Stand Up To Cancer

Fresh research from the National Cancer Institute brings more bad news about the link between obesity and cancer: a new study indicates that obese older women who never took postmenopausal hormones have double the risk of developing ovarian cancer. "We speculate that what may be driving the increased risk among the obese is the surplus estrogen produced by the fat cells in the body," said the paper's lead author.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/13/health/research/07cancer.html?em

More bad news, this time about SU2C friend Patrick Swayze. In an interview with Barbara Walters, Swayze opened up about his pancreatic cancer, which was diagnosed at stage IV in March of last year. His treatment has included aggressive chemotherapy and vatalanib, an experimental drug; as of now, Swayze says that surviving five years is "wishful thinking." Good luck, Patrick - we're all rooting for you.
http://www.webmd.com/cancer/pancreatic-cancer/news/20090107/swayze-opens-up-about-pancreatic-cancer

A new study in the most recent issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention indicates that hormone replacement therapy (HRT), most often prescribed to menopausal women, can reduce the risk of developing colorectal cancer. "It appears that estrogens likely have direct or indirect effects on the growth of colonic epithelial cells," said one scientist involved in the study.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/08/AR2009010801661.html

You don't hear much about breast cancer in men, which accounts for about 1% of the total incidence of the disease. Maybe that's why new research from the American Journal of Roentgenology indicates that these tumors are often detected at a late stage. And the fact that they can appear benign on mammography doesn't help. "Radiologists should be aware of these findings to avoid the misdiagnosis of cancer in men as a benign lesion," said the study's authors.
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE5066RZ20090107

Today brings some cheerier news: Sen Ted Kennedy (D-NY) is back in the Senate after treatment for brain cancer last year. His first Senate hearing since being back in office was to confirm Tom Daschle for the post of Health and Human Services Secretary - how fitting!
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2009/01/08/2009-01-08_sen_ted_kennedy_back_after_cancer_battle.html

One of my favorite topics to cover in this blog - and one of my favorite topics in general - is food. So I am pleased to announce we can all add another yummy cancer-fighter to our grocery lists: black raspberries. Researchers in Ohio have found that the flavonoids found in black raspberries inhibited the growth of cancer cells in rats. Fruit cobbler, anyone?
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Health/Black_raspberries_for_cancer_prevention_/articleshow/3953166.cms

Okay, okay, one more. If you're anything like me, your morning hasn't really started until you're midway through your second cup of Viennese Roast. So I was pleased to read about a recent study showing that coffee can actually reduce the risk of developing mouth and gullet cancer. Japanese researchers found that folks drinking more than one cup of coffee a day had half the risk of developing these cancers. Cheers to that!
http://doctor.ndtv.com/news/news.asp?id=3583

That's all for this week, but I'll be back next Thursday with more news you can use. Happy New Year!

--Cat

Posted by su2cadmin on January 8, 2009 1:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Congratulations to director David Fincher for his nomination for the DGA Award in the Commercials category for his work in 2008 on the Stand Up To Cancer PSA 'Standing Up'.

Mr. Fincher's other current nominations include: a DGA Award in the Features category for "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button", as well as a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Director "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button".

Congratulations as well to Eddie Vedder on his Grammy nomination in the category Best Rock Vocal Performance for his song "Rise".

"Rise" is featured in the SU2C PSA "Standing Up".

For more details on the awards, please see:

The DGA Website
ShootOnline.com

Posted by su2cadmin on January 9, 2009 5:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Today's Washington Post features a piece on that perennial cancer topic, the importance of early detection. A new report from the American Cancer Society indicates that the rate of screening for breast and cervical cancers has stayed level since the year 2000, with rates hovering between 50% and 60% for most recommended populations. "More people need to get screened than are being screened, and they need to get screened regularly -- that's a big problem," said report author Robert Smith.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/15/AR2009011502355.html

The tech world was rocked earlier this week by news that Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, is taking medical leave for five months. Today Bloomberg.com reports that the survivor of pancreatic cancer could be having his pancreas removed entirely, although the company and Jobs have remained pretty opaque. Whatever health problems he's facing, we hope he gets better soon.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aZIf9jXBqp0Y&refer=home

Here's a wonderful piece on breast cancer myths that's simultaneously reassuring and scary. At the top of the list is the idea that only women with a family history of breast cancer are at risk; the truth is that only about 30% of breast cancers occur in women with identifiable risk factors. More comforting is the news that caffeine, underwire bras and mammograms do not cause breast cancer.
http://www.kcautv.com/Global/story.asp?S=9057407&nav=menu110_10_2_2

Hesitant about getting that colonoscopy? Good news from the American Cancer Society: procedures performed by trained family doctors are safe, effective and meet quality guidelines. "Most people who finish medical school would be widely capable of doing any number of procedures in a high-quality fashion if they have the appropriate training," said Dr. Durado Brooks, director of colorectal cancer at ACS. "So that's the key. Training."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/15/AR2009011502796.html

I loved this story about The Yellow Umbrella, a non-profit founded by musician Christine Baze. Baze, a cervical cancer survivor, travels around the country playing music and giving presentations on cervical cancer prevention in schools and businesses. "When you speak to someone who's shared your experience, it's weird how you can bond over something so dark," she said. "It's this club you don't ever want to belong to, but once you're in it, you've got all these brothers and sisters."
http://www.tauntongazette.com/entertainment/x1943021785/Cancer-survivor-uses-music-to-deliver-a-message-abroad-and-at-home

Finally, some great food-related news, which you know is my favorite kind. Looks like Mexican food can actually fight cancer - not the Americanized, fried variety, but "native," vegetable-laden authentic Mexican. Otherwise known as the best kind. "Researchers compared our western diet to a low-fat diet and a Mediterranean diet. The western diet, high in sugar and fat, was associated with the greatest risk of breast cancer. Mediterranean and low fat had lower risks. Mexican can be cooked low fat. The native diet includes fresh fish as well as vegetables," said the lead doc on the study. Hello, fish tacos!
http://www.nbcwashington.com/health/diet_fitness/Mexican-Food-Can-Fight-Cancer.html

That's all for this week, but we'll be back next Thursday with more!

--Cat

Posted by su2cadmin on January 15, 2009 7:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

In case you haven't heard, we got a new president on Tuesday, and SU2C friend Lance Armstrong is excited about President Obama's stance on cancer issues."In my three or four meetings with him he's been delightful, smart, present, and he's given me hope," Armstrong said. "For the US and the world, this is a monumental moment. He brings a kind of hope and optimism not only to the US, but around the world."
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jHZiP8ewB7_ao3atcRFHv75-Atsg

Tuesday also brought some bad news: Sen Ted Kennedy (D-NY), who received treatment for brain cancer last year, collapsed at an inaugural luncheon. Fortunately, he seems to be doing all right.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2009/01/ted-kennedy.html

For those of us addicted to caffeine, there's fresh cause to celebrate: researchers in Florida have found that drinking three cups of tea a day could reduce the risk of breast cancer in women under the age of 50. (Green tea is best.) The health benefits of tea just keep building. Bottoms up!
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,481453,00.html

Elsewhere in the US, docs at Cincinnati Children's Hospital have reprogrammed the herpes virus to block tumor formation in mice. The repurposed virus targets and kills cancer stem cells that lead to neuroblastoma. The lead researcher on the study stressed the potential of targeted therapies: "We show that one promising approach for targeted treatment is biological therapy, such as an engineered oncolytic virus that seeks out and kills progenitor cells that could be the seeds of cancers," he said.
http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2009/01/22/Virus_made_to_kill_cancer_stem_cells/UPI-91941232638414/

Seasonal affective disorder is always in the news at this time of year, when most of the country is buried underneath snow and ice. But doctors warn that the solution isn't hopping into a tanning bed; while a few minutes under a sunlamp may lift some of those winter blues, artificial tanning still produces up to 12 times as much dangerous UV light as the sun.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,481469,00.html

Early detection. Early detection. Early detection. It's the drumbeat behind cancer prevention, and an article in Wired this week does a great job of explaining why. "[The] cure-driven approach has dominated the research since Richard Nixon declared war on the disease in 1971," the article says. "But it has yielded meager results . . . More than a third of all Americans--some 120 million people--will be diagnosed with cancer sometime in their lives. Their illness may be invisible now, but it's out there. And that presents a great, and largely unexamined, opportunity."
http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/magazine/17-01/ff_cancer

Finally, here's a piece that looks at the other side of cancer statistics. While 120 million Americans will be diagnosed with cancer during their lifetimes, two out of three will not. In a new study, one Swedish researcher suggests taking a look at the people who don't get cancer to figure out what's behind their resistance to the disease. "Cancer resistance must be investigated on its own merits," he said. "It is possible and even likely that evolution has provided our species with highly efficient cancer resistance mechanisms." A dose of optimism - I like it!
http://www.physorg.com/news151840958.html

That's all for this week, but check in next Thursday for more recommended reading!

--Cat

Posted by su2cadmin on January 22, 2009 11:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SU2C is excited to announce that this week ReachMD, the XM Radio station for medical professionals, will be featuring an interview with Dr. Raymond DuBois, provost and executive vice president of MD Anderson Cancer Center and president of the AACR.

Dr. DuBois is presenting the first in a series of updates on SU2C's progress scientific progress, team formation and research grants.

Check it out here and don't forget to check back for more from SU2C and ReachMD!

Schedule for the week of January 26 (All times Eastern):

Monday 10:40 AM, 10:40 PM
Tuesday 8:40 AM, 8:40 PM
Wednesday 6:40 AM, 6:40 PM
Thursday 4:40 AM, 4:40 PM
Friday 2:40 AM, 2:40 PM

Posted by su2cadmin on January 26, 2009 10:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Here's some cheery news to kick off this week's roundup of links. An article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution highlights the progress that has been made against breast cancer in the past 20 years. The piece notes that women today are generally diagnosed earlier and treated more effectively - and one of the key advances it cites is the development of Herceptin by SU2C friend Dr. Dennis Slamon.
http://www.ajc.com/services/content/health/stories/2009/01/28/breast_cancer_developments.html

My favorite scientific breakthroughs are always the ones that come from unexpected places, and this week's unlikely hero is the tadpole. British researchers have found that there's a compound in tadpole pigment cells that blocks their movement, giving the baby frogs their distinctive markings. But this compound could theoretically also be used to curb the growth of skin cancer in humans: "It just goes to show that studying animals like tadpoles, which may seem unusual, could lead to potential cancer drugs in the future," said one of the researchers.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7851932.stm

If you're interested in boning up on the history of cancer research, CNN.com has a great timeline of milestones in the battle against cancer. Did you know that the first mastectomy was performed way back in 1890? Or that the Pap smear was invented at the turn of the century by a Dr. Pap(anicolaou)? Further down the line, Tamoxifen, Avastin and Nexavar all made the list as key developments in the past decade.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/01/29/timeline.cancer/

If you've ever been to North Carolina, you probably noticed that smoking restrictions are a little more lax there than in the rest of the country. The tobacco-producing state still allows smoking in restaurants, workplaces and other public areas, including some stores. Now a cancer survivor - who happens to also be the state's House Majority Leader - is looking to change all that.
http://www.newsobserver.com/1565/story/1386092.html

Some good news from Washington this week: Medicare has officially expanded its coverage for cancer drugs, even including treatments that have yet to receive full FDA approval. This means the agency will now cover some novel treatments it wouldn't before, saving docs and patients alike the trouble of dealing with payment. "Basically what this means is that there will be faster coverage of evidence-based and appropriate cancer medications for patients," said a spokesman for the American Society of Clinical Oncology. "It will reduce the hassle factor."
http://www.qctimes.com/articles/2009/01/29/ap/health/d95vn0c80.txt

Stanford scientists have identified a protein that helps cells replicate by repairing the ends of chromosomes. It's the first new protein component of telomerase to be discovered in 10 years and plays a role in the reproduction of cancer cells - meaning that blocking it can limit a cell's lifespan. "We've never really understood before how the enzyme gets to the telomeres; it's been a complete black box," said one of the docs. "Now we're starting to piece together how it happens, and that gives us more opportunities to interfere with its function."
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090129140847.htm

Finally, in the waning days of Cervical Cancer Awareness Month, here's some timely news: more women are getting the HPV vaccine than ever before. Meanwhile, health officials report that incidence of cervical cancer is on the decline. Score one for modern medicine - and ladies, if you haven't already, get that vaccine!
http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/article/20090128/GPG0101/901280709/1207/GPG01

That's it for this week, but I'll be back next Thursday with more!

--Cat

Posted by su2cadmin on January 29, 2009 10:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)