November 5, 2006, 8:35 PM CT
Why Men With Prostate Cancer Avoid Radiation?
Negative perceptions about radiation treatment can strongly influence a prostate cancer patient's choice to avoid external beam radiation treatment, even though studies have proven the therapy to be as safe and effective as other therapys for the disease, including surgery, as per a research studypresented November 5, 2006, at the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology's 48th Annual Meeting in Philadelphia.
"The study shows that patients base their therapy choice not only on technical information, but also on cultural and personal prejudices," said Riccardo Valdagni, M.D., an author of the study and head of the Prostate Programme at the Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori in Milan, Italy. "It's important for patients to express their fears about radiation therapy to their doctors and for doctors to consider these worries and address any misconceptions about this treatment so that patients can make the best, most informed decision about their therapy".
Men with prostate cancer often choose between external beam radiation treatment, radiation seed implants and surgery to treat their cancer. During external beam radiation, a beam of radiation, or X-ray, is directed through the skin to the cancer and the immediate surrounding area to kill the cancer. To minimize side effects, radiation is given five days a week for several weeks. A number of men with prostate cancer choose external beam radiation over other therapys because it is non-invasive, has a short recovery period and often helps men preserve their sexual and urinary function.........
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November 3, 2006, 4:38 AM CT
Low Folate Diets Increase Risk Of Colorectal Cancer
Food items that contain folate
A new study by researchers at the MUHC has revealed that a diet low in folate may increase the risk of developing colorectal cancer. Reported in the scientific journal Cancer Research today, the study not only illustrates a way to prevent the disease but also provides further insight into the mechanisms of the disease, which could lead to novel therapies. Using animal models, the MUHC study is the first to demonstrate directly that diets low in folate cause colorectal cancer, and follows on the heels of earlier research by the same team that revealed how high folate diets can protect against heart disease.
"This research, which is consistent with prior epidemiological studies in humans, demonstrates a clear link between low dietary folate and the initiation of colorectal cancer in animal models," says Dr. Rima Rozen, Scientific Director of the Montreal Children's Hospital, Deputy Scientific Director of the MUHC, and lead investigator in the study. "None of the mice fed a control diet developed tumours whereas 1 in 4 mice on the folate-deficient diet developed at least one tumour".
Possible mechanisms of the disease were also investigated using molecular biological techniques. "The study shows that a low level of dietary folate may cause an increase in DNA damage, which plays a role in the development of tumours," noted Dr. Rozen. The study also reveals that folate deficiency causes genes which commonly respond to DNA damage to behave abnormally, also contributing to the development of tumours. The results suggest that a diet containing sufficient folate may reduce the risk of developing colorectal cancer.........
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November 2, 2006, 5:18 AM CT
Breakthrough In Eye Cancer Treatment
Researchers at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital have demonstrated in a mouse model a new, locally applied therapy for the eye cancer retinoblastoma that not only greatly reduces the size of the tumor, but does so without causing the side effects common with standard chemotherapy. The therapy also appears to be suitable for certain forms of breast, lung, prostate and colon cancer, and is simple enough for widespread use even in countries with limited resources.
A report on this work appears in the Nov. 2 issue of the journal Nature.
Retinoblastoma occurs in about 5,000 young children worldwide each year, arising from the immature retina, which is the part of the eye responsible for detecting light and color. The cancer is fatal if left untreated.
The new therapy holds promise for a simpler, more effective and less-toxic therapy for retinoblastoma that would eliminate the need for the current, complex treatment, as per senior author Michael Dyer, Ph.D., a Pew Scholar and associate member of the St. Jude Department of Developmental Neurobiology. The therapy is based on a discovery by Dyer's laboratory that overturned a widely held belief about the process of apoptosis (cell suicide) in retinoblastoma. Apoptosis is the way the body rids itself of abnormal cells that might become malignant or cause other problems.........
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November 1, 2006, 4:52 AM CT
HPV Test Is A Better Long-term Predictor
HPV Virus
The best initial cervical cancer screening tool for younger women is still the traditional Pap smear. However, a large Danish study has observed that for older women (age 40 and older), a test for human papillomavirus (HPV) is a much more effective way to screen for potential cancer.
The reason, report scientists in the November 1 issue of Cancer Research, is that HPV infection is both frequent and transient in younger women, and they would often test positive for HPV when no actual risk of cervical cancer existed. But, in older women, HPV infection is rarer and more persistent, putting a woman at substantial risk for the disease before changes in cervical cells, detected by Pap smears, are obvious.
"We have documented that a single HPV test can actually predict older women at risk for cervical cancer better than a single Pap smear can," said the study's senior author, Susanne Krüger Kjaer, M.D., professor and head of the Department of Virus, Hormones and Cancer at the Danish Cancer Society.
The scientists specifically observed that the absolute risk of developing cervical cancer in an older woman who tests positive for HPV is greater than 20 percent within a 10-year period. They also note that most women who test positive for HPV also test negative on a Pap smear given at the same time.........
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October 30, 2006, 7:16 PM CT
A New Tool Against Skin Cancer
This new technique is called photodynamic therapy and it uses a special chemical solution applied to the face. This solution makes the damaged cells sensitive to light. After applying the lotion the patient is brought under a special blue light. The combined use of the chemical and the blue light kills the precancerous cells and can also attack cells below the skin's surface.
Researchers say that this new technique is capable of clearing up severe acne and can also stop certain types of skin cancer in the earliest stages.........
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October 30, 2006, 6:51 PM CT
Breast Cancer Therapy In Which Order?
For women who have had surgery for early breast cancer, it may not matter whether they receive follow-up chemotherapy before, after or during radiation therapy, according to a new review of studies.
A woman's chances of survival or seeing the cancer return are similar in all three cases, if radiation therapy and chemotherapy begin within seven months after surgery, the review concludes.
However, the studies suggest that certain toxic side effects in the blood and esophagus -- common in chemotherapy and radiation patients -- may be up to 44 percent more likely when the two therapies are delivered at the same time, said Dr. Brigid Hickey and colleagues at the Southern Zone Radiation Oncology Service in Brisbane, Australia.
The reviewers also note that most of the women in the studies were treated about 10 years ago. "As a result, the trials do not assess the modern types of radiotherapy and newer types of chemotherapy" and other anti-cancer drugs such as Herceptin, Hickey said.
Studies show that radiation therapy can reduce the risk of breast cancer returning in the treated breast and boost the likelihood of survival after breast cancer surgery. Doctors may also prescribe chemotherapy to women at high risk for having the cancer spread to other parts of the body after surgery, to reduce the risk of dying from breast cancer.........
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October 30, 2006, 5:33 PM CT
How Multiple Copies Of A Gene Affect Metastasis?
Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have for the first time described how multiple copies of a gene are responsible for metastases in early-stage breast cancer and poor prognosis for patients.
According to a research findings published in this week's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the gene, called uPAR, offers a promising target for therapeutic drugs to stop or slow the progression of the disease and could serve as a screening tool for assessing which types of drugs a patient will respond to.
The gene launches a biochemical process in which a molecule called plasmin perforates the membranes of tissues, causing the membranes to break down and allowing the cancer cells to escape into the bloodstream and to adjacent tissues. The result is metastasizing breast cancer. About 20 percent to 25 percent of breast-cancer patients were shown to have uPAR gene amplification, which means they carry too many copies of the gene.
"The uPAR system probably plays a role in metastases in many of the common solid tumors," said Dr. Jonathan Uhr, professor in the Cancer Immunobiology Center and of microbiology and the study's senior author.
While analyzing slides of individual tumor cells - either from the primary tumor or circulating tumor cells - of 72 patients with advanced recurrent breast carcinoma, the UT Southwestern research team discovered how uPAR may work in concert with another known breast cancer gene, HER-2.........
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October 30, 2006, 5:23 PM CT
Breast Cancer Survivors Face Higher Suicide Rates
The burden is not over for patients with breast cancer even after the battle with breast cancer is won. A new study suggests that breast cancer survivors have an increased risk committing suicide in comparison to women in the general population. Survivors of breast cancer have as much as 37 percent increased risk of committing suicide in comparison to other women and this increased risk of suicide persist for more than 25 years after the diagnosis of breast cancer.
These study findings were published in a recent issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. There have been prior studies on this topic but none have undertaken such a long-term study of the subject and none of the studies included women from the United States of America.
This conclusion is from analysis of a large pool of data involving 723,810 breast cancer survivors who were diagnosed between 1953 and 2001 and were included in population-based cancer registries in the United States and Scandinavia.
The scientists have observed that during follow-up through 2002, a total of 836 women committed suicide. Compared with the general population the women with breast cancer had a suicide rate of 4.1 per 100,000 women per year.
Even after a period of 25 years, breast cancer survivors still had a 35 percent increased risk of committing suicide. Suicide rates were higher among African American women, with a 2.88-fold elevated risk. Scientists noted that the risk of committing suicide increases with increasing stage of breast cancer.........
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October 29, 2006, 7:22 PM CT
Breast Cancer Chemo Drugs And Cognitive Dysfunction
Chemotherapy drugs might cause cognitive dysfunction on the recipients according to new research findings. A new study on mice has confirmed what a number of cancer patients receiving therapy have often complained about a decline in their memory and other cognitive functions, often characterized as "chemobrain".
This study, led by scientists Dr. Gordon Winocur, in collaboration with Drs. Ian Tannock and Janette Vardy, was conducted at Trent University. The findings are reported in the September 2006 issue of Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior (Vol. 85, Issue 1), which will be available online in the next week. The results were presented at a workshop held in conjunction with the 8th World Congress of Psycho-Oncology in Venice last week.
"In our study, we identified learning and memory deficits in the mild to moderate range in the drug-treated mice compared to the controls," says Dr. Winocur.
"That the deficits were relatively small is encouraging. It's important that cancer patients continue with these drugs and know that if they experience mild to moderate impairments in their cognitive functions, this level of change is potentially manageable".
While there is growing evidence from studies of cancer patients on chemotherapy that the chemobrain effect does exist, many of the studies have suffered from methodological limitations. These include small samples, less than adequate controls and failure to account for other factors, including disease-related complications and stress, which could affect performance.........
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October 27, 2006, 5:12 AM CT
Women With Mental Disorders And Mammograms
Women with mental disorders are less likely to have screening mammograms than women without mental illness, although.
the nature of the mental illness does play a role, according to a large study published by Indiana University School of Medicine and Richard Roudebush VA Health Services Center for Excellence researchers in the recent issue of Journal of General Internal Medicine. Prior to this study, little was known about whether the type or severity of mental illness influences receipt of preventive services such as mammograms.
"Although women with mental disorders are less likely to receive mammography than women who do not have mental disorders, we found that both the type and severity of mental illness does influence the receipt of mammograms. Women with psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia are significantly less likely to receive mammograms than women in the general population. However, women with mild depression do not differ markedly. But, as depression severity increases, so does the likelihood that women will not receive needed screening," said senior author Caroline Carney Doebbeling, M.D., M.Sc., associate professor of psychiatry and medicine at the I.U. School of Medicine. She is also a Regenstrief Institute, Inc. research scientist and director of the IU.........
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