Cancer victim Shelford to front advertising campaign

A day after announcing his battle with cancer, former All Back Wayne "Buck" Shelford has been named the "face" of a footwear brand.

Shelford will be the frontman for John Bull footwear, which sells work boots in New Zealand and Australia.

Yesterday he revealed he was undergoing treatment for lymphoma, a cancer which affects white blood cells.

Shelford said it was a "lower-grade cancer" and there wasn't much of a story in it.

John Bull marketing manager Phillip Dewis said the former All Black's toughness and resilience made him a an apt representative of the company's boots.

Shelford's powers of endurance were witnessed in a 1986 match against France, Mr Dewis said.

"During a bloody game, Buck received a torn scrotum whilst in a scrum. This alone would leave most men screaming in agony and heading for the nearest hospital, yet Buck calmly instructed the physio to stitch him up, and he played on."

Shelford said he was happy to work with John Bull because the company did a lot of good work in the community.

source : news.yahoo.com

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Former All Blacks rugby hardman Shelford battles cancer

Former All Blacks captain Wayne "Buck" Shelford, one of international rugby's iconic hardmen, is battling cancer, his wife told the Sunday Star-Times newspaper.

"We found out a month ago and he has five more months of treatment," Jo Shelford said. "We are very positive and pleased with how the treatment is going."

The famous backrower No. 8 is being treated for lymphoma, a cancer affecting white blood cells.

Shelford, 49, captained the All Blacks from 1987 to 1990 during a golden era when they never lost a game.

His reputation as a fearless, uncomprising player was born from his second international in 1986 when in a Test against France his scrotum was torn open, leaving one testicle hanging out.

He calmly told the team physio to stitch the wound and carried on playing.

"I was knocked out cold, lost a few teeth and had a few stitches down below," he later recalled of that game.

"It's a game I still can't remember -- I have no memory of it whatsoever."

The All Blacks lost the match 16-3, the only time Shelford was on the losing side during his distinguished 22-Test career.

When he was dropped from the All Blacks in 1990 there was a national "Bring Back Buck" campaign, which was ignored by the New Zealand selectors, and he moved to England where he coached successfully for several seasons.

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New cancer research centre for Sydney

A $100 million cancer research centre to be built at Sydney University is already being credited with luring leading scientists home to undertake crucial research.

The centre, an Australian first to establish facilities for research and clinical drugs trials into both adult and children's cancers, was announced by University of New South Wales Vice-Chancellor Fred Hilmer.

The Lowy Cancer Research Centre, which will house up to 400 cancer researchers, will be located adjacent to UNSW's Faculty of Medicine at its Randwick campus, in Sydney's eastern suburbs.

Westfield founder Frank Lowy and his family have donated $10 million toward the facility - the largest single philanthropic donation ever received by the university.

Top grants have come from the NSW government, $18.3 million, and from the federal government - $13.3 million.

Professor Philip Hogg, director of the UNSW Cancer Research Centre, will head adult cancer research at the Lowy centre and will be able to bring back the British trial of a new cancer drug his team developed.

Development of a drug known as glutathionarsenoxide (or GSAO) was completed in 2003 but Prof Hogg was unable to get funding for early trials.

The drug aims to stop cancer tumours from developing blood vessels to continue their growth after initial cell development.

Clinical trials are about to begin at the Cancer Research UK, a non-profit cancer foundation.

Trials of a second generation of the drug would also have had to be shipped overseas but the creation of the Lowy Centre has attracted the people and the $2 million to trial the drug at the one location in Sydney.

"What the facility does is it enables us to take our research efforts to the next level," Prof Hogg said.

He said both an Australian cancer researcher now at Cambridge University and one at Scripps Research Institute in San Diego, California, will return to work at the Lowy Centre.

"It provides a beacon if you like for other great cancer researchers and gives them a reason to come here and work in Sydney."

Another prominent clinician, oncologist Robyn Ward, recently joined the UNSW team as a professor of medicine, a move which helped Prof Hogg win further funding for the second drug trial.

He said drug companies back 99 per cent of advanced drug trials but only after initial trials show promise for a new drug.

"The combination of the two of us was good enough to get funding outside of the drug-company-sphere to do the trial," Prof Hogg said.

"The trial on this second drug is a good example of how that sort of initiative will allow things to happen that probably wouldn't have happened otherwise."

The Lowy Centre also will house the Children's Cancer Institute of Australia, which was looking to expand into a now home.

It will be the first time adult and children's cancer research will be located at the same facility, Prof Hogg said.

Since cancer in children and cancer in adults develop for inherently different reasons, there has never previously been one centre to house research for both.

But Prof Hogg said that by combining them, and with clinical trials, the Lowy Centre would continue to attract top researchers and trial funding.

"It's more than just a building," he added.

The Lowy Centre is due to be completed by late 2009.

source : news.yahoo.com

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New Cancer Drugs Prove Their Worth

New cancer drugs often save lives, but are they cost-effective?

Two new analyses of two new breast cancer drugs found that they are indeed worth what you pay for them.

The aromatase inhibitor Aromasin (exemestane) and the monoclonal antibody Herceptin (trastuzumab) have already been proven in clinical trials to improve survival.

As new breast cancer drugs exit the pipeline and enter the market, the U.S. health-care system, including the insurance companies or governments paying for therapy, want to know if the drugs are economically, as well as clinically, viable. And new drugs are almost always more expensive compared to the usual standards.

"This is always important to do when you have a drug or a procedure or intervention that is expensive compared to standard care," said Nicole Mittmann, senior author of the Aromasin study, and a scientist with Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and assistant professor of pharmacology at the University of Toronto. "The clinical data still drives the decision to use the medication, and this is another piece of the puzzle in the decision-making process."

Dr. Jay Brooks, chairman of hematology/oncology with Ochsner Health System in Baton Rouge, La., said, "The clinical research trials we've done in the last 50 years have been spectacular, and we know how good or how not good our treatments are, and because of the excellent clinical research that's been done, we can then ask ourselves can we afford these treatments.

"These two studies involving Herceptin and Aromasin clearly show that doing these two maneuvers are very, very cost effective in certain subgroups of women with breast cancer. When insurance companies come to you and ask why are you doing this, you have excellent studies to back them up," he added.

A large clinical study had already shown that women with hormone-receptor-positive breast cancer who switched from tamoxifen to Aromasin after two to three years lived longer than women who took tamoxifen continuously for five years.

But aromatase inhibitors are more expensive than tamoxifen, which has been around for years. And aromatase inhibitors do have some side effects, including musculoskeletal problems such as osteoporosis and fractures.

"Tamoxifen is pretty cheap. Aromasin is newer and more expensive," Mittmann said. "Is the added cost worth the added benefit?"

Cost-effectiveness is measured in number of life years gained and is also adjusted for the quality of life gained, expressed as quality-adjusted life year (QALY).

In Canada and elsewhere, the commonly accepted threshold for a QALY is $50,000 (Canadian dollars).

In this case, the authors found that using tamoxifen and Aromasin sequentially for five years (after 2.5 years of surgery and other standard therapies) improved disease-free survival at an additional cost of $2,889 (Canadian) per patient. This translates into an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of $24,185/QALY gained, well below the $50,000 bar.

"If this is $24,000, it seems to make sense that this is good value for money," Mittmann said.

According to Mittmann, the model would be applicable to the U.S. market.

The authors of the second study estimated that women would gain three years of life, on average, by adding Herceptin to therapy.

Over a woman's lifetime, the cost-effectiveness ratio would be $26,417/QALY (U.S.), again, below the commonly accepted threshold.

The Aromasin study was funded by an unrestricted grant from Pfizer Inc., which makes the drug. The Herceptin study was funded partly by Genentech, which makes Herceptin.

The new studies are published in the Aug. 1 issue of the journal Cancer.

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Radio Host With Cancer Bowing Out

Lowell Sun columnist and radio host Paul Sullivan announced Wednesday that his battle with cancer has prompted him to leave his daily air job.

Sullivan has announced he will leave his WBZ radio show next week for health reasons.

Sullivan has had four surgeries since he was diagnosed with Stage 4 melanoma three years ago.

In a letter released Wednesday morning, Sullivan said the burden has just become too much for his friends, family and colleagues.

He said he hopes to continue to contribute to the station in some capacity.

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Breast Cancer Risk May Be Hidden In Small Families

A new study has found that the genetic risk for breast cancer may be hidden in small families.

Women who have mutations in the breast cancer genes BRCA1 and BRCA2 are at an increased risk of breast and ovarian cancers.

Only around 2 percent of breast cancers are due to mutations in these specific genes, doctors said.

In families where multiple women are diagnosed with breast or ovarian cancers, the chance that other related females have the mutations increases dramatically.

Researchers observed over 300 women who had at least one relative diagnosed with breast cancer before age 50. They found that those with small families were almost three times more likely to have the breast cancer genes compared to women with large families.

Doctors recommend women in small families who have one female relative diagnosed with breast cancer at a young age or any relative with ovarian cancer to consider genetic testing.

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Omega-3 fatty acids rich diet may help lower genetic prostate cancer risk

A new study by boffins at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine has found that a diet rich in omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids found in certain fish or fish oil, nuts, seeds, and vegetable oils may help lower prostate cancer risk in men with a genetic predisposition to cancer.

The study was conducted on a mouse model by a team of researchers led Yong Chen.

The researchers studied the effects of such a diet on Pten-knockout mice that are predisposed to develop prostate tumours.

The authors found that a nutritionally balanced diet high in omega-3 fatty acid reduced prostate tumour growth and increased survival in these animals, whereas omega-6 fatty acids had the opposite effects.

They also found that introducing the enzyme omega-3 desaturase into the Pten-knockout mice reduces tumour growth in a manner similar to the omega-3 rich diet as it converts omega-6 fatty acids to omega-3 fatty acids.

The researchers went on to show that the effect of polyunsaturated fatty acids on prostate cancer development is mediated in part through cell death that is dependent on a protein known as Bad.

Together, the data highlight the importance of the interaction between genes and diet in prostate cancer and imply a beneficial effect of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids on delaying the onset of human prostate cancer.

The study appears in the July print issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

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