Lung Cancer Drug  Also Fights Advanced Pancreatic Cancer
New Pancreatic Cancer Protocol OK'd

"Women's Top 10 Cancer Symptoms

(MCN - July 2006) -- Many women's cancers produce early symptoms that enable early treatment if reported to your doctor. Delay can be fatal. 

If you have any of the symptoms below, chances are they are NOT cancer related, but only a doctor can tell for sure. If they are cancer related, early treatment can save your life. So, listen to your bodies, ladies, and see you doctor if you suffer from;

1) Losing More than 10 Pounds Without Trying isn't normal and should be reported to your doctor.

2) Abdominal Swelling and Bloating are common symptoms of ovarian cancer...and are among the most ignored symptoms. If you are unable to button your pants or have to go up a size and this is not menstruation related, see your doctor.

3) Vulva or Vaginal Abnormalities including sores, blisters, changes in skin color, or discharge are cause to see your doctor. Women should exam their vulva and vagina regularly to look for these as they, too, are early symptoms of cancer.

4) Onset of Abnormal Vaginal Bleeding is the most common symptom of gynecologic cancer. Heavy periods, bleeding between periods, and bleeding during and after sex are all considered abnormal and may be symptoms of cervical cancer, ovarian cancer, and uterine cancer,.

5) Persistent Fevers lasting 7 or more days or are "on and off" can be symptoms of cancer.  See your doctor.

6) Persistent Stomach Upset or Bowel Changes such as constipation, diarrhea, blood in the stools, gas, thinner stools, or an overall change in bowel habits are reason to see your doctor. They are all symptoms of gynecologic cancer and colon cancer.

7) Persisten Pelvic Pain or Pressure Below the Navel that is not limited to just pre-menstrual syndrome is often associated with endometrial cancer, ovarian cancer, cervical cancer, fallopian tube cancer and vaginal cancer.  See you doctor if you begin to experience such pains or pressure.

8) Onset of Persistent Dull Lower Back Pain can be a symptom of ovarian cancer.  Inform your doctor of such pain.

9) Changes in the Breast such as soreness, nipple discharges, lumps, dimpling, redness, or swelling should be reported to your doctor as soon as possible.

10) Fatigue is usually a later stage cancer symptom but can be an early warning sign, too. Report to your doctor any fatigue that prevents you from doing normal activities.

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Condom Catheter" Better Option for Male Cancer Patients

(MCN, June 2006) - One of the things men loathe about hospital stays are "indwelling catheters".  They can cause deadly infections and are painful.

New research shows a much more comfortable option reduces infection by 80 percent. Called a tight-fit "condom catheter" it is less likely to fall off than older condom types. Its slightly higher cost should be quickly offset by reductions in bacteriuria, symptomatic UTI (Urinary Tract Infection), and deaths caused by traditional indwelling catheters.

UTIs are the most common infection for hospital patients and can lead to fevers, prolonged stays, and death; so the study results have tremendous implications, say researchers from the Univ. of Michigan Health System and the VA hospitals in Seattle and Ann Arbor who conducted it. (See: July Journal of the American Geriatrics Society).

In the first-ever randomized, controlled trial comparing the two types of catheters, the striking difference in infection and death risk was seen in men who didn’t have dementia and didn’t need indwelling catheters.

For patients *without* dementia, indwelling catheter users were 4.8 times more likely than condom catheter users to experience bacteriuria, symptomatic UTI, or death. For patients *with* dementia, however, this difference was not seen because they were more inclined to interfere with the device.
 

New Pancreatic Cancer Vaccine Extends Survival and Improves Quality of Life

(MCN, June 2006) --  Johns Hopkins University doctors say they have developed a new pancreatic cancer vaccine that "teaches" the human immune system to recognize and attack pancreatic cancer cells...while leaving healthy cells alone. 

Seventy-six percent of vaccinated pancreatic cancer patients are still alive after two years, they say, compared to only 42 percent of those traditionally treated with chemo, radiation and surgery. 

Pancreatic cancer kills 30,000 American cancer patients every year.  Another 30,000 are newly diagnosed every year.  Chances of living more than five years with pancreatic cancer are extremely low.  Thousands die within just a year or two of diagnosis.  Vaccine details
 

New Cancer Treatment Extends
Cervical Cancer Patient Survival

(MCN, June 2006) --  The FDA has just approved Glaxo's drug, Hycamtin, to be combined with other drugs to treat severe cervical cancer when surgery or radiation may no longer work.

According to FDA Acting Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach, "This course of drug therapy is a potentially life-prolonging option for thousands of women."

When used with the chemotherapy agent cisplatin, the FDA said Hycamtin helped patients live about three months longer. Both drugs are already approved separately to treat other cancers, including ovarian and lung. The newly approved combination should be used after ruling out other options when the disease is incurable, recurrent or has spread to other organs.

Hycamtin, which is given by infusion, can harm the immune system, lowering white blood cell counts crucial to fighting infections. The drug can also decrease blood platelets and lead to excessive bleeding and anemia.

It is the second positive step in efforts to fight cervical cancer after the FDA last week approved Merck and Co. Inc.'s vaccine for human papillomavirus, HPV, the leading cause of cervical cancer.  Read more here.

Scientists Report Stopping
Colon Cancer Spread

(MCN, May 2006) -- Using the newest, most powerful tools of biomedical science, researchers have scored a dramatic success against colorectal cancer. Using “small interfering RNAs” they successfully blocked the spread of human colorectal cancer cells in lab animals.  Read more here.

New Brain Tumor Treatment

(MCN, May 2006) -- Brain specialists at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center appear to be poised on brink of a new era in brain cancer treatment.  Find out more here.

Experts Disagree On  New Brain Cancer Stem Cell Treatment

(MCN, Sept. 2008) Until now, children with high-risk brain cancer have had only a 40 percent chance of surviving to five years. But a new experimental stem cell treatment dramatically improves the odds.

"Using this approach, we can cure 70 percent of children with high-risk medulloblastoma and 80 percent of patients with standard-risk disease with a much shorter chemo approach," reports lead researcher, Dr. Amar Gajjar, from St Jude's Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, TN.

In the Sept. 7 ('06) online edition of the highly respected medical journal, The Lancet Oncology, researchers said radiation was carefully tailored to fit the severity of the cancer  followed by vastly reduced chemo. To accomplish the reduction, researchers took stem cells from patients before chemotherapy and implanted them after each round of chemo.  Researchers report that this allowed the child's body to recover from the extensive damage caused by chemo.

Use of cisplatin (chemotherapy drug) was reduced 50 percent from eight to just four doses, and the amount of vincristine from 32 doses to just eight!  This alleviated much of the neurotoxicity associated with normal chemo dosages.

Gujjar says, "investigators should consider adopting a similar therapeutic strategy for high-risk patients. This approach should be feasible in most pediatric oncology units at academic medical centers, but meticulous staging and careful attention to detail during radiotherapy planning and treatment are essential to obtain similar results."

But Dr. Anna J. Janss, co-director of the Neuro-Oncology Program at the Aflac Cancer Center of Children's Healthcare of Atlanta -- said the findings won't change her approach to treating childhood brain cancer.

Dr Janss says the results don't make her say: "Oh, I want to treat all my patients this way." She said the new approach is only as good as what has been done before, but not good enough to make her harvest stem cells from every child she treats.

(MCN - 2006) -- Dr. Syed Ahmad, a surgical oncologist, is leading the research team whose work could keep more pancreatic cancer patients alive.

Current approaches only cure about 15 to 20 percent of pancreatic cancer patients.

In surgical patients, Dr. Ahmad's team is testing Iressa, a chemotherapy drug never  available for pancreatic cancer trials before.  Lab research shows Iressa works against pancreatic cancer growth factor EGFR.

"Pancreas cancer expresses a lot of this...blocking that growth factor improves the chances of the cancer not coming back," Ahmed said.

The second clinical trial, for patients who can't be treated surgically, is split into two groups. Each is given a different chemotherapy drug. One drug cuts off blood flow to a tumor and kills it that way, by "starving" it, the other also blocks EGFR...which inhibits tumor growth.

Early results of these trials are expected by the end of 2006.  To see if you can participate in either of these trials, use the TrialsFinder Tool at: www.RobertsReview.com

Raloxifene Better than Tamoxifena (Nolvadex)
for Breast Cancer

(MCN, April 2006) -- Evista (raloxifene), a drug widely used to prevent bone thinning in women past menopause can dramatically reduce their risk of invasive breast cancer, with far fewer serious side effects than tamoxifena, the drug currently recommended for breast cancer prevention. Some experts hail this as a major advance in the war against cancer while others say more study is needed.

Either way, the head-to-head clinical comparison of the two drugs on almost 20,000 postmenopausal women with a higher-than-average risk of invasive breast cancer based on personal and family histories showed very promising results.

The only drug currently approved for prevention is Nolvadex. It is mostly used to treat breast cancer, but when  administered as a preventive, it can cut the risk of invasive breast cancer in half.  But so can Evista, the study shows.

The crucial difference is the two drugs' side effects. Women who took Evista had fewer uterine cancers and fewer blood clots in major veins or the lungs, two infrequent but serious side effects that scare many women away from Nolvadex (tamoxifen). Scientists who coordinated the study declared raloxifene the clear winner, even though the results fell just on the edge of statistical difference. The results, however, also suggest that tamoxifen increases the risk of cataracts, but raloxifene does not.

Raloxifene, however, failed to reduce noninvasive breast tumors that might become invasive later if not caught in time. Tamoxifen cuts the risk of such tumors in half. That has led some experts to say raloxifene's main value may be as an option that offers women a different risk-benefit profile than tamoxifen.

Revolutionary Glioma Treatment
Helps Brain Tumor Patients

(MCN, February 2006) -- Employing the monoclonal anti-body (mAb) L2G7 could revolutionize Glioma treatment, making it safer and with far fewer side effects the the only currently available treatments: surgery, chemo and radiation, each of which presents significant risk of physical and cognitive impairment. Read more here.

The anti-body inhibits growth of malignant glioma cells, and shrinks the tumor.  Surprisingly, the survival rate was also extended. Following these promising findings, it is hoped that human clinical trials of this new immunotherapy will be initiated soon.  Check www.RobertsReview.com's Trials Finder Tool to find how you may be able to participate.

Dr. Jin Kim (Galaxy Biotech) and Dr. John Laterra (Kennedy Krieger Institute) tested the effectiveness and safety of the monoclonal anti-body in glioma treatment by first creating animal models with human cell characteristics. They implanted L2G7 under the skin of the models and soon found it produced complete inhibition of the tumor.   Even better results (tumor inhibition, tumor regression and enhanced survival rate) were seen following implantation in the brain.

The novel monoclonal anti-body, developed by Dr. Kim and his research team targeted the inhibition of hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), believed to play a major role in the further growth and spread of cancer by accelerating cell division, inducing formation of blood vessels and increasing resistance to chemotherapy drugs. The successful incorporation of the antibody, surpassing the 'blood-brain barrier' (BBB) proved to be a challenging task for the researchers. Read more here.