Cancer
Temperament Linked to Cancer and Early Death in Female Rats
|
|
Female rats that are apprehensive of new experiences as infants maintain that temperament and die earlier from mammary and pituitary tumors than do their more adventuresome sisters. The apprehensive rats were more likely to have irregular reproductive cycles than adventuresome rats, and that disruption could account for hormonal differences linked to the development of cancer earlier, the scholars found. There was no difference in the length of time between onset of cancer and death in the two set of rats, however, the scholars found.
Because the findings have identified a difference in temperament that is associated with the onset of cancer, the findings may have implications for research on the development of cancer in humans, said Martha McClintock, the David Lee Shillinglaw Distinguished Service Professor in Psychology at the University of Chicago, and a member of the team that reports its findings in the paper “Infant Temperament Predicts Life Span in Female Rats that Develop Spontaneous Tumors” in the current issue of Hormones and Behavior.
Current human studies on the relationship between cancer and personality primarily focus on survival once a tumor has been identified.
Girl given massive overdose of radiation dies
|
|
A schoolgirl cancer patient who was given a massive overdose of radiation has died. Lisa Norris, 16, died at her home in Ayrshire, Scotland, on Wednesday, surrounded by her family.
In January, she was given 17 overdoses of radiation therapy during treatment for a brain tumour, which left her with severe burns to the back of her neck and head. She had recently undergone treatment to remove fluid from her brain.
Her father Ken, 51, told the Daily Record newspaper: “She was determined not to give up her fight and she stayed fighting until the end. That’s my Lisa. She was our inspiration. She kept us going in many ways.”
Childhood cancer survivors more at risk of chronic health problems as adults
|
|
According to a new study adult survivors of childhood cancer can expect to suffer from one or more chronic health problems years after their cancer has been cured.
Advances in the treatment of pediatric cancer means that almost 80 percent of children diagnosed with the disease will become long-term survivors; but cancer treatments themselves carry risks, as in order to cure the deadly disease, quite toxic therapies are needed.
Dr. Kevin Oeffinger, director of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center’s Program for Adult Survivors of Pediatric Cancer, in New York City, conducted a collaborative study on adult survivors of childhood cancer by working with researchers from more than two dozen cancer centers throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Pre-op chemotherapy benefits young cancer patients
|
|
Children with advanced kidney cancer may suffer fewer long-term side effects and need less treatment if they are given chemotherapy to shrink their tumour before surgery, researchers said on Tuesday.
Wilms’ tumour is the most common type of kidney cancer that affects children. In most cases it is curable.
Chemotherapy is normally given after surgery to kill any remaining cancer cells in the body. But British scientists said some children would benefit from delaying surgery to receive chemotherapy treatment.
Exercise curbs precancerous changes in the colon
|
|
Regular, moderate-to-vigorous aerobic exercise can reduce cellular changes in the tissue lining the colon that can lead to the formation of colon polyps and colon cancer, a study suggests.
“This shows that you can see a biological effect at the tissue level of exercise,” Dr. Anne McTiernan of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle told Reuters Health. “This supports the observational studies that people who exercise have a lower risk of colon cancer.”
However, the effects of exercise were only seen among men in the current study. This may have been because women just didn’t exercise as hard, McTiernan offers, or because their workouts reduced their levels of estrogen, which protects against colon cancer.
Cisplatin nanoliposomes for cancer therapy
|
|
Cisplatin is one of the most powerful and effective drugs for treating a wide variety of cancers, but many tumors develop resistance to this drug, ultimately limiting its benefits for cancer patients.
Now, however, researchers have developed a nanoparticulate formulation of cisplatin that shows promise for overcoming drug resistance while boosting the amount of drug that accumulates inside malignant cells.
Reporting its work in the journal Langmuir, a team of investigators led by Ratnesh Lal, Ph.D., of the University of California, Santa Barbara, describes its development and characterization of a nanoscale liposome capable of ferrying cisplatin across the cell membrane of tumor cells. Using atomic force microscopy (AFM), the researchers were able to fully characterize the size distribution, drug encapsulation efficiency, stability, and cell uptake of their cisplatin liposomes.
Molecular Markers Signal Early Metastases from Ocular Melanoma
|
|
Patients with melanoma of the eye are at risk for liver metastases, which are often not detected until they have turned into large, lethal tumors. Now researchers have found molecular markers, including changes in a particular chromosome, that flag the presence of small metastases before they reach life-threatening size.
In a second important finding, the researchers showed that a common procedure, called fine needle biopsy, could be used to accurately detect these molecular signatures.
“The results show that we can pinpoint these molecular markers in the small amount of RNA and DNA obtained from fine needle biopsy,” said principal investigator J. William Harbour, M.D., Associate Professor of Ophthalmology/Cell Biology/Medicine at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
Vitamin D halves pancreatic cancer risk
|
|
People who take vitamin D tablets are half as likely to get deadly pancreatic cancer as people who do not, U.S. researchers reported on Wednesday.
Now they are checking to see if getting the vitamin from food or sunlight also cuts the risk.
The study suggests one easy way to reduce the risk of pancreatic cancer, the fourth leading cause of death from cancer in the United States. This year the American Cancer Society estimates that 32,000 new cases will be diagnosed, and only 5 percent of patients will survive more than 5 years.
Herceptin cancer drug wins final British go-ahead
|
|
Britain’s cost-effectiveness watchdog issued final guidance on Wednesday recommending that Herceptin should be used in early breast cancer and be paid for by the state health service.
The move by the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) clears the way for the drug to be prescribed on the National Health Service for women with aggressive HER2 breast cancer following surgery.
NICE had given a preliminary green light to the Roche medicine in June but that decision was challenged by Newbury and Community Primary Care Trust, delaying final approval. In the event, the trust’s appeal was not upheld.
Questionnaire helps estimate melanoma risk
|
|
A detailed questionnaire and a brief examination appear useful in identifying people at high risk of melanoma, researchers report.
The use of these procedures during a routine medical visit can help doctors estimate a patient’s absolute risk of developing melanoma, Dr. Thomas A. Fears told Reuters Health. High-risk individuals could undergo further interventions, such as a complete skin examination, counseling to avoid sun exposure, and regular self-examination.
Fears, at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, and colleagues studied data from a study involving 718 non-Hispanic white patients with a median age of 49 years who had confirmed melanoma.
Exercise may have benefits in colon cancer
|
|
Vigorous physical activity following a diagnosis of colorectal cancer substantially reduces the risk of death due to cancer or other causes, two studies indicate. Neither stage of disease nor surgery appears to significantly alter these outcomes.
In one study, Dr. Jeffrey A. Meyerhardt, from Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, and his team identified 573 women diagnosed with stage I, II, or III colorectal cancer. During a median follow-up of 9.6 years, 132 women died; 80 of these deaths were due to the cancer.
The investigators documented the level of physical activity the participants reported following their diagnosis, and translated that to “metabolic equivalent tasks” (MET-hours per week). For example, walking at a rate of 2.9 mph was assigned a score of 3 MET-hours, aerobic exercise was given a 6, and running faster than 10 min/mile was counted as 12 MET-hours.
Study backs lower PSA threshold for black men
|
|
African-American men with early nonpalpable prostate cancer have greater tumor volume than white men with similar prostate specific antigen (PSA) levels, a study shows. This suggests that the threshold for PSA should be lowered in black men.
The widely used PSA blood test is used to look for early signs of prostate cancer. The traditional PSA cut off value is 4 ng/mL.
Based on the current findings, this value should be lowered to 2.5 ng/mL in African-American men “to increase the likelihood of finding cancers that are highly curable,” Dr. Curtis A. Pettaway from The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas told Reuters Health.
Oxy-Q may help prevent colon cancer
|
|
A pilot clinical trial demonstrates that Oxy-Q, a proprietary pill by Farr Laboratories, LLC that combines the active components of turmeric and onions, reduces both the size and number of precancerous colon polyps.
The unique blend of curcumin, found in turmeric, and quercetin, found in onions and green tea, used in the study can only be found in Oxy-Q.
Five patients, three men and two women ranging in age from 22 to 54, with a genetic form of precancerous lesions in the bowel (familial adenomatous polyposis or FAP) were treated with Oxy-Q over a period of six months. The average number of polyps reduced was 60.4 percent and average size diminished by 50.9 percent. Both the size and the number of polyps were reduced significantly which may indicate that Oxy-Q could help prevent colon cancer in these patients.
Another report links processed to stomach cancer
|
|
Evidence continues to mount that eating a lot of hot dogs, salami or other processed meat products may raise the risk of stomach cancer. Besides salt and nitrites or nitrates, processed meats often contain cancer-causing nitrosamines, which may be responsible for the link, Swedish researchers warn.
They evaluated the risk of stomach cancer in relation to consumption of processed meat (bacon/pork, sausage/hotdogs, ham/salami); unprocessed red meat (including hamburgers, meatballs, meatloaf); and poultry and fish in more than 61,000 women enrolled in a population-based Swedish study. The women provided information on their eating habits between 1987 and 1990 and again in 1997.
During the 18 years the women were followed, 156 developed stomach cancer.
Chemicals in curry, onions may shrink colon polyps
|
|
Compounds found in curry and onions may help prevent colon cancer in those at risk, according to findings from a small study released this week.
In the study, patients with pre-cancerous polyps in the colon who took a pill containing a combination of curcumin, which is found in the curry spice turmeric, and quercetin, an antioxidant found in onions, experienced a marked reduction in both the size and number of polyps.
“We believe this is the first proof of principle that these substances have significant effects in patients with FAP (familial adenomatous polyposis),” Dr. Francis M. Giardiello of The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore said in a statement.
