October 17, 2006, 9:46 PM CT

Ethnic Variations In Hormone Levels And Breast Cancer

Scientists have known that a woman's natural hormone levels can affect her risk of developing breast cancer. A new study from the University of Southern California (USC) has observed that the natural levels of estrogens in post-menopausal women varies by ethnicity and race, and may explain the differences in the groups' breast cancer rates. The study appears in the recent issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.

Using data from the Multiethnic Cohort Study, V. Wendy Setiawan, Ph.D., assistant professor of preventive medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, and her colleagues determined that of the five primary ethnicities/races in the cohort, native Hawaiians have the highest risk of breast cancer--65 percent greater than whites. They also had some of the highest levels of circulating estrogens.

"We had found that some groups, such as native Hawaiians have higher breast cancer rates in comparison to white women. We knew hormones are a factor, so we decided to test them," says Setiawan. "The research seems to support that idea".

The scientists also observed that Japanese-American women have comparatively high estrogen levels and the second highest breast cancer risk of the five groups. "This is interesting because breast cancer rates have been increasing steadily in Japanese women who live in the United States, as well as in women who live in Japan," Setiawan says. "We think it could be caused by changes in lifestyle that impact age at first menstruation or other factors".........

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October 17, 2006, 5:03 AM CT

Older Breast Cancer Patients May Be Under-treated

Elderly breast cancer patients who received care in a community hospital setting may have been under-diagnosed, under-staged and under-treated, as per a report in the recent issue of Archives of Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

The number of older patients with breast cancer has increased along with overall elderly population, as per background information in the article. About half of patients with breast cancer are older than 65 years and 35 percent are older than 70; 77 percent of breast cancer deaths occur in women older than 55. Choosing the appropriate therapy for older patients is a challenge, because a number of have other serious illnesses in addition to their cancer that may threaten their health and shorten their lives. Questions remain about the best screening protocols for elderly women, as well. Some current guidelines suggest that women stop having mammograms at age 70, while others provide no upper limit.

David A. Litvak, M.D., then of Michigan State University, Lansing, and now at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center, Orange County, Calif., and Rajeev Arora, M.D., used a tumor registry database to identify 354 women age 70 or older who were diagnosed with breast cancer between 1992 and 2002 at a community hospital. The scientists studied the group of women as a whole and also divided them into three age groups for analysis: ages 70 to 74 (136 patients), 75 to 79 (115 patients) and 80 or older (103 patients).........

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October 17, 2006, 4:59 AM CT

Vitamin D Can Fight Breast Cancer

Vitamin D may help curb breast cancer progression, as per a research studypublished recently in the Journal of Clinical Pathology.

The authors, from Imperial College London, measured the levels of vitamin D in the blood serum of 279 women with invasive breast cancer. The disease was in its early stages in 204 of the women, and advanced in the remaining 75.

The results showed that women with early stage disease had significantly higher levels of vitamin D (15 to 184 mmol/litre) than the women in the advanced stages of the disease (16 to 146 mmol/litre).

The authors say that the exact reasons for the disparity are not clear, nor is it known whether the lowered levels of vitamin D among those with advanced disease are a cause or a consequence of the cancer itself. However, the researchers' results, taken together with results from prior studies, lead them to think that lowered levels of vitamin D may promote the progression of the disease to its advanced stages.

Laboratory studies have shown that vitamin D stops cancer cells from dividing and enhances cancer cell death. Vitamin D sufficiency and exposure to sunlight has been shown to reduce the risk of developing breast cancer. The body produces its own vitamin D in the skin when it is exposed to sunlight. The vitamin is also found in certain foods, including eggs and fatty fish.........

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October 17, 2006, 4:30 AM CT

Broccoli's Cancer Fighting Secrets

After all these years, mom was right. She knew broccoli was good for you, she just didn't know it was this good.

"Everyone knows broccoli is good for you and that it contains compounds known to lessen the occurrence of some types of cancer. We want to know how these compounds work and what their specific targets may be," says Janet V. Cross, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Pathology at the University of Virginia School of Medicine.

Cross and her colleague Dennis J. Templeton, M.D., Ph.D., chairman of the UVa Department of Pathology have received a $1.3 million grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to study how specific nutrients in healthy vegetables like broccoli work to prevent cancer.

Cross and Templeton found that nutrients in broccoli unexpectedly bond with a specific enzyme in cells. This enzyme had been clearly linked to inflammatory disease processes, but Cross solidified a link with cancer when she found that mice who did not have the gene for this enzyme developed far fewer cancers when given carcinogens.

"If we can determine that this specific enzyme is the reason the compounds in broccoli work to prevent cancer, then these nutrients or similar chemicals could be turned into anti-cancer compounds," she says.

The incorporation of these compounds into a cancer prevention treatment that comes in a pill or liquid form could enhance the concept of stopping cancers before they start.........

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October 15, 2006, 7:31 PM CT

Novel Therapy For Prostate Cancer

A team of University of Iowa Health Care researchers has launched an important clinical trial of a novel therapeutic that may eventually lead to new treatments for men diagnosed with prostate cancer.

The Ad5-TRAIL gene therapy for prostate cancer research trial is a Phase I study designed to test the optimal dosage at which the therapeutic agent can safely be given to patients.

The clinical study is being co-led by Thomas Griffith, Ph.D., (photo, left) an associate professor in the Department of Urology, and Richard Williams, M.D., the Rubin H. Flocks Chair in Urology and professor and head of the UI Department of Urology.

"This is the first use of this type of anti-cancer agent which was developed at the University of Iowa. This new gene therapy may help us successfully manage patients with high-risk prostate cancer," Griffith said. "Ideally, we hope to be able to say at the conclusion of this trial that this novel agent is safe and performs as intended by causing the death of prostate tumor cells with no harm to normal cells. However, being at the initial stages of the trial, it is premature to make any claims until the data is analyzed".

Researchers injected the investigational therapeutic into the cancerous prostates of three patients. Then, following a 10-day waiting period, surgeons removed the prostates and are evaluating the results.........

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October 11, 2006, 9:01 PM CT

Test To Predict Response In Pancreatic Cancer

By slicing up bits of patient tumors and grafting them into mice, Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center specialists have figured out how to accurately "test drive" chemotherapy drugs to learn in advance which drug therapys offer each individual pancreas cancer patient the best therapeutic journey.

Eventhough "xenografting" with either cells or fresh tissue is already used widely to test cancer therapies, the Hopkins design is personalized to each patient who has relapsed after an initial course of chemotherapy. "Eventually our approach offers a promising way to individualize treatment earlier in therapy instead of first giving everyone the standard drug gemcitabine, which has a success rate of less than 10 percent," says Antonio Jimeno, M.D., instructor in oncology at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center.

Results of preliminary tests of the Hopkins method in 14 patient samples taken after surgery shows that each xenografts' genetic profile remained stable through three and four generations of mice so that "test drives" would accurately represent a patient's tumor. The researchers also found they could build xenografts in 80 percent of their pancreatic patients, a success rate higher than efforts with patients with colon cancer, for which rates are typically less at about 50 percent.........

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October 9, 2006, 10:03 PM CT

Target For Leukemia Treatment

Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center today announced the publication of pioneering research identifying the crucial role and novel mechanism of action of the protein RhoH GTPase in the development and activation of cells critical to the immune system. The findings, along with other studies, suggest that RhoH GTPase may provide a target for therapeutic intervention in some types of leukemia. The paper is due to appear in an upcoming edition of the journal Nature Immunology and was recently posted in the advance online publication section of the journal's website, http://www.nature.com/ni/index.html.

The paper describes detailed genetic and biochemical studies undertaken by researchers in the Division of Experimental Hematology and the Division of Immunobiology. The scientists succeeded in identifying a crucial role for RhoH GTPase in the development of thymocytes and activation of T-lymphocytes, both key processes in immune cell development. In addition, the researchers uncovered a novel mechanism for regulating RhoH activity, which may have broad implications in improving researchers' understanding of the mechanism of action of the Rho GTPase protein family and provide a potential target for leukemia drug development.

"We continue to make important progress in deciphering the molecular processes involved in the development and maintenance of the immune and blood system and how disruption of key proteins may contribute to leukemia," said David A Williams, M.D., Director of Experimental Hematology, Cincinnati Children's. "Through a collaboration with Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, we are now focused on translating these findings into developing new ways to target the protein as a novel approach to treating hematological malignancy".........

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October 9, 2006, 8:32 PM CT

A new way to treat colon cancer?

Researchers at University of Utah's Huntsman Cancer Institute have discovered a new target for possible future colon cancer treatments a molecule that is implicated in 85 percent of colon cancer cases.

These findings were published online Oct. 6, 2006, in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

By knocking out that is, genetically disabling a molecule called C-Terminal Binding Protein (CTBP) researchers were able to rescue zebrafish from the effects of a mutation in the adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) gene.

In humans, mutations in this gene long have been known to initiate a series of events that cause colon polyps, which eventually become cancerous. APC mutations play a role in 85 percent of colon cancers. The new findings mean CTBP also is involved in that proportion of colon cancers.

In zebrafish, APC mutations keep the intestine from developing properly. "In essence, knocking out CTPB promotes normal development of the intestine in zebrafish carrying an APC mutation," says David A. Jones, a University of Utah associate professor of oncological sciences and leader of the study.

In normal cells of both humans and zebrafish, the APC gene controls the amount of CTBP present by marking it for destruction. In tumor cells with mutated APC, CTPB is not destroyed; instead it accumulates in the cell.........

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October 9, 2006, 8:26 PM CT

How Cancer-drug Resistance Occurs

Using the worm Caenorhabditis elegans, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have discovered a mechanism by which cancer cells become resistant to a specific class of drugs.

They found that a mutation in a single protein in the worm renders a potential new cancer drug ineffective. The drug is a derivative of a compound called hemiasterlin. Because hemiasterlin compounds are being tested as a way to fight multi-drug resistance, this newly discovered resistance effect is problematic, the researchers said.

"A major problem for cancer therapy is that if cancer cells can survive long enough, they have a chance to undergo mutations that make them resistant to anticancer drugs," said Dr. Michael Roth, professor of biochemistry and senior author of a paper published this week in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

One way that cancer cells resist multiple drugs is through the action of the multi-drug resistance protein, which pumps most drugs out of the cell before they can have any effect.

However, hemiasterlin bypasses this pump altogether and kills cancer cells by preventing them from dividing.

Derivatives of hemiasterlin are being tested as anti-cancer therapies, with one already in clinical study. The drug works by interfering with tubulin, which forms the structure that separates chromosomes as cells divide.........

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October 8, 2006, 6:14 PM CT

Some Breast Cancer Patients Unhappy With Lumpectomy

[imgl]/images/blog/lumpectomy.jpg[/imgl]Women with breast cancer often undergo a lumpectomy and radiation to save their breasts and avoid the need for additional reconstructive surgery. However, approximately one-third of all patients are unhappy with how their breasts look after undergoing breast conservation therapy and many would consider reconstruction, according to a study presented today at the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) Plastic Surgery 2006 conference in San Francisco.

"I have patients walking into my office saying lumpectomy was supposed to save their breast but what's left doesn't look like a breast to them," said Howard Wang, ASPS Member Surgeon and co-author of the study. "Conservation is believed to be an acceptable way of saving a woman's breast. But many of these women are coming to plastic surgeons for help, saying it isn't so".

In the study, 28 percent of the breast cancer patients stated they were dissatisfied with the cosmetic result of their lumpectomy. Of those patients, 46 percent stated their physical appearance was worse or much worse after the surgery and were considering reconstruction. Only nine percent of patients who were satisfied with the outcome, however, would consider reconstruction if it were offered.

Approximately 26 percent of patients were unhappy with their physical appearance after the lumpectomy but had an improved sense of body image. Plastic surgeons believe this disparity occurred because many patients felt relieved to be free of the cancer, leading them to feel better about their bodies even though they were not happy with how their breasts looked.........

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