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
Monday, June 25, 2007
Cancer victim Shelford to front advertising campaign
Friday, June 22, 2007
Diet could be life or death for prostate cancer patients
Switching to a healthy diet rich in fish and nuts could be the difference between living or dying for men prone to to prostate cancer, new US research indicates.
A study published in the online edition of the Journal of Clinical Investigation found that omega-3 fatty acids found in the foods may improve the prognosis for men with a genetic predisposition to the condition.
Working with mice genetically engineered to develop prostate tumors, scientists fed some of the mice a diet high in omega-3 fatty acids from birth. These mice had fewer tumors and a longer life span than those not fed the diet. Survival was 60 percent in mice fed a high omega-3 diet, 10 percent in mice on a low omega-3 diet and zero percent in mice fed a diet high in omega-6, a different type of polyunsaturated fatty acid found in vegetable oils.
In normal mice not engineered for prostate cancer, all survived regardless of diet, according to the study funded by the National Institutes of Health.
Dietary sources of omega-3 fatty acids include cold water fish such as salmon, halibut, tuna, sardines and mackerel, and fish oil such as cod liver oil. English walnuts and flaxseeds also contain omega-3s.
"This study clearly shows that diet can tip the balance toward a good or bad outcome," said Yong Q. Chen, senior researcher at Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
"It's possible that a change in diet could mean the difference between dying from the disease and surviving with it."
Taking a recommended daily dose of omega-3s can reduce risk of cardiovascular disease and lower blood pressure slightly, previous studies have shown. High doses may have a harmful effect, such as excess bleeding, according to the National Institutes of Health.
Prostate cancer is among the leading causes of cancer death in men.
source : news.yahoo.com
Monday, June 18, 2007
GlaxoSmithKline plans 5 new cancer drugs
GlaxoSmithKline PLC, the world's second-largest pharmaceutical company, said Monday that it expects to introduce five new cancer treatments through 2010.
The drugs will treat a range of different cancers, including cancer of the cervix, the company said in a statement. The new treatments are cervarix, pazopanib, promacta, rezonic and ofatumumab.
Most recently Glaxo introduced Tykerb, its oral treatment for breast cancer, in March. The market for cancer treatments is worth about 20 billion pounds (US$39.5 billion; euro29.5 billion) and is growing at a rate of about 20 percent a year, the company estimates.
"Over the next three years, GSK will make a difference to millions of patients facing cancer," said Glaxo's head of research and development, Moncef Slaoui.
Glaxo has seen its shares drop recently after the New England Journal of Medicine published an article saying its diabetes drug Avandia raised the risk of heart attack by 43 percent.
The U.S.Food and Drug Administration said it will require a heart failure warning on Avandia. The drug already carries a warning about heart conditions.
Glaxo shares dipped 0.4 percent to 1,321 pence (US$26.11; euro19.51) on the London Stock Exchange.
source : news.yahoo.com
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Ethanol injection helps manage bone metastasis in thyroid cancer patients
may be a valuable ancillary treatment for thyroid cancer patients whose cancer has spread to the bone. Japanese researchers announced these findings during the 54th Annual Meeting of SNM, the world's largest society for molecular imaging and nuclear medicine.
PEI may be a valuable adjunctive or secondary treatment to radioiodine therapy, and it may contribute to better management of thyroid cancer patients with bone metastasis," said Kunihiro Nakada, clinical assistant professor in the Department of Radiology at Hokkaido University Hospital and the hospital chief in the Department of Radiology at LSI Sapporo Clinic, both in Japan.
Reports indicate that this year about 33,550 new cases of thyroid cancer will be diagnosed in the United States, and of those, more than 25,000 will occur in women. Thyroid cancer is a disease in which cancer (malignant) cells are found in the tissues of the thyroid gland. The thyroid gland, located at the base of the throat, makes important hormones that help the body function normally. Cancer can spread beyond that site and invade other parts of the body (metastasis), and thyroid cancer is often listed among the top most common causes of metastatic bone lesions. The primary treatment for patients with thyroid cancer is surgery, which is followed by thyroid hormone therapy. Radioactive iodine may be used to destroy thyroid cancer cells after surgical removal of the thyroid gland.
"Although thyroid cancer generally has a favorable prognosis, bone metastasis can be hard to be eradicate," said Nakada. "Although radioiodine therapy and/or surgery are valuable therapeutic strategies, management of bone metastasis has been challenging since it is likely that bone metastasis will show resistance to radioiodine therapy or that a tumor cannot be surgically removed," he explained.
"Our study is a therapeutic approach to treat metastatic bone tumor from thyroid cancer by injecting absolute ethanol directly into the tumor," explained Nakada. "Absolute ethanol induces direct necrosis (cell death) of the tissue in the area where it is distributed. Therefore, if absolute ethanol is selectively injected into a malignant tumor, selective destruction of the tumor may be expected," he added. In their study, 12 patients with radioiodine-ineffective bone metastasis from thyroid cancer underwent PEI. More than 50 percent reduction in tumor volume was achieved in all.
"PEI appears effective in terms of palliation (control) of symptoms (such as pain) and tumor size reduction and does not induce significant systemic side effects," noted Nakada. "In addition, PEI is a feasible treatment for radioiodine-ineffective tumors and has a potential for improving general performance or quality of life for selected patients," he
Additional research should be done to optimize treatment, said Nakada, including determining doses of ethanol, number of times PEI sessions should be repeated, how to predict outcome earlier and what other therapeutic options could be better combined with PEI to enhance efficacy.
