Video games have long offered escapist entertainment, a chance to role play and master new worlds through a combination of quick thinking and adept hand-eye coordination. Having recognized the potential for HopeLab's Re-Mission game, which features a cancer-fighting nanobot named Roxxi, to help educate and entertain stricken teens, Cigna Healthcare announced Wednesday a partnership with HopeLab to put the game in the hands of tens of thousands of young patients undergoing cancer treatment.
Re-Mission is free to these patients and can be downloaded via Cigna's Web site. Although the game has been around since April 2006 and HopeLab has shipped more than 76,000 copies, the deal with Cigna offers a distribution channel to that company's network of physicians and vast membership, which covers more than 60,000 employers and about 47 million individuals.
More interesting than the game itself -- a 3-D "shooter" scenario where Roxxi, clad in form-fitting silver body armor, floats through a cancer patient's body zapping bacteria, fat globules, and leukemia cells with her multipurpose med blaster -- are HopeLab's claims that patients who play Re-Mission have more successful treatment than those who don't play the game.
"We found that the game has enormous efficacy, giving young patients control and power over their cancer," HopeLab president Pat Christen told InformationWeek.
HopeLab, a nonprofit founded in 2001 by Pamela Omidyar, wife of eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, claims to have validated the benefits of its cancer-fighting video game by conducting a randomized, controlled trial with 375 male and female cancer patients ages 13 through 29, enrolled at 34 medical centers in the United States, Canada, and Australia. According to HopeLab, findings first presented last year indicate that "playing Re-Mission produced increases in quality of life, self-efficacy, and cancer-related knowledge for adolescents and young adults with cancer."
Cigna first became aware of Re-Mission when the health care company's medical director, Dr. Glenn Pomerantz, became interested in the results of HopeLab's research results. Pomerantz later approached HopeLab about the possibility of promoting and distributing the game directly to its members.
One practical explanation of Re-Mission's benefits is that, by promoting awareness of the disease and offering young patients an understanding of how it can be fought, these patients are more likely to adhere closely to their treatment regimens. With this in mind, Cigna says it's sending the game in CD and DVD formats to member pediatricians, oncologists, pediatric oncologists, and hospitals.
So-called "shooter" games, in which players attack opponents to achieve their objectives, have often come under harsh criticism for promoting violence. Christen says she considered this concern while HopeLab tested Re-Mission. But the game's premise and purpose far outweighed any downside of having Roxxi let loose her weapons on her enemies. "These kids are literally in a fight for their lives," she says, adding that it's empowering for them to blast away at a disease that poses such a great threat to them. "It's quite an appropriate use of these weapons, and there's never any harm to another human being."
HopeLab says its next major initiative will target obesity using insights gained from the development and study of Re-Mission.
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Cigna Offers Cancer-Fighting Video Game To Patients
Video game maker target teens with cancer
Cigna Corp. said on Wednesday it will offer HopeLab's "Re-Mission" video game, which lets teens and young adults blast cancer while learning how to improve the odds of beating the disease, free of charge on its Web site.
"'Re-Mission' has demonstrated that video games have the power to help teenagers better adhere to their cancer treatment and embrace key behaviors that improve their health and quality of life," Dr. Glenn Pomerantz, medical director of its CIGNA HealthCare unit, said in a statement.
Teenaged cancer patients can face a unique set of challenges, medical experts said. They are old enough to be responsible for their treatment, but may be too young to understand the potentially deadly consequences of skipping required medications that may make them feel sick, lose their hair, get acne, or gain weight.
Pam Omidyar, a medical researcher married to eBay Inc. founder Pierre Omidyar, launched HopeLab in 2001, seeking to improve the health of young people with a mix of good science and fun technology.
HopeLab, a Northern California-based nonprofit organization, teamed with video game developers and animators, cancer experts, cell biologists, psychologists and young patients, seeking to make a high-quality video game that would educate as well as entertain.
The results was "Re-Mission," a teen-rated shooting game featuring a nanobot named Roxxi who roams inside the bodies of fictional cancer patients, destroying cancer cells, battling bacterial infections and managing side effects associated with cancer and cancer treatments.
Since the game's launch early last year, HopeLab said it has delivered 76,000 copies of "Re-Mission" on disc or via download on its Web site (www.re-mission.net).
Cigna's site (www.CIGNA.com/re-mission) will offer the game.
HopeLab tested "Re-Mission" in a randomized, controlled trial of 375 male and female cancer patients aged 13 to 29, who were enrolled at 34 medical centers in the United States, Canada and Australia.
Preliminary study results suggested that playing the video game increased quality of life and cancer-related knowledge.
The "Re-Mission" players also maintained levels of chemotherapy in their blood and showed higher rates of antibiotic use than those in the control group, indicating that the game helped patients stick to cancer therapy regimens.
"The 'Re-Mission' video game is an important tool to help improve their understanding of cancer, its treatments and effects, which can result in more confidence in their ability to deal with the disease and more consistent compliance with their treatment," said Dr. Gary Dahl, a pediatric oncologist at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford University in California and a principal investigator for the "Re-Mission" study.
"'Re-Mission' works. It gives young people with cancer a sense of power and control over their disease," HopeLab President Pat Christen said.
Cigna's Pomerantz said the insurer plans to work with HopeLab to help young patients with other chronic conditions.
Next on HopeLab's list: obesity.
Hair Relaxers Won't Boost Black Women's Breast Cancer Risk
Black women who routinely use hair relaxers can relax: The products will not increase their risk of breast cancer, a new study finds.
According to researchers reporting in the May issue of Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention, millions of women use hair relaxers. However, no research had yet been done as to whether the products may boost cancer risk. This is the first such study to examine the issue.
In the study, a team led by Lynn Rosenberg, of Boston University's Slone Epidemiology Center, analyzed 1997-2003 data from the Black Women's Health Study. That trial included 59,000 black women across the United States.
"In the present study of African-American women, increases in breast cancer risk were not associated with any categories of duration of hair relaxer use, frequency of use, age at first us, number of burns experienced during use, or type of relaxer used," Rosenberg noted.
"The findings provide empirical evidence that hair relaxers are not carcinogenic to the breast and do not contribute to the higher incidence of breast cancer in young African-American women than in young white women," she said.
FDA approves Wyeth kidney cancer drug
U.S. health regulators on Wednesday approved Wyeth's drug Torisel for patients with an advanced form of kidney cancer called renal cell carcinoma, saying it significantly helped them live longer.
The drug, known chemically as temsirolimus, is the third such therapy approved since late 2005 for the disease -- the most common form of kidney cancer, the
Food and Drug Administration said.
In December 2005, the FDA cleared Bayer's Nexavar, or sorafenib. In January 2006, Pfizer Inc.'s Sutent, or sunitinib, also won approval.
A spokeswoman for Wyeth had no immediate comment but said the company would release a statement later on Wednesday.
Shares of the drugmaker earlier closed down less than 1 percent at $57.50 on the
New York Stock Exchange.
The FDA said studies of Torisel showed that patients who took it alone lived longer overall than those who took it with the cancer drug interferon or a combination of the two.
Torisel patients survived for about 10.9 months compared with 7.3 months for those taking just interferon. Combining the two drugs "did not result in a significant increase in overall survival when compared with interferon alone," the FDA added.
Common side effects with Torisel included rash, fatigue, mouth sores and nausea, among others, the FDA said. High blood sugar, elevated blood lipids and low blood cell counts were also found.
About 51,000 U.S. cases of renal cell carcinoma are diagnosed each year, according to the agency.
FDA Approves New Kidney Cancer Drug
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday gave its approval to a new drug called Torisel (temsirolimus) for treating renal cell carcinoma, a type of advanced kidney cancer.
The approval of the drug, an enzyme inhibitor made by Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, was based on a study that showed use of the drug prolonged survival of patients with renal cell carcinoma. The study results were first presented last June at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting in Atlanta. And they were just published in the May 31 issue of the
New England Journal of Medicine.
"We have made significant advances in the battle against kidney cancer," Dr. Steven Galson, director of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said in a prepared statement. "Torisel is the third drug approved for this indication in the past 18 months, and one that shows an increased time in survival for some patients."
The approval of Torisel follows the December 2005 approval of Nexavar (sorafenib), which was based on a delay in progression of disease. In January 2006, Sutent (sunitinib) received accelerated approval based on durable response rate, or tumor size reduction, and was later demonstrated to delay tumor progression.
The phase III, randomized clinical study of Torisel included 626 patients who received one of three treatments: temsirolimus; an older drug called interferon; or both drugs together. Patients who received temsirolimus alone survived longer (a median of 10.9 months) than those who received interferon/temsirolimus (8.4 months), or interferon alone (7.3 months).
"This is the first study to show that a new drug can improve overall survival for patients with metastatic renal cell cancer," said Dr. Gary R. Hudes, the lead author of the NEJM study, in a prepared statement.
Hudes, director of the Genitourinary Malignancies Program at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, said patients who received the combination treatment received a lower dose of temsirolimus than those who received temsirolimus alone. This could explain why those who received the combination treatment did not survive as long as those who received temsirolimus alone.
Many patients with kidney cancer are cured by surgery to remove the tumor. However, about 35 percent of patients will experience cancer recurrence or their cancer will spread to other parts of the body.
"For these patients, the goal of treatment is to prevent further spread and growth of the cancer, and ideally, to reduce that amount of cancer," Hudes said. "Until recently, physicians lacked effective drugs to control the disease."
He noted that this study found that temsirolimus provided modest improvement in survival for patients with the most advanced tumors.
"It would be reasonable to hypothesize that temsirolimus could provide greater benefit to patients with less extensive metastatic disease. Only a randomized clinical trial will give us that definitive knowledge," Hudes said.
U.S. approves Wyeth kidney cancer drug
U.S. health regulators on Wednesday approved Wyeth's drug Torisel for patients with an advanced form of kidney cancer called renal cell carcinoma, saying it helped them live longer.
The drug, known chemically as temsirolimus, is the third such therapy approved since late 2005 for the disease -- the most common form of kidney cancer, the U.S.Food and Drug Administration said.
In December 2005, the FDA cleared Bayer and Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s Nexavar, or sorafenib. In January 2006, Pfizer Inc.'s Sutent, or sunitinib, also won approval.
"The group of patients who received Torisel alone showed a significant improvement in overall survival," the FDA said.
Wyeth, in a statement, said its drug would be available for patients in July.
Shares of the drugmaker earlier closed down 27 cents, or less than 1 percent, at $57.50 on the New York Stock Exchange.
Company data on Torisel showed that patients who took it alone lived 3.5 months longer overall than those who took it with the cancer drug interferon or a combination of the two, the FDA said.
Interferon is sold under several brand names. Wyeth's study used Roche's Roferon-A.
Torisel patients survived for about 10.9 months compared with 7.3 months for those taking just interferon and 8.4 months in those taking both. Combining the two drugs "did not result in a significant increase in overall survival when compared with interferon alone," the FDA added.
Common side effects with Torisel included rash, fatigue, mouth sores and nausea, among others, the FDA said. High blood sugar, elevated blood lipids and low blood cell counts were also found.
Results from the company-sponsored study of 626 patients were reported on Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Wyeth is also studying Torisel to treat lymphoma.
About 51,000 U.S. cases of renal cell carcinoma are diagnosed each year, according to the FDA.
Cancer expected to skyrocket in Asia
Asia is bracing for a dramatic surge in cancer rates over the next decade as people in the developing world live longer and adopt bad Western habits that greatly increase the risk of the disease.
Smoking, drinking and eating unhealthy foods — all linked to various cancers — will combine with larger populations and fewer deaths from infectious diseases to drive Asian cancer rates up 60 percent by 2020, some experts predict.
But unlike in wealthy countries where the world's top medical care is found, there will likely be no prevention or treatment for many living in poor countries.
"What happened in the Western world in the '60s or '70s will happen here in the next 10 to 20 years as life expectancy gets longer and we get better control on more common causes of deaths," said Dr. Jatin P. Shah, a professor of surgery at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, who attended a cancer conference last month in Singapore.
"The habit of alcohol consumption, smoking and dietary changes will increase the risk of Western world cancers to the Eastern world," Shah said.
An estimated 40 percent of cancers worldwide can be prevented by exercise, eating healthy foods and not using tobacco, according to the World Health Organization.
But more people in Asia are moving into cities and becoming overweight and obese from inactivity. They are replacing fruits and vegetables with fatty meals full of meat and salt, which is leading to increases in stomach and colon cancers. Meanwhile, traditional diseases like malaria are killing fewer people — building an aging population that's a prime target for cancer.
The effect is already startling, with the Asia-Pacific making up about half of the world's cancer deaths and logging 4.9 million new cases, or 45 percent, of the global toll in 2002.
That number is projected to leap to 7.8 million by 2020 if nothing changes, according to Dr. Donald Max Parkin, a research fellow at the University of Oxford who is a leading authority on global cancer patterns and trends.
China alone, with its booming economy and 1.3 billion people, is home to about one-fifth of the world's new cases, compared to about 13 percent in the U.S. and 26 percent in Europe, Parkin said. Heart disease remains the top killer in China, but cancer is a close second.
Cancer deaths are slowly dropping in the United States, with slight declines recorded in 2003 and 2004. A decrease in smoking, coupled with early detection and better treatment of tumors is credited with the positive results — the first U.S. decline in cancer deaths since 1930.
Smoking is on the rise in Asia, where it's common to see people lighting up in airports, restaurants and even hospitals. Lung cancer makes up the bulk of all cases regionwide, followed by stomach and liver cancers. It also remains the biggest cancer killer worldwide.
"Lung cancer is the big one because of cigarette smoking. There are many tobacco advertisements — everywhere," said Dr. You-Lin Qiao from the Cancer Institute and Hospital in Beijing, who added that the odds are stacked against those diagnosed in China. "No matter if you're rich or poor, if you get lung cancer you die. There's no treatment at all."
While Americans and Europeans have been abandoning smoking, an estimated 300 million men are puffing away in China — equal to the entire U.S. population. If nothing changes, a third of Chinese men under age 30 are predicted to die from tobacco, with lung cancer already the biggest cancer killer there.
Smokeless tobacco is also a big problem in Asia's other giant, India, where many men and women chew some form of tobacco. Mouth cancer makes up half of all new cases in parts of the country.
A lack of vaccines that prevent cancer-causing viruses is another obstacle for Asia, which is home to about three-quarters of the world's liver cancers, caused largely by Hepatitis B infections.
A vaccine guarding against the virus has been available since the early 1980s and is routinely given to children in Western countries, but it is still not reaching large swaths of the Asia-Pacific.
Some experts worry it could take years before the new vaccine for the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus, or HPV, is available to women in developing countries. The three shots currently cost about $350 in the U.S. and are 70 percent effective against preventing HPV, the main cause of cervical cancer. It is already the No. 2 cause of cancer among women in Asia, after breast cancer.
"The problem is so huge that it's very difficult for us to know where to start," said Dr. Franco Cavalli, president of the nonprofit International Union Against Cancer. "All the new cancer treatments are so expensive, that already in the affluent countries we are not able to pay for them. ... So imagine what that means for low-income countries where you have $20 a year per person for health expenditures."
Regular screening, such as Pap smears and mammograms, is too costly for many poor countries. Treatment with radiation or chemotherapy is unfathomable for most. And in Asia, many patients seek help from hospitals in the late stages of disease after traditional medicine has failed to cure them.
US conference on cancer to focus on latest research
The American Society of Oncology holds its annual conference this weekend to chart progress on the latest advances in preventing and treating cancer amid calls for more US funding for research.
The results of dozens of clinical trials and other research will be presented during the five-day ASCO meeting -- the world's premier conference on cancer -- which is expected to attract more than 25,000 doctors, scientists, nurses and others working in the field.
More than 4,000 research abstracts have been accepted for the conference that opens Friday evening in Chicago, ASCO officials said.
Scientists will highlight progress in treating liver, gastrointestinal, lung, brain, neck and breast cancer as well as studies examining the effect of alternative medicines.
At the opening of the conference, scientists and directors of treatment centers will issue an appeal for the United States to renew its support for cancer research after a decline in US funding over the past four years.
"Thanks to the nation's investment in cancer research, survival rates are increasing, cancer deaths are declining for the first time in 70 years, and treatment is far more targeted, with fewer side effects," said physician Allen Lichter, executive vice president and CEO of ASCO.
"Now is the time to renew the nation's commitment to cancer research and give new hope and help to millions of patients," Lichter said.
The group will be calling for a seven percent increase in funding for the US government's National Institutes of Health, he said.
Researchers at the conference will present findings on the use of ginseng to counter fatigue among cancer patients, flaxseed and low-fat diets to counter the spread of prostrate cancer and shark cartilage extract used in combination with other treatments for lung cancer patients.
Findings from clinical trials will shed light on the efficacy of arsenic trioxide for patients suffering from leukemia and of Avastin, a drug from the Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche and the US firm Genentech, as a first line of defense in treating kidney cancer.
Avastin, in combination with chemotherapy, has already been shown to help prolong the life of patients diagnosed with breast cancer.
The drug, an anti-angiogenic, starves a tumor by preventing the formation of a blood vessel network and represents one of the first treatments that seeks to target how cancer functions.
Researchers also plan to unveil an elaborate study on the potential cardiovascular risks posed by combining the drug Herceptin with chemotherapy to treat breast cancer in its early stages.
Herceptin, produced by Roche, has been on the market for years but until now has been reserved for treating metastatic breast cancer with an excess of the protein HER2.
The drug, which attacks the HER2 protein, has been shown to reduce sharply the recurrence of breast cancer but also may enhance the risk of heart trouble.
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Ultrasound screening may catch ovarian cancer early
A new study suggests that ovarian cancer screening with a technique called transvaginal ultrasonography (TVS) may catch ovarian cancer early, at a more curable stage.
TVS involves using an ultrasound probe placed in the vagina to direct sound waves through the vaginal wall towards the ovaries to detect abnormalities. The new study shows that TVS screening is able to detect ovarian cancers at an earlier stage, perhaps increasing their chances of survival.
The early diagnosis of ovarian cancer is difficult and the disease is often not detected until it has reached an advanced stage. Compared with other gynecologic cancers, ovarian cancer carries a very poor prognosis.
Dr. John R. van Nagell, from the University of Kentucky in Lexington, and colleagues assessed the value of annual TVS screening for ovarian cancer in 25,327 women who were seen between 1987 and 2005.
To be eligible for the study, the women had to be at least 50 years old with no cancer-related symptoms or at least 25 years old with a family history of ovarian cancer.
Overall, 364 women (1.4 percent) had a persistent ovarian tumor on TVS, the authors report in the journal Cancer. Malignant cases included 35 primary invasive ovarian cancers, 9 ovarian tumors of low malignant potential, and 7 "metastatic" cancers that had already spread beyond the ovaries. Most of the contained or "non-metastatic" ovarian tumors were early stage I tumors.
During an average follow-up of about 5 years, 38 women were alive and well, 4 had died of their cancer, and 2 had died from other causes.
The 2-year survival rate in annually TVS screened women approached 90 percent and the 5-year survival rate in screened women was a little over 77 percent.
TVS screening was highly sensitive and specific in detecting ovarian cancer. However, "false-negative" results were obtained in nine women, including three who died of their disease, the investigators note.
Summing up, the researchers say early detection of ovarian cancer could potentially improve treatment efficacy and reduce deaths. "The protective effect of annual sonographic screening on ovarian cancer mortality observed in the current trial should only increase as more specific biomarkers are added to TVS in screening algorithms," they conclude.
SOURCE: Cancer, May 1, 2007.
Can Seaweed Protect You From Skin Cancer
Researchers at Ohio State University have found a link between seaweed and fighting skin cancer.
Dr. Gary Stoner created a type of sunscreen using seaweed. He took an extract from brown, spongy algae and applied it to lab mice. Then he put the mice under ultraviolet lights for observation.
"It was probably some of the most active material that I've ever seen tested on the skin to prevent ultraviolet-light induced cancer in mice," said Dr. Gary Stoner.
Stoner also fed the mice small amounts of the seaweed and got similar results.
"It was able to protect against skin cancer as effectively as when applied topically to the skin itself," Stoner said.
The seaweed helped cut the number of skin cancer tumors in mice by nearly 60 percent, said researchers.
Experts said it is too early to tell if the seaweed will have the same effect on human skin.
Popular Skin Cancer Cream Now Offers Free Consultations on the Internet
Curaderm.net announces recent publication in a prestigious journal and recommendations by specialist Dermatologists give the green light to skin cancer treatment consultations on the internet. Now, for the first time it has been shown with Curaderm BEC5 that it is possible to eliminate skin cancer without harming surrounding healthy skin cells. Treatment consultants specializing in this natural skin cancer cream explain to customers on the phone or through live internet chat how to successfully treat Basal cell carcinoma and Squamous cell carcinoma lesions using the patented extract purified from the common eggplant.
(PRWEB) May 30, 2007 -- Prestigious Research Journal of Biological Sciences (Medwell) in its current issue, in the process of being released, publishes a Review Article - Solasodine Rhamnosyl Glycosides Specifically Bind Cancer Cell Receptors and Induce Apoptosis and Necrosis - Treatment for Skin Cancer and Hope for Internal Cancer. In this article Dr Bill Cham, the inventor of the glycoalkaloid technology, describes the wide range of clinical applications of the glycoalkaloids extracted from the eggplant.
In particular Dr. Bill Elliot Cham reports how and why the glycoalkaloids only destroy cancer cells without harming normal non cancerous cells and he concludes with "An ideal skin cancer therapy would be one that when applied topically to an exposed skin cancer it selectively necrotizes the tumour cells or induces them to undergo apoptosis or necrosis without causing damage to the surrounding healthy skin cells. In practice this has long eluded cancer therapy. The anticancer drugs available were neither selective or penetrative. Now for the first time it has been shown with Curaderm BEC5 that it is possible to eliminate skin cancer without harming surrounding healthy skin cells".
Traditionally skin cancers were only removed by invasive procedures. Now after 2 decades of research and many scientific publications it is accepted that natural ingredients found in the eggplant can eliminate skin cancers. After Phases III and IV studies dermatologists are eager to recommend Curaderm BEC5 as a "safe and effective, ideal therapy for outpatient treatment, Hence, (Curaderm) BEC5 is a much needed alternative to surgery for basal cell carcinoma" (Royal London Hospital).
The natural cream is becoming a very popular product online because spots can be removed without leaving home. This is excellent news for the 10 million people who face their first skin cancer lesion treatment every year.
Treatment consultants specializing in Curaderm-BEC5 natural cream explain to customers on the phone or through live chat (preferably in conjunction with their health professional) how to successfully treat the lesions. The patented extract purified from the common eggplant means complete safety. The product's efficacy is proven with double blind placebo controlled clinical trials.
The product was initially researched and developed in Australia by inventor, Dr. Bill Elliot Cham. The world renowned bio-chemist has been cited more than ten thousand times in medical journals and regularly addresses Doctors and Dermatologists as a keynote speaker at Medical conferences in the United States, United Kingdom and Australia.
Curaderm Global, runs an innovative internet distribution strategy with 24 hour customer service that combines many of Web 2.0 best software applications including, interactive questionnaires, lesion imagery, video emails and customer forums. The 24 hour customer service and a multitude of other technologies that bridge the customer, the skin cancer cream, Health Practitioners and the Treatment consultants so that customers can continue normal lifestyle while removing the lesions.
Ministry panel approves plan to reduce cancer death rate by 20%
A health ministry panel promoting measures to tackle cancer on Wednesday approved a draft basic plan to reduce by 20 percent the rate of people who die from cancer below the age of 75 within 10 years, panel members said.
The plan to deal with the nation's No. 1 killer will be discussed by ministries concerned and formally endorsed by the government at a Cabinet meeting in June. Prefectural governments will be urged to compile their own measures based on the basic plan.
Tadao Kakizoe, who heads the panel and the Japan Cancer Society, said after the panel meeting, "We believe that things needed for tackling cancer have basically been covered. The issue from now on is how the budget will be earmarked."
But the panel failed to include in the draft its goal to halve the number of adult smokers, even though it had reached agreement on the matter.
Based on a cancer-fighting law put into force in April, the basic plan is designed to set the basic direction of tackling cancer in the next five years.
The day's panel meeting was attended by experts, patients and their families.
Besides reducing cancer deaths, the draft plan sets a goal of "reducing the pain of the patients and families as well as maintaining and improving their quality of life."
It also calls for focusing on several areas which require more efforts in the nation, such as promoting radiation and chemical treatment, and fostering such specialists, and conducting palliative care on patients from the early treatment stage.
As numerical targets, the draft plan includes having all doctors working on cancer treatment to acquire the basic knowledge of palliative care within 10 years and reducing the number of people aged below 20 who smoke to 0 percent within three years.
On opinions not included in the draft plan such as on the numerical target to reduce the adult smoking rate, the panel plans to produce a separate document which would put forth such opinions as "measures against tobacco are important and it is recommended to set a numerical target of reducing smoking rate."
Vitamin D, Calcium Might Lower Breast Cancer Risk
Premenopausal women who get a lot of vitamin D and calcium may cut their risk of breast cancer by almost a third, Harvard Medical School researchers report.
"Adequate intakes of calcium and vitamin D are necessary for women in keeping up their health, and additionally, these two nutrients may help prevent breast cancer development, especially among premenopausal women," said lead author Jennifer Lin, an assistant professor of medicine.
Her team's report appears in the May 28 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.
In the study, Lin's team collected data on more than 10,500 premenopausal and almost 21,000 postmenopausal women age 45 and older who were part of the Women's Health Study. The data included information on what they ate and the dietary supplements they took.
Over an average of 10 years, 276 premenopausal women and 743 postmenopausal women went on to develop breast cancer.
The researchers found that premenopausal women whose intake of vitamin D and calcium was high had about a 30 percent lower risk of developing breast cancer. However, they didn't find this association for postmenopausal women.
Animal studies have also found an association between calcium and vitamin D intake and breast cancer prevention, Lin's group noted.
"Calcium and vitamin D may confer protection against breast tumorigenesis," Lin said. "However, more studies are necessary to investigate the potential utility of these two nutrients in breast cancer development," she added.
One expert stressed that the evidence for a protective effect of vitamin D and calcium is still not clear.
"I really don't think that one can say from this study that the effect is only in premenopausal women, because there are a number of factors in the study that may have limited the ability to see the effect," said Victoria Stevens, an epidemiologist at the
American Cancer Society. "This is particularly true for vitamin D, because most vitamin D comes from exposure to sunlight, which they did not take into account."
At this point in time, a recommendation that women take vitamin D or calcium to decrease their breast cancer risk is not warranted, she said.
"I don't think we should go that far," Stevens said. "The society doesn't recommend the use of any vitamin supplements" to prevent breast cancer.
"I don't think this study says that we should change that," Stevens said. "At this point, the evidence doesn't support anything more than getting a good diet and maintaining good levels of physical activity," she said.
Dietary fiber doesn't lower colorectal cancer risk
Although the potential connection between dietary fiber and colorectal cancer has long held an attraction for both medical researchers and the general public, investigators report that the results of a large new study do not support this link.
"Our study did not show any association between how much dietary fiber you eat and your risk of colorectal cancer," lead author Dr. Arthur Schatzkin told Reuters Health. However, "we did find... that consumption of whole grain foods confers a lower risk of developing this disease."
Schatzkin of the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland and colleagues came to this conclusion after analyzing survey responses from more than 291,000 men and 197,000 women between 50 and 71 years old.
The researchers report their findings in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
The range of daily dietary fiber for the whole group was 6.6 grams per kilocalories for the lowest amount to 15.9 grams per kilocalories for the highest amount. The corresponding range for men was 6.4 to 15.2, and for women, 7.0 to 16.8.
After analyzing fiber from different food sources, the team found that only fiber from grains was associated with a lower risk of colorectal cancer. The risk of colorectal cancer was lowered by 14 percent among the subjects with the highest amounts of grain in their diet compared with those with the lowest amounts. The association with whole grains was stronger for rectal than for colon cancer.
Nevertheless, concluded Schatzkin, the study findings support the recommendation of eating more unprocessed cereals or pulses and avoiding refined starchy foods to lower the risk of colorectal cancer.
SOURCE: American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, May 2007
Spike in PSA Blood Level Points to Prostate Cancer's Aggressiveness
A rapid rise in blood levels of prostate specific antigen (PSA) over the course of a year -- a diagnostic indicator known as "PSA velocity"-- is the single most important marker for a particularly aggressive and deadly form of prostate cancer, new research suggests.
Reporting in the July 1 issue of Cancer, the authors say that an increase by two points or more of PSA over one year is a better predictor of death from prostate cancer than either a one-time "snapshot" of PSA levels at diagnosis, or a doctor's assessment of the stage of cancer prior to treatment.
"We know that, without any other factors, PSA velocity is a very good predictor of prognosis," said study leady author Dr. Anthony V. D'Amico, the chair of genitourinary radiation oncology at Brigham and Women's Hospital and professor of radiation oncology at Harvard Medical School in Boston. "It all depends on where it's been and where it's going," he said.
The
American Cancer Society notes that, outside of skin cancer, prostate cancer is the most common form of cancer diagnosed among American men. This year nearly 220,000 new cases of the disease are expected to be diagnosed, and about 27,000 men will die of the disease.
The organization currently recommends that men at high risk for prostate cancer, which includes blacks and men with a family or personal history of the disease, should begin undergoing yearly digital rectal exams and PSA blood tests between the ages of 40 and 45.
Otherwise, men with average risk should begin screening at age 50, the society suggests.
D'Amico and his colleagues analyzed data on almost 950 men between the ages of 62 and 76 who underwent either surgical or radiation treatment for prostate cancer at one of four hospitals between 1988 and 2004.
At the time of diagnosis, all the patients displayed at least one indicator of aggressive prostate cancer: either a high absolute PSA reading; poor biopsy results regarding the health of prostate tissue at the cellular level; an advanced stage tumor; or a notable jump in their PSA velocity in the year prior to treatment.
Almost 70 percent of the patients had one of these high-risk markers at diagnosis, the researchers noted. A PSA velocity "bump" was the sole high-risk indicator of 44 percent of the men who went on to require surgery, and among 28 percent of those who underwent radiation therapy.
The researchers also tracked the men's post-treatment outcomes. They found that, for those who'd undergone surgery, 29 ultimately died from prostate cancer by 2006. Of those who received radiation, 32 went on to die from the disease.
Patients who had been diagnosed with more than one high-risk factor were at a significantly higher risk for dying from prostate cancer than were men diagnosed with just a single indicator of aggressive disease.
But a PSA velocity jump of 2.0 points or more in the year before treatment was the best single predictor of a poor outcome overall, the researchers said. This observation held true regardless of whether a patient had surgery or radiation.
In fact, a rapid PSA velocity was the sole prognostic indicator for 80 percent to 88 percent of the men with just one predictive marker who died from prostate cancer.
The take-home message from the study: A bump in PSA velocity of two or more points in the year prior to diagnosis and treatment is a strong enough indicator, on its own, of a particularly aggressive cancer requiring aggressive treatment. That treatment may involve the use of more than one therapy at a time, the researchers said.
"I'd say now that the issue regarding PSA velocity is nailed down, because it's clear that if your velocity rises in the short term, it's bad news," said D'Amico.
He stressed that more long-term research is needed to track patients beyond the study's seven-year timeframe, to assess the usefulness of PSA velocity in predicting outcomes even further down the road.
"But already what's clear from this study," added D'Amico, "is that if a man presents with what is believed to be a non-aggressive cancer but his PSA has risen rapidly in the year prior to diagnosis -- more than 2 points-- then that single fact alone means that treatment with more than just surgery or radiation is needed to maximize cure."
Another expert stressed that treatment decisions can still be tough, however.
Dr. Nelson Neal Stone is clinical professor of urology and radiation oncology at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. He said the jury is still out with respect to which therapies deliver the best benefit to individual patients with rising PSAs.
"We do know from several studies that it is a bad sign for patients to have a rapidly rising PSA before they begin treatment," he said. "But that does not mean we know the solution. It's just not that clear, quite frankly. There's a suggestion that patients with a fast-rising PSA should be treated with combination therapies. But it's not proven that this is the way to go."
Stone does encourage patients to get an early handle on their PSA velocity trends by establishing a clear baseline record, however.
"Get three or so tests in the first year of screening, so you know where you're going from there," he said. "No matter what the treatment will be, it's certainly better to catch a rising PSA when it's going from 1.5 to 5.0, rather than 5 to 12. Then the patient is a lot more curable -- when you catch the rise early."
Friday, May 25, 2007
$1 million offered for cancer 'ideas'
A group of New York investors will award $1 million a year to the person with the "best idea" in cancer research -- and the idea will be shared worldwide.
The "Gotham Prize" will encourage novel thinking and counter the competitive interests that can hinder progress, its creators said yesterday.
The first $1 million will be awarded next February. An advisory board that includes scientists from Harvard University, the Johns Hopkins University and the Cancer Institute of New Jersey will select the winners, who can use the money any way they choose.
"It's going to encourage people to talk to each other and collaborate," said Joseph R. Bertino, interim director of the cancer institute. "Well get out-of-the-box thinking."
Organizers say the award is unique in the world of medical research. They will pre-qualify members, who will post their ideas and concepts on a Web site, www.gothamprize.org. Other researchers and scientists viewing the site can build on the ideas, or perhaps assist or collaborate on individual projects.
"We're trying to encourage people to share their ideas. Even if four or five great ideas come out of this it will be worth it," said Gary Curhan, a medical researcher and physician at Harvard Medical School. He created the prize with hedge fund managers Joel Greenblatt and Robert Goldstein of the private investment firm Gotham Capital in New York.
One aim is for the Web site to help foundations and companies discover ideas that need funding -- and for scientists to find potential sources of money for their ideas.
Curhan said many good ideas do not get funded because researchers do not have enough preliminary data to attract government funding or because the ideas go against the grain.
Greenblatt said he and Goldstein, his partner, found similar ways to share ideas useful in the business world and thought the concept would work in medical research.
"Even people who don't win but post their ideas may get some funding or they may get collaborators to help them," Greenblatt said. The ideas can involve cancer prevention, causes, diagnosis or treatment.
Additional funding of the prize also came from Ephi Gildor of Axiom Investment Advisors and the Ira Sohn Conference Foundation, which was named after a 29-year-old Wall Street trader who died of cancer. The foundation also awards an annual $250,000 prize in pediatric oncology.
An inspiration of the prize was Hope Goldstein, Goldstein's mother, who died from ovarian cancer.
"We thought this was a good way to honor her," said Greenblatt.
Cancer battle warms up
A group of New York investors will award $1 million a year to the person with the "best idea" in cancer research -- and the idea will be shared worldwide.
The "Gotham Prize" will encourage novel thinking and counter the competitive interests that can hinder progress, its creators said yesterday.
"She has exhausted all current intravenous chemotherapy approaches," said Ronald Chamberlain, head of surgery at Saint Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston.
With few options remaining, Pakosz, 54, is ready to try an aggressive, but controversial, combination treatment: surgery and heated chemotherapy.
The technique, known as cytoreduction and intraperitoneal hyperthermia, involves surgically removing as much cancerous tissue as possible, then infusing the patient's belly with a heated chemotherapy drug.
Studies have shown that heat increases the effectiveness of certain chemotherapy drugs in patients with late-stage cancers of the abdominal cavity, including colorectal and ovarian/uterine.
Some doctors say the treatment has doubled or even tripled life expectancy for patients who likely would have died in six months to a year.
"We have patients alive and well four to five years later, when the median survival was six or seven months," said David Bartlett, professor of surgery and chief of the Division of Surgical Oncology at the University of Pittsburgh Medical School, who has treated hundreds of patients with the combination approach.
Other doctors, however, believe more studies are needed to make the case that the treatment is superior to standard chemotherapy or aggressive surgery.
"My objection is not based on the fact it couldn't be of value, but that they haven't done the trials to show it is of value," said Maurie Markman, vice president for clinical research at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.
Cancer is Australia's biggest killer
An official report shows that cancer is the leading cause of death and disability in Australia.
The report by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare says cancer, at 19 percent, has overtaken cardiovascular disease, at 18 percent, as the leading cause of "burden of disease" in the nation.
AIHW spokesman John Goss said there had been a reduction of 35 percent in cardiovascular disease burden rates in the last decade.
"Burden of disease analysis goes beyond the mortality impact of a disease, as it also looks at the impact of illness and disability," he said. "The amount of healthy life years lost due to disability from disease and injury made up 51 percent of the total."
Goss said the five leading causes of non-fatal burden of disease in Australia were anxiety and depression (14 percent of the non-fatal burden); Type-2 diabetes (8 percent); dementia (5 percent); adult-onset hearing loss (5 percent); and asthma (4 percent).
Of the 14 preventable health risks examined in the report, tobacco at 7.8 percent of the total, was responsible for the greatest burden.
Texas Legislature OK's bond measure to fund cancer research
Embracing the lofty goal of curing cancer in a decade, lawmakers Thursday approved a $3 billion bond proposal for the November ballot.
If Texas voters agree to the constitutional amendment, the state could float $300 million a year in general obligation bonds to establish the Cancer Research and Prevention Institute.
The effort to fight cancer has garnered widespread legislative support, but some critics have argued that cancer research should be funded by state general revenue rather than debt.
Seven-time Tour de France winner and cancer survivor Lance Armstrong, Gov. Rick Perry and the state's leading cancer research institutions have urged Texas to take a world lead in preventing cancer deaths.
Lawmakers also have sent Perry a bill to establish the cancer research institute, which he is expected to sign.
"Who hasn't been affected by this terrible disease, either personally or with a loved one?" asked Rep. Jim Keffer, R-Eastland, author of HJR 90, approved by 116 members of the House. "What a wonderful thing it would be to say we actually cured cancer and that Texas was in the middle of it."
One in four deaths statewide, or 35,000 Texans, are lost to cancer each year, stressed Senate Health and Human Services Committee Chairwoman Jane Nelson, R-Lewisville, a sponsor of the initiative.
"This is a major victory for the cancer community, and we have just begun to fight," she said. "We are going to take this momentum and keep it going as we talk to the people of this state."
If established, lawmakers hope the institute will help attract the best and brightest research scientists to Texas.
The Legislature could opt to issue bonds or fund the institute over the next 10 years through state general revenue.
Backers acknowledge that there is unlikely a single cure for cancer, which actually refers to several different diseases that stem from hundreds of genes in the human body.
"There's going to be tremendous ramifications from this research for medicine in general, not just cancer," said John Mendelsohn, president of the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.
For instance, he said, side effects of cancer treatment lead to knowledge about unusual infections and how to manage the failure of major organs such as the lungs and kidneys.
Mendelsohn says cancer is the most common cause of death from disease for children age 5 through young adulthood.
"I believe this will greatly enhance our opportunity to contribute to reducing deaths from cancer and prolonging life that is meaningful and enjoyable for those people who have cancer," he said.
Research is ultimately what will cure cancer, and medical breakthroughs could happen throughout the state, said Dr. Karen Fields, an oncologist, president and CEO for the San Antonio-based Cancer Therapy & Research Center.
"It's really good news," she said of the legislative initiative. "It's a great thing for Texas."
Lumpectomy safe for younger breast cancer patients
Breast cancer tends to be more aggressive when it occurs in younger women, and doctors often advise radical surgery. Now, however, a study shows that breast-conserving treatment, commonly known as lumpectomy, is safe for women younger than 40.
Acceptable outcomes, "almost comparable to the rates observed among patients older than 40 years, can be obtained if high-quality surgery and radiotherapy are combined with chemotherapy," Dr. Adri C. Voogd from Maastricht University in the Netherlands told Reuters Health.
Voogd and colleagues evaluated the outcomes of 758 women 40 years of age or younger who underwent this course of treatment between 1988 and 2002.
Ninety-five women developed a local recurrence of breast cancer during follow-up, the researchers report in the medical journal Cancer, and an additional 17 women had recurrences diagnosed after the cancer was found to have spread to other sites in the body.
"Of the local recurrences that were identified in our study, the large majority occurred at or near the site of the primary tumor, and only 7% developed elsewhere in the breast," the researchers explain. "This suggests that, at least in young women, most local recurrences are not new primary tumors, but are more likely to be true recurrences, originating from residual tumor tissue."
The team calculates that local recurrence rates were 9% at 5 years and 18% after 10 years.
"With our findings, we hope to have taken away some of the fears and make breast conservation a more acceptable treatment option for young women with breast cancer," Voogd said.
Gene Findings Boost Breast Cancer Research
Four new studies released Thursday are shedding new light on the genetics of breast cancer, especially for one of the best-known breast cancer genes, BRCA1.
"The more we can understand the underlying mechanism for BRCA1, the better shot we have at developing chemoprevention" for women who carry the DNA mutation, said one expert, Kathleen Malone, a cancer epidemiologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.
She was not involved in the studies, which were all published in the May 25 issue of Science.
In one article, scientists who track how the body repairs its DNA (the "DNA damage response") when it is exposed to chemicals or other carcinogens say they've found a possible new breast cancer gene.
The new candidate gene is called Rap80, according to a partnership of scientists at the Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston.
Rap80 is a protein that is crucial for BRCA1 to do its repair work properly, they found.
It has long been known that certain mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene prevent it from doing normal repair work. This puts carriers of the gene defect at dramatically higher risk of breast and ovarian cancers.
Yet, mutations in these genes explain less than 50 percent of inherited cancers, the scientists from Penn and Dana-Farber said.
Rap80 deficits may help explain many other cancer cases, the scientists said. If BRCA1 is mutated, it can't bind to the RAP80 protein, the scientists found. If this DNA damage is not identified and fixed, the mutations can lead to malignancy.
Other researchers found that the list of proteins involved in the DNA damage response is much longer than believed.
"A lot more proteins are called into action than we ever guessed," said Stephen Elledge, the Gregor Mendel Professor of Genetics and of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and an author on two of the four papers.
"The list of proteins totals 700," Elledge said. "Before, we knew about 20 proteins." The discoveries, he said, "will give us a higher-resolution picture of what the BRCA1 gene is doing inside the cells."
"Cells constantly have a problem with DNA, with cells breaking down," explained Elledge. "Cells have a built in sensory network to find out if there is a problem. If you can't fix the problem, it could lead to mutation and cancer."
"The hope is that as we learn enough about BRCA1, we can figure out what it isn't doing and try to fix that," Elledge added. The list of proteins gives scientists a large database to hunt for other potential cancer genes.
Malone called the host of papers "an amazing convergence" of new findings from different laboratories.
With the identification of the role of Rap80, Malone agreed that "we could be talking about another breast cancer candidate gene."
In a Science perspective accompanying the papers, John H. J. Petrini, a researcher at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, noted that the new research "brings fundamental new information to the table, while at the same time reminding us that the more we know, the more complicated things get."
Cancer Patient Fights For Treatment
A cancer patient is fighting to receive treatment.
Leo Miller, 64, has multiple myeloma, which is a complex cancer of the blood. He said figuring out how to get the stem cell transplant his doctor said he needs has become difficult.
"It's pretty tough, I'll tell you," Miller told KMBC's Jim Flink. "I'm waiting for word from a judge about my transplant -- I'm in a danger zone, really."
Miller said he already has stem cells frozen from his first transplant for multiple myeloma. But his second transplant has been denied.
A similar situation happened to Julia Slaven, who also has multiple myeloma. She picketed her insurance provider, Coventry. That same day, Slaven's appeal claim was accepted.
Miller also has Coventry Insurance, but it's through a Medicare plan. A Coventry representative said the company is only the administrator and that Medicare is rejecting Miller's claim as "experimental."
Dr. Christopher Sirridge, an oncologist at Kansas City Cancer Center North, said the decision is questionable.
"This is a patient who needs help. Bone marrow transplantation is not experimental for myeloma," Sirridge said.
He said it has been the standard of care for 20 years.
Miller has been waiting 60 days, and he said his condition is getting worse.
"I have a grandson -- he's 2 months old. I'd love to see him grow up, be able to play with him," Miller said.
Late Thursday afternoon, a judge overturned the Medicare decision to reject treating, so Miller will get his second stem cell transplant.
Coventry and Medicare both sent statements to KMBC explaining how the process works. Both statements are posted below.
Medication errors common in U.S. kids with cancer
Children with cancer often get the wrong dose of chemotherapy or are given the drug at the wrong time, and many require treatment because of the errors, U.S. researchers said on Friday.
The problem has a lot to do with lack of common standards for delivering these life-saving, but highly toxic, drugs, said Dr. Marlene Miller, director of quality and safety at Johns Hopkins Children's Center in Baltimore.
Miller and colleagues evaluated data on medication errors collected in a national database from 1999 to 2004.
They looked at a total of 829,492 errors reported in 29,802 patients.
Of the errors, 310 involved kids on chemotherapy. Of those mistakes, 85 percent reached the patient, and nearly 16 percent of those were serious enough to require additional care.
Miller likens the problem to the issues most parents face when trying to figure out how much of the analgesic ibuprofen to give a child because the dose must be calculated based on weight and age.
"That is a reality for every single dose of medicine we give to children. There is no normal dose. There is no comfort level. There is no ability to say that is clearly, egregiously, too much for this age," Miller said in a telephone interview.
Miller said no studies have determined whether medication errors affect children on chemotherapy more than adults on chemotherapy, but studies have shown that 6 percent of all hospital-based medication errors occur in children.
"The data we do have out there suggests that children suffer medication errors many more times than adults," Miller said.
Miller and colleagues found nearly half of the errors happened while giving the drug to the child, with 23 percent involving improper dosing and about the same amount involving either timing or frequency.
She said chemotherapy has significantly helped boost children's cancer survival rates, but the drugs are toxic and tricky to prescribe.
"They're meant to kill cells. When you overdose them, then they start hurting the cells that are not cancerous," she said.
She said the ultimate solution would be a computerized medication delivery system that would keep track of a child's chemotherapy regimen and warn of potential overdoses.
Short of that, it would help if drugmakers, hospitals and doctors could come up with universal dosing standards that would simplify the task for health workers, who increasingly must combine several drugs given over a period of several days.
"There is not one solution that will fix all of this but it does have to be looked at," she said.
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Manmohan Singh finds 'cancer' of corruption in road construction projects
Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh today said corruption in road construction projects is spreading like cancer.
Describing corruption as the chief reason for the poor quality of roads during his inaugural speech at the two-day National Conference on Rural Roads, here, Dr Singh said: "Corruption in road construction projects has spread like cancer to every corner of our vast country."
The Prime Minister, however, added that the Pradhan Mantri Grameen Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) and the flagship programme of the Bharat Nirman could be implemented in a transparent and accountable manner.
Expressing his concern about the apathy over the quality of roads, which get spoilt every monsoon, Dr. Singh said: "I am concerned about the fact that we invest crores of rupees every year on road construction and maintenance, and yet with every monsoon our roads get worn."
He also stressed the need to evolve cost-effective technologies for the construction of rural roads as well as the need to make road construction as labour intensive as possible.
Dr Singh enlisted three priority areas in road development.
First, he said is the need of multi-laned highways connecting the country. "This we are doing through a massive expansion of the National Highway Development Programme (NHDP)," he added.
"Second we need a network of rural roads, linking our villages to towns, to market centres and to our highways," he said.
Thirdly, there is need for good quality border roads and better road connectivity in the North-eastern region of the country.
Talking about poor maintenance of roads, Dr Singh said: "We are losing road assets worth thousands of crores annually due to poor road maintenance."
"We cannot afford to allow this state of affairs to continue any longer," he added.
On this occasion he also released a book 'Rural Roads: Vision 2025'.
Union Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Ministers of State in the Ministry of Rural Development Suryakanta Patil and Chandrasekhar Sahu were also present at the conference.
India has a vast road network of over 3 million kilometres spread across its length and breadth.
Under the NHDP, the country has been investing 2, 200 billion rupees and under Bharat Nirman programme. The investment requirement for connecting 66,000 villages with road has been estimated at 480 billion rupees.
Poor controls over cancer tests, court told
More than 20 breast cancer patients and their relatives sat in Newfoundland Supreme Court in St. John's on Wednesday as arguments started on whether to certify a class action suit over faulty lab tests.
St. John's lawyer Ches Crosbie told the court that the Eastern Health regional authority did not properly run the lab that produced hundreds of inaccurate hormone receptor tests during an eight-year period.
Crosbie argued that Eastern Health did not have appropriate quality controls in place over its hormone receptor tests, which help determine the type of treatment that breast cancer patients receive.
Among other problems, Crosbie said, Eastern Health did not offer appropriate training for its laboratory staff and compounded problems by not informing patients immediately about false negatives.
The potential suit is seeking unspecified damages.
Crosbie told Supreme Court Justice Carl Thompson that the cases of about 100 women, many of whom he personally represents, ought to be heard at once through a class action suit rather than letting the cases proceed individually.
The tests have sparked a judicial inquiry, which the Newfoundland and Labrador government announced Tuesday.
On Friday - after an affidavit filed with the court showed that the error rate for hormone receptor tests was 42 per cent, or several times higher than what had been acknowledged last year - Eastern Health apologized for confusion caused by withholding information.
Patricia Sweeney, one of the women who received inaccurate results, said she attended Wednesday's court session in memory of her friend, Michelle Hanlon, who died of cancer.
"When I heard about this testing and all the unanswered questions, I said, 'Michelle was 42 - she never got married, she never got to see her children grow up,' " Sweeney said.
"[The] first thing I said to myself was, 'Would Michelle be with us today?' And I think she would have been.... My heart is here for her today."
Sweeney said she personally has received good medical care in the last eight years, despite a faulty hormone receptor test.
'It just demoralized me'
Minnie Hoyles, who is also among the group of patients, said she learned about her false negative after she had endured chemotherapy that involved the use of the wrong drugs.
"When I found out that I in actual fact was positive, instead of negative, it just demoralized me to the point that I thought that there's nothing else that can go wrong," said Hoyles.
She applauded the call for the judicial inquiry.
"We need that. My concern was, also, that somebody else wouldn't be affected.... I want to make sure that this [does not] happen again, more than anything."
An affidavit signed by an Eastern Health manager showed that of 763 patients who had tested negative in their hormone receptor tests, 317 turned out to have been given wrong results.
Those patients were excluded from receiving anti-hormonal therapies like the drug Tamoxifen, which has been linked to higher survival rates for breast cancer patients.
A separate affidavit showed that 36 women who had received inaccurate hormone receptor test results have died.
Crosbie declined to comment to reporters about the application. Three days have been set aside at Newfoundland Supreme Court in St. John's.
N.L. health authority lacked quality controls: lawyer in breast cancer suit
A lawyer representing breast cancer patients behind a lawsuit against a Newfoundland health authority says a lack of quality controls, among other things, justifies the class action against the organization.
During a hearing today to certify the class action, Ches Crosbie said the Eastern Health authority failed to properly supervise and train staff, as well as inform patients in a timely manner of inaccurate breast cancer test results.
About 20 clients represented by Crosbie attended the first day of the three-day certification hearing in a St. John's courtroom.
The allegations in their statement of claim have not been proven in court.
The lawsuit was launched after it was discovered that more than 300 patients received the wrong results from their breast cancer tests from 1997 to 2005.
The provincial government has announced a judicial inquiry to determine how so many patients could have received the wrong results.
Less disruptive surgery safe for cervical cancer
Women with cervical cancer have an alternative to undergoing a radical hysterectomy through an abdominal incision, UK researchers report. They say that a laparoscopically assisted procedure in which the uterus is removed through the vagina appears to be as safe as the conventional operation, and to offer other advantages.
"The implications of this study are that women with cervical cancer can benefit from the use of minimal-access surgery without compromising safety or cure rates," lead investigator Dr. David J. Morgan told Reuters Health. "For patients this means less time in hospital and less complications."
Morgan, at Stranmillis University College, Belfast, and colleagues studied 30 women who underwent laparoscopically assisted radical vaginal hysterectomy and 30 similar women who had open surgery.
During the procedure, blood loss was greater in the open group, and transfusions were given to 40 percent of these women compared to 17 percent in the vaginal hysterectomy group.
There were four complications from the operation in the laparoscopic group and seven in the open group, the team reports in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.
The average time needed for the operations was longer in the vaginal hysterectomy group, but the patients' hospital stay was significantly shorter than for those who underwent open surgery (5.9 versus 7.8 nights).
After an average follow-up of more than 30 months, there were two cancer recurrences in each group.
"Our study," Morgan concluded, "involved modest numbers, but supports gynecologists who wish to learn this new technique, which is still controversial to some specialists."
SOURCE: BJOG, May 2007.
Less disruptive surgery safe for cervical cancer
Women with cervical cancer have an alternative to undergoing a radical hysterectomy through an abdominal incision, UK researchers report. They say that a laparoscopically assisted procedure in which the uterus is removed through the vagina appears to be as safe as the conventional operation, and to offer other advantages.
"The implications of this study are that women with cervical cancer can benefit from the use of minimal-access surgery without compromising safety or cure rates," lead investigator Dr. David J. Morgan told Reuters Health. "For patients this means less time in hospital and less complications."
Morgan, at Stranmillis University College, Belfast, and colleagues studied 30 women who underwent laparoscopically assisted radical vaginal hysterectomy and 30 similar women who had open surgery.
During the procedure, blood loss was greater in the open group, and transfusions were given to 40 percent of these women compared to 17 percent in the vaginal hysterectomy group.
There were four complications from the operation in the laparoscopic group and seven in the open group, the team reports in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.
The average time needed for the operations was longer in the vaginal hysterectomy group, but the patients' hospital stay was significantly shorter than for those who underwent open surgery (5.9 versus 7.8 nights).
After an average follow-up of more than 30 months, there were two cancer recurrences in each group.
"Our study," Morgan concluded, "involved modest numbers, but supports gynecologists who wish to learn this new technique, which is still controversial to some specialists."
Million dollar prize aims to lure new cancer ideas
Medical researchers teamed up with hedge fund managers on Wednesday to offer a new million-dollar prize for the best new idea for cancer research in the hopes of kick-starting innovative approaches.
They invited cancer experts, scientists and the general public to join an Internet-based club and compete for the Gotham Prize for Cancer Research.
Federal funding of cancer research has been flat, and is in fact lower than in recent years when inflation is taken into account, said Dr. Gary Curhan of Harvard Medical School.
And the system of seeking grants -- money to do research -- is based around pleasing either National Institutes of Health supervisors or gatekeepers at the advocacy organizations that pay for research on specific types of cancer, he said.
Curhan teamed up with hedge fund managers Joel Greenblatt and Robert Goldstein of private investment firm Gotham Capital to set up the prize club, found at http://www.gothamprize.org/.
"The goal here is to open up the site to people with ideas," Curhan told reporters in a telephone briefing.
"The winners of these prizes are not going to be those who are successful in evaluating the idea. It is going to be the person with the best idea."
Members post an essay or thesis outlining their ideas. Cancer researchers will be invited to peruse the ideas. At the end of the year cancer experts such as Dr. Bert Vogelstein of Johns Hopkins University, one of the best-known researchers in colon cancer and cancer genes, will judge the entries.
"I have seen firsthand how many ideas with incredible potential never reach fruition," Curhan said. "We will only make significant progress in cancer research by learning from each other's successes and mistakes, and by building on each other's knowledge."
People who want to make individual contributions to a particular researcher, as opposed to making a general donation to a charity, are also invited to look at the site.
Curhan stressed he does not believe the NIH is unimaginative in funding research.
"Most of the work is incremental just because of the long tradition and because people tend not to pick risks. And you tend to write grants to what you think will get funded as opposed to your most innovative idea," he said.
"If you want to study something that may be relatively rare, it is not going to be given the same priority as something that is more common such as breast cancer or prostate cancer."
The prize was launched at the Ira Sohn Investment Research Conference, a charity cancer event named after a trader who died of cancer at 29. A second, $250,000 prize will be offered for pediatric oncology.
SenoRx Receives Food and Drug Administration Approval for Breast Cancer Treatment
Medical device maker SenoRx Inc. said Wednesday the Food and Drug Administration approved its breast cancer brachytherapy treatment.
Brachytherapy refers to the process of placing a radiation treatment inside or near the source of the cancer.
The Multi-Lumen Radiation Balloon Applicator is placed inside the area in need of radiotherapy. The approval is for therapy following lumpectomy for breast cancer.
Full launch of the product is expected in early 2008.
Shares of SenoRx jumped $1.10, or 13.8 percent, to $9.10 in morning trading. The stock has traded between $7.38 and $8.80 over the last 52 weeks.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Corruption in road construction projects spreading like cancer
Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh today said corruption in road construction projects is spreading like cancer in the country.
Describing corruption as the chief reason behind the poor quality of roads during his inaugural speech at the two-day National Conference on Rural Roads, here, Dr Singh said: "Corruption in road construction projects has spread like cancer to every corner of our vast country."
The Prime Minister, however, added that the Pradhan Mantri Grameen Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) and the flagship programme of the Bharat Nirman could be implemented in a transparent and accountable manner.
Expressing his concern about the apathy towards road constitution during the monsoon, Dr. Singh said: "I am concerned about the fact that we invest crores of rupees every year on road construction and maintenance, and yet with every monsoon our roads get worn."
He also stressed the need to evolve cost-effective technologies for the construction of rural roads as well as the need to make road construction as labour intensive as possible.
Dr Singh enlisted three priority areas in road development.
First, he said is the need of multi-laned highways connecting the country. "This we are doing through a massive expansion of the National Highway Development Programme (NHDP)," he added.
"Second we need a network of rural roads, linking our villages to towns, to market centres and to our highways," he said.
Thirdly, there is need of good quality border roads and better road connectivity in the Northeastern region of the country.
Talking about the loss due to poor maintenance of roads, Dr Singh said: "We are losing road assets worth thousands of crores annually due to poor road maintenance."
"We cannot afford to allow this state of affairs to continue any longer," he added.
On this occasion he also released a book 'Rural Roads: Vision 2025'.
Union Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Ministers of State in the Ministry of Rural Development Suryakanta Patil and Chandrasekhar Sahu were also present at the conference.
India have vast road network of over 3 million kilometres spread across its length and breadth.
Under the NHDP, the country is investing 2, 200 billion rupees and under Bharat Nirman, the investment requirement for connecting 66,000 villages with road has been estimated at 480 billion rupees.
Gum Disease Boosts Tongue Cancer Risk in Men
Chronic gum disease could boost a man's risk for tongue cancer, whether or not he smokes, a U.S. study finds.
Researchers at the State University of New York at Buffalo and the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo compared 51 men with tongue cancer and 54 men without tongue cancer.
Using X-rays, the researchers assessed periodontitis (chronic gum disease) in the men by calculating the amount of bone loss in the tooth cavities. The study found that men with tongue cancer had significantly greater average bone loss than those without tongue cancer -- 4.21 millimeters vs. 2.74 millimeters.
"After adjusting for the effects of age, smoking status and the number of teeth, each millimeter of [cavity] bone loss was significantly associated with a 5.23-fold increase in the risk of tongue cancer," the study authors wrote. "Other oral variables (the number of dental decays, fillings, crowns and root canal treatments) were not significantly associated with the risk for tongue cancer."
The researchers theorize that periodontal bacteria and viruses may be toxic to surrounding cells and cause changes that lead directly to oral cancer. They may also cause inflammation that indirectly contribute to cancer.
The study is in the May issue of the journal Archives of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery.
This preliminary data suggests an association between periodontitis and tongue cancer, but larger studies that include women and different racial/ethnic groups need to be conducted to confirm this association, the researchers said.
Boy who fought cancer treatment dies
An 11-year-old boy whose parents won court approval to treat their son's leukemia with an unconventional method has died after five years of fighting the cancer.
Noah Maxin died Thursday at Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital in Cleveland, said Rinda Schelat of Reed Funeral Home in Canton.
Noah's parents, Greg and Theresa Maxin, won the right in 2002 to abandon chemotherapy treatment for their then-7-year-old son. County child welfare officials had accused the couple of neglect after the Maxins told Akron Children's Hospital they were pulling Noah out of chemotherapy three months into a 3 1/2-year treatment plan.
The couple said they were concerned about the long-term effects chemotherapy would have on Noah, whose cancer had gone into remission.
After researching alternative treatments, they found a doctor specializing in holistic medicine who recommended a healthier diet along with supplements to boost Noah's immune system.
The parents put him back on chemotherapy after the cancer returned four months later.
Exercise helps women after breast cancer treatment
An aerobic exercise program improves quality of life for women previously treated for localized breast cancer, according to UK researchers.
Previous studies have shown that exercise improves physical and psychological health for breast cancer survivors, but it has been unclear if the benefit came from the exercise itself or from the increased attention women got from participating in the programs.
To isolate the effects due to exercise from those due to attention, Dr. Amanda J. Daley, from the University of Birmingham, and her associates designed a study that included not only an active exercise group but also a placebo exercise group as well as a usual-care group.
The participants were 108 women who had been treated for breast cancer between 1 and 3 years before, and who were physically inactive.
As described in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, the active exercise program involved one-on-one 50-minute sessions three times a week for 8 weeks. Exercises were moderate intensity, with a goal of boosting heart rate up to 65-85 percent the maximum for each woman's age.
The instructor also discussed cognitive-behavioral techniques for sticking to regular exercise with each participant.
The placebo exercise group also met for 24 sessions, but exercise was limited to light-intensity body conditioning and stretching, and no counseling.
Quality of life was measured with a scale called the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy - General (FACT-G). The benefits of exercise therapy compared with usual care were reflected by a greater improvement in scores on the FACT-G, averaging 9.8 units.
The magnitude of the change, Daley's team notes, is "far greater than those reported for other types of health-enhancing and quality-of-life interventions (e.g., psychological support in cancer patients)."
Significant improvements were also observed in subscale scores for functional well-being and social/family well-being, and for breast cancer concerns.
"These findings cannot be attributable to attention effects, because the exercise-placebo group did not report significant benefit, compared with usual care," the researchers say.
The results for functional well-being "are particularly promising," they add, "given that physical functioning is considered one of the most important components of quality of life in cancer patients."
They propose that exercise may "expedite the recovery process," but add, "We are mindful that this study only demonstrated short-term gains."
SOURCE: Journal of Clinical Oncology, May 2007.
MRI May Improve Breast Cancer Surgery
MRI scans may help guide the surgical treatment of newly diagnosed breast cancer patients, U.S. researchers report.
A team at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago noted that newly diagnosed breast cancer patients are at risk of having another hidden tumor in the same or opposite breast. If these additional tumors are detected before surgery to remove the initially diagnosed tumor, then the plans for surgical management of a patient's breast cancer can be changed.
This study included 155 women who'd been diagnosed with breast cancer by mammogram, ultrasound or needle biopsy. The women were then evaluated by a surgeon who developed a surgical treatment plan. After this consultation, the women had an MRI on both breasts.
Those MRIs spotted a total of 124 additional aberrant areas in 73 of the women. If a follow-up biopsy showed these areas to be suspicious or malignant, the women went back to the surgeon for a re-evaluation of their surgical treatment plans.
Breast MRI resulted in altered surgical management of 36 (23.2 percent) of the 155 women, including 10 who had a mastectomy instead of a lumpectomy, 21 who had lumpectomies in which more tissue was removed than originally planned, and five who had surgery on both breasts.
"Additional malignancies are uncovered in one patient for every 10 who undergo MRI," the study authors wrote. "These data suggest that breast MRI may have a role in the staging evaluation of newly diagnosed breast cancers."
The study is published in the May issue of the journal Archives of Surgery.
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
By Amy Norton Mon May 21, 9:36 AM ET
Women who use chemical relaxers to straighten their hair do not seem to be at increased risk of breast cancer, according to a new study.
There's no evidence that the major ingredients in hair relaxers -- such as lye and calcium hydroxide -- promote cancer. However, manufacturers need not list all of the ingredients they use in cosmetics (as some are considered trade secrets), and it's not clear whether some of these substances might be harmful.
Because many African-American women regularly use hair relaxers, often throughout their lives, it's important to know whether the products carry any long-term health risks, researchers say.span class="fullpost">
The new study found that among more than 48,000 African-American women, those who used hair relaxers most frequently were no more likely to develop breast cancer than those who rarely used the products.
"Our study provides reassurance that hair relaxers in general are not increasing the incidence of breast cancer," Dr. Lynn Rosenberg, the study's lead author, told Reuters Health.
That said, "nothing is 100-percent certain," noted Rosenberg, who is associate director of the Slone Epidemiology Center at Boston University, Massachusetts.
The study did not look at individual products, she explained, and it's still possible that some contain harmful substances. For now, however, there's "very little evidence" that women who use hair relaxers should worry that they're raising their odds of breast cancer, according to Rosenberg.
She and her colleagues report their findings in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.
The researchers based their results on data from the Black Women's Health Study, which began following a large group of African American women from across the U.S. in 1995. Study participants completed questionnaires on their health and lifestyle habits every two years.
Of 48,167 women who reported on their hair relaxer use, 574 had developed breast cancer by 2003. Women who used hair relaxers most frequently -- seven or more times per year -- were no more likely to develop breast cancer than their peers who rarely or never used the products.
The same was true when the researchers compared non-users to women who'd used hair relaxers for 20 years or more.
Compared with white women, African-American women are more likely to develop breast cancer before the age of 45, for reasons that aren't completely clear. In this study, Rosenberg pointed out, there was no evidence that hair relaxers increased breast cancer risk in older or younger women.
SOURCE: Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, May 2007.
Supplements Don't Cut Lung Cancer Risk
Taking multivitamins, or supplements of vitamins C and E or folate does not reduce lung cancer risk, concludes a study by researchers at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle.
They analyzed data on almost 78,000 women and men, ages 50-76, in the VITamins and Lifestyle (VITAL) study. The participants filled out a detailed questionnaire on their vitamin intake over the previous 10 years. Of the study participants, 393 had been diagnosed with lung cancer.
After adjusting for a number of lung cancer risk factors -- such as smoking, age or presence of other lung disease -- the researchers found no statistically significant associations between different types of vitamin supplements and lung cancer.
The findings were to be presented Monday at the American Thoracic Society's international conference in San Francisco.
The vitamin supplements/lung cancer research is part of a larger study examining supplements and other types of cancer, including breast and prostate.
"People are spending billions of dollars on supplements, and there is a general sense in the population that they prevent cancer. We need to find out if they're helpful or even harmful," researcher Dr. Chris Slatore said in a prepared statement.
A research overview published in the February issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association concluded that supplements of beta-carotene, vitamin E or vitamin A slightly increase the risk of death.
Robotic Procedure Improves Survival for Prostate Cancer Patients
Using robotic technology to perform laparoscopic radical prostatectomy (LRP) surgery may improve survival rates for prostate cancer patients, a new study suggests.
Prostatectomy involves removal of the prostate gland and some of the surrounding tissue.
Urologic oncologists at the Genitourinary Cancer Center at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, in Philadelphia, compared 50 men who had robotic assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy (RALP) and 197 men who had conventional LRP.
They found that RALP helped reduce positive surgical margins. This refers to when cancer, seen under a microscope, goes to the edge of a tissue specimen, indicating that there are still cancerous cells in the patient.
The overall positive surgical margin rate for the men who had RALP was six percent, compared with 18 percent for the men who had LRP.
The study was slated to be presented Monday at the annual meeting of the American Urological Association, in Anaheim, Calif.
"We demonstrated a significant improvement in the positive surgical margin rate with the addition of robotics to an established LRP," Dr. Costas Lallas, assistant professor of urology, said in a prepared statement. He completed a robotic surgery fellowship at the Mayo Clinic.
"Several large studies have demonstrated that a positive surgical margin increases the chances that the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) -- a protein produced by the cells of the prostate gland -- will rise after surgery, and increase the chances that the disease will reoccur and progress," Dr. Edouard Trabulsi, a urologic oncologist and assistant professor of urology, said in a prepared statement.
"Therefore, any intervention or technique to lower positive surgical margins, we think, will translate into a better long-term cure rate," Trabulsi said.
Chronic gum disease linked to tongue cancer
In a small study, the gum disease periodontitis was associated with an elevated risk of developing tongue cancer.
Dr. Mine Terzal, from the University at Buffalo School of Dental Medicine in New York, and colleagues compared 51 white men with newly diagnosed cancer of the tongue to 54 cancer-free "controls" who were seen during the same period.
The study excluded people younger than 21 years and those who lacked teeth, had any previous malignancy, and those with an impaired immune system.
Periodontitis leads to bone loss around affected teeth, and the investigators used bone loss seen on X-rays to assess periodontitis. They report, in the Archives of Otolaryngology--Head and Neck Surgery, that each millimeter reduction in bone was associated with a 5-fold rise in the risk of tongue cancer.
"Periodontitis is a chronic disease that progresses very slowly," Dr. Terzal noted. "Seeing alveolar bone loss on X-rays indicates the infection has existed for decades, making it clear that periodontitis preceded the cancer diagnosis, and not vice-versa."
The team concludes that larger studies are needed to confirm these findings, and to tease out the effect of tobacco use on the risk of periodontal disease and tongue cancer.
SOURCE: Archives of Otolaryngology: Head and Neck Surgery, May 2007.
De Niro battles film insurer over cancer diagnosis
Four years after going public with a diagnosis of prostate cancer, actor
Robert De Niro is waging a courtroom battle against the insurance carrier for a Hollywood film that was delayed by his illness.
De Niro filed a motion on Friday seeking to dismiss a $1.8 million lawsuit brought last year by the Fireman's Fund Insurance Co., which claims he misrepresented his health status to them days before shooting was scheduled to start.
The $1.8 million figure is the amount Fireman's Fund reimbursed filmmakers under its policy for the cost of delayed production on the movie "Hide and Seek," during De Niro's cancer treatment, according to court documents.
Fireman's Fund in turn sued the 63-year-old Oscar winner for fraud, saying he misled the insurance company by failing to disclose at the time he signed a health certificate on October 13, 2003, that he had just undergone a prostate biopsy.
De Niro has acknowledged getting a biopsy on October 10, 2003, three days before signing the form. But he says he received no diagnosis until October 15, and was therefore truthful when he indicated that he had never been "diagnosed with" or "treated for" a prostate disorder.
But Fireman's Fund said De Niro's knowledge that he had undergone the biopsy constituted information he knew "might alter or otherwise conflict" the statements he attested to when he signed the certificate.
"Mr. De Niro failed to fully disclose information which was critical to our decision to offer insurance coverage," the insurance company said in a statement on Monday. "As a result, the film had to be postponed for four months, at significant cost to the motion picture production company."
De Niro's lawyer, Robyn Crowther, denied that her client sought to conceal his illness or misrepresent his health status, saying the actor had assumed when he underwent the biopsy that the results would be negative.
"One day you don't have cancer, and the next day you get diagnosed and you do, and this happened to be in the middle of those couple of days," Crowther, told Reuters on Monday.
De Niro, who is attending the Cannes film festival in France this week, revealed his illness publicly just days after his diagnosis in 2003, saying the condition was detected at an early stage and that he was expected to make a full recovery.
He completed his cancer treatment and returned to work in 2004 on "Hide and Seek," which was released the following year by 20th Century Fox, a unit of News Corp. Ltd.. The film went on to gross more than $122 million at the box office worldwide.
Monday, May 21, 2007
PREVENTS GRACIOUS CANCER
Many ways, for example, do not excessively cleans vagina with antiseptic, more than anything else without indication and suggestion of medical doctor. Doesn't also spreads talc in vagina. Can also with low diet of fat. Waduh! Eeriness that is direct shadow to be so hearing the word womb cancer. We know this malignant disease occupies rank to as death carrier. But, unnecessary worryed if since beginning of we had done prevention. Because exactly, according to dr. Nasdaldy, SpOG, , preventive become part and parcel of cancer risk. " Its way by preventing its protactinium substance causing risk the happening of the cancer," he asserted. Happened here exactly on the contrary, still many womens which refuse to investigate x'self to obstetrician, even has owned various sighs.
1. AVOIDS CIGARETTE
This most important commemoration made smoker woman. Except resulting disease at lung and heart, nicotine content in cigarette also can result cervix cancer ( cervix uteri). Unhappily unknown is sure how many consumption nicotine amounts which able to cause cervix cancer. But, why having to takes risk, better leaved soon cigarette if we wish to be free of cancer.
2. VAGINA WASH
Often, we do wash of vagina with certain antiseptic drugs. Its reason having immeasurable. Though, habit cleans vagina can generate cervix cancer, good of drug cleans antiseptic vagina and also deodorant. " Cleans vagina to cause irritation in cervix. Abundant irritation and excessively will stimulate the happening of cell change, finally thus cancer." Thus, be better if wash of vagina with chemistry material do not be done in routine. " Except if (there are) any indication, for example, infection that is of course requires wash with chemistry matters.
That also ought to at the instance of medical doctor." Mean, we don't promiscuously buys vagina detergent drugs. " Particularly, the cleaner generally will kill germs. Including germ Basillus doderlain in vagina producing lactic acid to maintain vagina hydrogen ion exponent.
3. SOWS TALC
Frequently happened again, when red or itchy vagina area, we spread talc in vinicity. Usage of talc at fertility age woman vagina can trigger happened ovary cancer ( ovary). In consequence hardly is not suggested gives talc in vagina area.
4. LOW DIET of FAT
Important is known, incidence [of] cancer also closely related to pattern eats someone. Woman which many consuming fat would far more risk is hit endometrium cancer ( womb body). Doesn't forget to take care of ideal body weight that do not too fat." It is not strange, if(when endometrium cancer patient many there is in big towns of developed countries. Because, generally they embrace pattern to eat fat height.
5. MENTAL DEFECT of VITAMIN C
Life pattern consumes high food of fat also will make people forgets other nutrition matters, like carotene beta, ascorbic acid, and of folat. Though, third mental defect of this nutrient can cause arising cervix cancer. " Carotene beta, vitamin C, and folic acid can improve;repair or strengthens mucosa is cervix. So, if lacking of nutrition matters will water down excitement of the mucosa cells become cancer."
Carotene beta many there is in carrots, ascorbic acid there is in fruits is having colour orange, while folic acid there is in seafood.
6. TOO COITUS EARLY
Coitus ideally is done after a really matured woman. Maturity measure is not merely seen from s(he has menstruated or has not, lo. But also bases on maturity of mucosa cells; which there is membrane body cavity interior skin. Generally matured new mucosa cells after the woman having age 20 years upward. So, a woman braiding coitus at the age of adolescent; very gristle if done under age 16 years.
This thing relates to maturity of mucosa cells at cervix the woman. " At the age of young, mucosa cells at premature cervix. Mean, still be susceptible to excitement so that do not ready to receive excitement from outside. Including chemistry matters brought by sperm." Other the if coitus is done age scorpion have been above 20 years, where mucosa cells do not again too susceptible to change. So, because still be susceptible, mucosa cells can change character to become cancer. " Cell character, isn't it, changing every when; dead and grows again. Because there are excitement, cell might possibly growing more than dead cells, so that its change is imbalance again. Excess of this cell finally can change character to become cancer cell."
7. FLITS COUPLE
Can also cervix cancer emerges at woman flitting sex couple. " If correlates sex only with! its(the couple, and its couple are also do not do coitus with others, hence will not result cervix cancer." If flitting couple, this thing is related to possibility
8. LATE MARRIED
On the contrary woman that is is not or late married also berisiko can be hit ovary cancer and endometrium cancer. Because, faction of this woman would be continuous experiences ovulation without interval. " Thus, excitement to endometrium also happened continuous. As a result can make cells in endometrium
9. ESTROGEN USAGE
The same risk there will be at woman that is overdue is menopause. " Because excitement to endometrium would be longer, so that its endometrium protactinium a more regular would ! estrogen. So, very enables happened cancer." It is not strange if woman using estrogen do not be controlled very enables hit cancer. " Generally woman which menopause has in developed countries applies estrogen to prevent osteroporosis and heart attack." But, its usage is hardly berisiko because estrogen stimulates increasingly the thickening of neodymium! ing endometrium and stimulates endometrium cells causing changes character to become cancer. " Thus, be better if usage of estrogen hormone must to observation of medical doctor that at the same time also is given his anti matter, so that doesn't grow becoming cancer."
