New diet and exercise guidelines for cancer survivors

WebMD - There are more than 10 million cancer survivors in the U.S., and the American Cancer Society (ACS) has new diet and exercise guidelines for them.

The guidelines appear in the November/December issue of

CA: A cancer Journal for Clinicians

The ACS doesn't claim to have nailed down all the facts on nutrition and physical activity for cancer survivors.

But "reasonable conclusions can be made on several issues," write the researchers.

They included Colleen Doyle, MS, RD, director of nutrition and physical activity for the ACS.
Among the recommendations:

· Strive for a healthy weight. If you're overweight, go for modest weight loss (up to 2 pounds weekly) with a doctor's supervision.

· Limit fat to 20% to 35% of calories. Keep saturated fat to less than 10% of calories and trans-fat to less than 3% of calories.

· Include foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids, such as fish and walnuts

Read more…

For free advice on cancer related issues visit Free Help Advice

People who consume ‘Bacon’ regularly are 59% more likely to develop cancer than those who do not consume it

BBC News- Harvard scientists found people who ate bacon at least five times a week were 59% more likely to develop the disease than those who never did.

They also found people who frequently ate skinless chicken had a 52% greater risk. Chemicals called nitrosamines and heterocyclic amines may be to blame.

The study appears in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. The Harvard team studied data on nearly 136,000 people. The participants were followed for up to 22 years, during which time 808 developed bladder cancer.

Nitrosamines, chemicals which are often found in processed meats and in particularly high levels in bacon, are known to be carcinogenic in high quantities.

Heterocyclic amines, also known carcinogens, form when meat is cooked at high temperatures.

Compared with skinless chicken, cooked chicken with skin is known to contain a smaller amount of heterocyclic amines

Read more…

For free advice on cancer related issues visit Free Help Advice

A short-clip on children who are fighting cancer

Watch this really wonderful clip made on children who had to fight cancer in their lives. Let us hope that they can win their battle against this disease.

New breast scan process could relieve women from the mammography agony!

News-Medical.Net- A new breast scan process promises to make the annual mammogram agony many women endure a thing of the past.

Researchers in the U.S. have found that by using a Cone Beam Computed Tomography scan, which is described as a souped-up X-ray, 3-D pictures can be produced which make it possible to tell distinguish between a benign lesion and a tumour.

Not only is the new scan a more comfortable experience than a mammogram, it is also more accurate and would make the painful procedure of compressing the breasts between glass plates obsolete.

The researchers at the

University of Rochester in New York say the scan can also provide pictures of tissue around the ribs and outer breast towards the armpit, where 50 percent of cancers are found.

The Cone Beam Breast Computed Tomography scanner takes 360-degree views of breast anatomy and in one case showed a cancer which was hard to detect on a mammogram.

According to Dr. Avice O'Connell, director of women's imaging at the university's Medical Centre, who led the study, trials of the system are still being carried out and complete results and will not be available until 60 women have undergone the imaging.

O'Connell says so far the Cone Beam scanner has detected every tumour seen on a mammogram.

Read more…

For free advice on cancer related issues visit Free Help Advice

Women smokers are 27 times more likely to develop cervical cancer

The Columbus Dispatch - Women who smoke and also carry high levels of the virus associated with cervical cancer are up to 27 times more likely to develop the most common form of Cervical cancer , compared with uninfected women who smoke, results of a new study show.

Swedish researchers studied data from Pap tests of more than 100,000 women and identified 499 with cervical cancer that had not extended beyond the outer layer of tissue. They matched them with 499 other women who were similar in age and other characteristics, but cancer-free.

For the two sets they compared smoking behavior with concentrations of human papilloma virus-16, the strain most associated with cervical cancer, and found that the combination caused risk to soar.

"Our study would imply a synergistic action between HPV and smoking that would greatly increase the likelihood of women developing cervical cancer if they are HPV-positive smokers," said Anthony Gunnell, a medical biostatistician at Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and lead author of the report published Friday in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention.

Read more…

For free advice on cancer related issues visit Free Help Advice

Young leukemia or brain tumor survivors are likely to have strokes later in their life

Medical News Today - Children who are successfully treated for brain tumors or leukemia are more likely to have strokes later in life, according to new research from UT Southwestern Medical Center.

In addition, childhood cancer survivors who received higher doses of cranial radiation therapy to kill the cancer showed even greater risk of stroke in later life, according to the study, which appears in the Nov. 20 issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology and is available online.

"This is important because leukemia and brain tumors are the two most common types of childhood cancer, representing more than half of childhood cancers," said

Dr. Daniel Bowers, associate professor of pediatrics and lead author of the study.

Other studies have shown that survivors of childhood leukemia or brain cancer are also at higher risk for cardiac dysfunction, obesity, short stature, and hormone and neuro-cognitive deficits. This is the first study to examine the risk to survivors for late-occurring strokes, which occur at least five years after their cancer diagnosis.

Read more…

For free advice on cancer related issues visit Free Help Advice

Contraceptives reduce the risk of endometrial cancer in women

News-Medical.Net - According to a new study by researchers in the U.S., oral contraceptives and intrauterine devices (IUD) appear to provide long-term protection against endometrial cancer.

The researchers, led by Dr. Xiao Ou Shu of

Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee conducted a study of 1,204 women from Shanghai with newly diagnosed endometrial cancer and compared them to 1,212 healthy women.

The women were then matched according to various characteristics.

The endometrium is the lining of the uterus, or womb and endometrial cancer involves a cancerous growth in that area which mainly occurs after menopause and causes vaginal bleeding.

A hysterectomy (surgical removal of the uterus) is generally performed to treat the disease.

It is the most common gynecologic cancer in the United States, and over 35,000 women are diagnosed with it each year.

Read more…

For free advice on cancer related issues visit Free Help Advice

Stem cells within tumors may fuel bowel cancer

Cancer Research UK – Researchers have found evidence that bowel cancer may be fuelled by the presence of stem cells within the tumors. The research could one day open up new paths to treatment.

Stem cells are the basic building blocks of life, providing a standard template which can then develop into hundreds of different types of cell that make up our bodies.

Two teams in Canada and Italy have now linked the growth of tumors to bowel cancer stem-cells, following similar findings for leukemia and breast and brain cancers. Both teams were able to isolate cells bearing the stem-cell marker protein CD133 from bowel cancer samples. These 'CD133+' cells could be transplanted into mice and initiate new cancers.

Cancer cells taken from the initial cancers that did not bear the CD133 marker were unable to start new cancers.

Read more…

For free advice on cancer related issues visit Free Help Advice

Study: Diabetes may lower the risk of prostate cancer in men

Reuters UK – Men with long-term diabetes may have a reduced risk of prostate cancer, according to the results of a study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

"Recent studies have suggested an association between type 2 diabetes mellitus and lower risk of prostate cancer," Dr. Mona Saraiya and colleagues from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, write. "It has been hypothesized that men with long-term diabetes have a lower risk of prostate cancer than non-diabetic men, and recently diagnosed men have a higher risk."

In the current study, the researchers used data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2001 to 2002 to investigate the association between diabetes and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels, a biological marker for prostate cancer. Higher PSA levels indicate an increased risk of cancer.

The researchers adjusted the findings for the effect of known potential risk factors. For subjects without a diagnosis of diabetes, the researchers used fasting blood sugar measurements to determine the presence of undiagnosed diabetes.

Read more…

For free advice on cancer related issues visit Free Help Advice

Researchers at Oakland Research Institute achieve a breakthrough in the fight against cancer

The Mercury News – After spending years focused on one enzyme, Dr. Julie Saba of the Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute has made a breakthrough which could help fight cancer growth.

Known by her staff as `Queen of the Lyase,` for ten years Saba has been studying an intestinal enzyme called sphingosine phosphate lyase (SPL), which can regulate cell growth.

According to Saba, SPL naturally decreases cancer cell growth but is de-activated when cancerous cells are present, thus allowing cancer to thrive. `The cancer cells are very smart` said Saba, noting that `cancer cells stop anything` in the way of their progression.

Using cells in a tissue culture Saba said she and her team `have been able to turn-on the enzyme after cancer cell growth had occurred.` The Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute found that re-introducing the enzyme made chemotherapy more effective in tissue cultures.

`Although we're beginning our studies in colon cancer, we believe our research findings will have a direct impact on investigations for other cancers, including pediatric cancers,` said Saba.

Read more…

For free advice on cancer related issues from experts visit Free Help Advice

Early diagnosis of ovarian cancer is essential for the survival of ovarian cancer patients

ABC Online – New research shows more than half of the Australian women diagnosed with ovarian cancer today are unlikely to survive five years.

The report by the National Breast Cancer Centre (NBCC) and the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare also shows more women are surviving ovarian cancer.

Researchers say early detection of the disease remains the biggest challenge.

The report says almost 1,500 new cases of the disease are projected to be diagnosed this year.

The research comes a month after a Senate committee called for the Commonwealth to fund a National Centre for Gynecological Cancers and the development of an early detection test for the disease.

Researchers say only 42 per cent of women diagnosed with ovarian cancer today can expect to be living five years after the diagnosis, compared to 34 per cent of women diagnosed a decade ago.

Read more…

Top five cancer-fighting foods

Today's TMJ4 – Every day there's a new warning about which foods could cause cancer. But some foods could actually prevent it.

TODAY'S TMJ4 went to an expert, registered dietician Kelly Welsh, for the top five foods.

Tofu
"Soy contains two compounds that are beneficial in the fight against cancer," Welsh said. Those compounds prevent breast and prostate cancers. And if you don't like tofu there are other ways outside of traditional tofu to get soy nourishment: Soy nuts, soy-based veggie-shredded cheese, soy crumbles and soy burgers such as Boca Burgers.

Tomatoes
"Tomatoes are rich in a substance called lycopene," Welsh said. "Lycopene acts as a very powerful anti-oxidant, and it protects us from many different types of cancers." The body absorbs lycopene best when it's mixed with fat - olive oil in spagetti sauce, cheese on pizza. Men who eat 10 or more servings of tomato products a day cut their prostate cancer risk nearly in half.

Read more…

Women should be more aware of gynecologic cancers to safeguard their health

Beliot Daily News – When it comes to “female issues,” women need to be aware of signals their body may be sending. A condition as serious as a cancer of a woman's reproductive system cannot be ignored or treated by silence.

That's why it's important for all women to know about gynecologic cancers and how to protect their health. Knowledge of symptoms and early detection of cancer can lead to successful treatment and longer, healthier lives.

“Scheduling regular visits with your healthcare provider for gynecological exams is the first step to prevention,” states Dr. David Bhaskar, OB/GYN with Beloit Clinic and Beloit Memorial Hospital. “Women need to know the risks and symptoms of cancers of the reproductive system.”

“Cancer of the endometrium (lining of the uterus) is the most common cancer of the female reproductive organs,” Bhaskar explains.

An estimated 40,880 women will be diagnosed with endometrial cancer this year, and about 7,310 women will die from it.

Symptoms may include unusual vaginal bleeding or discharge, pelvic pain or weight loss. There is no standard screening test to detect endometrial cancer at an early stage, so it is important to see a physician for pelvic exams and be honest about any changes.

Read more…

'Live Strong' - Music track on cancer awareness

A must-watch video for every cancer patient, families and friends of cancer patients!

Truly inspirational one. Hope this one inspires many cancer patients to fight their disease with courage!

Lance Armstrong - video powered by Metacafe

German drug maker looks for ancient Chinese cancer cure

The Independent – The German drugs giant Merck is seeking help from the world of traditional Chinese medicine to find a cure for cancer. The Chinese medicine company spun out of Hong Kong's Hutchison Whampoa, Chi-Med, will today unveil a potentially lucrative deal to research oncology on behalf of the German group.

Merck will pay Chi-Med to raid centuries of Chinese medical know how in search of a natural cancer-fighting product that it can turn into a marketable Western drug.

The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Chi-Med stands to reap tens of millions of pounds from the partnership if it comes up with a drug that is suitable to be put into trial.

Western pharmaceutical companies are increasingly outsourcing their drug discovery work, with many looking east for the solution to medical mysteries that Western doctors cannot solve.

Ulrich Betz, Merck's head of strategic innovation and research, said the partnership would allow the group to "extend its interaction with the emerging Chinese pharmaceutical industry".

Read more…

Scientists identify a new mechanism that suppress the progression of many forms of cancer

Medindia News – A new mechanism has been identified by scientists from the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia and The Vienna Biocenter in Austria that is involved in normal repression of the p53 protein which is the most important molecule for the control of cancer in humans.

The new molecular pathway described in the study suggests intriguing approaches to diagnosing or intervening in the progression of many types of cancer. A report on the team's findings will be published online November 15 in the journal Nature.

"The p53 protein is vital for controlling cancer throughout the body," says Shelley L. Berger, Ph.D., the Hilary Koprowski Professor at The Wistar Institute and senior author on the study. "The new mechanism we describe, driven by a previously unknown enzyme, represses the p53 protein when its activity is not needed.

"What we're looking at now is the possibility that this enzyme, if over-expressed or over-active, might interfere with p53's normal tumor suppressor function and perhaps cause cancer. If that's the case, then we could develop drugs to inhibit the enzyme that would have the effect of freeing p53 to do its job of suppressing cancer. Unusually high levels of the newly identified enzyme might also be useful as a diagnostic marker for cancer."

Read more…

Tooth whitening products do not increase the risk of oral cancer

Zee News - A University of Toronto researcher claims that common tooth whitening products are safe, and do not increase the risk of oral cancer when used as directed.

Dr. Ian Monroe, a professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences and Faculty of Medicine and Associate Director, Program in Food Safety, Nutrition and Regulatory Affairs at the university, came to this conclusion after conducting an extensive review of the numerous unpublished clinical studies involving over 4,000 human subjects.

The study entitled ‘Use of Hydrogen Peroxide-Based Tooth Whitening Products and its Relationship to Oral Cancer, has been published in the Journal of Esthetic and Restorative Dentistry.

Click here to read more….

Hope means everything to cancer patients!

‘Hope’ can help cancer patients to get over their disease. Listen to what Lance Armstrong said in an interview about ‘Hope’ and how it helped him in his fight against cancer.

Why do non-smokers develop lung cancer?

San Francisco Chronicle – Every year roughly 20,000 people who have never touched a cigarette are diagnosed with lung cancer -- and women are particularly at risk, for reasons no one understands.

Recent research has suggested that women who don't smoke are two to three times more likely than nonsmoking men to develop lung cancer.

"People talk about secondhand smoke, but there are other environmental pollutants," said Dr. Heather Wakelee, an assistant professor at Stanford University School of Medicine. "We just don't understand it."
Research also suggests that women may be more vulnerable than men to the carcinogenic effects of smoking -- in some studies, women who smoked have been shown to be roughly twice as likely to develop lung cancer as men who smoked.

Wakelee, who is set to publish a new study on nonsmoking women and lung cancer in the next few months, said the research is too new to come up with a reason for why nonsmokers get cancer, and why women are especially at risk. Almost all studies have looked at patient records -- not actual patients -- which don't include all of the environmental factors, such as exposure to airborne pollutants, that could lead to lung cancer.

Read more…

Genetics can help in predicting bowel cancer

The Australian – Identifying the composition of a gene in people predisposed to bowel cancer may enable scientists to predict the age at which they are likely to develop the disease, new research shows.

Scientists at the University of Newcastle and John Hunter Hospital studied 220 people with a genetic predisposition to colorectal cancer. They identified a genetic difference that could determine whether the people would be older or younger when they could potentially develop the disease. The DNA of the gene which predisposes people to the colorectal cancer is made up out of an average of 18 to 20 "repeated units".

NBN Childhood Cancer Research Fellow Professor Rodney Scott said the study found people with 18 or fewer repeated units tend to develop the disease up to two decades earlier than their counterparts with 19 or more repeated units.

Read more…

Scientists develop new vaccine to treat kidney cancer

In a significant development in the treatment of kidney cancer, British scientists have successfully treated two kidney cancer patients with a vaccine that uses the body’s immune system to fight tumor cells. The kidney tumor in one patient disappeared completely, while the one in another patient shrank considerably, after being treated with this new vaccine. The vaccine named ‘TroVax’ was developed by Oxford Biomedica, an UK based biopharmaceutical Company that was established in 1995 as a spin out from Oxford University. This company is involved in development of novel gene-based therapeutics in the areas of oncology and neurotherapy. The vaccine was successfully tested on 150 kidney cancer patients, during the Phase-II trials and the results were encouraging.
Around three in 10,000 people develop kidney cancer and about 12,000 people die every year from this disease in United States. Men are more prone to this disease, with the vulnerability increasing after the age of 55. Dr. Mike Mcdonald, Oxford Biomedica’s Chief Medical Officer, said that the results of the Phase-II trials were encouraging and indicates that ‘TroVax’ can be administered safely on kidney cancer patients.
The vaccine fights tumor cells by triggering antibodies in our body to respond to 5T4, which is a protein present in kidney tumors in almost 90% of kidney cancer patients.
Read more of this story…

Breaking the Cancer Code!

Watch this video from CBS News on a new approach to cancer treatment that targets only the tumor cells and leaves the rest of the body alone, avoiding any collateral damage.

Soy and fish lowers the risk of breast cancer!

Reuters - People who ate soy regularly as children have a lower risk of breast cancer, researchers reported on Tuesday.
And men who eat fish several times a week have a lower risk of colon cancer, a second team of researchers told a meeting in Boston of the American Association for Cancer Research.
The studies add to a growing body of evidence about the role of diet in cancer. Cancer experts now believe that up to two-thirds of all cancers come from lifestyle factors such as smoking, diet and lack of exercise.
Dr. Larissa Korde of the National Cancer Institute and colleagues at the University of Hawaii studied 597 Asian-American women with breast cancer and 966 women without the disease. The mothers of some of the women were also available to answer questions about what they fed their daughters as children.
The women who ate the most soy-based foods such as tofu and miso when aged 5 to 11 reduced their risk of developing breast cancer by 58 percent, the researchers found.
Read more…

Sean Swarner - the only two-time cancer survivor to climb Mount Everest

An interesting news clip on the life of Sean Swarner, the only two-time cancer survivor to climb the highest point on Earth.

Red meat in regular diet increases the risk of breast cancer in women!

Washington Post - Younger women who regularly eat red meat appear to face an increased risk for a common form of breast cancer, according to a large, well-known Harvard study of women's health.
The study of more than 90,000 women found that the more red meat the women consumed in their 20s, 30s and 40s, the greater their risk for developing breast cancer fueled by hormones in the next 12 years. Those who consumed the most red meat had nearly twice the risk of those who ate red meat infrequently.
The study, published yesterday in the Archives of Internal Medicine, is the first to examine the relationship between consumption of red meat and breast cancer in pre-menopausal women, and the first to examine the question by type of breast cancer.
Although more research is needed to confirm the association and explore the possible reasons for it, researchers said the findings provide another motivation to limit consumption of red meat, which is already known to increase the risk of colon cancer.
"There are already other reasons to minimize red meat intake," said Eunyoung Cho, an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, who led the study. "This just may give women another good reason."
Read more…

Breath test may identify people with high lung cancer risk, in future

HealthDay News - A simple breath test could someday help predict who's at highest risk of getting lung cancer.
In preliminary research, the breath test was successful in finding cancer "markers," said senior researcher Dr. Simon D. Spivack, a pulmonologist at the Wadsworth Center, the public health laboratory of the New York State Department of Health.
That's important, he added, because "lung cancer [typically] exists for a decade or two before it is diagnosed."
His team was expected to present the results Sunday at the American Association for Cancer Research meeting in Boston.
Lung cancer remains the No. 1 cancer killer of both men and women in the United States. According to the American Lung Association, over 160,000 Americans die of the disease each year.
One reason for the high death toll: About 70 percent of lung cancers are diagnosed in the late stages, according to the Lung Cancer Alliance, a national advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C. However, one recent study found that, if diagnosed early, 92 percent of patients could expect to live 10 years.
Doctors have long sought a reliable early detection method. Even when something that looks like a predictor of cancer is found -- such as a nodule on the lung during a CT scan -- it's still not a foolproof way to determine who will get cancer, Spivack said.
"What we find in middle-age smokers is that 20 to 80 percent of these people have nodules," he said. "But 95 percent of the nodules are not cancer and are not going to be."
Read more…

Garlic could help in treating cancer!

Monster and critics- Two Indian scientists have developed a new method that advocates the use of a garlic component to treat cancer-causing tumours.D. Karunagaran, a professor at the department of biotechnology at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Madras, and Suby Oommen, a PhD student at the Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology in Kerala, have been working on garlic-based components and their effects on cancer cells from 1998.

The researchers said the novel treatment involves a synergistic composition comprising a garlic organosulphur compound Diallyl trisulfide (DATS) and an anti-cancer agent.DATS, a constituent of garlic, is one of a group of substances that contain sulphur and anti-cancer agent is a substance that prevents, kills or blocks the growth or spread of cancer cells.

Read more...

New Treatment For Prostate Cancer

Spirit India- Scientists have found a way of using a protein made by prostate cancer to target and kill the cancer cells themselves. In preliminary studies the new therapy affected only the prostate, without causing damage to other healthy tissues, and now it is being tested in a phase I clinical trial, according to research presented at the 18th EORTC-NCI-AACR Symposium on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics in Prague on Friday.

Prostate cancer is one of the commonest cancers in men, with nearly 680,000 new cases each year worldwide and more than 220,000 deaths [1]. Furthermore, by the age of 80, approximately 80% of all men will have developed a non-cancerous condition called benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) in which the prostate gland becomes enlarged. The findings reported today (Friday 10 November) have the potential to improve the survival and quality of life for men suffering from both these conditions.

Read more...

Fire fighters might have to fight cancer too!

Yahoo News - Firefighters risk their lives each day as part of their job, but new research suggests they're at higher cancer risk, too.
In particular, researchers found that firefighters are more likely to develop testicular cancer, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, prostate cancer and multiple myeloma compared with the general population.
Firefighters need to take precautions when fighting fires, the experts said -- especially if they have removed their protective gear and breathing apparatus.
That's because firefighters' exposures to carcinogenic toxins "occur not when they are in the fire, but when they are in the vicinity of the fire," explained lead researcher Dr. James Lockey, a professor of occupational, environmental and pulmonary medicine at the University of Cincinnati.
The report appears in the November issue of the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
Read more…

Targeted therapies before surgery is found to be effective in kidney cancer patients

Reuters - Treating patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma before surgery with a combination of targeted therapies is safe, effective and may prolong their lives, researchers said on Thursday.
Scientists at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Centre, who presented their findings at a conference in Prague, studied the effect of giving the drugs bevacizumab and erlotinib to patients before their tumor was removed.
"The main aim of this study was to look at the efficacy and safety of using these targeted therapies before surgery, and our results have shown that there were few side effects and that it prolonged the survival of our patients," said Eric Jonasch, a professor of medicine at the university.
Other studies have focused on the impact of giving the drug combo to patients after surgery but Jonasch and his team said their trial of 20 patients is the first to investigate the pre-surgical effect.
Read more…

Higher sugar intake increases the risk of pancreatic cancer

Reuters- People who drink large quantities of fizzy drinks or add sugar to coffee or tea run a higher risk of developing cancer of the pancreas, Swedish research showed on Wednesday.
Researchers at the Karolinska Institute studied the diets of almost 80,000 men and women between 1997 and 2005. A total of 131 developed pancreatic cancer, a deadly form of the disease that is difficult to treat.
"The researchers have now been able to show that the risk of developing pancreatic cancer is related to the amount of sugar in the diet," the institute said in a statement.
The group of people who said they drank fizzy or syrup-based drinks twice a day or more ran a 90 percent higher risk of getting cancer of the pancreas than those who never drank them.

Read more...

Related News Australia testing spread of sugar 'smut' disease

Researchers at University of Louisville develop a probable vaccine for lung cancer

Two researchers at University of Louisville have developed a vaccine, which they believe could be used to prevent lung cancer and other forms of cancer in humans, in future. The vaccine has been successfully tested on mice in preventing lung cancer. The findings of this research will be presented at the International Cancer Conference at Prague, Czech Republic, later today, by one of its researchers, John W. Eaton. Lung Cancer is the most lethal form of cancer, which kills over 3 million people worldwide, every year. The survival rate among lung cancer patients is very low, with only one in ten patients expected to survive the next five years. Smoking is considered to be the largest risk factor of lung cancer and almost 40% of smokers develop this disease in their lifetime.
John W. Eaton, deputy director of University of Louisville’s James Graham Brown Cancer centre, said that the results of this vaccine in mice were promising, but more research is required if this vaccine is to be used on humans for preventing cancer. Eaton and his colleague Robert Mitchell, who were involved in this research, said that they were excited with the early results of the work, which involves injecting adult mice with mouse embryonic stem cells, isolated from a fertilized mouse embryo. The immune system of the mice recognizes these stem cells as foreign bodies and develops a immune response, which could prevent the growth of tumors.

Read more of this story...

Biotech drugs used to treat rheumatoid arthritis may not increase the risk of cancer, as much as feared!

Reuters alert - Two biotech drugs used to treat rheumatoid arthritis-- Abbott Laboratories Inc.'s Humira and Johnson & Johnson's Remicade -- may raise the risk of cancer and infections but not as much as was feared, researchers said on Tuesday.

A series of letters published in the Journal of the American Medical Association show that several teams have taken a fresh look at the safety of the two drugs and find that they may double the risk of cancer and infections.

Most of the researchers, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, agree that patients need to know about the risks but say the benefits mean the drugs should stay on the market.

Read more...

Related News EU clears arthritis drug

Smoking ban could eradicate lung cancer in 20 years

BBC news - Lung cancer could be virtually wiped out in Scotland as a result of the smoking ban in public places, according to the chief medical officer. Dr Harry Burns said lung cancer rates would be reduced to just a few hundred cases a year in the future. In 2005, there were 4,000 recorded deaths from lung cancer in Scotland. His annual report also said there were other signs of improving health, including increased life expectancy, breast feeding and immunisation rates.

Dr Burns said: "Imagining Scotland with no lung cancer is not trivial speculation.
"In the 1960s, one in 100 men died of lung cancer.

"Today, rates are falling all the time and thanks to the smoking ban, I expect the reduction in deaths to accelerate until dying from the disease becomes a rare occurrence.

Read more...

Related news The effects of smoking in fracture and ligament injuries

Obesity raises Cancer Risk

WCSH6.com - The American Cancer Society has revised its cancer prevention guidelines. Stepping on the scale can be a scary experience for some adults, but maintaining a healthy weight is now at the top of the american cancer society's cancer prevention list.

We know obesity is related to a number of cancers, breast cancer among post-menopausal women, colon cancer, esophogeal, kidney cancer. "The cancer society urges people to eat a diet rich in fruits, vegetables and whole grains and to be physically active at least five days a week," said Colleen Doyle, of the American Cancer Society. "Going for a 30-minute, 45-minute walk, going out running, biking, intentional physical activity is really important for cancer risk reduction."

Read more...

Related News Europe faces obesity Epidemic by 2010

Stress linked to cancer

Med India - More stress can lead to the growth and spread of cancer and controlling stress might help to control it, says a recent research finding.A remarkable research finding suggests that stress results in the release of hormones that aggravate growth of cancer. Norepinephrine, a hormone released during stress stimulates cancer cells to produce two compounds which can breakdown the tissue around the tumor cells. This enables the cells to move easily into the bloodstream and travel to other parts of the body leading to metastasis.The research also suggests the same hormone can also stimulate the tumor cells to release another compound that can aid in the growth of new blood vessels that feed cancer cells, hastening the growth and spread of the disease. The work was reported in the latest issue of the journal Cancer Research.

Read more...

Related news Reduce stress to avoid chronic fatigue

European Researchers find no link between abortion and breast cancer

China View- European researchers investigating a possible link between abortion and Breast cancer found no increased risk, according to a study published in the International Journal of Cancer.
"It is well established that pregnancies that end in a full-term birth ultimately confer a protective effect on breast cancer risk," Dr. Gillian K. Reeves, of the University of Oxford , UK, and colleagues write. "The effect of incomplete pregnancies on the risk of breast cancer has been less clear."
The researchers examined the role of abortion on breast cancer risk among 267,361 women enrolled in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition between 1992 and 2000. The data came from 20 centers across nine countries.
A total of 4,805 women were diagnosed with breast cancer during a follow-up that averaged 6.6 years. The researchers included all pregnancies that ended prior to 20 weeks or the stage of viability -- spontaneous abortions or miscarriages, and therapeutic or induced abortions.

Read more...

Related News Measure to notify parents of minors' abortion edges ahead

Female smokers are at greater risk to lung cancer than male smokers

Shangai Daily- Female smokers are three times as likely to contract lung cancer as men who smoke the same amount of cigarettes, a local doctor told a gathering of medical experts this week, the start of World Lung cancer Awareness month. Dr Liao Meilin from Shanghai Chest Hospital says she studied 20,000 women in Shanghai for two years, tracking their lifestyle and smoking habits, as well as medical histories. She also tracked a control group of men in the city so she could compare cancer rates. A report on her findings that females who smoke are more susceptible to lung cancer than men was recently awarded top prize at the country's Ninth Clinical Oncology Meeting in Beijing. A national oncology journal is expected to publish a paper on her findings in the near future. The number of local women who light up has risen significantly over the past six years, according to the Shanghai Center for Disease Control and Prevention. About five percent of women in the city smoked in 2000, and that number has risen to nine percent at present, according to the center.

Read more...

Related News Cancer Society hopes for regional smoking ban

Signal-protein counteracts the effects of tumor promoters in skin cells

Spiritindia - A protein with the ironic name "Srcasm" can counteract the effects of tumor-promoting molecules in skin cells, according to new research by investigators at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Using animal models, the researchers discovered that Srcasm acts like a brake in epithelial cells, preventing uncontrolled cell growth caused by a family of proteins called Src Kinases. This finding, published online in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, suggests a target for future gene therapy to treat skin, head, neck, colon, and breast cancers.

Investigators have known for decades that Src kinase proteins can promote tumor formation. Src kinase activity is elevated in most skin cancers and in common Carcinomas, including those of the breast and colon.

Read more...

Related news Dermatologists discusses Skin cancer causes,prevention

Risk of developing ovarian cancer is much lower in women living in warmer regions

HBNS- The risk of developing Ovarian Cancer is 60 percent lower among women living in areas of the world with high Ultraviolet B radiation exposure than those who live in areas with less UVB, concludes a study encompassing 175 countries.“The main reason for this advantage is that women living in sunny areas have higher circulating (vitamin D2) levels that protect them from ovarian cancer,” said lead researcher Dr. Cedric Garland, a professor of family and preventive medicine at the University of California in San Diego.

Exposure to UVB from sunlight allows skin to photosynthesize Vitamin D, which enters the bloodstream and circulates throughout the body. For the study in the latest issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine,the researchers correlated 2002 data on UVB radiation, stratospheric ozone measurements and fertility rates of young women with incidence rates of ovarian cancer worldwide.

Read more...

Related News Casey pushes for greater ovarian cancer awareness

Scientists identify the gene associated with the growth of breast cancer

CBC News- Multiple copies of a gene called uPAR are associated with the spread of early-stage Breast cancer, U.S. researchers report. The gene offers a promising target for drugs to slow or halt the progression of the disease, says a team from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. It could also serve as a screening tool for determining which kinds of drugs a breast cancer patient will respond to, the researchers said.

The study was published in this week's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "The uPAR system probably plays a role in metastases in many of the common solid tumors," study senior author Dr. Jonathan Uhr, a professor in the Cancer Immunobiology Center, said in a prepared statement.

Read more...

Related News Avon-MHD walkathon against Breast cancer

Proton Therapy could replace X rays for treating Cancer

VoA news- A new state of the art medical facility in the United States is harnessing a new weapon in the cancer fighting arsenal: Proton therapy. Medical experts say the procedure, a precise form of radiation to target tumors, offers new hope in the treatment of various types of cancer.

The M.D.Anderson Proton Therapy Center at the University of Texas is one of 25 institutions in the world that use proton therapy.Traditional radiation therapy uses x-ray beams to shrink cancerous tumors. Large portions of the body are subject to radiation because X-rays cannot be delivered more accurately, so physicians limit the amount of radiation a patient undergoes to spare healthy tissue.

Read more...

Related News More Radiotherapy Is Not Better for Elderly Patients with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma

Breast cancer may no longer be fatal!

With survival rate among breast cancer patients increasing significantly in the last few years, experts feel that this disease may longer be fatal, but instead turn into a long-term manageable disorder like diabetes and arthritis. In a conference organized by Breast Cancer Campaign in London recently, experts revealed that new drugs like Herceptin have reduced the occurrence of this disease to a large extent. The recent developments in diagnosis and treatment of this disease have enhanced the survival rate among breast cancer patients, through early detection and better management of the disease. Pamela Goldberg, chief executive of the Breast Cancer Campaign, said that women have a better chance of surviving this disease, with drugs like Herceptin and aromatase inhibitors like anastrozole and letrozole reducing the effects of this disease. She added that new techniques in cosmetic surgery are helping to reduce the psychological impact in breast cancer patients, who undergo surgeries as a part of their treatment.
The survival rate among breast cancer patients has gone up from 57% in 1980’s to 80% now. Professor John Toy, medical director of Cancer Research UK, said that new methods of prevention, screening and diagnosis of breast cancer coupled with discovery of new drugs, should improve the survival rate of breast cancer patients, in future.

Read more of this story...

Cancer-fighting virus kills invasive Brain cells

Science Daily- Researchers funded by The Terry Fox Foundation and the Canadian Cancer Society have found that a cancer-fighting virus called VSV kills the most malignant form of brain cancer in mice. The team also discovered that the virus can be given intravenously and targets invasive tumour cells.

The research team first modified the virus by altering one of the genes to make it safer in normal cells but still able to kill cancer cells. They then used a new way of delivering the virus -- intravenously instead of directly into the tumour -- and were able to target the main tumour as well as the tumour cells that had spread from the main mass.

Read more...

Related News Radiation therapy increases Brain tumor risk in children

New treatment for Liver cancer

13 Wham News- Doctors are now offering a new treatment to liver cancer patients who have tumors that are so large they cannot be operated on.The Therasphere treatment uses millions of tiny beads to control cancer growth and shrink tumors.

Dr. Darryl Zuckerman, a radiologist, said, “These are very small glass spheres that are impregnated with a radioactive substance which delivers localized radiation targeted to liver tumors.”Zuckerman told patient Linda Fitterer she was a candidate for this procedure after it was determined she was not a candidate for surgery

Read more....

Related News Liver transplantation extends survival of liver cancer Patients

Colon Cancer linked to diet low in folic acid

Toronto Star - A diet low in folic acid appears to increase the risk of colorectal cancer in laboratory mice — and a similar deficiency could play a role in the human form of the disease, a study by Canadian researchers suggests.

In a one-year study of 137 mice, scientists at McGill University found that animals fed a diet deficient in folic acid — a B vitamin also known as folate — were more likely to develop colorectal cancer than rodents given a fully balanced diet that contained adequate folate.

"We found tumors in the mice that were on the low-folate diet and no tumors in mice that were on the regular diet," said geneticist Rima Rozen, scientific director of the Montreal Children's Hospital and the study's lead investigator.

Read more…

Related news – Folic acid may prevent throat cancer