Cancer, Cancer Treatment

THURSDAY, Nov. 6 — Cancer-screening messages targeted to minorities that take a negative approach — emphasizing, for instance, that colon cancer is a bigger threat to blacks than whites — can actually make minorities less likely to be screened, a new study found.

“There have been some other studies that have hinted at the same thing,” said study lead author Robert Nicholson, an assistant professor of neurology and psychiatry at St. Louis University School of Medicine.

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- Actor Patrick Swayze, who has stage IV pancreatic cancer, has checked himself into a hospital for observation because he has pneumonia.

Executives from A&E, the network behind Swayze’s new TV show, The Beast, announced Swayze’s hospitalization today in Las Vegas at the Television Critics Association.

Swayze, 56, was diagnosed with stage IV pancreatic cancer, which had already spread to his liver, in March 2008. Swayze spoke with ABC’s Barbara Walters about his cancer and cancer treatment in a television interview that aired two days ago.

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Treatment with cetuximab (Erbitux) was less effective for patients with advanced colorectal cancer with a certain gene mutation, a new study found. Scientists already knew that the presence of K-ras mutations explains about 30 to 40 percent of cases in which colorectal cancer patients fail to respond to Erbitux, developed by ImClone and sold by Bristol-Myers Squibb and Merck KGaA, and Vectibix, from Amgen. The latest findings added another 12 percent.

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WEDNESDAY, Oct. 22 — A new study suggests that people with advanced colon cancer who have a particular gene mutation won’t benefit from the medication cetuximab (Erbitux).

While the drug can add months to the lives of people without a mutation in a gene called K-ras, those who have the mutation won’t see any benefit from this additional therapy, reports the study, which is published in the Oct. 23 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

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Tuesday October 14, 2008 (foodconsumer.org) — In the National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the campaign organizers and sponsors want as many women as possible to know the risk of breast cancer in hopes that more women or even men may go to receive regular screenings for breast cancer.

The risk is not the same to everyone. That is why you are not going to do screening at a young age. But how many people really know they are in the low risk group or high risk group remains questionable.

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Flattening or indentation of the skin over your breast can be a sign of breast cancer. If it is, you shouldnt worry much as breast cancer is quite treatable. You should make provision on how to receive medical help instead of panicking around. Once you are diagnosed with breast cancer, the next thing you want to do is start an immediate treatment for the cancer. You should ask your doctor for available treatment options and what is involved in each before taking it up. With proper treatment chances are your breast cancer can be treated. And that’s a very high probability because more and more women are now surviving breast cancer, than was the case in the past.
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THURSDAY, Nov. 6 — Cancer-screening messages targeted to minorities that take a negative approach — emphasizing, for instance, that colon cancer is a bigger threat to blacks than whites — can actually make minorities less likely to be screened, a new study found.

“There have been some other studies that have hinted at the same thing,” said study lead author Robert Nicholson, an assistant professor of neurology and psychiatry at St. Louis University School of Medicine.

Read the rest of this entry »

CHCIAGO, Nov. 17 — For carefully selected Asian patients with non-small-cell lung cancer, the tyrosine kinase inhibitor gefitinib (Iressa) significantly improved progression-free survival compared with the standard carboplatin (Paraplatin) and paclitaxel (Taxol), researchers reported here.

The phase III IRESSA-Pan Asia Study (IPASS) included patients who were chemotherapy na?ve, were never smokers or light smokers with a good performance status, an adenocarcinoma histology and Stage IIIb/IV non-small-cell lung cancer. The patients were selected from centers in China, Singapore, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Taiwan.

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WASHINGTON— The Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday it will look into concerns that a prominent toxicologist asked to render an independent verdict on a sensitive consumer safety issue may have a financial conflict-of-interest.

But an FDA official said there is no reason to believe that University of Michigan professor Martin Philbert did anything improper. The case involves bisphenol A, a chemical used to make plastics that is found in consumer goods from soup cans to baby bottles, and seen as a health risk by some.

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