New breast cancer treatment combines radiation, surgery in 1-step

Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH) breast cancer specialists are using a new way to treat patients by delivering a one-time dose of radiation during surgery.

The procedure, called intraoperative radiation therapy, takes less than an hour and eliminates the need for further radiation treatments.

It marked the first time the portable intrabeam radiotherapy machine that makes this procedure possible has been used in Canada. The PMH team has since treated two more patients.

"The potential benefits to patients are huge," says lead surgeon Dr. David McCready, who also heads the PMH Breast Cancer Program.

"Treating the specific area of cancer with this kind of precision protects the skin, heart and lungs from unnecessary radiation, minimizes side effects, and saves the patient a lot of time."

Using a probe attached to the portable intrabeam radiotherapy machine, a single, concentrated dose is inserted directly into the affected area inside the breast during surgery.

Dr. McCready said the one-time dose is "biologically equivalent" to conventional radiation treatments for breast cancer that typically require, on average, a minimum of 16 treatments over three weeks.

"This procedure is helping us understand more about the biology of how breast tissue responds to treatment. That knowledge, in turn, will help us further customize and select the best treatment options for individuals with early breast cancer," Dr. Anthony Fyles, the radiation oncologist who leads the Breast Radiation Oncology Program and treated the first patient in the operating room that day, said.

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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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Stress linked to lower endometrial cancer risk

Women who feel chronically stressed may have a lower risk of developing uterine cancer than their less harried peers, researchers have found.

In a study that followed nearly 6,800 Danish women for two decades, researchers found that women with higher self-reported stress levels at the beginning of the study were less likely to develop endometrial cancer.

The findings, published in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine, which mirror the results of some breast cancer risk studies, may seem surprising. The researchers speculate that these lower cancer risks may reflect diminished estrogen production in women under chronic stress.

Endometrial cancer is cancer that originates in the lining of the uterus, and hormones are believed to play an important role in the development of the disease. Factors that limit a woman's lifetime exposure to estrogen -- such as starting menstruation late, pregnancy and early menopause -- have been shown to correlate with a lower risk of endometrial cancer.

This may also explain why women who report greater stress show lower rates of breast and endometrial cancers, according to the study authors, led by Dr. Naja Rod Nielsen of the National Institute of Public Health in Copenhagen.

Because of the effects of stress on the central nervous system, persistent stress may lower the body's synthesis of estrogen, the researchers explain.

They emphasize, however, that chronic stress should not be seen as a good thing, because it may also promote or exacerbate other health conditions, such as heart disease, stroke and impaired immune function.

"Despite these results," Nielsen and her colleagues write, "stress may still be a risk factor for other diseases and should therefore not be considered a healthy response."

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Soon, a blood protein test to spot colon cancer

Boffins have discovered proteins CCSA-3 and CCSA-4, present in blood that accurately identify colon cancer and precancerous polyps, which might be used to develop a blood test to identify at-risk individuals.

The study was conducted by a team of researchers led by Robert Getzenberg at the Johns Hopkins' Brady Urological Institute.

These proteins were first discovered by Getzenberg and colleagues at the University of Pittsburgh through a protein scan.

As part of the study, to find whether the two blood-dwelling proteins are to be remnants of cellular debris castoff from dead cancer cells, researchers drew blood samples from 107 apparently healthy individuals the day before their scheduled colonoscopies, and from 28 colorectal cancer patients.

Alteration of nuclear scaffolding is a hallmark of cancer cells that is easily detectable under the microscope as a misshapen and discoloured nucleus. This led the researchers to the notion that 'there must be something at the molecular level that would form a molecular flag for cancer via a blood test.'

Researchers used a particular concentration of scaffold-proteins as a marker for disease.

Researchers found 100 percent accurate results in identifying the 28 existing cancers, using the same protein markers.

"These proteins seem very good at separating normal samples from cancerous ones and identifying other groups with pre-cancers at high risk for disease as well," Getzenberg said.

The findings of the study were published in the June issue of Cancer Research.

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"Chemo brain" unrelated chemotherapy for breast cancer

Drug therapy given before the primary chemotherapy for breast cancer does not appear to worsen mental processes, or "cognitive function," German investigators report in the journal Cancer. Suspicions that it does may have been influenced by cases of mental decline that occurred before treatment began.

"Most evidence of so-called chemo brain (or chemo fog) comes from cross-sectional studies without pre-chemotherapy assessment," Dr. Kerstin Hermelink from Ludwig-Maximillian University, Munich, told Reuters Health. "In these trials, cognitive compromise present already after diagnosis might mistakenly have been attributed to chemotherapy effects."

Hermelink and colleagues assessed the course of cognitive function before and after exposure to cytostatic treatment in just over 100 women with breast cancer.


Before the start of therapy, the average scores for 5 of 12 cognitive tests were below normal, the authors report, and the group's average score for one test was better than the norm.

Twenty-one weeks later, toward the end of chemotherapy, there was an overall improvement in scores that reached statistical significance in six tests. Only one test showed significant deterioration after chemotherapy.

Excluding patients with confounding factors, 22 percent showed predominant deterioration, and 32 percent showed predominant improvement after chemotherapy, the researchers note.

Age and intelligence were not associated with the change in test results, the report indicates. And while anxiety and depression did not correlate with the change in test results, but they did correlate with self-reported cognitive complaints.

"Breast cancer patients who decline chemotherapy for fear of cognitive impairment should be informed that cognitive compromise often occurs already in the wake of diagnosis," Hermelink said. "During chemotherapy, cognitive function is stable in most patients, and decline is as likely as improvement."

Nevertheless, "More research is necessary before patients can be reassured that chemotherapy does not impair cognitive function," Hermelink said, adding that results of the 1-year follow-up should be available soon.
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Turning an Anti-Tumor Gene Back On Could Fight Cancer

Cancer drugs may be able to switch on a gene that tumor cells have switched off, potentially offering a new target for treatment, scientists say.

The findings on the gene, called Brahma (BRM), are published online in the journal Oncogene.

Genetic mutations are one cause of cancer. But the disease can also develop when genes that control cell growth are turned off, allowing cells to multiply out of control. Currently, these deactivated genes can be used to identify or monitor cancer, but there are no treatments that actually target these genes, according to background information in the study.

A team at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, Ann Arbor, found that BRM was switched off -- but not missing -- in about 15 percent of tumor samples they studied, including cells from lung, esophageal, ovarian, bladder, colon and breast cancers.

The team was able to use existing cancer drugs to switch BRM back on, but they said that new drugs would have to be developed to provide more effective reactivation of the gene in cancer cells.

"This is a targetable target. We can detect it, but we need to find a better way to turn it back on," lead author Dr. David Reisman, assistant professor of internal medicine at the U-M Medical School, said in a prepared statement. "No drugs are designed to deal with a gene that's turned off. But it's a straightforward extension of current therapies that target genes that are turned on," he added.

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Hormone Therapy Extends Lives of Ovarian Cancer Patients

Hormone therapy that has proved successful against breast cancer may also extend and improve the lives of women with estrogen-sensitive ovarian cancer, a British study suggests.

Letrozole hormone therapy may also be an alternative to chemotherapy for some women with the disease, according the report in the June 15 issue of Clinical Cancer Research.

"This study demonstrates that some ovarian cancers are responsive to anti-estrogen hormonal therapy, and these cancers, and therefore the patients who would benefit, can be identified," said lead researcher Simon Langdon, a Cancer Research UK scientist and a senior lecturer in cancer research at the University of Edinburgh.

Langdon noted that his team's research has shown that growth of certain ovarian cancers is stimulated by the female hormone estrogen. "These cancers could be identified as those possessing high levels of the estrogen receptor," he said.

For the study, which included 44 women, the researchers used letrozole, which works by limiting production of estrogen in the body. "This treatment then effectively starves the ovarian cancer of estrogen and inhibits growth," Langdon said.

During six months of treatment, 25 percent of the women had no tumor growth, and 33 percent of the women with the greatest estrogen values had a positive response that delayed the use of chemotherapy. "Within the trial, we were able to show that tumors with the highest levels of estrogen receptor were the most likely to respond to treatment," Langdon said.

"This approach provides an addition to chemotherapy for this disease," he added. "It is unlikely to replace chemotherapy but could be used to delay the need for chemotherapy."

The patients most likely to benefit from the therapy can be identified before treatment starts. So, this kind of approach means women can be better targeted and the drug not given to those unlikely to benefit who should receive some other type of treatment, Langdon said.

The American Cancer Society reports that ovarian cancer is the eighth most common cancer in women, not including skin cancer. There will be about 22,430 new cases of ovarian cancer in the United States this year, and an estimated 15,280 women will die from the disease.

A large majority -- about two-thirds -- of women with ovarian cancer are 55 or older. A woman's risk of getting ovarian cancer is about one in 67, according to the cancer society.

Dr. Len Lichtenfeld, the deputy chief medical officer at the American Cancer Society, said, "Letrozole is already approved for treating ovarian cancer in women who have failed other treatment. This study refines these researchers' previous work by identifying those women with estrogen-receptor-sensitive ovarian cancer who are the most likely to respond to this drug.

"Whether the drug should be started earlier in the course of ovarian cancer and whether we should be evaluating whether or not a woman has estrogen-receptor-sensitive ovarian cancer are questions that need to be answered," he said.

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Pancreatic cancer surgery overlooked

Nearly 40 percent of patients with early pancreatic cancer who could be treated with surgery don't get the operation, dooming them to grim chances of survival, a study found.

The complicated operation is tricky but safer than previously thought and can extend life, although chances of surviving five years are still not great, Dr. Mark Talamonti, study co-author, said Thursday.

Still, about 30 percent of patients with early-stage disease who get the operation can be expected to survive at least five years, compared with less than 5 percent of early-stage patients who don't get the operation, the study found.

"It is still a formidable disease, but if you're caught with early-stage disease, at least there is reasonable hope" with surgery, said Talamonti, a cancer surgeon at Chicago's Northwestern Memorial Hospital and chief of surgical oncology at Northwestern University's medical school.

The study is based on an analysis of a national cancer database maintained by the American College of Surgeons, which released the results Thursday.

The researchers found that 3,644 patients out of 9,559 with early-stage disease, or about 38 percent, were not offered surgery. Blacks, patients older than 65, and those with lower annual incomes and education were the least likely to be offered surgery.

"For people with potentially removable cancer not to be offered the only treatment that can potentially cure them or at least extend their lives is disturbing," said Dr. William Jarnagin of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. He was not involved in the study.

Part of the problem likely is lack of access to centers experienced in doing the surgery, Talamonti said. Also, many doctors are unaware of improvements in the surgery, he said. Some still view it and the disease itself as a virtual death sentence, and that likely also explains why so many eligible patients aren't referred for an operation, he said.

The study will appear in the August edition of Annals of Surgery, which recently printed an early online version.

About 37,000 Americans will be diagnosed this year with pancreatic cancer and about 33,000 of them will die, making it the fourth leading cause of cancer death, according to the American Cancer Society.

Some 20 percent of patients are diagnosed with early-stage disease, where the cancer has not spread beyond the pancreas, Talamonti said.

Nearly all patients who survive many years have an operation called the Whipple procedure. This seven- to eight-hour surgery includes removing most or all of the pancreas, part of the intestine, the entire gallbladder and part of a bile duct.

The surgery itself can be dangerous, but with advances in technique, death rates have fallen from about 25 percent in the 1960s to less than 3 percent today at some centers that do many of the operations, the study authors said.

Patients eligible for surgery generally have no detectable cancer outside the pancreas. Still, disease spread is often initially hard to spot, contributing to low survival rates even after surgery, Talamonti said.

Dr. Suresh Chari a pancreatic cancer specialist at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., said the study results were unexpected.

"I was surprised that so many of the primary physicians don't even think of referring the patient to a major center" for surgery, Chari said.

He said Mayo does about 100 pancreatic cancer surgeries a year.

"About the only way you can ever effect a long-term cure is with surgery," he said.

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Funding boost for cancer treatment

The national drug-funding agency Pharmac has announced it will make a more convenient treatment available to sufferers of colorectal cancer.

Pharmac medical director Peter Moodie said about 450 extra people each year would be given capecitabine, a tablet form of chemotherapy.

The tablets would be available to patients with stage three cancers.

"More people being treated for colorectal cancer will take tablets at home instead of going to hospital to received multiple infusions over a prolonged period of time," Dr Moodie said.

At the moment, most colorectal cancer patients were visiting hospital up to 30 times in six months.

Some patients were already taking the tablets, but the extra funding meant the treatment would be more widely and consistently used, he said.

The more convenient treatment would be particularly useful for people who lived in rural areas, or in towns without major hospitals.

The tablets would be available by prescription at community pharmacies.

Dr Moodie said the increased access would cost Pharmac at least $1.7 million a year, but there would also be a cost-saving because it would reduce hospital treatments.

"This is not only much better for patients but frees up precious resources in hospitals...to deliver chemotherapy to other patients."

Colorectal cancer was the second most common cancer in New Zealand, with about 2300 new cases and 1200 deaths each year.

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Bowel cancer pill

Next month New Zealanders with bowel cancer will have access to a more convenient treatment. Bowel cancer is the second most common cancer among both men and women in New Zealand. Close to 1200 New Zealanders die from the disease each year.

From the first of July, the government drug funding agency PHARMAC will be subsidising a tablet form of chemotherapy treatment for the disease called capecitabine.

PHARMAC medical director Peter Moodie says with the drug in tablet form, more people can be treated, which is a win for both patients and hospitals. Dr Moodie says the treatment programme will cost more than $1.7 million a year.

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Former NHL coach Burns leads prostate cancer marchers in Montreal

Former NHL coach Pat Burns led a flood of marchers from the top of Montreal's Mount Royal on Saturday to raise awareness about prostate cancer.

"We've been working on this a little bit to try to get some men to understand that they've got to put the 'machoism' aside," the three-time NHL coach of the year said before the walk.

Burns, 55, said men have to get tested for prostate cancer since one in seven Canadians will be diagnosed with it.

"Being a cancer patient myself, I know how important it is," said a fit-looking Burns between signing autographs for fans. "Men are a little but lazy when it comes to those things."

His 13-year NHL coaching career was cut short during the 2003-04 playoffs when he was diagnosed with colon cancer. In 2005, the disease struck a second time, this time in his liver.

The Montreal native had two major surgeries and chemotherapy to fight the cancer.

"This has been the biggest challenge of my life," he said. "Walking out of that doctor's office after he had told me (about the cancer) was a real taste of reality. It was a real slap in the face."

But these days, the former NHL head coach in Montreal, Toronto, Boston and New Jersey said, he's in "great shape."

"I've been through some rough times, but right now I feel good about everything," said Burns, a consultant with New Jersey.

More than 200 walkers and sports celebrities joined Burns for the four-kilometre Walk of Courage, which also raised funds for prostate cancer research.

Participants of all ages descended a winding gravel trail from Mount Royal's picturesque Beaver Lake. Representatives from Montreal's professional teams, including the CFL's Alouettes, NHL's Canadiens and the United Soccer League's Impact joined the march.

The event was organized by Procure, a non-profit organization dedicated to the fight against prostate cancer.

Another walker who got an early workout signing shirts and hats was Montreal Canadiens legend Guy Lafleur.

"My dad died from cancer and a couple of my uncles too, so it's something you look at and worry about eventually," said Lafleur.

"It's something that affects a lot of people." Lafleur said more people need to talk about prostate cancer and those battling through it should be encouraged.

Father Tom McEntee was diagnosed with the disease and said it's localized at the moment. He knows many others who are fighting prostate cancer.

"I guess I'd be here whether I had it or I didn't have it, so I'm glad to support the cause," McEntee said as he watched walkers warm up to music before the march.

The Montreal priest said word of the diagnosis from his doctor hit hard. "I cried," he said. "That's all I can say."

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Piribo Adds Cancer Stem Cells Market Report to its Specialised Catalogue

Piribo, the online destination for business intelligence for the biotech and pharmaceutical industry, has now added a new market report called "Cancer Stem Cells - Emerging Therapeutic, Diagnostic and Market Opportunities".

(PRWEB) June 15, 2007 -- The last decade has seen the emergence of a new paradigm in the therapeutic strategies which may be available to target cancer. This is based on the existence of so called Cancer Stem Cells (CSCs), found in small populations within the bulk of normal proliferating cancer cells, in tumours.

Many scientists believe that CSCs are responsible for the development and spread of cancer and explain why the disease is resistant to many conventional treatments and able to re-establish itself after therapy. Many researchers believe the selective targeting of these cells offers revolutionary advances in the treatment of cancer, by attacking the disease at its source. The unique identity of CSCs and their proposed causal role in the development and progression of cancer potentially make these cells an ideal target for the detection of the disease. A number of CSC-targeting candidate drugs are now in early research, 2 of which have entered Phase I clinical trials.

Key findings of the report
•Research on CSCs is revealing a unified picture on the involvement of these cells in the development and progression of cancer and this has accelerated discovery programmes to selectively target these cells, alongside normal proliferating cancer cells
•The targeting of CSCs is believed to offer revolutionary advances in cancer therapy and diagnosis
•The CSC field is seeing substantial development, investment and new company formation, as specialised groups advance new discovery programmes
•The targeting of CSCs presents several unique challenges, however a number of strategies have been proposed and are being explored.
•It is believed that diagnostic methods based on the detection of CSC's will have the potential to address key limitations of current methods
•The first CSC-targeting drug candidates have entered clinical development

This report provides a comprehensive overview of research on CSCs and the impact this is having on the development of new therapeutic and diagnostic strategies to target cancer. More than 50 academic research teams from 13 different countries have been reviewed, together with leading discoveries in this field. This is driving new research programmes and commercial developments. This report has identified and profiled 17 companies or commercially-focused groups, which now are targeting CSCs, to develop new therapies and diagnostics. The emerging picture on CSCs is creating significant excitement and interest in the cancer field and researchers have proposed a number of drug discovery strategies, which are also reviewed. Many scientists believe that the targeting of CSC's offers important and revolutionary advances in the targeting of cancer. This report gives the reader a comprehensive and up-to-date overview of developments in this exciting field.

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Cervical cancer awareness programme to be launched in State in month's time

CERVICAL cancer is the most common cancer found in the Indian women, said Dr Pankaj Shah, Director of the MP Shah Cancer Hospital. Almost 25 per cent of the world's cases of cervical cancers are found in India alone. Under the Ahmedabad District Cancer Control Programme, the Gujarat Cancer Research Institute (GCRI) will introduce visual examination to detect cervical cancer at early stages.

The programme will be launched across the State in a month's time.

Cervical cancer occurs due to a sexually transmitted virus. Patients and doctors often overlook the risks of cervical cancer because there are hardly any symptoms in first ten years, the precancerous stage, of having contracted the virus.

The visual methods of examination include application of iodine and acetic acid on the cervix and observe the changes in colour. The two methods are called Visual Inspection with Lugol's Iodine (VILI) and Visual Inspection with Acetic Acid (VIA).

"If detected in the first ten years, there is 100 per cent survival rate among patients. If detected in later stages, there is only a 40 per cent chance of survival among its patients," said Dr Ava Desai, a gynaecologist in the cancer hospital.

Due to inaccessibility of the Pap Smear Test in our country, almost 75 per cent of the patients are diagnosed late and in incurable stages of cancer. "The GCRI programme hopes to rope in almost 10,000 gynaecologists in government, municipality and private hospitals to raise awareness about and encourage early detection of the deadly cancer," said Dr Pankaj Shah.

The conventional method of detection of cervical cancer is the Pap Smear Test. However, this test requires significant infrastructure like laboratories, trained personnel and testing equipment. In developing countries like India, economical constraints, lack of awareness and social conservativeness greatly reduce the chances of early detection of the cancer.

"Developed countries like USA and Norway have reduced their morbidity and mortality rates significantly. India still does not have a national cervical screening programme," said Dr Ava Desai. "Our first aim is to increase awareness about this cancer and break the social stigma surrounding gynaecological examinations."

Though vaccines are available to prevent the cancer, their effectiveness has not been proved completely. Apart from being expensive, the vaccine can only be administered to women who have had no prior sexual contact.

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Gov't releases plan to cut cancer death rate by 20%

The government on Friday released a basic plan to combat cancer, featuring measure to reduce the cancer death rate by 20 percent in the next 10 years for people under 75.

Based on the plan, each prefecture will be required to draft their own plan to fight cancer by next spring that takes into account regional differences.

The plan was approved based on a cancer-fighting law put into force in April. The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry made the draft but the panel that debated it included cancer patients and their families, in addition to doctors and other experts.

Besides reducing cancer deaths, the 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 plan includes having all doctors working on cancer treatment acquire the basic knowledge of palliative care within 10 years. It also calls for raising the percentage of people screened for breast and colon cancers to 50 percent or more in five years, in addition to reducing the percentage of smokers among people under 20 to 0 percent in three years.

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Top Iraqi Shiite leader back in Iran for cancer treatment

Powerful Shiite politician Abdel Aziz al-Hakim has returned to Iran to undergo chemotherapy for his lung cancer, two weeks after receiving treatment in Tehran, his son told AFP on Thursday.

"There are minor malignant swellings in his lung, a sort of not advanced lung cancer that has not spread yet," Mohsen Hakim said.

"The physicians said that it is treatable with chemotherapy and they are very much hopeful that they will be able to treat it," he added.

Two weeks ago, the secretary of another son, Ammar, said Abdel Aziz "is in his headquarters in Najaf and will be there for a long time, after he finished his initial period of treatment in Tehran."

Hakim, the head of one of the most powerful parties in the parliament, has also undergone medical tests in the United States.

On May 22, Ammar Hakim said his father's health was "stable and the doctors in America confirmed to him that the cancer tumour is limited and could be brought under control."

Hakim's Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC), formerly known as the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, was founded in Iran in 1982 as an opposition movement in exile.

The party returned to Iraq in the aftermath of the March 2003 US-led invasion. It joined Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's coalition government last year after winning 30 seats in the 275-member parliament.

Hakim's illness comes as one of his main rivals, radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, has resurfaced after several months in hiding.

Despite SIIC's close ties with Iran, Hakim has tried to build bridges with the United States, and last year met President George W. Bush at the White House.

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Cancer drug 'may pave the way' for RU486

Offering medical abortions using a cancer drug could finally propel a more effective abortion pill, RU486, onto the market, a leading obstetrician says.

Queensland specialist Professor Caroline de Costa, who led the charge for RU486, says she is thrilled major sexual health clinics will now offer non-surgical abortions.

Women's health organisation Marie Stopes International has announced it will provide medical options at clinics in NSW, Queensland, Western Australia and Victoria from this month.

However, because of delays in accessing RU486 the clinics will use the cancer drug methotrexate.

RU486 was approved for use more than a year ago but no drug company has yet offered to supply it.

Prof de Costa, who spearheaded the campaign to approve the abortion pill, said the move by the clinics would boost the profile of medical abortions and the drugs involved.

"My belief is that offering methotrexate as an option will actually lift the chances of finally getting RU486 on the market here," Prof de Costa said.

"We need all the help we can get to get this drug out there because it is the best proven option."

Methotrexate is a cancer drug used by many individual obstetricians in small doses in combination with another drug misoprostol to induce abortions.

The use is "off licence", meaning it is not registered for this purpose.

But until now, clinics have not offered the treatment.

A Sydney pilot study run by Marie Stopes showed the drug was safe and effective with few side effects.

However, specialists agree that RU486 induces abortions faster and more effectively.

"Once RU486 is available via mainstream distribution and purchase from a pharmaceutical company in Australia, Marie Stopes International will be able to offer this option to clients," the company said in a statement.

Prof de Costa is the only doctor so far authorised to prescribe the drug and says it is proving "very effective" among her small sample of Cairns women with medical complications.

"It's great for them but what we want is to get it out there more widely," she said.

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Breast cancer drug may offer hope for treating ovarian cancer

Researchers from Edinburgh University have revealed that drug letrozole, which is used to treat breast cancer, can increase the life span of people suffering from Ovarian cancer by three years.

The researcher used the drug to stop oestrogen from stimulating tumour growth.

Though the discovery may not benefit all because not all cases of ovarian cancer, which is also called a 'silent killer' are triggered by oestrogen, it still offers hope to thousands, reports Daily Mail.

The study that involved 44 women found that the drug stopped oestrogen supply to tumours for almost half a year, in 25pct of the women.

In one-third of the women, whose tumours were largely dependent on oestrogen, the drug deferred chemotherapy.

The researchers expect the drug to increase life expectancy from sa number of months to almost three years.

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Taiwan researchers claim cancer therapy alternative

Taiwan researchers said Thursday they have successfully tested 10 new sugar-fat compounds they believe will inhibit cancer growth while prolonging patients' survival time with limited side effects.

The new compounds were created by a team led by Dr. Wong Chi-huey, president of Taiwan's highest academic research body, the Academia Sinica, and an expert in the structure and function of sugars.

"This is an innovative strategy in cancer treatment. So far, most anti-cancer drugs are associated with side-effects like nausea and hair loss," said Alice Yu, who led a team to validate the compounds.

"But the new (compounds) are expected to cause few side-effects as they are designed to enhance immunity rather than attack cancer cells."

The new compounds are an improvement on one called a-Galcer, which was discovered in Japan in 1995.

At least 10 of the new compounds had proved effective in experiments with mice, Academia Sinica said.

The study showed that lung cancer-bearing mice treated with the new compound had significantly prolonged survival time compared to those treated with a-Galcer, the research institute said in a statement.

The Japanese research did not go beyond a phase I trial because while A-Galcer was found to enhance immunity by helping some proteins, it also damaged other proteins, thus suppressing immune functions. Overall the anti-cancer results were weak.

However, Taiwan's experiments showed that mice treated with the new compounds for six weeks appeared to be in better health.

In breast cancer-bearing mice, treatment with the new compounds had inhibited tumor growth in 75 percent of the group, compared to 50 percent inhibition of tumor growths in mice treated with a-Galcer.

Encouraged by the experiments, Dr. Chang Ya-jen, another researcher involved in the study, said the new compounds could be used to manufacture drugs that would "provide an alternative therapeutic approach" to cancer management in the future.

"They could signal a new ray of hope to cancer patients because such drugs could not only extend their survival time but also improve their life quality while battling with cancer," she said.

The study's results have been published in an online early edition report of the US' PNAS (Proceedings of
National Academy of Sciences).

Yu said it may take up to 10 years for completion of clinical experiments that would precede mass production of a new cancer therapy drug.

Academia Sinica has applied for patent rights here and abroad for the special compounds.

source : news.yahoo.com

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Stress linked to lower endometrial cancer risk

Women who feel chronically stressed may have a lower risk of developing uterine cancer than their less harried peers, researchers have found.

In a study that followed nearly 6,800 Danish women for two decades, researchers found that women with higher self-reported stress levels at the beginning of the study were less likely to develop endometrial cancer.

The findings, published in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine, which mirror the results of some breast cancer risk studies, may seem surprising. The researchers speculate that these lower cancer risks may reflect diminished estrogen production in women under chronic stress.

Endometrial cancer is cancer that originates in the lining of the uterus, and hormones are believed to play an important role in the development of the disease. Factors that limit a woman's lifetime exposure to estrogen -- such as starting menstruation late, pregnancy and early menopause -- have been shown to correlate with a lower risk of endometrial cancer.

This may also explain why women who report greater stress show lower rates of breast and endometrial cancers, according to the study authors, led by Dr. Naja Rod Nielsen of the National Institute of Public Health in Copenhagen.

Because of the effects of stress on the central nervous system, persistent stress may lower the body's synthesis of estrogen, the researchers explain.

They emphasize, however, that chronic stress should not be seen as a good thing, because it may also promote or exacerbate other health conditions, such as heart disease, stroke and impaired immune function.

"Despite these results," Nielsen and her colleagues write, "stress may still be a risk factor for other diseases and should therefore not be considered a healthy response."

source : news.yahoo.com

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Pancreatic cancer surgery overlooked

Nearly 40 percent of patients with early pancreatic cancer who could be treated with surgery don't get the operation, dooming them to grim chances of survival, a study found.

The complicated operation is tricky but safer than previously thought and can extend life, although chances of surviving five years are still not great, Dr. Mark Talamonti, study co-author, said Thursday.

Still, about 30 percent of patients with early-stage disease who get the operation can be expected to survive at least five years, compared with less than 5 percent of early-stage patients who don't get the operation, the study found.

"It is still a formidable disease, but if you're caught with early-stage disease, at least there is reasonable hope" with surgery, said Talamonti, a cancer surgeon at Chicago's Northwestern Memorial Hospital and chief of surgical oncology at Northwestern University's medical school.

The study is based on an analysis of a national cancer database maintained by the American College of Surgeons, which released the results Thursday.

The researchers found that 3,644 patients out of 9,559 with early-stage disease, or about 38 percent, were not offered surgery. Blacks, patients older than 65, and those with lower annual incomes and education were the least likely to be offered surgery.

"For people with potentially removable cancer not to be offered the only treatment that can potentially cure them or at least extend their lives is disturbing," said Dr. William Jarnagin of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. He was not involved in the study.

Part of the problem likely is lack of access to centers experienced in doing the surgery, Talamonti said. Also, many doctors are unaware of improvements in the surgery, he said. Some still view it and the disease itself as a virtual death sentence, and that likely also explains why so many eligible patients aren't referred for an operation, he said.

The study will appear in the August edition of Annals of Surgery, which recently printed an early online version.

About 37,000 Americans will be diagnosed this year with pancreatic cancer and about 33,000 of them will die, making it the fourth leading cause of cancer death, according to the American Cancer Society.

Some 20 percent of patients are diagnosed with early-stage disease, where the cancer has not spread beyond the pancreas, Talamonti said.

Nearly all patients who survive many years have an operation called the Whipple procedure. This seven- to eight-hour surgery includes removing most or all of the pancreas, part of the intestine, the entire gallbladder and part of a bile duct.

The surgery itself can be dangerous, but with advances in technique, death rates have fallen from about 25 percent in the 1960s to less than 3 percent today at some centers that do many of the operations, the study authors said.

Patients eligible for surgery generally have no detectable cancer outside the pancreas. Still, disease spread is often initially hard to spot, contributing to low survival rates even after surgery, Talamonti said.

Dr. Suresh Chari a pancreatic cancer specialist at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., said the study results were unexpected.

"I was surprised that so many of the primary physicians don't even think of referring the patient to a major center" for surgery, Chari said.

He said Mayo does about 100 pancreatic cancer surgeries a year.

"About the only way you can ever effect a long-term cure is with surgery," he said.

source : news.yahoo.com

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