Cancer
Writing a Roadmap to the Future for Cancer Survivors
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Christina Bigelow knows she needs to keep her heart healthy and avoid smoking and drinking. It’s more important for her than it is for a typical 19-year-old.
After surviving cancer twice, Bigelow now works hard to monitor for or prevent a third round with the disease.
“The second cancer was actually thought to be caused by the treatment of the first cancer, so because I’ve had two primary cancers, they’re kind of worried about a third one starting from the treatment of the second one,” says Bigelow, who was 9 when she was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Four years later, at age 13, she was diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma, a type of bone cancer.
Oral cancer screening
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Screening for cancer involves examination for early stages in the development of the disease even though there are no apparent symptoms. This holds true for oral and mouth cancers where your dentist or oral hygienist can detect changes in the tissues of the mouth when they are pre-cancerous or very small tumors.
The screening procedure is quick and painless, cost effective, and can be performed by a dentist, dental hygienist, or doctor. If abnormalities are found, a referral to an oral surgeon is usually recommended.
Thyroid cancer raises risk of second cancer
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After surviving cancer of the thyroid, the risk of a second different cancer is elevated by about 30 percent, according to results of a new study. Conversely, many cancers are associated with increased risk of subsequent thyroid cancer.
Dr. Mark W. J. Strachan, from Western General Hospital in Edinburgh, UK, and colleagues note that the increased rate and improved prognosis of thyroid cancer, as well as its greater occurrence in children, suggests that other cancers are increasingly likely.
To test this theory, they combined data from 13 population-based cancer registries that have been in operation for at least 25 years in Europe, Canada, Australia, and Singapore. Their findings appear in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.
Cancer Survivors Face Emotional Challenges after Successful Treatment
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Your bout with cancer—or maybe a battle royal—is over. You beat the disease, withstood the treatment. You’re a survivor.
But after treatment, many women find themselves dealing with emotional fallout—fear of recurrence, depression, body changes, loneliness, and changing relationships—to name a few.
The June issue of Mayo Clinic Women’s HealthSource offers steps to deal with life’s chapters after cancer:
No Difference in Voice Quality After Comparing Different Treatments for Vocal Cord Cancer
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There is no significant difference in voice quality after external beam radiation therapy (EBRT) compared to endoscopic CO2 laser excision (CLE) in T1 glottic cancer. This is the conclusion of meta-analysis assessing voice outcomes after treatment for early glottic cancer.
A diagnosis of T1 glottic cancer, which is a tumor limited to one (T1a) or both (T1b) vocal cords, can at first appear to be devastating to the patient. However, EBRT and CLE have proven to offer high and comparable cure rates for this disease. What has not been determined is what procedure offers the best oncologic cure while minimizing adverse effects on the patient voice.
Problems associated with study design and data collection have resulted in varying voice outcomes in studies exploring CLE or EBRT. Essentially, perceptual analysis of vocal outcomes following treatment of T1 glottic cancer shows contradictory results. Both improved voice quality with EBRT and similar outcomes regardless of type of treatment have been found. Acoustic voice parameters have also demonstrated inconsistent voice outcomes following EBRT and CLE. Variability in the mouth to microphone distance, recording equipment, analyzing software, and patient effort may explain the disparate results.
Exercise, Diet May Protect Against Colorectal Cancer
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Voluntary exercise and a restricted diet reduced the number and size of pre-cancerous polyps in the intestines of male mice and improved survival, according to a study by a University of Wisconsin-Madison research published May 13 in the journal Carcinogenesis.
The study is the first to suggest that a “negative energy balance” - produced by increasing the mice’s energy output by use of a running wheel, while maintaining a restricted calorie intake - appeared to be the important factor in inhibiting the growth of polyps, which are the forerunners of colorectal tumors, says lead author Lisa H. Colbert, assistant professor in the UW-Madison department of kinesiology.
For the study, Colbert and her co-authors used mice with a genetic mutation that predisposed them to develop intestinal polyps.
Dual approach promising in advanced melanoma
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A new analysis of a group of patients with advanced metastatic melanoma treated with peptide vaccines after surgery shows an average survival of nearly 4 years—far longer than seen in previous trials.
“Patients with resected Stage IV melanoma can do a lot better than we thought,” Dr. Jeffrey S. Weber of the USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center in Los Angeles, the study’s lead author, told Reuters Health. “We would want to do at least that well, if not better, in any future trials.”
Weber and his team analyzed survival for 41 patients with Stage IV melanoma because “a fair number of the patients had done very well,” he explained. The patients, who had participated in a total of five clinical trials, had all undergone resection of distant sites of disease followed by peptide vaccines therapy.
Four subtypes of blood cancer identified
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Scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and collaborators have identified four distinct genetic subtypes of multiple myeloma, a deadly blood cancer, that have different prognoses and might be treated most effectively with drugs specifically targeted to those subtypes.
A new computational tool based on an algorithm designed to recognize human faces plucked the four distinguishing gene patterns out of a landscape of many DNA alterations in the myeloma genome, the researchers report in the April issue of Cancer Cell.
These results “define new disease subgroups of multiple myeloma that can be correlated with different clinical outcomes,” wrote the authors, led by Ronald DePinho, MD, director of Dana-Farber’s Center for Applied Cancer Science.
Even the Least Dangerous Skin Cancer Is No Trivial Matter
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Basal cell carcinoma is the most common skin cancer and the least dangerous - but it’s far from a trivial matter, reports the May issue of the Harvard Women’s Health Watch. The good news is that basal cell carcinoma rarely spreads (metastasizes), and it can easily be treated and cured when discovered early.
Basal cell skin cancers almost always occur in areas exposed to the sun: 80% show up on the head and neck. The face is particularly vulnerable. The most common form - nodular - usually shows up as a shiny bump and may bleed easily. It often ulcerates and crusts over. Superficial basal cell carcinoma forms a red, scaly, sometimes itchy spot and may have flecks of dark pigment. It’s often mistaken for a patch of dermatitis. Morpheaform, a rarer and more aggressive type, has a waxy white or yellow scarlike appearance and poorly defined borders.
Basal cell carcinoma grows slowly and occurs mostly in people over age 55. Sun exposure is the biggest risk factor. Treatment options include freezing, surgical removal, radiation, and topical creams. Each has a cure rate of 90% or more for first-time cancers.
Low Folate Levels May Cut Bowel Cancer Risk
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Low folate levels may protect against colorectal cancer Online First Gut 2006; doi 10.1136/gut.2005.085480
Low levels of folate, a B vitamin found in fruits and leafy green vegetables, may cut the risk of bowel cancer, suggests research published ahead of print in the journal Gut.
The accepted wisdom is that high levels of folate protect against the disease, and there are currently moves in Europe to fortify foodstuffs with folate, primarily to prevent birth defects, but also to boost the health of populations.
Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor Status Offers Potential for Meningioma Treatment
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Meningioma is typically a benign tumor of the meninges, the tissue that covers and surrounds the brain and spinal cord. It is one of the most common intracranial tumors and accounts for up to 26 percent of all adult brain tumors. Based on examination of tumor tissue microscopically, pathologists distinguish three different grades of meningioma that help predict the clinical behavior of the tumor, facilitate treatment planning, and enable an estimate of overall patient prognosis. These include grade I (benign), grade II (atypical), and grade III (malignant), comprising approximately 80 percent, 15 percent, and 5 percent of meningiomas, respectively.
In the vast majority of meningiomas studied, receptors for specific growth factors have been identified on the surface of the tumor cells. These growth factors are normally produced by the body and facilitate growth and maintenance of normal cells. However, tumor cells can overexpress the same receptors, which contribute to their abnormal growth by enabling these cells to utilize the corresponding growth factors. Because multiple growth factor receptors have been identified on subsets of meningiomas, neurosurgeons recently studied whether the presence or absence of these receptors on atypical meningioma tumor specimens may help predict whether the corresponding tumors will follow an indolent or aggressive clinical course.
The results of this study, Absence of Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor Immunoreactivity Defines a Subset of Atypical Meningiomas with a Distinctly Poor Prognosis, will be presented by Justin S. Smith, MD, PhD, 5:03 to 5:15 p.m. on Wednesday, April 26, 2006, during the 74th Annual Meeting of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons in San Francisco. Co-authors are Anita Lal, PhD, Mianda Harmon-Smith, BS, and Michael W. McDermott, MD.
Engineers Creating Small Wireless Device to Improve Cancer Treatment
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Engineers at Purdue University are creating a wireless device the size of a rice grain that could be implanted in tumors to tell doctors the precise dose of radiation received and locate the exact position of tumors during treatment.
Researchers at Purdue’s Birck Nanotechnology Center have tested a dime-size prototype to prove the concept and expect to have the miniature version completed by the end of summer, said Babak Ziaie (pronounced Zee-Eye-Eee), an associate professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
“Currently, there is no way of knowing the exact dose of radiation received by a tumor,” Ziaie said. “And, because most organs shift inside the body depending on whether a patient is sitting or lying down, for example, the tumor also shifts. This technology will allow doctors to pinpoint the exact position of the tumor to more effectively administer radiation treatments.”
Ginger shown to zap ovarian cancer cells
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According to U.S. scientists ginger may help to fight ovarian cancer.
Researchers from the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center have found in a study that ginger kills cancer cells and has the added benefit of stopping the cells from becoming resistant to treatment.
They found the ginger caused the cells to die in all the tests carried out and it was the way in which the cells died which has created the optimism; two types of death were demonstrated in the tests - apoptosis, which is basically cell suicide, and autophagy, a kind of self-digestion.
Virus testing best for cervical cancer screening
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An analysis of data for more than 60,000 women in North America and Europe suggests that testing for human papillomavirus (HPV) may be the best way to screen for cervical cancer.
Numerous reports have linked certain subtypes of HPV with the lesions that precede cervical cancer. Findings from individual studies have suggested that for initial screening, HPV testing is more sensitive than cytology, which involves an analysis of cervical cells taken during a Pap smear. However, firm conclusions could not be reached, due in part to differences in design between the studies.
In the current study, Dr. Jack Cuzick, from the Queen Mary School of Medicine in London, and colleagues analyzed data from all European and North American studies that included routine cytology and additional HPV testing as a parallel test.
Delayed surgery decreases bladder cancer survival
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For patients newly diagnosed with bladder cancer, delays of more than 3 months after the initial diagnosis to surgery results in decreased survival, a study shows.
“There currently are no standardized guidelines for the appropriate timing of cystectomy” (surgical removal of the bladder), Dr. Cheryl T. Lee from University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan told Reuters Health. “However, there is growing evidence that cystectomy should be performed within 3 months of a diagnosis” of muscle-invasive disease.
The current study, she said, supports that “patients must undergo cystectomy within 3 months of diagnosis or their survival may be compromised.”
