Filed under: Leukemia , Colon and Rectal Cancer , Prevention , Liver Cancer , Stomach Cancer , Research , Daily news

Filed under: Leukemia , Lung Cancer , Cancer events , Hospice , Cancer Caregivers Although these are important issues year-round, November is the month dedicated to raising awareness about lung cancer, family caregivers, hospice care and the very important marrow donor program. Lung Cancer Awareness Month is a national campaign to raise awareness about lung cancer. In addition to facts and resources, the Lung Cancer Alliance (LCA), a patient support and advocacy organization, hosts the Faces of Lung Cancer Campaign on their website featuring photos of those lives that have been touched by lung cancer. According to facts presented by LCA, lung cancer will kill more people this year than breast cancer, prostate cancer, colon cancer, liver cancer, kidney cancer and melanoma combined. Lung cancer will kill three times as many men as prostate cancer this year. Lung cancer will kill nearly twice as many women as breast cancer this year. Although smokers are diagnosed with lung cancer, not all lung cancer patients smoked before being diagnosed. Visit LCA for ways to get involved in the month-long campaign to bring attention to lung cancer. To read our posts about lung cancer, visit Lung Cancer . National Family Caregivers Month is a way to say thank you, show our personal support and create community support, and help educate the public about the issues and realities caregivers face each day they lovingly care for a family member or friend in need of care. To caregivers, Suzanne Mintz says, "If we believe in ourselves, protect our health, reach out for help, and speak up for our rights we can each improve our day-to-day lives, but also together we can change our healthcare system and our society to make it more responsive to the needs of families dealing with chronic illnesses and disabilities." The National Family Caregivers Association (NFCA) is an organization that supports, empowers, educates, and speaks up for the more than 50 million Americans who are caregivers. To read our posts about caregivers, visit Cancer Caregivers . National Hospice Month is a campaign to raise awareness of hospice care in honoring the terminally ill and their family members during a difficult time and creating the most comfortable home or home-like environment possible. The first hospice began in 1974 with the Connecticut Hospice providing palliative care using the combined knowledge and skill of a team of physicians, nurses, medical social workers, therapists, counselors, home care aides and volunteers. To learn more about hospice care, visit the National Association for Home Care and Hospice . National Marrow Awareness Month brings public attention for the more than 50,000 Americans each year who are diagnosed with leukemia and other blood diseases and are in need of a bone marrow or blood stem cell transplant in order to survive. To learn more about this program, and how you might be able to help, visit the National Marrow Donor Program . Permalink     Email this     Linking Blogs     Comments

Filed under: Cancer by the Numbers All cancers are not treated equally. Some attract a frenzy of attention -- breast cancer -- and some receive not much attention at all -- gallbladder cancer. Some are vigorously researched and studied. Others sit by idly, rarely the subject of investigation. Some are feverishly funded. Some never prosper by way of financial support. Yet they all share something very important in common. They are all cancer. All cancers are marked by an uncontrollable division and spread of abnormal cells. And they are all capable of delivering shock and despair and even death to any one of us. And that makes each one -- brain cancer, cervical cancer, colon cancer, eye cancer, liver cancer, prostate cancer, stomach cancer, you name it -- worthy of equal attention. And so I bring to you Cancer by the Numbers, a series of posts that will feature the basics about all sorts of cancer, beginning with the numbers -- the statistics -- to help define the prevalence of each cancer, followed by important facts about screening, diagnosis, treatment, survival, and more. I will cover the well-known cancers, the sort-of-known cancers, the barely-known cancers. And while I can only offer what I can track down on each form of cancer, I intend to dish out every piece of data I can dig up -- so we all can become a little more informed, a little more prepared should we have to personally do battle with any one of the 100 possible cancers out there. The American Cancer Society reports that 1,399,790 new cancer cases will be diagnosed in 2006. This estimate does not include most carcinoma in situ (noninvasive cancer) cases and also does take into account the estimated one million cases of basal and squamous cell skin cancers that will be diagnosed this year. Of these predicted cases, about 564,830 will result in death -- that's more than 1,500 people each day. Cancer is the second most common cause of death in the United States, exceeded only by heart disease , and accounts for one of every four deaths. These numbers are staggering. But without further explanation, they are broad and all-encompassing and don't say much about how all the individual diseases add up. That's what I plan to do -- break it all down, cancer by cancer, until the numbers make sense. And the cancers do too. Permalink     Email this     Linking Blogs     Comments

Filed under: Colon and Rectal Cancer , Prevention , Products Virtual colonoscopies, using a three-dimensional computed tomography colonography, is a non-invasive procedure for colorectal cancer screening and as accurate as the traditional very invasive procedure, according to the conclusion of a study conducted by University of Wisconsin researchers. "Virtual colonoscopy produces precise and detailed 3-D fly-through images of the entire colon's interior without having to insert a scope -- there is essentially no risk of bleeding or of perforating the colon," stated Dr. Perry J. Pickhardt. Virtual colonoscopies take an estimated ten minutes to perform, as the patient passes through a scanning machine. The researchers suggest that this new way of testing might bring more reluctant patients -- who avoid the invasive and uncomfortable colonoscopies available now -- in to be screened. Oh, ya think? Virtual colonoscopy is the screening test I would choose. Who wouldn't? Of course, if polyps or cancers are found, they must be removed by optical colonoscopy. I cannot imagine anyone who would forego a colonoscopy if they can be offered the virtual colonoscopy screening. I certainly hope this becomes a standard in every part of the country. To learn more about virtual colonoscopies, visit Viatronix . Read     Permalink     Email this     Linking Blogs     Comments

Filed under: Childhood Cancers , Research , Daily news , Cancer Survivors The overall cure rate for the 20,000 children diagnosed with cancer in the United States each year is more than 75 percent. Sounds good -- especially when 50 years ago, most children diagnosed with cancer died. But considering that only one in three childhood cancer survivors remain healthy, perhaps this is not such good news. Thirty years after diagnosis, about 40 percent of survivors have a serious health problem and one-third have multiple problems. Strokes, heart disease, and kidney failure are just a few of the major health concerns that plague many survivors who have entered adulthood. Doctors have long known that cancer treatments can cause new cancers later in life. But the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study -- the largest ever childhood study of its kind -- shows there are other long-term health problems. Researchers studied 10,000 survivors -- past studies examined 200-300 survivors -- and found these survivors were eight times as likely as their siblings to develop severe and life-threatening conditions. They found survivors of bone tumors, nerve and brain cancer, and Hodgkin's disease faced the highest risk. The source of these later-in-life health problems vary. Kidney failure may result from damage caused by chemotherapy or radiation or the infections children suffer when their immune systems are weakened. Drugs used to treat infections may also be to blame. Strokes may result from head and chest radiation. Cancer treatment for people of all ages comes with a price. We buy time, we buy life in exchange for the unknown. But for children -- who stand to live longer than adults -- there is a greater unknown. Sadly, there is a dark side to surviving cancer. Read     Permalink     Email this     Linking Blogs     Comments

Filed under: Breast Cancer , Prevention , Vitamins and nutrients Women with advanced breast cancer were found to have lower levels of vitamin D when compared to women with early-stage breast cancer, leading researchers to conclude that vitamin D might play a role in slowing the progression of breast cancer. Imperial College London researchers are not certain if the lower level of vitamin D found in women with advanced breast cancer is the result of the cancer, or one of the factors promoting the progression of the breast cancer, only that there appears to be a connection. This adds to the body of knowledge that women living in northern climates, where there is less year-round sun exposure, are more prone to developing breast cancer. One of the natural ways to get vitamin D is from exposure to sunlight. Also, women can get vitamin D from fortified milk and dairy products, cod liver oil and fatty fish, such as salmon. Previous research has indicated that vitamin D might play a role in the prevention in a number of cancers. For related information into research conclusions regarding vitamin D:

• Fatty fish offers women cancer prevention
• Vitamin D: supplement aids in reducing risk of cancer
• Vitamin D: lack of summer sun increases risk for 16 cancers

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Filed under: Breast Cancer , Alternative Therapies , Chemotherapy , All Cancers , Politics , Services , Smoking , Daily news

Filed under: Lung Cancer , Prevention , All Cancers , Clinical Trials , Smoking In a recent study, researchers found that the opiate blocking drug naltrexone , used to treat alcoholics and heroin addicts, was effective in helping some women kick the smoking habit. In addition, the researchers reported that naltrexone prevented the weight gain that often follows when women quit smoking. Participants in the study were divided into two groups. One group was given a combination of drug therapy, behavioral counseling sessions, and nicotine patches. The other group was given a placebo, behavioral counseling sessions, and nicotine patches. For women receiving naltrexone, 58 percent were still not smoking eight weeks later. Six months later, some had taken up the smoking habit again, but some had remained free of the habit. Naltrexone did not appear to provide a benefit for men trying to quit smoking. "Women have historically had less success than men in giving up cigarettes," said study author Andrea King, PhD, associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Chicago. "In this small study, naltrexone seems to have closed that gap." The study, Efficacy of Naltrexone in Women's Smoking Cessation, is currently ongoing and recruiting new patients . Read     Permalink     Email this     Linking Blogs     Comments

Filed under: Breast Cancer , Research , Products The Australian is reporting that Australian researcher Professor Christobel Saunders has been awarded the 2006 Novel Concept Award by the National Breast Cancer Foundation to research the development of a breath test device to detect breast cancer. "Previous studies have found that in women with breast cancer these VOCs are significantly and specifically altered, providing a marker which can indicate the presence, and also importantly the lack, of breast cancer in patients," Professor Saunders said. "Considering some of the downsides of mammograms, including the pain and discomfort experienced by a few patients and the number of false positive findings, which can result in needless anxiety and biopsies, this device has the potential to be used in conjunction with existing screening procedures, increasing the accuracy of diagnosis." In addition, State University of New York at Buffalo researchers are building the breathalyzer device , a pocket-sized portable chemical sensor that will test a person's breath to detect cancer and a team of researchers at the University of Michigan won a Breast Cancer Research Program Idea award to develop a portable device to test breath for the presence of metabolites associated with breast cancer. Previous studies have proven human breath from the body changes when disease is present. Read     Permalink     Email this     Linking Blogs     Comments

Filed under: Breast Cancer , Drug , Lung Cancer , Colon and Rectal Cancer , Daily news The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced a new warning labeling change regarding bevacizumab (Avastin) a cancer drug currently in use to treat colorectal cancer, that state an increased risk for a brain-bleeding condition and potential nasal septum perforation that can create a hole in the nose for those patients being treated with Avastin. The rare brain-capillary leak can trigger headache, seizure, blindness and other vision and neurological problems. The FDA has published a letter sent by Genentec to healthcare providers notifying them of the new warnings, available as a pdf document . In the meantime, Avastin's drug maker Genentech has asked for FDA approval for the drug in the treatment of advanced lung cancer and breast cancer. Read     Permalink     Email this     Linking Blogs     Comments