placebo group. The calcium-only group had a 47 percent reduced risk. The researchers then ignored the first year’s data, assuming that some women may have entered the study with undiagnosed cancer. The results were more dramatic, Lappe said.

The last three years of the trial showed that, compared to the placebo group, the combination calcium-and-vitamin D group had a 77 percent reduced risk of cancers. The risk for the calcium-only group was essentially unchanged. The findings are published in the June edition of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

In May, Harvard Medical School researchers reported in the Archives of Internal Medicine that high intake of vitamin D and calcium cut the risk of breast cancer by nearly one-third in premenopausal women, but not in postmenopausal women. Dr Michael Holick, professor of medicine, physiology and biophysics at the Boston University School of Medicine, said the Lappe study adds to growing evidence of the health and disease-fighting effects of vitamin D. “It’s very clear the data are significant,” he said.

Vitamin D is thought to act through the immune system to help prevent the formation of abnormal cells, Lappe said. She and Holick said vitamin D has also been found to reduce the risk of Type-I diabetes, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and high blood pressure.

Both researchers think the current recommendations for daily vitamin D intake should be boosted. But Marji McCullough, strategic director of nutritional epidemiology for the American Cancer Society, said in a prepared statement that the society doesn’t currently recommend taking vitamin or mineral supplements to reduce cancer risk. She said it was, however, weighing the evidence. She said the Institute of medicine had declared 2,000 IUs as the upper tolerable, or safe, level for most people.

Vitamin D, which is important for strong bones, is found in salmon and other fish, and fortified milk and fortified cereals, among other foods. daily times monitor.

source:www.dailytimes.com.pk

Diet, exercise key in cancer fight

2007-06-10T20:24:00.000-07:00

Breast cancer survivors who eat a healthy diet and take exercise can slash their risk of dying from the disease by half, a new study suggests.

The research is the first to look at the impact of both diet and physical activity on breast cancer survival.

It found that healthy living reduced the chances of dying from breast cancer even if a woman was obese.

US scientists from the University of California at San Diego (UCSD) studied 1,490 women aged 70 and younger with an average age of 50.

The women, who had all undergone primary therapy for early-stage breast cancer, were taking part in the Women’s Health Eating and Living (Whel) study looking at the effects of lifestyle on health.

The researchers found that women who were both physically active and had a healthy diet were much more likely to survive for between five and 11 years than the rest of the group.

Their death rate was 7% - about half that seen for the other women taking part in the study.

Dr John Pierce, from the Moores Cancer Centre at UCSD, said: "We demonstrate in this study of breast cancer survivors that even if a woman is overweight, if she eats at least five servings of vegetables and fruits a day and walks briskly for 30 minutes, six days a week, her risk of death from her disease goes down by 50%. The key is that you must do both."

The findings are published in the latest issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Because of the strength of the findings, the scientists now want to see if taking steps to change diet and physical activity affects breast cancer survival.

source:www.onlinenews.com.pk

Cancer patients face risk in funding row

2007-06-10T20:23:00.000-07:00

Cancer patients from the Nelson region who need radiation treatment risk being caught up in a funding row between the Ministry of Health and district health boards.

Cancer Society Wellington manager Roger Taylor said hundreds of cancer patients from the greater Wellington region faced delays in vital treatment while the organisations dragged their heels over installing a third radiation machine at Wellington Hospital.

Mr Taylor said approval to buy the machine was given by the Health Ministry earlier this year, nine years after the need was first established.

But the equipment cannot be installed until an agreement is reached between the Ministry of Health and the health boards over who will pay the millions of dollars needed for the increased number of patients using the machine, he said.

It was hard to know how many people from the Nelson region would be affected. Waiting lists would increase without the machine, he said.

Nelson Cancer Society manager Kelly Atkinson said between 10 and 20 residents from the Nelson region went to Wellington for radiation treatment each year.

The majority of cancer patients from the region needing radiation treatment sought it in Christchurch, she said.

More Blenheim residents went to Wellington than those from the Nelson area.

source:www.stuff.co.nz

New tests may help predict Alzheimer's: conference

2007-06-10T20:18:00.000-07:00

New tests involving blood and brain scans can detect symptoms of Alzheimer's disease, and brief appraisals of real-life functioning can predict who is likely to develop it, researchers said on Sunday.

The tests will be critical, experts told a meeting on Alzheimer's disease, because more than 26 million people now have the brain-wasting disease and this number will quadruple, to 106 million, by 2050.

"By 2050, 1 in 85 persons worldwide will have Alzheimer's disease," said Ron Brookmeyer of Johns Hopkins University, who led the study on how many people have the disease.

No drugs can significantly affect Alzheimer's disease, although four have a very modest impact if given early on.

The disease is very difficult to detect until it has progressed from mild memory loss to clear impairment. Patients eventually lose all ability to care for themselves.

Detecting the disease early can help patients and their families plan better for the future but can also help researchers develop drugs to treat and perhaps even prevent the disease.

Anders Lonneborg and colleagues of DiaGenic, a biotech company based in Oslo, Norway, found a set of 96 genes that look different in the blood of Alzheimer's patients when compared to the same genes in healthy people.

Their study of more than 100 older people, half from memory clinics and half from senior centers, found Alzheimer's accurately 85 percent of the time.

They identified genes related to the immune system, to inflammation and to cell division. The company has applied to regulators in the United States and Europe to approve the test, Lonneborg told a meeting of the Alzheimer's Association in Washington.

BRAIN SCANS

Christos Davatzikos and colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania used a combination of PET and MRI scans to diagnose Alzheimer's.

Positron emission tomography or PET scans can be used to measure blood flow in the brain in real time, while magnetic resonance imaging or MRI can clearly show the shape and size of physical structures in the brain.

This method correctly found all 15 cases of mild cognitive impairment -- a first step towards Alzheimer's -- and cleared 15 healthy volunteers.

"This abnormal pattern of brain structure and blood flow detected not only mild cognitive impairment but even earlier ... when they were clinically normal," Davatzikos told the news conference.

Deborah Barnes and colleagues at the University of California San Francisco developed a more low-tech approach that might be used by a family doctor.

Their study followed 3,300 elderly people for six years to see what factors best predicted who would begin to develop Alzheimer's.

A combination of a few simple measures worked best. They included greater age, scores on a simplified version of a standard cognitive exam, the time it took to button a shirt and the time needed to walk 15 feet, being underweight, and not drinking any alcohol at all.

Another study underscored the value of watching someone's weight. Dr James Mortimer of the University of South Florida in Tampa and colleagues have been studying 678 Catholic nuns who have agreed to be studied through their lives and who have donated their brains for research after death.

The nuns who suddenly lost weight were far more likely to develop Alzheimer's. In fact, even nuns who were never diagnosed with Alzheimer's were found to have the disease in their brains after they died, Mortimer said.

"Unexplained weight loss in non-demented older people may be a very useful early symptom of disease," Mortimer said.

source:www.uk.reuters.com

Cancer Benefit From Vitamin D?

2007-06-10T20:13:00.000-07:00

A study released today concludes that increased vitamin D intake reduces the risk of developing cancer.

The findings are the latest in a growing body of evidence suggesting that current dietary guidelines for vitamin D may be too low.

But experts, including the study’s author, caution that the research should be viewed as preliminary and should not be taken as a reason to drastically increase vitamin D use with supplements in an effort to prevent cancer.

“It adds support to the really convincing evidence out there that we need to raise recommendations for vitamin D,” says Joan M. Lappe, PhD, the study’s main author. But she also stressed that the study was limited to healthy, postmenopausal white women and that the cancer findings could not be applied to other groups.

“More studies need to be done,” says Lappe, a professor of nursing and medicine at Creighton University in Omaha, Neb.
Cancer Risk Reduction

The study included findings from 1,024 women (average age 66 at the start) from Nebraska. Women in the four-year study took 1,500 milligrams of calcium supplementation either alone or with 1,100 International Units (IU) of vitamin D each day. A third group of women took placebo pills as a control.

At the end of the study, 50 women had developed non-skin cancers.

Researchers said Friday that women who took both supplements wound up with nearly 60% less risk of cancers at the end of the study compared with women who took placebo. Women who took calcium alone saw their cancer risk cut by nearly half when compared with placebo, though the result could have been due to chance.

The positive results were confined to cancer generally, the researchers found. No single malignancy -- including breast, colon, or lung cancer -- was significantly reduced in women who took supplements.

The study was designed primarily to detect vitamin D’s impact on bone health, not cancer. Lappe says more studies should be performed looking primarily at cancer in a broader range of patients, including men and minorities.

Current U.S. dietary guidelines recommend individuals under 50 get 200 IU of vitamin D per day, with double that amount recommended for adults 51 to 70.

Most vitamin D is manufactured naturally by the body through exposure to sunlight. Fatty fish and fortified milk and cereals contain moderate levels.
Supplements Not Recommended

Several experts warned against consumers increasing their use of vitamin D supplements based on the study results.

“The American Cancer Society is not recommending that individuals routinely increase their vitamin D intake based on this report,” Len Lichtenfeld, MD, the group’s deputy chief medical officer, says in a statement.

“Past experience has shown that, despite studies that suggest a particular vitamin or drug may be effective in reducing cancer risk, once that theory is subjected to a well-designed clinical trial the results frequently do not hold up,” he says.

David Grotto, a spokesman for the American Dietetic Association, says the study was “not a slam dunk” supporting vitamin D’s potential to prevent cancer.

“It does raise this as an issue to look at more intensely,” he says.

According to the Institute of Medicine's Food and Nutrition Board, the tolerable upper level of vitamin D intake is 2,000 IU in adults 19 and older. Risks of vitamin D toxicity include weakness, nausea, poor appetite, and weight loss. Sun exposure and diet are unlikely causes of vitamin D toxicity.

“People need to have a health professional guide them if they have any interest in this and certainly not self-medicate,” Grotto says.

www.webmd.com

Alta. surgeons complete 18 transplants in 56 hrs

2007-06-07T10:50:00.000-07:00

The University of Alberta Hospital in Edmonton has set a record. In just 56 hours, surgeons performed 18 transplants on 15 patients.

The complex and delicate operations were undertaken by a large team of health-care professionals at between May 9 and 11.

In all, there were two combination heart and double lung transplants, two double lung transplants, two heart transplants, three liver transplants, five kidney transplants and one combination kidney-pancreas transplant.

In two and a half days, the hospital completed as many transplants as it normally completes in a month.

"The thing that's amazing is the fact that we put all the teams together and actually handle that volume in such a short period," surgeon Dr. John Mullen said Wednesday.

It was all due to an unusual supply of donor organs that became available.

"This was an exceptional few days," said Karen Olivier of the Human Organ Procurement and Exchange program." I sincerely hope this celebratory day reminds people to sign their donor cards and discuss their wishes with their family.''

The patients who received the new organs hail from communities in British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan, and all continue to recover.

One of them is John Kaminsky. The 60-year-old was diagnosed with a potentially fatal lung condition called pulmonary fibrosis. To add to his failing health, shortly after his diagnosis, he had a heart attack. The Vancouver lawyer was told he needed a heart and double lung transplant. One month ago, he got a lifesaving phone call.

"It was incredible," he told reporters. "Just an overwhelming sensation of... basically be were brought to tears because finally I had something to look forward to."

His wife, Barbara Kaminsky, thought she only had a bit of time left with her husband. Now, she says he's looking better than ever.

"He looks almost like the man I married 35 years ago. And now we have a new chapter of our life to look forward to, a chapter we thought maybe we wouldn't have together."

Dr. Norm Kneteman, spokesman for the transplant program, credits teamwork and careful planning for what some are calling a record-breaking achievement.

"These days tested the skill and stamina of many, many people, both inside the operating rooms and beyond,'' Kneteman said.

"Our team rose to the biggest challenge in our history. Hundreds of people worked to make this possible. As a result, 15 people have a new lease on life.''

Kaminsky says a month after his transplant operation, he is feeling strong and can't wait to go home.

"I will take care of this gift -- my new lease on life,'' he said.

source:www.ctv.ca

New hope for colon cancer with liver tumors

2007-06-07T10:44:00.000-07:00

Scientists reported promising gains Monday for treating colorectal cancer that has spread to the liver, showing that chemotherapy before and after surgery to remove liver tumors can help keep the disease in check.

The study is the first to scientifically test an approach that many doctors have tried for patients with advanced colon and rectal cancers.

"It justifies what some of us have already been doing" and shows that aggressively treating patients with limited spread of colorectal cancer is reasonable, said Dr. Jeffrey Meyerhardt, a cancer specialist at Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.

About 1 million people worldwide develop colorectal cancer each year, including more than 150,000 in the United States, where it is the third most common major cancer. In up to half of all patients, the disease spreads after initial treatment to the liver. For many cancers, spread to the liver means the disease has also spread elsewhere, is incurable and surgery isn't an option.

But with colorectal cancer, sometimes the disease spreads only to the liver, and surgery to remove these growths increasingly is being attempted, said Dr. Neal Meropol, director of the gastrointestinal cancer program at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia. Even so, recurrence is common, and only about 30 percent of patients who have this surgery survive five years.

In the new study, 42 percent of patients who got chemotherapy before and after the liver surgery had no recurrence after an average of four years, vs. 33 percent of patients who had surgery alone.

The good results mean the approach could become standard treatment for these patients, said Dr. Bernard Nordlinger, the lead author and a cancer specialist at Ambroise Pare Hospital in Paris.

Nordlinger presented the results in Chicago at the American Society of Clinical Oncology's annual meeting.

A separate colorectal cancer study presented Monday showed the targeted cancer drug Erbitux can modestly improve survival when added to standard chemotherapy in patients whose disease has spread. Patients who got Imclone Systems Inc.'s drug survived an average of 8.9 months without disease progression vs. eight months for those who got chemotherapy alone.

"Although we would all love to have huge breakthroughs that would revolutionize cancer treatment, those are few and far between," said Northwestern University's Dr. Al Benson III. Instead, cancer treatment advances typically come in smaller but important steps like the colorectal cancer studies presented Monday, which over time lead to real progress, Benson said.

The chemotherapy-plus-surgery study involved 151 patients who had both treatments and 152 who had surgery alone.

Complications, including diarrhea and reduced amounts of disease-fighting white blood cells, were more common in chemotherapy patients but were still within an acceptable range, Nordlinger said.

A separate study presented Monday involved primary liver cancer — disease that originates in the liver rather than spreads there. Researchers said they have found the first drug that improves survival for liver cancer patients — a breakthrough that likely will become standard treatment.

Those results occurred in patients with advanced liver cancer treated with the drug sorafenib, or Nexavar, which is marketed by Bayer Pharmaceuticals Corp. and Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc. to treat advanced kidney cancer.

The companies are expected to seek U.S. approval this summer for treating liver cancer with the drug.

source:www.montereyherald.com

Sorafenib Superior to Placebo in Overall Survival for Primary Liver Cancer Patients: Presented at ASCO

2007-06-07T10:40:00.000-07:00

The multi-kinase inhibitor sorafenib (Nexavar) is superior to placebo in overall survival among patients with primary liver disease, researcher reported here at the 43rd American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting (ASCO).

"After 30 years and 100 failed clinical trails, we now have something that works in these patients," said Joseph Llovet, MD, director of research, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, New York, United States. "This is the first time we've had an effective systemic treatment for liver cancer."

Dr. Llovet said that when compared with placebo, patients who received sorafenib tablets lived an average of 10.7 months compared with 7.9 months for patients on placebo. Although modest, the 2.8 survival advantage for sorafenib was highly significant (P =.00058), he said.

He presenting the findings from the Sorafenib Hepatocellular Carcinoma Assessment Randomized Protocol (SHARP) trial a late breaking study on June 4th.

Sorafenib, an oral tablet, is approved in the United States for treatment of kidney cancer, and is being tested in patients with other cancers as well.

About 19,000 people in the United States contract liver cancer each year and more than 16,000 people die of the disease each year, according to statistics from the American Cancer Society.

"This really is a big deal," said A. William Blackstock, MD, professor of radiation oncology, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States, who moderated a press briefing on the results of the trial.

"We really don't have anything to treat advanced liver cancer, and 40% of patients in the United States with liver cancer are diagnosed in an advanced state," Dr. Blackstock said. "This will give us a platform upon which we can perform clinical trials."

He said that conducting a placebo-controlled study would be nearly impossible in the United States because most patients would refuse to enter a trial in which one arm would contain sham medication.

With the ability to offer a medicine that can extend survival as a comparator drug, new medications can be tested against sorafenib and could lead to further improvements in survival.

"Because there are no therapies that significantly improve survival for the thousands of patients with liver cancer, these findings demonstrate the compelling study results of Nexavar as the new reference standard of care for the first-line treatment of hepatocellular cancer," Dr. Llovet said.

In their study, Dr. Llovet and colleagues recruited 602 patients -- 299 patients received 400 mg of sorafenib and 303 patients received placebo. The trial was truncated because early review indicated that patients were doing better with sorafenib than with placebo.

Len Lichtenfeld, deputy chief medical officer for the American Cancer Society, commented, "We are looking at a true increment in survival."

"While primary liver cancer is not a huge disease concern in the United States, it is a serious problem worldwide. In the United States, its incidence is increasing," he added.

One of the advantages of sorafenib in the treatment of liver cancer is that the drug does not appear to cause a lot of toxicity, Dr. Lichtenfeld said. "In the study, the toxicity was similar to that of placebo," he noted.

Dr. Blackstock said he expects doctors who have patients with liver cancer to start using the drug as soon as possible. The question of whether the drug will be reimbursed by third party payers is in the air. He said the drug costs $5,000 a month.

source:www.docguide.com

Cancer Drug Beats Memory Problems too

2007-06-07T10:37:00.000-07:00

A drug that's showing promise against cancer might also play a role in treating people with Alzheimer's disease and other memory-robbing conditions.

It turns out the medication -- known as an HDAC inhibitor -- not only targets cancer, but relaxes a protein complex called chromatin that's responsible for compressing DNA in the brain. When chromatin loosens, DNA uncoils, opening the door to memory formation.

Studies have shown a protein called CBP causes chromatin to loosen its grip on DNA, while enzymes known as HDACs cause it to tighten back up. HCAC inhibitors work by preventing HDACs from causing that tightening effect.

The current study tested the ability of HDAC inhibitors to improve memory in mice. First researchers put the mice in a chamber and gave them a mild electric shock. Then they injected them with HDAC inhibitors and repeated the test the next day. Mice injected with the inhibitors froze in place longer at the location where they had received the first shock, illustrating they remembered it from the previous experience.

Further analysis showed mice treated with the inhibitors had stronger neural connections in the brain as well.

The investigators note HDAC inhibitors only work when CBP is present. Mice genetically engineered not to have CBP were not affected by the inhibitors. Since people with memory-robbing conditions often suffer from blocked CBP, their hope is HDAC inhibitors might unblock the protein, thus allowing for better neural functioning and improved memories.

source:www.wlns.com

Folic Acid May Increase Colon Cancer Risk

2007-06-07T10:30:00.000-07:00

It was thought that folic acid could help prevent colon cancer polyps, but a new study finds high doses of the supplement may increase risk in people prone to colon cancer. Researchers speculate that some folic acid helps as long as the colon is free of tiny cancer cells. Once cancer starts, folic acid may actually spur its growth.

source:www.wlns.com

FDA asks for warning on diabetes drugs

2007-06-07T10:28:00.000-07:00

The Food and Drug Administration has called for the clearest safety warning on two diabetes drugs, Avandia and Actos, whose health risks have become a focus of congressional concern.

The decision, disclosed Wednesday by the agency's commissioner at a packed House of Representatives hearing, comes more than a year after the agency's safety reviewers strongly recommended such a step. And it occurs amid a congressional investigation into why the agency delayed its warnings about Avandia for years.

In a written statement, Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach said the agency has asked the makers of Actos and Avandia to carry the more prominent warning, a so-called black box warning, of its heart risks because "despite existing warnings, these drugs were being prescribed to patients with significant heart failure."

The statement said the agency requested the label changes May 23, which was two days after a medical journal article and editorial about Avandia's potential heart risks set off the current controversy. Word of the label changes, however, had not been made public before Wednesday.

Dr. Rosemary Johann-Liang, a drug safety supervisor for the agency, had said in an interview this week that she was reprimanded last year for advocating the very label change that von Eschenbach said the agency was now asking the drug companies to make. Avandia, a treatment for Type 2 diabetes made by GlaxoSmithKline, has been the focus of most of the recent safety concerns, based on evidence that it can potentially cause heart attacks or other cardiovascular problems. But its closest competitor, Actos, a drug from Takeda Pharmaceuticals and Eli Lilly & Company, has also been seen as carrying some risk of problems, including heart failure.

The makers of both drugs said they were discussing the new warnings about heart failure with the agency. "This is generally a process that takes weeks to months," said Dr. Robert Spanheimer, a senior medical director at Takeda.

Democrats on the House panel voiced harsh criticism of the drug agency and von Eschenbach, whom the Bush administration named commissioner in September 2005.

Representative Henry Waxman, a California Democrat who is chairman of the panel, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said the agency had "dropped the ball" in its oversight of Avandia's safety.

"Avandia is a case study of the need for reform of our drug safety laws," Waxman said. The agency "needs the will, the resources and the authority to be a more effective watchdog of drug safety."

Democrats asked von Eschenbach if he believed his agency needed more authority from Congress to require drug makers to perform safety studies or correct drug advertisements. Von Eschenbach said his agency required more money, not authority. He characterized as "more destructive than constructive" the proposals by some congressional critics to separate the agency's drug approval and drug safety functions.

Some Republicans on the committee criticized Democrats on the panel for making too much of uncertain information about Avandia, a popular diabetes pill that has been taken by an estimated seven million people worldwide.

Representative Virginia Foxx, Republican of North Carolina, said she was concerned that those studying the drug had spoken to Democrats on the committee but not to anyone at the drug agency.

"I'd like members of the press to investigate what members of Congress knew about this" and whether those members joined some agency staff members and others "to create maximum embarrassment to the agency," Foxx said.

Representative Darrell Issa, Republican of California, said the committee was coming dangerously close to "politicizing science." And he closely questioned Dr. Steven Nissen, a cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic whose May 21 article in The New England Journal of Medicine questioned the safety of Avandia.

"This does look like in fact that this was a political concoction to anecdotally go after a company, and I object to it," Issa said.

Dr. John Buse, an endocrinologist at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine and the incoming president of the American Diabetes Association, said that when he spoke publicly in 1999 about his fears that Avandia might increase heart risks, he was threatened in phone calls from the drug maker.

"During those calls, it was mentioned on two occasions that there were some in the company who felt that my actions were scurrilous enough to attempt to hold me liable for a loss in market capitalization" of $4 billion, Buse said. "I was characterized as a liar."

source:www.iht.com

cientists Make Stem Cells From Skin Of Mice Instead Of Embryos

2007-06-07T10:24:00.000-07:00

Three separate groups of scientists working in Japan and the US have used skin cells from adult mice to make cells that are inidistinguishable from embryonic stem cells. Scientists all over the world are now racing to replicate the remarkably simple method in humans, and if successful it could one day lessen or remove the need to use embryos.

The three studies are published in the early online edition of the journal Nature.

Embryonic stem cells are cells that can renew themselves indefinitely and can differentiate into any cell of the body. They have the potential to replace damaged tissue such as that found in degenerative diseases like Parkinson's but their therapeutic use is controversial because of the ethical questions surrounding the destruction of embryos and making human clones.

As well as posing ethical difficulties, harvesting stem cells from embryos for therapeutic use would be expensive and difficult. The genetic material from unfertilized eggs has to be replaced with that from a cell of the patient. After that several stages of division are necessary before the stem cells are ready to be harvested.

This latest method bypasses a lot of these difficulties.

Last year, a team of scientists from Kyoto University in Japan, led by Shinya Yamanaka, pioneered a method that uses mouse skin fibroblasts instead of eggs. Fibroblasts are a little bit like stem cells in that they synthesize a range of materials that make the "scaffolding" or stroma that connect cells together. They are the most common cell in connective tissue.

Yamanaka and colleagues used retroviruses to insert four transcriptor genes into fibroblast cells harvested from the skin of adult mice. The genes code for a range of transcription factor proteins that control the expression of other genes. Giving the fibroblast cells this power essentially makes them into "master" cells, like embryonic stem cells; they acquire the potential to become any cell.

"It's easy. There's no trick, no magic," said Yamanaka.

"Neither eggs nor embryos are necessary. I've never worked with either," he added.

Other scientists are excited by the ease of the process and have plans to start using it straight away. For example, Alan Trounson of Monash University in Victoria, Australia said he could think of a dozen experiments he could start working on immediately. "It would change the way we see things quite dramatically," he said.

There were problems with the first generation of cells that Yamanaka produced. They were almost but not quite like embryonic stem cells. They could do things like propagate indefinitely, make colonies and form the characteristic cancerous growths called teratomas, but they couldn't do other things that embryonic stem cells do, like make a chimeric mouse carrying DNA from the embryo and the new cells. Scientists were not happy then with the claim that these cells were truly "pluripotent" with all the potency of embryonic stem cells.

The latest research by Yamanaka and colleagues uses a second generation of modified fibroblast cells which do perform like embryonic stem cells. And two other teams, one based at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and another collaboration between the Harvard Stem Cell Institute and the University of California, Los Angeles have also used the same four genes with similar results.

Yamanaka said he was relieved that others had managed to replicate their work, especially after the discovery that Woo Suk Hwang's cloning method was found out to be a fraud.

Yamanaka and colleagues improved on their previous method by making it easier to isolate the cells in which the reprogramming had been successful. Before, they had used protein markers that couldn't identify the successful cells, but this time they and the other two groups of scientists, used protein markers Nanog and Oct4, with much better results. All three teams were able to produce chimeric mice which also produced offspring with the new DNA.

The work has been described by other scientists as "unbelievable", and an accomplishment that is akin to Dolly the sheep.

While the method in theory is relatively simple compared to human cloning from eggs, it has not yet been developed for use with human cells. Yamanaka thinks it will probably need more transcription factors than the four they used in the mice.

While the scramble to replicate and build on this method in the laboratory has seized the mind of scientists all over the world, even if proved in humans there remain numerous challenges before it could be used therapeutically. For instance, one of the side effects is that the method could trigger cancer, as it did in some of the chimeric mice. Also, the method uses retroviruses.

Research using embryonic stem cells is likely to remain essential and continue for some time to come because of these safety considerations.

source:www.medicalnewstoday.com

Genes guide cancer treatment

2007-06-06T11:57:00.000-07:00

CANCER is the disease for which scientists are furthest advanced in defining novel drugs to exploit genetic variations between individuals.

The breast cancer drug Herceptin works only in women whose tumour over-expresses a protein called HER2, which is controlled by a common genetic mutation.

The drug, which targets the rogue protein, was first shown to improve survival - by as much as several months - in women whose cancer was otherwise considered terminal. Its use is now being expanded to women in earlier stages of the disease, with results showing it can slow tumour growth or in some cases even shrink cancers.

Because cancer is so common, and because it remains fatal for a significant proportion of people, there is always a pool of patients for whom an experimental treatment is their only hope, and whose treatment with such unproven drugs raises few ethical dilemmas.

The Australian company ChemGenex last week detailed preliminary results for its new cancer drug, Quinamed. In a 50-person trial patients with metastatic cancer were shown to require different doses of the drug, according to variations in the NAT2 gene. NAT2 controls a liver enzyme that influences metabolic speed.

The results, presented at an American Society for Clinical Oncology meeting in Chicago, mean it should be possible to treat patients without risking severe side effects, says Greg Collier, the company's chief executive and managing director.

But although genetic status might be increasingly helpful in guiding treatment protocols, cancer scientists are still a long way from being able to use genetics to pinpoint who will develop the disease.

Particular gene mutations are implicated in a minority of inherited breast cancers and in a form of bowel cancer that runs in families. But many other cases are thought to be linked to gene variations that have a much smaller but incremental effect on cancer risk.

An international study, published last week in Nature, identifies four new breast cancer genes - the biggest genetic discovery in the high-profile disease for more than a decade. But together the genes accounted for an increase in disease risk of only 3.6 per cent.

source:www.smh.com.au

Liver Cancer Breakthrough Found

2007-06-06T11:55:00.000-07:00

For the first time, doctors said Monday they have found a pill that improves survival for people with liver cancer, a notoriously hard to treat disease diagnosed in more than half a million people globally each year.

The results in a multinational study of 602 patients with advanced liver cancer are impressive and likely will change the way patients are treated, say cancer specialists, including the study authors.

Patients got either two tablets daily of a drug called sorafenib or dummy pills in the study, which started in March 2005. Some patients are still alive, although on average, sorafenib patients survived 10.7 months versus almost 8 months for those on dummy pills.

That type of survival advantage "has never happened" with liver cancer "and is a major breakthrough in the management of the disease," said Dr. Josep Llovet, the lead author.

"That may not sound like a lot of time," but for liver cancer, "this is actually a quite impressive gain," said Dr. Nancy Davidson of Johns Hopkins' Bloomberg School of Public Health. "It is the first effective systemic treatment for liver cancer, which is such a huge problem internationally."

The results were released Monday at the American Society of Clinical Oncology's annual meeting.

"We now have moved forward" in treating advanced liver cancer "when it was not really possible before," Dr. William Blackstock of Wake Forest University School of Medicine said at a press briefing about the study.

Sorafenib attacks cancer with a targeted double-barreled approach. It zeros in on malignant cells themselves and cuts off the blood supply feeding the tumor. It is believed to work on tumors within the liver and those that have spread elsewhere.

In the study, tumors didn't shrink or disappear but in many cases they also didn't grow.

"You are not curing the disease but you are delaying the progression of the disease significantly and strikingly," said Llovet, of Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York and Hospital Clinic of Barcelona, Spain.

The study was halted early in February because of the good results, and patients on dummy pills were switched to sorafenib.

"This is a very good step forward in this disease," said Dr. Emily Chan of Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville, Tenn.

The drug, sold under the brand name Nexavar, is approved in the United States and dozens of other countries to treat advanced kidney cancer. It is marketed by Bayer Pharmaceuticals Corp. and Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc., which funded the liver cancer study. They hope to receive approval for liver cancer use from U.S. and foreign regulators.

Llovet has done consulting for the sponsors.

Liver cancer is diagnosed in about 19,000 Americans annually but is much more common elsewhere and is the fifth most common cancer globally. Risk factors include chronic liver infections and some forms of hepatitis. The disease is common in China and countries without widespread use of the hepatitis B vaccine, which is routinely given to U.S. infants.

Liver cancer doesn't respond well to conventional chemotherapy and is often diagnosed too late for surgery to be an option. Many patients die within a year of diagnosis.

Robert Throckmorton, a 73-year-old attorney in Orange County, Calif., said his doctor told him "You better get your affairs in order" after he was diagnosed with inoperable liver cancer last August.

But then the doctor offered sorafenib off-label, and Throckmorton readily agreed. He did not take part in the study.

After nine months on the drug, Throckmorton said his cancer shows no sign of progression and he has no significant side effects. He said he walks three miles six days a week to stay active and feels fine.

Instead of thinking about wills and funerals, Throckmorton is looking forward to get-togethers with his eight children and 18 grandchildren, and even a possible church trip to Uruguay with his wife.

"I have good energy," Throckmorton said. "We are optimistic."

source:www.firstcoastnews.com

Cancer researchers in US call for more funds

2007-06-06T11:53:00.000-07:00

US cancer specialists issued an urgent appeal this weekend for more budget allocations for cancer research, which have been decreasing in the country for four years threatening to delay introduction of new treatments.

"Cancer research is in a serious crisis," said Doctor Robert Ozols, chairman of the Communication Committee at the American Society of Clinical Oncology, which opened its 43rd annual meeting here Friday.

The forum, which will continue until June 5, has brought together more than 25,000 researchers.

Other ASCO officials and representatives of the scientific community, including National Cancer Institute Director John Niederhuber, called on Congress to increase the budget of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) by about seven percent as early as next year and beyond.

The NIH is the biggest public medical research organization in the world.

In recent decades, significant US federal funds have allowed researchers to make significant progress in the fight against this disease, which is the second leading killer on the planet after cardiovascular diseases, doctors pointed out.

As a result of this progress, two-thirds of people diagnosed with cancer remain alive five years after their diagnosis, compared with 50 percent in 1975, they stressed.

In addition, the total number of cancer deaths has begun to decline for the first time in 70 years, according to statistics from the American Cancer Society presented by some of the researchers.

Today there are 10 million American cancer survivors, compared with 3.7 million 30 years ago.

Recent advances in the fight against cancer have resulted in the doubling of the biomedical research budget to the United States from 1998 to 2003, according to cancer specialists.

But in the last four years, this research budget shrunk by 12 percent in real terms.

"The pace of progress is at risk," said Allan Lichter, ASCO executive president and chief executive officer.

"Our primary concern is that we are pulling the plug on exciting new areas of research when they are starting to bear fruit, and at a time of unprecedented scientific opportunity," he added.

The sequencing of the human genome is also allowing to begin decoding different genetic mutations responsible for different forms of cancer.

Cancer is a very complex disease stemming from genetic alterations that are most often linked to the process of aging, said Dr. Niederhuber.

With the genome map "we are moving rapidly to target functions of cancer, toward a more personalized treatment," he pointed out. "Progress has never occurred at such a pace before."

In addition to terminating research programs, the decrease in funding discourages a growing number of young promising scientists, who prefer to go into business or pursue other more lucrative endeavors, deplored Dr. Lichter.

The conference will feature the presentation of results of about 30 clinical trials.

More than 4,000 research papers have been accepted by ASCO. They will focus on treating advanced liver, gastrointestinal, lung, head and neck as well as breast cancer.

source:www.turkishpress.com

Same old supplements get second look for cancer-fighting potential

2007-06-06T11:50:00.000-07:00

Scientists are studying traditional food supplements used for centuries -- from ginseng and flaxseed to shark cartilage -- for possible cancer curing qualities, according to research presented at a major cancer conference here.

Though the first extensive clinical test on whether shark cartilage, taken with chemotherapy or radiation therapy, has anti-cancer properties, showed no effect in prolonging lung cancer patients' lives, a new study did find that flaxseed can stop the progression of prostate cancer, researchers told the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).

A diet low in animal fats, however, was not successful in slowing prostate cancer, the research showed.

A pilot study also indicated high doses of ginseng help cancer patients battle fatigue, often a side effect of the disease.

"The use of complementary and alternative medicine to treat cancer and its side effects has been widespread, but there have been few studies designed to scientifically evaluate whether a particular approach is effective," said Dr. Bruce Cheson, head of hematology at the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center at Georgetown University in Washington.

He also underscored that the promising results need to be seen in repeat research before the substances can be recommended as treatments.

Flaxseed is rich in Omega-3 fatty acids, which is also found in some fish, and believed to act on cell membrane production and slow their spread, according to Dr. Wendy Demark-Wahnefried of Duke university in North Carolina, author of the study.

Flaxseed also contains a type of hormone called lignans which can neutralize other hormones such as testosterone or estrogen, and could slow cancer cell progression.

The clinical test on 161 prostate cancer patients found that those taking 30 grams of flaxseed a day saw their tumors progress 30-40 percent more slowly than those taking a placebo or on a diet low in saturated fat.

Future clinical tests with flaxseed likely will focus on men who already have been treated for prostate cancer and are at higher risk for recurrence, researchers said.

Ginseng, cultivated for centuries in Asia for its root, has grown popular among cancer patients plagued by fatigue. Animal testing showed the energizing effect of ginsenosides, a substance similar to steroids.

But ginseng had not been scientifically tested on humans.

This study of 282 cancer patients for two months found that a quarter of those taking 1,000-2,000 mg of ginseng extract daily said they felt better or much better than a control group on a placebo.

"While the results of this study are very promising, further studies are needed to determine the definitive benefit, and cannot recommend routine use for fatigue in cancer patients at this time," said Debra Barton, professor of oncology at the Mayo Clinic, where the research was done.

Charles Lu, a cancer specialist at the University of Texas at Houston, worked on the shark cartilage study.

His results "definitely demonstrate that shark cartilage extract is not effective against lung cancer when combined with chemoradiotherapy."

The negative results "are disappointing," Lu said, "but this study shows the benefit of conducting scientifically rigorous studies on potential anti-cancer agents, including those that some may consider to be alternative therapies," he added.

source:www.turkishpress.com

Pfizer to roll out new AIDS drug in July

2007-06-06T11:44:00.000-07:00

Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. said Wednesday that it would launch a new HIV-AIDS drug, Maraviroc, in July after tests were conducted successfully in the United States.

"A new HIV-AIDS medicine is coming out in July after tests being carried out in the United States by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration)," the head of the firm in South Africa, Richard Paulson said at a briefing to journalists.

The new drug, which will be taken orally, is set to be formally approved by the FDA on June 20, a spokesman for the company said.

Pfizer has previously produced a number of anti-retroviral drugs to combat AIDS, but has run into heavy criticism from campaigners who claim the firm's patents have priced drugs beyond the reach of many HIV sufferers.

More recently, it has been accused by the powerful US-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation of increasing the spread of sexually-transmitted diseases through "irresponsible" marketing of its anti-impotency drug Viagra.

Paulson said that Maraviroc was just one of a number of new drugs in the pipeline.

"Our focus is to bring out between four and six new medicines every year between now and the next 10 years years," he said, and added that the company spends between eight (1.1 billion dollars) and 10 billion rand to develop one new medicine.

Other drugs being developed by scientists from Pfizer include Sutent for cancer, Campix to beat smoking, and Exubera for diabetes, Paulson added.

source:www.turkishpress.com