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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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.

source : news.yahoo.com

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Novel method of drug delivery to inhibit prostate cancer cells' growth developed

A doctoral candidate in pharmacy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem has developed a novel method of drug delivery to inhibit the growth of prostate cancer cells.

Danny Goldstein, a student who was recently conferred the Barenholz Prize for Creativity and Originality in Applied Research for his work, says that the well-known drug, paclitaxel, exhibits a wide spectrum of anti-tumour activity.

However, the therapeutic application of the drug in cancer therapy is limited due to its low water solubility, which makes it difficult to effectively deliver the drug to the points needed, he says.

These are the reasons why there arose a need for novel methods that would allow the delivery of effective concentrations of paclitaxel over extended time intervals while minimizing toxicity, adds the researcher.

Previous studies have already shown that the HER2 receptor is over-expressed in prostate cancer cells, and that an antibody called trastuzumab binds specifically to HER2. But no clinical data ever indicated that this antibody would provide any relief for prostate cancer patients.

Goldstein, a student of Prof. Simon Benita, has now shown that that attaching trastuzumab molecules to the surface of oil droplets in nano-emulsions makes possible the targeting of such droplets to cells over-expressing the HER2 receptor.

He coupled trastuzumab with emulsions containing the toxic agent paclitaxel-palmitate, and evaluated the efficiency of these emulsions in laboratory tests on cancerous prostate cells and on mice with induced prostate cancer.

He found that this emulsion compound did not cause a hypersensitive reaction upon injection, and yielded better results than known drug treatments while inhibiting tumour growth substantially.

Goldstein, however, cautions that the inhibiting activity of tumour metastases growth was not absolute, and that further research to combat metastatic prostate cancer was needed.

Prof. Benita hinted that clinical trials using the new method could begin in about two years.

source : news.yahoo.com

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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.

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Fish Oil Might Slow Prostate Cancer

A new study with mice suggests that diets high in omega-3 fatty acids from fish might help slow prostate cancer.

The comparable levels of dietary omega-3s used in the study "are much higher than the average Western diet, but they are not unachievable," said senior researcher Yong Chen, a professor of cancer biology at Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, N.C.

Omega-3 fatty acids -- especially the "long-chain" forms found in oily fish -- have become the latest nutrition superstars, with studies suggesting they can help prevent heart disease and even cancer.

The exact mechanism driving the purported anti-cancer effect is still unclear, Chen said. One leading theory contends that specific cellular enzymes metabolize omega-3s in ways that retard malignancy.

However, Chen's team is investigating a much lesser-known mechanism.

"It turns out that [long-chain] omega-3 fatty acids might modulate apoptosis -- a form of cell death," he said.

Cancer cells spread in two ways: either they proliferate uncontrollably, or they bypass natural signaling that tells them to commit suicide, or apoptosis.

"It turns out that a key molecule -- that happens to be called 'Bad' -- may be involved in this process," Chen said. His team now believes that long-chain omega-3s interact favorably with Bad to push cancer cells back into a normal apoptosis.

In their study, the researchers fed mice diets high in both omega-3 fatty acid and the less-healthy omega-6 fatty acids. These mice were genetically engineered to lack the Pten tumor suppressor gene, leaving them highly prone to prostate tumors. Dysfunctional Pten plays a key role in about one-third of human prostate cancers, so this mouse is a great model for human disease, Chen said.

As expected, mice with functioning Pten did not develop prostate cancer, the researchers said.

On the other hand, rodents whose Pten was switched off typically developed prostate tumors. However, 60 percent of these mice survived if they were fed a high omega-3 diet, compared to just 10 percent given a low omega-3 diet. None of the mice given the high omega-6 diet survived, the team noted.

There was another wrinkle to the study. In the past, it has been tough for researchers to tease out the effects of omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids, which usually occur together in foods. But Chen's team introduced another gene into the Pten-less mice. This gene caused the mice to convert omega-6 fatty acids into the omega-3 form, thereby limiting this confounding factor.

"That's really a big strength of this study; nobody had really ever done that before," Chen said.

The study is published June 21 in the online edition of the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

According to Chen, the study suggests that diets high in long-chain omega-3 fatty acids might give men an edge against prostate cancer.

But not everyone is convinced.

"Recent large reviews and meta-analyses tend to suggest no major effects of fish [intake] on cancer risk," said Paul Terry, assistant professor in the department of epidemiology at the Emory University School of Public Health, in Atlanta.

"The fact that they [the Wake Forest researchers] identified and addressed another potential mechanism in their study is certainly helpful," he added. However, he said, "how this mechanism relates to the many others identified and shown in studies to be possibly important remains unclear."

Terry said rodent studies can only tell scientists so much, and "clinical trials in humans of long-chain omega-3 fatty acids and tumor characteristics, for example, are relatively scarce. This study, and others, provides some more rationale for conducting such trials."

For his part, Chen said it's important that consumers realize that not all omega-3s are created equal in terms of their potential health benefits.

"In this study, we are only referring to the long-chain form" found in oily fish, such as mackerel, herring, albacore tuna and salmon, he said. Other, shorter-chain varieties can be found in flaxseed and plant sources, but their impact, if any, on cancer is even less clear.

"We are doing a type of study right now to see whether there is any difference," Chen said.

source : news.yahoo.com

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Shrinks to treat cancer patients now

Psycho-oncology is a new concept in India, but it is fast being recognised as an essential tool in the care and treatment of cancer patients.

Jayshree was detected with breast cancer five years ago, and that day onwards her life came to a complete standstill.

But now Jayshree is leading a healthy and normal life. So how did this come about?

Says Jayshree, “Psycho-oncology is a must for oncology patients. Definitely doctors have a major role to play but they are curing my body. What about my mental status?"

Jayshree was lucky to have met leading psycho-oncologist Dr Brindha Sitaram who helped her and her family deal with the tremendous psychological, emotional and social distress that cancer brings to patients and their families alike.

"We have found in our clinical experience that it motivates patients, dropout rates become lower, people tolerate treatment better and quality of life is far better. At any given point of time we have 15 lakh cancer patients in this country. Unfortunately we have no data to talk about, the magnitude of the psychological distress of the patients that they go through,” says Dr Sitaram who is also founder-director of Centre of Psycho-Oncology for Education and Research (COPER).

A growing necessity for an institute that provides qualified psycho-oncologists, prompted her to start COPER. And setting up the institute though was anything but easy.

Says Dr Sitaram, “There was a lot of resistance in the beginning because they thought that going to a psycho-oncologist is like saying they have gone crazy but slowly things are opening up. But what we need to clarify is that these patients don't go through psychiatric problems. These are psychological problems that you and I could have.”

So psycho-oncology helps cancer patients and their families look at the human face of cancer while fighting the disease.

source : news.yahoo.com

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Study Probes Whether Diet Can Cut Colon Cancer Risk

A study to examine whether a Mediterranean diet can help prevent colon cancer is being conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Over three years, the researchers hope to recruit 120 people, age 21 or older, who've had colon polyps or colon cancer or have a family history of the disease. Participants will follow either a Mediterranean diet or the Healthy People 2010 diet for six months. They'll be able to choose foods they prefer from recommended food groups lists, and a dietitian will work closely with each participant by telephone.

Along with its emphasis on vegetables, fruits, whole grains, fish, olive oil and nuts, the Mediterranean diet limits high fat meats and processed foods. The Healthy People 2010 diet -- from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services -- emphasizes fruits, vegetables and whole grains, along with moderate fat intake and limits on saturated fat.

"Overall eating patterns appear to be more important for cancer prevention than intakes of specific nutrients or food groups. We hope this study will give us an indication of the benefits that a person's diet can have on health, especially in terms of reducing the risk of colon cancer," Zora Djuric, research professor of family medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School and principal investigator on the Healthy Eating for Colon Cancer Prevention study, said in a prepared statement.

A recently completed study of 70 women, ages 25 to 65, found that those who ate a Mediterranean diet decreased the amount of unhealthy polyunsaturated fat they consumed by 50 percent and increased their intake of healthy monounsaturated fats by the same amount.

The women on the Mediterranean diet also ate nearly double the amount of fruits and vegetables as women who ate a normal diet and had twice the blood levels of antioxidant micronutrients called carotenoids.

source : news.yahoo.com

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Girls could be vaccinated against cervical cancer in Britain

The British government took a step Wednesday toward offering vaccinations against cervical cancer for girls as young as 12, a measure that could be carried out by late next year.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) recommended the use of vaccines to guard against the human papilloma virus (HPV), a sexually transmitted infection which causes most cases of cervical cancer.

The Department of Health said it had agreed "in principle" to accept the body's advice, but would wait for an independent review of the costs to the National Health Service.

Cervical cancer kills more than 1,000 women in Britain annually.

The vaccinations would be offered to girls throughout Britain, but would not be compulsory.

Currently, there are two vaccines -- Gardasil made by Merck and Sanofi Pasteur and Cervarix made by GlaxoSmithKline -- which are designed to be used in an immunisation programme.

Gardasil was introduced to Britain last year.

The government has not approved it for use on the National Health Service, although Britain's Press Association news agency said it has been approved in dozens of other countries, including the United States, Canada and Australia.

Cervarix is expected to receive its European Union licence later this year.

Public Health Minister Caroline Flint said: "It is great news that vaccines have been developed that protect women against this form of cancer and I am delighted to announce that we intend, in principle, to introduce a HPV vaccine into the national immunisation programme."

"A significant amount of planning is required before we can introduce the immunisation into our programme," she said.

"We are still working on the details and logistics, and will work closely with the NHS to ensure the vaccination can be delivered effectively. However, we are hoping that girls will start being vaccinated from as early as 2008."

The department said smear testing would continue after the vaccine is introduced.

source : news.yahoo.com

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Breast cancer genes can come from father

A deadly gene's path can hide in a family tree when a woman has few aunts and older sisters, making it appear that her breast cancer struck out of nowhere when it really came from Dad.

A new study suggests thousands of young women with breast cancer — an estimated 8,000 a year in the U.S. — aren't offered testing to identify faulty genes and clarify their medical decisions.

Guidelines used by insurance companies to decide coverage for genetic testing should change to reflect the findings, said study co-author Dr. Jeffrey Weitzel of City of Hope Cancer Center in Duarte, Calif. Testing can cost more than $3,000.

"Interestingly, it's about Dad," Weitzel said. Half of genetic breast cancers are inherited from a woman's father, not her mother. But unless Dad has female relatives with breast cancer, the faulty gene may have been passed down silently, without causing cancer. (Men can get genetic breast cancer, too, but it's not common.)

Weitzel said doctors often overlook the genetic risk from the father's side of the family.

The study, appearing in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association, looked at the genetic test results from 306 women diagnosed with breast cancer before age 50.

None of the cancer patients in the study had a family history of breast or ovarian cancer.

Among the women with plenty of female relatives, about 5 percent had BRCA gene mutations. But among those with few sisters and aunts older than 45 (when breast cancer would be likely to appear), almost 14 percent had mutations of the genes BRCA1 or BRCA2. That suggests that these cancer patients were unaware of their genetic mutations because there were so few women in the family to signal a cancer risk.

The researchers defined few female relatives as fewer than two on either the father's or mother's side of the family.

Women who were adopted and don't know their family medical history should be aware of the findings, Weitzel said. Women whose female relatives died young before breast cancer had time to show up also are affected.

When such a woman gets breast cancer before age 50, she should get a genetic test, said Dr. Noah Kauff, a cancer geneticist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. That would help her decide whether to have the unaffected breast or her ovaries removed to prevent more cancer. Kauff was not involved in the research, but wrote an accompanying editorial.

"The study allows physicians and patients to make an argument to insurance carriers that, although there's not a family history of breast cancer, it's still reasonable to test and it should be a covered benefit," Kauff said.

Genetic testing helps a woman choose her next medical steps. A woman with breast cancer who has a BRCA gene mutation has a four times greater risk of developing cancer in the other breast and a 10 times greater risk of ovarian cancer than does a woman with breast cancer who has no BRCA gene mutation.

Some women with a family history of breast cancer choose to have a BRCA genetic test so they can decide whether to reduce their cancer risk by removing their ovaries and breasts before any cancer appears. Drug therapy and monitoring with annual MRI tests offer alternatives.

Testing the genes of more women would cost more money, but Weitzel said that won't add significantly to health care costs and will prevent cancer in some of the women.

The study also showed that three commonly used predictive models don't accurately estimate the genetic breast cancer risk for women without a family history of cancer. The American Cancer Society recently based its recommendation for annual MRIs on risk assessments from the predictive models.

source : news.yahoo.com

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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.

source : news.yahoo.com

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'Fish on a chip' technology may speed cancer diagnosis

A faster, cheaper cancer diagnosis technology called a "fish on a chip" has been developed in Alberta.

The diagnostic chip miniaturizes and automates testing for chromosome mutations from many types of cancer, shortening the wait for diagnosis.

The FISH technology, short for fluorescent in situ hybridization, attaches coloured dyes to detect mutations such as breaks and reattachments in chromosomes.

The test maps the DNA in a blood or bone marrow sample to tell doctors what type of cancer they're dealing with, and provides information on how to treat it.

Patients don't have to suffer therapies that won't do them any good, and they don't have to endure the side-effects, said Linda Pilarski, an oncology professor at the University of Alberta who holds a Canada Research Chair in biomedical nanotechnology.

The new test could cost as little as $10, one-tenth the cost of conventional diagnostic tests, the researchers said.

While conventional tests take several days and highly skilled technologists, the fish on a chip version can be done in less than a day, including in rural areas where people would not have to travel to major centres to access it, Pilarski said.

Researchers have tested the technology on hundreds of cancer patients, including cancer survivor Willie Gruber. When Gruber's doctor suspected cancer during a physical exam, it took two weeks before he got the results.

"When you go in and you are told you may have cancer, you then have this several weeks of waiting," Gruber recalled of the stressful time. "It turns your life upside down, it puts things on hold."

The test needs to undergo more trials and gain approval from Health Canada before it could be rolled out in five years at the earliest.

For now, it is used as part of research and clinical trials, Pilarski said.

The research will be published this month in the journal Nanobiotechnology, and will be presented at the 11th International Myeloma Workshop, a medical conference being held in Greece at the end of June.

source : news.yahoo.com

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GW says Canada backs cannabis drug for cancer pain

A pioneering cannabis-based drug will be considered by Canadian regulators for approval as a treatment for cancer pain, its British developer GW Pharmaceuticals Plc said on Tuesday.

The drug called Sativex is an under-the-tongue spray which is already on sale in Canada as a treatment for pain in multiple sclerosis, but GW sees another promising market for the drug as a means of controlling pain associated with cancer.

GW said it is required to accept conditions from Health Canada within 30 days, after which the regulator would finalize its marketing authorization within another 30-day period. The drug is being marketed in Canada by Bayer AG.

Investec analyst Ibrahim Mahmood said he did not expect Canadian approval of Sativex for cancer pain to generate significant sales, but it served as a promising signal for approvals in larger markets.

He reiterated his "buy" recommendation on GW stock with a target price of 244 pence, more than 160 percent above current levels. GW shares rose as much as 5 percent to 92-1/2 pence, valuing the firm at 108.7 million pounds ($215.8 million).

"The evidence continues to mount inexorably across the board both clinically and commercially in support of Sativex," Mahmood said in a note.

GW also announced a net loss of 6.7 million pounds ($13.3 million) for the six months to March 31 after a loss of 6.9 million last year. The company said it had a net cash inflow of 2 million pounds during the half year.

source : news.yahoo.com

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Now, FISH on a chip for quicker, cost-effective cancer diagnosis

Canadian researchers have for the first time miniaturised an important diagnostic test for cancer, and automated it onto a microfluidic chip.

The new technology, developed by University of Alberta researchers in Edmonton, opens up the possibility of better, faster cancer treatment and greater accessibility to fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH), a complex test that detects mutations in chromosomes for a number of different types of cancer.

It is based on a microfluidic chip the size of a microscope slide, developed by Chris Backhouse, professor of electrical engineering, and cancer scientist Dr. Linda Pilarski, that can perform FISH on a handheld diagnostic device.

The researchers claim that the new system will allow FISH to be performed within a day for a fraction of the cost of current analysis methods, which take days conduct the test.

The rapid detection of chromosomal mutations with the help of new technology, say researchers, will significantly increase a doctor's ability to tailor treatment strategies to target individual cancers.

"The ability to design 'personalized' therapies means that patients will be able to receive more effective treatments sooner and avoid exposure to side effects from treatments that will not help them," Pilarski said.

"This is representative of how miniaturization can make our health care more accessible while creating new economic opportunities here in Alberta," Backhouse added.

The new technology has been hailed by the scientist fraternity.

"The work of Dr. Pilarski and her associates will have great impact, and quite quickly - on the diagnosis of patients with a broad spectrum of diseases," said Dr. Roderick McInnes, Scientific Director of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Institute of Genetics.

The work is being published this month in IET Nanobiotechnology, and it will be presented at the 11th International Myeloma Workshop, a medical conference being held in Greece from June 25 to 30.

source : news.yahoo.com

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Women with few older female relatives face cancer threat

Women with few older female relatives may be unaware they carry a genetic risk of breast cancer, US researchers reported in a study that casts doubt on current genetic testing guidelines.

Genetic risk models for breast cancer underestimated a deadly gene mutation in women with fewer than two female relatives who lived to be older than age 45 on both sides of the family, according to researchers in California.

Both sides of the family are important because genetic breast cancer can be inherited from the father's lineage as well as the mother's, according to the study by the City of Hope cancer center published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

If the father has few or no sisters or aunts, the risk can go undetected.

Mutation of the tumor-suppressing BRCA gene boosts a woman's risk of breast cancer by 50 percent to 85 percent.

Identifying women with this mutation who have already had breast cancer is important because their risk of recurrence is as high as 40 percent within 10 years without aggressive treatments.

The study included 306 women who had breast cancer before age 50 and no first- or second-degree relatives with breast or ovarian cancers.

In about half of those cases -- 153 women -- there were few older females in the family. The BRCA gene mutations were detected in 13.7 percent of those with few older female relatives compared to 5.2 percent among women with plenty of female relatives.

source : news.yahoo.com

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Experts Offer Better Means of Gauging Breast Cancer Risk

Current methods of gauging a woman's breast cancer risk that rely on her family history may often underestimate the danger, a new study suggests.

These risk models help determine if a woman might carry the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutations that would predispose her to the disease, the research team explained. If her family history suggests she might carry such a gene, she might be offered a test to screen for the mutations.

But the new study, published in the June 20 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that there may be a better way to refine the risk model so those predictions are more accurate.

"In some circumstances, we have to qualify what family history can tell us," explained lead researcher Dr. Jeffrey Weitzel, director of the department of clinical cancer genetics at City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center in Duarte, Calif. He pointed out that family history data isn't always available to women, and "if there's no family, then you can't have a family history, if you don't have older women in either lineage."

"We're trying to predict which women should get tested [for a genetic predisposition]. The test is expensive, and not every woman can get it," added Dr. Jay Brooks, chairman of hematology/oncology at Ochsner Health System in Baton Rouge, La. However, "with smaller families today, many times you don't have that extensive family tree that you can reconstruct," said Brooks, who was not involved in the study.

The implications could be lifesaving for many women. Mutations in BRCA 1 and BRCA 2, especially, can greatly increase a woman's risk of developing both breast and ovarian cancer.

"It's now medically necessary that access to care should be broader, and more people should be able to take advantage of [gene screening], because it may make a big difference in outcome," Weitzel said. "Failure to recognize that a woman happens to be a BRCA carrier and do appropriate prevention procedures could cost a woman her life."

Although BRCA mutations are relatively rare (affecting only about 5 percent of the population), those with the misfortune to carry them have a 50 percent to 85 percent greater chance of developing breast cancer and a 16 percent to 50 percent higher risk of developing ovarian cancer.

Women with breast cancer who have a BRCA mutation also have a higher risk of developing another breast cancer or ovarian cancer. A mastectomy or oophorectomy (removal of the ovaries) can significantly reduce that risk.

Most of the methods available to estimate how likely a person is to carry the BRCA 1 or BRCA 2 defects were developed using data from large families. They incorporate information on family history, age at diagnosis and ethnic ancestry.

It is these models that are most often used by insurance companies when deciding whether or not to pay for the gene test.

But the fact that a woman's father might have passed on the mutation is often not taken into account, Weitzel noted. "Half of all heredity for breast cancer comes from dad," he said. "Most clinicians don't realize that BRCA can be inherited through dad."

Then there are women with early-onset breast cancer but no history of breast or ovarian cancer, or patients with less than two female relatives surviving beyond age 45 on each side of their family. The model does little to help them, experts say.

In their study, Weitzel's team combed through information on more than 1,500 women cared for at high-risk breast cancer clinics in the United States.

They concluded that women under 50 with breast cancer and a limited family structure -- less than two females age 45 or older on either side of the family -- were almost three times more likely to be BRCA carriers than women with adequate family structure.

BRCA gene mutations were found in 13.7 percent of women with limited family structure compared with 5.2 percent of those with adequate family structure.

Weitzel now believes that "family history is not a good tool. We shouldn't discriminate against women [who have limited family structure]. What if she's adopted? We lost whole generations to the Holocaust. Why should we deny them access to testing?"

In women with little family history to rely on, age may end up being a deciding factor in assessing BRCA-linked breast cancer risk.

Women under 40 who have breast cancer are usually tested for the BRCA mutations, but women in the next decade of life probably should be as well, the researchers said.

"Most crucial is the 40-to-50 age range," Weitzel said.

"Younger women who have breast cancer, especially those below 50, really should raise a red flag about genetic testing," Brooks added. "Age is a very, very powerful thing. The average age for developing [breast cancer] is 60. If you're developing disease 10 years before you're expecting to, that should raise a red flag."

"You're trying to predict who deserves the test," he continued. "With small family numbers, we may be underestimating who needs to be tested."

source : news.yahoo.com

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Breast cancer genes can come from father

A deadly gene's path can hide in a family tree when a woman has few aunts and older sisters, making it appear that her breast cancer struck out of nowhere when it really came from Dad.

A new study suggests thousands of young women with breast cancer — an estimated 8,000 a year in the U.S. — aren't offered testing to identify faulty genes and clarify their medical decisions.

Guidelines used by insurance companies to decide coverage for genetic testing should change to reflect the findings, said study co-author Dr. Jeffrey Weitzel of City of Hope Cancer Center in Duarte, Calif. Testing can cost more than $3,000.

"Interestingly, it's about Dad," Weitzel said. Half of genetic breast cancers are inherited from a woman's father, not her mother. But unless Dad has female relatives with breast cancer, the faulty gene may have been passed down silently, without causing cancer. (Men can get genetic breast cancer, too, but it's not common.)

Weitzel said doctors often overlook the genetic risk from the father's side of the family.

The study, appearing in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association, looked at the genetic test results from 306 women diagnosed with breast cancer before age 50.

None of the cancer patients in the study had a family history of breast or ovarian cancer.

Among the women with plenty of female relatives, about 5 percent had BRCA gene mutations. But among those with few sisters and aunts older than 45 (when breast cancer would be likely to appear), almost 14 percent had mutations of the genes BRCA1 or BRCA2. That suggests that these cancer patients were unaware of their genetic mutations because there were so few women in the family to signal a cancer risk.

The researchers defined few female relatives as fewer than two on either the father's or mother's side of the family.

Women who were adopted and don't know their family medical history should be aware of the findings, Weitzel said. Women whose female relatives died young before breast cancer had time to show up also are affected.

When such a woman gets breast cancer before age 50, she should get a genetic test, said Dr. Noah Kauff, a cancer geneticist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. That would help her decide whether to have the unaffected breast or her ovaries removed to prevent more cancer. Kauff was not involved in the research, but wrote an accompanying editorial.

"The study allows physicians and patients to make an argument to insurance carriers that, although there's not a family history of breast cancer, it's still reasonable to test and it should be a covered benefit," Kauff said.

Genetic testing helps a woman choose her next medical steps. A woman with breast cancer who has a BRCA gene mutation has a four times greater risk of developing cancer in the other breast and a 10 times greater risk of ovarian cancer than does a woman with breast cancer who has no BRCA gene mutation.

Some women with a family history of breast cancer choose to have a BRCA genetic test so they can decide whether to reduce their cancer risk by removing their ovaries and breasts before any cancer appears. Drug therapy and monitoring with annual MRI tests offer alternatives.

Testing the genes of more women would cost more money, but Weitzel said that won't add significantly to health care costs and will prevent cancer in some of the women.

The study also showed that three commonly used predictive models don't accurately estimate the genetic breast cancer risk for women without a family history of cancer. The American Cancer Society recently based its recommendation for annual MRIs on risk assessments from the predictive models.

source : news.yahoo.com

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Glaxo aims to launch five cancer drugs by 2010

laxoSmithKline Plc plans to launch five new cancer drugs by 2010, tapping into a $40 billion-a-year market that is growing by 20 percent annually, its research head said on Monday.

Europe's biggest drugmaker has a range of oncology products waiting in the wings, including an oral treatment to starve tumours of blood supply, new cancer vaccines and drugs to help alleviate the symptoms of chemotherapy.

"This late-stage oncology pipeline has the potential, effectively, to deliver five new oncology medicines in the next three years," Moncef Slaoui told reporters ahead of a presentation to investment analysts.

"This is an unprecented objective for a pharmaceutical company."

The total does not include Tykerb, which was launched for breast cancer in the United States in March.

The five new drugs identified for launch in the coming three years are Cervarix, pazopanib, HuMax-CD20, Promacta and Rezonic. The latest research on some of these had already been presented at a major meeting of cancer experts in Chicago this month.

Glaxo wants to establish itself as a major player in the lucrative oncology market, where it has been under-represented in the past, though industry analysts say its ambitions will do little to offset short-term worries about sales and profits.

It suffered a major blow last month after a critical study linked its diabetes drug Avandia to heart-attack risk, hitting demand for its second-biggest selling medicine.

Glaxo shares were off 0.6 percent at 13.18 pounds by 1400 GMT, slightly outperforming a European drugs sector that was down 1 percent.

The British group has pinned particularly high hopes on its Tykerb pill for breast cancer, a rival to Roche Holding AG and Genentech Inc.'s injectable drug Herceptin.

Tykerb has produced promising results in studies showing it can help patients, including some of those whose breast cancer has spread to the brain.

But analysts believe it could take many years to reach blockbuster potential, with further trials on the value of combining Tykerb with Herceptin due later this year and other tests on its use as a first-line treatment due early next year.

Still, Saloui said early trends were good.

"Tykerb, actually, is off to a very good start in the U.S., with over 3,000 breast cancer patients treated since launch," he said.

CANCER VACCINES

Australia approved Cervarix, a vaccine to prevent a virus that causes cervical cancer, last month and Glaxo hopes to have it on sale in Europe later this year, though a U.S. launch is viewed by analysts as unlikely before 2008.

Pazopanib is an anti-angiogenesis drug similar to Genentech and Roche's Avastin, while HuMax-CD20 is an antibody drug licensed from Denmark's Genmab that is being tested for leukaemia and other blood cancers.

Genmab said separately that HuMax-CD20 possibly could be launched in 2008.

HuMax-CD20, or ofatumumab, works in a similar way to Genentech and Roche's Rituxan/MabThera, and Saloui said Glaxo planned a head-to-head comparative study of the two drugs.

Promacta and Rezonic are both supportive care medicines. Promacta helps boost blood platelet levels, while Rezonic is designed to reduce nausea and vomiting caused by chemotherapy.

New Phase III trial data presented for the first time on Monday showed Rezonic given with Glaxo's older anti-nausea drug Zofran was significantly more effective than Zofran alone.

Glaxo is also working in the emerging field of therapeutic cancer vaccines, which are designed to boost the body's immune system rather than prevent an infection like conventional vaccines.

It plans to recruit the first patients into a late-stage Phase III trial of its MAGE-A3 shot for non-small-cell lung cancer in September. MAGE-A3 will compete with a similar product called Stimuvax from Merck KGaA, which entered Phase III testing in February.

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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.

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Ethanol Injection Helps Thyroid Cancer Patients

Injecting ethanol (alcohol) directly into the bone to kill cancer cells helps manage bone metastasis in thyroid cancer patients, say Japanese researchers who conducted a small study of 12 patients.

They found that percutaneous ethanol injection (PEI) reduced tumor volume by more than 50 percent in all the patients, who had radioiodine-ineffective bone metastasis from thyroid cancer.

The study was presented this week at the annual meeting of the Society of Nuclear Medicine, in Washington, D.C.

"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," Kunihiro Nakada, a clinical assistant professor in the department of radiology at Hokkaido University, said in a prepared statement.

"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."

Nakada said more research needs to be done to determine the most effective doses, number of times PEI sessions should be repeated, and what other treatments could be combined with PEI to improve effectiveness.

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Revolutionary drugs fight cancer's basic mechanisms

Therapies that target the basic mechanisms of cancer have become the weapons of choice in the fight against the deadly disease, researchers said at a major doctors' conference in the United States.

"Molecular targeted therapies that were developed a few years ago are being expanded dramatically in scope," said Robert Ozols of Philadelphia's Fox Chase Cancer Center.

He was speaking at the 43rd annual conference of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) under way here until Tuesday with 25,000 specialists in attendance.

Some of the smart drugs seen here can attack the basic functions of a cancer, preventing its cells from multiplying.

Using biotechnology, researchers discovered channels by which cancer cells link to one another and were able to find treatments to block them.

Other treatments refined in recent years can stop tumors from developing blood vessels to nourish themselves. Such treatments are revolutionizing cancer treatment.

The first drug of this kind is Avastin, marketed in Europe by the Swiss company Roche and in the United States by Genentech.

It has already proven effective at prolonging life in tests on patients with advanced colon and lung cancer. A study published here this weekend showed that it also doubled the life-span of those with serious tumors of the kidney.

Two other drugs were recently authorized for use against serious or treatment-resistant kidney cancer: Nexavar from the German company Bayer and Sutent from the US firm Pfizer, a drug that neutralizes genetic receptors that cause tumors to grow.

Previously these two drugs had been used for stomach and colon cancer.

Nexavar also prolonged by 44 percent the lives of patients with advanced liver cancer, according to clinical trial results unveiled here.

Joseph Llovet, author of the Nexavar study, said it was the first effective systematic treatment for liver cancer, the third most deadly cancer in the world.

The drug works by inducing cancer cells to self-destruct and preventing them from growing blood vessels.

The French drug group Sanofi-Aventis meanwhile presented results of a test in which the new medicine Aflibercept halted progression of an ovarian cancer case that was not responding to chemotherapy.

"We are witnessing a revolution in the understanding of human cancer," said Julie Gralow, associate professor of oncology at the University of Washington, Seattle.

A combining of genetic science and biotechnology is going to expand treatments tailored to the makeup of individual patients' genes and of their cancers, she said.

"The personalization of cancer medicine represents a tremendous potential for prevention and early detection of cancer and improvement of the effectiveness and tolerability of therapy."

"These are incremental advances, but they're important," said Len Lichtenfeld, a doctor of the American Cancer Society.

"We've come to a time when these advances are becoming routine, and that's a good thing."

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