Cancer
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month
|
|
The Cancer Institute of New Jersey (CINJ) is making experts available to discuss the risks, treatment and prevention options surrounding breast cancer. According to the American Cancer Society more than nearly 183,000 patients nationwide will be diagnosed with the disease this year, with a little more than 6,300 new cases expected in New Jersey. And while the disease affects mostly women, men also can be diagnosed with breast cancer. CINJ is a Center of Excellence of UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.
CINJ experts available for comment include:
Deborah Toppmeyer, M.D., director, New Jersey Comprehensive Breast Care Center and director of the LIFE (Ladies Professional Golf Association In the Fight to Eradicate breast cancer) Center at CINJ; and associate professor of medicine at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. Dr. Toppmeyer can discuss the molecular characteristics of breast cancer and how targeted therapies are helping breast cancer patients improve their quality of life. She currently is working on a clinical trial focusing on a new drug combination for women with triple-negative breast cancer. In advanced breast cancer, such as triple-negative, combinations of chemotherapy drugs to kill cancer cells result in response rates between 40 and 70 percent; complete response rates or clinical remissions are rare. Although there has been progress in prolonging survival in breast cancer that spreads to other parts of the body, the majority of women die from their disease. Dr. Toppmeyer also specializes in young women with breast cancer, a growing population.
New approach to gene therapy may shrink brain tumors, prevent their spread
|
|
Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers are investigating a new approach to gene therapy for brain tumors – delivering a cancer-fighting gene to normal brain tissue around the tumor to keep it from spreading. An animal study published in the journal Molecular Therapy, the first to test the feasibility of such an approach, found that inducing mouse brain cells to secrete human interferon-beta suppressed and eliminated growth of human glioblastoma cells implanted nearby.
“We had hypothesized that genetically engineering normal tissue surrounding a tumor could create a zone of resistance – a microenvironment that prevents the growth or spread of the tumor,” says Miguel Sena-Esteves, PhD, of the MGH Neuroscience Center, the study’s senior author. “This proof of principle study shows that this could be a highly effective approach, although there are many additional questions that need to be investigated.”
Glioblastoma is the most common and deadly form of brain tumor. Human clinical trials of other gene therapies have not significantly reduced tumor progression. One problem has been that patients’ immune systems target the viral vectors used to deliver cancer-eliminating genes.
Hormone therapy may cut breast cancer risk in some
|
|
Hormone replacement therapy, which raises breast cancer risk for some women, appears to reduce the risk for those with a certain genetic mutation linked to the disease, researchers said on Tuesday.
Dr. Steven Narod of Women’s College Hospital in Toronto and colleagues looked at hormone replacement therapy, or HRT, in post-menopausal women with a BRCA1 gene mutation that greatly increases their chances of developing breast cancer.
Among 472 women from nine countries, those who used HRT were 42 percent less likely to develop breast cancer than those who did not, Narod’s team reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Racial Disparities Decline for Cancer in Missouri
|
|
Cancer death rates in the United States are highest among African Americans, but a new report shows that in Missouri the disparity in cancer incidence and death between African Americans and whites is declining. As a result, cancer incidence (the rate of newly diagnosed cases) between the races is equal, although the death rate will probably remain higher for African Americans for some time.
The report will be published in an upcoming issue of Missouri Medicine. The lead author is Mario Schootman, Ph.D., co-leader of the Prevention and Control Program at the Siteman Cancer Center at Washington University School of Medicine and Barnes-Jewish Hospital.
“A lot of effort has been made to reduce cancer racial disparity in Missouri,” says Schootman, also chief of the Division of Health Behavior Research and associate professor of epidemiology and medicine. “But there is still work to be done, especially in decreasing cancer mortality. Ideally, cancer will become just another bump in the road — an illness that people will be able to live with for many decades and keep under control.”
Prostate cancer hormone therapy may raise mortality
|
|
In elderly men with early-stage prostate cancer, receiving hormone therapy is associated with an increase in all-cause mortality, according to a study reported Tuesday at the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology’s 50th Annual Meeting underway in Boston.
“Our study shows that for men over 70 with early-stage prostate cancer, androgen deprivation therapy as a form of treatment may do more harm than good,” said Dr. Amy M. Dosoretz, a radiation oncology resident at the Harvard Radiation Oncology Program in Boston, who led the study.
The findings of this study are “potentially practice-changing,” said Dr. Louis Harrison of Beth Israel Medical Center, New York, and moderator of a press briefing where the findings were released.
Men with Health Risk Behaviors Unaware of PSA Test
|
|
New research of 7,297 men in California, published in The Journal of Urology ®, shows that self-reported prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test awareness was lower in current smokers, physically inactive men and obese men—a population with what researchers called, “health risk behaviors.” This study shows the need for more publicity to raise awareness of prostate cancer screenings. There is no better time than Prostate Health Month to raise awareness about prostate cancer screening.
The AUA and the AUA Foundation are trying to reach out to the public about prostate health. We are pleased to be co-sponsoring a number of events with different community partners to promote prostate health, education and awareness. Please see the attached calendar of events for more information on free Webinars, free prostate cancer screenings and 5K Runs/1 Mile Fun Walks around the nation that raise money to fund prostate cancer research.
The American Urological Association (AUA) and AUA Foundation want men to know that prostate cancer is curable, if found early through prostate cancer screenings. The AUA recommends that both a PSA test and a digital rectal examination (DRE) be offered annually, beginning at age 50 years, to men who have a life expectancy of at least 10 years. Men at high risk (those with a family history of prostate cancer or African American men) should consider beginning testing at an earlier age.
Gastric cancer with 3 pathological features
|
|
Primary carcinoma of the stomach is almost always adenocarcinoma or signet ring cell carcinoma and there are few reports of choriocarcinoma or neuroendocrine cell carcinoma. We report a patient with adenocarcinoma of the stomach combined with choriocarcinoma and neuroendocrine cell carcinoma. This is the first reported case of gastric cancer with these three pathological features.
A case article to be published on 28 May 2008 in the World Journal of Gastroenterology addresses this report. The research team led by Prof. Yasumitsu Hirano from Kanazawa University Graduate school of Medical Science described a patient with adenocarcinoma of the stomach combined with choriocarcinoma and neuroendocrine cell carcinoma.
They reported that a 85-year-old man presented to the hospital because of appetite loss. Gastric fiberscopy revealed a large tumor occupying the cardial region and anterior wall of the gastric body. The patient underwent total gastrectomy with lymphnode dissection and partial resection of the liver. In the gastric tumor, choriocarcinoma, small cell carcinoma and tubular adenocarcinoma were existed. The choriocarcinomatous foci contained cells positive for beta-subunit of human chorionic gonadotropin (B-hCG) and human placental lactogen mainly in syncytiotrophoblastic cells. The small cell carcinomatous foci contained cells positive for synaptophysin, neuron-specific enolase (NSE), and chromogranin A.
McCain and Obama on same side in US war on cancer
|
|
If there is one war John McCain and Barack Obama agree on, it’s the one against cancer.
Thirty-seven years after President Richard Nixon launched the “war on cancer,” the two U.S. presidential candidates agree on a need to fight the disease that kills more than 560,000 Americans each year.
The close personal ties each candidate has to the disease ensures that cancer advocates will find support in the White House regardless who wins the Nov. 4 election.
McCain, the 72-year-old Republican presidential nominee, survived multiple skin cancers. Democratic nominee Barack Obama, 47, lost his grandfather to prostate cancer and watched his young mother die from ovarian cancer.
Genetic region linked to a 5 times higher lung cancer risk
|
|
A narrow region on chromosome 15 contains genetic variations strongly associated with familial lung cancer, says a study conducted by scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and other institutions in the United States and the United Kingdom.
The researchers found a more than five times higher risk of lung cancer for people who have both a family history of the disease and these genetic variations. The risk was not affected by whether the study participants smoked or didn’t smoke.
Published in the Sept. 13 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, this study is the fourth since April 2008 to implicate this genetic region in the development of lung cancer, and it strengthens the possibility that testing for variations in this region could become a valuable way to warn individuals of their higher risk.
Chest Surgeons Propose Measures for Indicating Quality of Lung Surgery
|
|
Even though 30,000 patients in the United States undergo lung surgery each year, no standard criteria exist to measure the quality of their care. In the current issue of The Annals of Thoracic Surgery, Mayo Clinic surgeons have proposed a system of lung surgery quality indicators for surgeons and the public as a method to demonstrate best practices for obtaining positive patient outcomes.
Death rates following surgery are frequently reported. However, because they aren’t adjusted for factors such as patient age and disease severity, they don’t tell the whole story. To overcome this lack of risk adjustment in death rate data, the Mayo Clinic team proposed patient-centered processes that should occur prior to, during and after surgery to assure the likelihood of best surgical outcomes.
“There are certain processes that we can measure and report that clearly indicate whether patients have received high-quality care around the time of their lung operation,” explains Stephen Cassivi, M.D., Mayo Clinic thoracic surgeon and lead study author.
Study examines lung cancer among lifelong nonsmokers
|
|
A new American Cancer Society study sheds light on the ten to fifteen percent of lung cancers that are caused by factors other than tobacco smoking. The study analyzed data on lung cancer occurrence among lifelong nonsmokers in North America, Europe, and Asia and found that lung cancer death rates among never-smokers are highest among men, African Americans, and Asians residing in Asia. The review, the largest to date of lifelong nonsmokers, also suggests that the death rates among never-smokers have remained stable over the past several decades. It appears in the September issue of PLoS Medicine, a peer-reviewed, open-access journal published by the Public Library of Science.
While the great majority of lung cancers are related to smoking, approximately 16,000 to 24,000 lung cancer deaths each year are due to other factors. For comparison, if lung cancers not caused by smoking were considered a separate category, it would rank among the seven to nine most common fatal cancers in the U.S. The researchers say as the number of never-smokers in the U.S. and other developed countries is increasing, this is a subject of particular interest and importance.
To examine the issue, researchers led by Michael J. Thun, M.D. pooled data on lung cancer incidence and death rates among self-reported never-smokers from 13 large cohort studies based in North America, Europe, and Asia that spanned the time period from 1960 to 2004. The pooled data represented hundreds of thousands of individuals (over 630,000 for the incidence data and 1.8 million for the mortality data). The researchers also abstracted data for women from 22 cancer registries in 10 countries in time periods and regions where the smoking prevalence among women was known to be low.
No mental effects seen with Arimidex
|
|
Women taking Arimidex to prevent breast cancer can be fairly reassured that it won’t affect their mental capacities, British researchers report.
Arimidex, a. k. a. anastrazole, belongs to a class of drugs called aromatase inhibitors, which block the production of estrogen. There have been concerns that estrogen depletion might impair cognitive abilities in women, but the results of a new study suggest that anastrazole does not have this effect in women past menopause.
“These findings should be reassuring in the short term for postmenopausal women being treated with anastrozole, their clinicians, and carers,” lead author Dr. Valerie A. Jenkins concludes.
Too much calcium in blood may increase risk of fatal prostate cancer
|
|
Men who have too much calcium in their bloodstreams may have an increased risk of fatal prostate cancer, according to a new analysis from Wake Forest University School of Medicine and the University of Wisconsin.
“We show that men in upper range of the normal distribution of serum calcium subsequently have an almost three-fold increased risk for fatal prostate cancer,” said Gary G. Schwartz, Ph.D., associate professor of cancer biology and of epidemiology and prevention at Wake Forest, a part of Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center. Such excess calcium can be lowered, he said.
The research appears in the September issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.
New role for Natural Killers!
|
|
Scientists at the University of York have discovered a new role for a population of white blood cells, which may lead to improved treatments for chronic infections and cancer.
Natural Killer (or NK) cells are abundant white blood cells that were recognised over 30 years ago as being able to kill cancer cells in the test tube. Since that time, a role for NK cells in activating other white blood cells (including ‘T’ lymphocytes and phagocytes) and in directing how the immune system responds to a wide range of infections has also been established.
Because of these properties, NK have been widely regarded as being of benefit in the fight against cancer and infection, and methods to increase NK cell activity underpin a range of new experimental anti-cancer drugs and anti-infectives.
History of nonmelanoma skin cancer is associated with increased risk for subsequent malignancies
|
|
Individuals with a history of nonmelanoma skin cancer (NMSC) are at increased risk for other cancers, according to a study published in the August 26 online issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Previous studies have documented that people who have had nonmelanoma skin cancer were at increased risk for developing melanoma, but it is less well-established whether they were also at risk for cancers that do not involve the skin.
In the current study, Anthony Alberg, Ph.D., of the Medical University of South Carolina and colleagues analyzed data from a prospective cohort study called CLUE II, which was established in Washington County, Md., in 1989. Alberg’s team compared the risk of malignancies in 769 individuals who had been diagnosed with nonmelanoma skin cancer and 18,405 individuals with no history of the disease during a 16-year follow-up period.
