Oncology

Medical Library

10 Ways the Sun Sneakily Damages Your Skin

While getting a healthy- and sexy-looking tan may be a big temptation to many, it's actually a poor health choice, according to experts. That's because sun overexposure contributes to the majority of skin cancers in the United States. And the American Cancer Society (ACS) says skin cancers account for nearly 50 percent of all cancers in America. The ACS estimates that in 2006, the last year for which data were available, 59,940 cases of malignant melanoma and over 1 million cases of basal- and squamous-cell cancers were connected with exposure to ultraviolet rays.

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40% of Men Who Test Negative for Prostate Cancer May Have It

Forty percent of men with prostate cancer may be unaware that they have it, according to research conducted by the Prostate Cancer Foundation in Chicago. The study found that the standard office biopsy procedure is often inadequate for proper detection of the disease.

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5 Ways to have Fun in the Sun Without Getting Burned

It's that time of year again. Summers here, and most people can't wait to enjoy the beach, the pool, and backyard barbeques. Summer's great- but all that time outdoors means a lot more sun exposure. While it'ss nice and actually healthy to get some sun, harmful UVA and UVG rays can cause skin cancer so it's important to protect your skin. Covering up can also help you avoid wrinkles, sun spots, and other signs of aging. The Skin Cancer Foundation has some helpful tips:

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70 Percent of Cancers May Be Tobacco-Related

As many as 70 percent of overall cancer deaths may be linked to smoking, far beyond the rate of lung cancer mortality attributable to tobacco, according to recent research.

“This study provides support for the growing understanding among researchers that smoking is a cause of many more cancer deaths besides lung cancer,” said lead author Bruce Leistikow, a University of California at Davis associate adjunct professor of public health sciences. “The full impacts of tobacco smoke, including secondhand smoke, have been overlooked in the rush to examine such potential cancer factors as diet and environmental contaminants. As it turns out, much of the answer was probably smoking all along.”

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A Cancer Therapy Nearing Breakthrough

An approach to treating cancer known as monoclonal antibody therapy, that has already effectively proven itself, is on the threshold of becoming yet more powerful, according to an overview of recent research.
   
“We believe that antibody therapy has the capacity to immunize people against cancer,” said Louis Weiner, director of the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center at Georgetown University Medical Center. “Treatment modifications might be able to prolong, amplify and shape a continuous immune response to cancer cells.”

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Acupuncture Outperforms Drugs on Hot Flashes

Acupuncture does as well and is longer-lasting than drug therapy in handling the hot flashes and sweating that afflicts 80 percent of women who are treated for breast cancer, according to recent research. In addition, the study showed, treatment with acupuncture engenders none of the nasty side effects associated with conventional drugs. In fact, it produces some very attractive benefits, including a greater sense of well-being, increased energy, and, occasionally, a higher sex drive.

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African American Women and Breast Cancer

“I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to see my children grow up and my grandchild grow, you get this really scary feeling inside,” says Rosamond Stallings. When 45 year old Rosamond Stallings was diagnosed with breast cancer 2 years ago, doctors urged her to immediately have a mastectomy. “They found like six malignant tumors,” says Rosamond. Recent studies have shown that 30 percent or more of breast cancer patients fail to receive complete treatment, and that African American women are as much as 10 percent less likely than white women to receive optimal therapy. But now, supported by a $10 million grant from the Department of Defense, a study, led by a team of doctors at Columbia University Medical Center, will look at possible reasons for the disparity.

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Alcohol's Acetaldehyde May Be a Significant Cancer Risk

An organic chemical in alcoholic beverages that's the culprit behind hangovers also makes drinking the biggest risk factor for cancers that are linked to the chemical, a recent study suggested. The study, published in the journal Addiction, said the hangover chemical acetaldehyde represents a considerable risk to heavy drinkers in particular, especially combined with the many sources of the chemical in the environment.

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An Amazing Anti-Cancer Protein

A small but powerful protein, through its unique action of halting the division of pre-cancerous cells, generally prevents more than half of all human cancers. Researchers have respectfully dubbed it the “guardian angel,” “guardian of the genome,” or the “dictator of life and death.”
   
It’s known as p53, but this sterile name belies the magnificent work it engages in every day. The little protein works by somehow detecting lengths of DNA that have been injured by various dangerous forces, such as radiation, a virus or chemicals in cigarette smoke. DNA injuries are the key element in turning a cell cancerous. But p53 sets off a cascade of reactions that prevents the cell from naturally dividing until either the DNA is repaired or the cell dies.

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BRCA Breast Cancer Genes

Women who have BRCA breast cancer genetic mutations are just as likely to survive as other women who get breast cancer, according to a new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Women with BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes are more likely to get breast cancer. It was also widely believed that those with hereditary breast cancer from BRCA1 mutations had worse outcomes. This new study, tracked two groups of women with breast cancer in Israel, one with the inherited BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations, and the other without. The researchers found no significant difference in death rates between the two groups. Between 5 and 10 percent of all breast cancers are hereditary and are more likely to occur with women from certain ethnic backgrounds like people of Ashkenazi (central or eastern European) Jewish heritage [one reason why the study was done in Israel].

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Blacks' Higher Cancer Incidence Causes Higher Mortality

Blacks’ higher mortality from cancer is due, for most types of the disease, to developing malignancies more frequently than whites – not mainly to discovery of the illness at a later, deadlier stage or having poorer survival rates after diagnosis (both of which are also the case), a recent study showed.
   
The study on the racial gap in cancer in the United States, by researchers at the University of California at Los Angeles, was published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

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Breast Cancer Surgery Stressing Cosmetics Over Cures?

Recent innovations in breast cancer surgery that allow doctors to minimize postsurgical breast deformities may be stressing cosmetic outcomes to the detriment of actual rates of cure, a senior physician warned recently.
   
“We must ensure that surgical approaches designed to improve cosmetic outcomes do not increase local failure and the risk of subsequent death from breast cancer,” said Monica Morrow, chief of the Breast Service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. Her editorial was published on the British Medical Journal website.

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Can Ginseng Fight Cancer?

In a new research effort, a University of Chicago team will investigate to what extent ginseng can kill cancer cells and will identify the herb's active biochemicals that may be responsible. In another project, the researchers will undertake to learn how ginseng extracts may alter tumor cells' gene expression. And in a third study, they will focus on how ginseng affects the intracellular signals that determine cell growth and death.

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Cancer Cure Hope

Researchers have discovered a chemical already used to treat rare metabolism conditions in children might help kill off cancer cells. The drug is cheap, it’s already shown to be safe, and that has scientists cautiously optimistic. But it has patients wanting the drug…now!

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Cell Phone Use and Tumors

New research has revealed that use of a cell phone over 10 years might increase the risk of their users developing a rare benign tumor. For millions of Americans, cell phones have become remote lifelines for both business and leisure…for some it’s an addiction. 

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Cellular "Danger Receptor" Alerts Immune System to Cancer

    A chemical “danger receptor” on certain specialized cells senses the cell death characteristic of bodily injury or malignant tissue and then mobilizes the body’s immune system to repair the flaw, a recent study has revealed.

    The results, which were reported in the journal Nature, may explain the mechanism behind some cancer-fighting drugs that partly work by stimulating an immune response. The scientists, based at Cancer Research UK’s London Research Institute, in Britain, speculated that knowledge of the receptor could assist in developing strategies to use the immune system to shrink tumors.

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Cellular Pathway Controls Whether Tumors Shrink With Food Intake

A genetically governed cellular pathway controls whether malignant tumors respond to reduced eating by, as is usual, shrinking in size, according to recent research.
The study, published in the journal Nature, was done by scientists at the Whitehead Institute in Cambridge, Mass., using human cancer cell lines in mice.

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Curcumin May Prevent Nicotine-Related Head and Neck Cancers

Curcumin, the organic compound that gives curry it's yellow color, may inhibit the adverse effects of tobacco use in patients with head and neck cancer who continue to smoke. The study was presented at the 2009 American Academy of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery Foundation Annual Meeting in San Diego.


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Depression Can Affect Cancer Patients' Survival Chances

Depression can increase a cancer patient's risk of dying, according to an analysis published in journal Cancer. The results highlight the need to systematically screen patients for psychological distress and offer subsequent treatments. A number of studies have already shown that a person's mental attitude can impact their physical health.


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Drinking Raises Cancer Risk

Moderate drinking of just three or more alcoholic beverages a week measurably raises women’s risk of developing cancer, a recent study revealed.
   
The research, which appeared in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, was performed at Oxford University using data from more than 1.3 million women in Britain, with an average of 55, who were part of the so-called Million Women Study. Scientists determined that drinking alcohol seems to cause 13 percent of all breast, liver, rectal and upper digestive tract cancers in the women in the study, all of whom filled out questionnaires upon visiting British breast-cancer screening clinics from 1996 to 2001.

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Exercising After 50 Reduces Breast Cancer Risk

Walking as little as 30 minutes a day, especially after age 50 – even in the course of doing household-related chores – can significantly reduce a woman’s risk of contracting breast cancer, a recent study found.

“It doesn’t always have to be sports,” said Associate Professor Karen Steindorf of the German Cancer Research Center, a leader of the research. “In our calculations, we have also taken account of activities such as gardening, cycling or walking to the shops. Our advice to all women is therefore to stay, or become, physically active also in the second half of your life. You will not only reduce your risk of breast cancer, but it has been proven that your bones, heart and brain also benefit from it.”

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Extra-Virgin Olive Oil a Breast Cancer Medicine?

Biologically active compounds in extra-virgin olive oil have the ability to shrink certain malignant breast tumors, recent research indicates.

The study, performed at the Catalan Institute of Oncology in Girona, Spain, and reported in the open-access journal BMC Cancer, focused on tumor tissue in laboratory culture that the researchers exposed to different fractions of extra-virgin olive oil containing various natural phytochemicals.

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FDA Approves New Contraceptive Pill Lybrel

The FDA approves an oral contraceptive that also eliminates menstruation. Wyeth's oral contraceptive Lybrel is now approved by the FDA to eliminate monthly menstrual periods. The drug has a lower level of synthetic hormones than other oral contraceptives and must be taken 365 days a year. According to a study by Wyeth, 59 percent of women had no periods after six months but 18% dropped out due to menstrual spotting.

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Fruit Chemical Shrinks Tumors

A compound found naturally in fruits like mangoes, grapes and strawberries has been discovered to dramatically fight malignancies. Research recently done at Hong Kong University shows that the chemical lupeol sharply decreases tumor size and suppresses metastasis, the blood-borne spread of cancer from one part of the body to another. Lupeol has these effects, the study showed, while having no unhealthy impact on surrounding tissue or other organs in the body - something that's often not the case with conventional chemotherapy.

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Gene Makes Drinkers More Prone to Colon Cancer

Some one in five Americans have a gene variant that makes them about two to three times more likely to develop colon cancer if they are relatively heavy drinkers, a recent study has found.

'If people drink alcohol chronically and have a certain genetic background, then they have an increased risk for large intestinal cancer - colorectal cancer - if they drink over a certain amount of alcohol every day," said study co-author Helmut K. Seitz, a professor of medicine at Heidelberg University in Heidelberg, Germany.

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Ginger Appears to Relieve Chemotherapy-Related Nausea

Simple ginger root seems to dramatically ease the nausea caused by cancer chemotherapy, a recent study demonstrated. The research, which was revealed at a news conference sponsored by the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), validates what has been standard practice in homes around the world, namely, that taking ginger ale or ginger tea relieves an upset stomach. The study - the largest to date showed that taking a quarter - to a half-teaspoon of ginger a day reduced nausea symptoms by at least 40 percent.


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Health Wrap - June 2

A new UCLA/Veteran's Affairs study showed that more than 40 percent of patients who initially had received a positive result on a fecal occult blood test –a stool guiaic card which is an initial screening tool for colon cancer -- did not receive appropriate follow-up tests like a colonoscopy or a barium enema. Only 59 percent of this group received follow-up diagnostic tests such as a colonoscopy or a barium enema. Forty-one percent received no follow-up at all in the six months following the positive stool study. The authors say any healthcare system that provides cancer-screening programs needs to track each step in the screening process to help ensure that patients don't slip through cracks in the system.

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Health Wrap - Week of June 5th

The cervical cancer vaccine that was approved Thursday called Gardisil also appears to protect women against vulvar and vaginal cancers. HPV, or human papillomavirus, is present in 80 percent of the 6,000 cases of vaginal and vulvar cancers diagnosed in the United States each year. The Gardasil vaccine was 100 percent effective against vulvar and vaginal pre-cancerous lesions caused by HPV types 16 and 18, and 81 percent effective against all hpv types. --- The power of persuasion might be found in a cup of coffee. New research shows caffeine makes us more likely to say yes. Australian scientists found it was easier to change the opinions of volunteers who drank orange juice laced with caffeine compared to those who drank straight orange juice without caffeine. Positive mood is associated with more agreeability. This might be particularly useful if you’re trying to get someone to like you…so a cup of coffee might be a great first date.

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Health Wrap | Cardiology, Cancer, Asthma, Trans-fat

There is a new warning for people with pacemakers and implantable cardioverter defibrillators: Magnets may pose a serious health risk! While common magnets for home and office use with low magnetic strength posed little risk, stronger magnets made from neodymium-iron-boron may cause interference with cardiac devices and pose potential hazards to patients. These magnets are increasingly being used in homes and office products, toys, jewelry and even clothing. The authors say physicians should caution patients about the risks associated with these magnets and they also recommend that the product packaging include information on the potential risks that may be associated with these types of magnets.

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High-Red-Meat Diet Raises Mortality Risk

Americans who consume large amounts of red and processed meats face a greater likelihood of death by cancer or heart disease, a recent study found.
   
The research was published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, and is the largest study of its kind, with over a half-million subjects.

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Humanistic Cancer Care

A focus on emotional health and overall well being is changing how cancer is treated. For many who are diagnosed with Cancer, the initial reaction is shock mixed with fear. While coping with the news, having support during a time of uncertainty and stress makes a world of difference. Several cancer treatment centers, such as the Eastchester Center for Cancer Care, are acknowledging the importance of going beyond treating the physical challenge of cancer. Cancer centers now focus on providing emotional support through both a warm environment and a compassionate staff.

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Hypnosis Helps Control Hot Flashes

Hot flashes can make life hell for women going through menopause. And they'e especially torturous for those who are being treated for, or who have just finished treatment for, breast cancer. So the federal government funded a five-week study at Baylor University in which 51 survivors of breast cancer were divided into two groups - one of 26 women who were given about an hour of hypnosis five times a week, and another of 25 women who served as a control group. All of the women had no further sign of cancer and were experiencing up to 14 daily hot flashes - in which a woman's heart rate skyrockets, she goes into a sweat, and then is racked by the chills.

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In-vitro Baby Born from Immature Frozen Egg

On June second, the first baby conceived from an egg that was matured in the lab before undergoing in-vitro fertilization was born in Canada and is progressing normally. The mother, as well as three other women, became pregnant through a clinical trial at the McGill Reproductive Center in Montreal. The twenty women involved in the study had polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), which can cause female interfertlity.

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Infinitesimal Bundles Obliterate Cancer Cells

How to poison cancer cells without poisoning the rest of the body?

That was the key question in a recent study, which appeared in the American Cancer Society's Nano Letters, in which scientists developed bundles of cancer-cell poison wrapped in a harmless sheath that were so minute they were only one-five-thousandth the width of a human hair. The poison, known as ceramide, is deadly not only to cancer tissue but to the body's normal cells - and is insoluble in the bloodstream.

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Knowledge of Fat-Making Complex Could Fight Obesity

In an advance that has implications for new anti-obesity and anti-cancer drugs, a “movie” has been made of how a molecular complex in the human cell performs a “dance” in which it dramatically changes shape to promote all of the stages of fat synthesis.
   
The various enzymes that make fat are actually integrated into a rapidly metamorphosing unit called fatty acid synthase.

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Laser Device Zaps Single Cancer Cells

A prototype laser system and microscope creates tiny bursts of light that sear individual cancer cells into oblivion, perhaps opening the way for more thorough surgeries for cancer, epilepsy and other conditions.

"You can remove a cell with high precision in 3-D without damaging the cells above and below it," said mechanical engineering Assistant Professor Adela Ben-Yakar at the University of Texas at Austin. "And you can see, with the same precision, what you are doing to guide your microsurgery."

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Men and Skin Protection

With the waning weeks of summer, this is the time that we’re hitting the pools and beaches strong, trying to catch the last vestiges of the sun. But men, listen up: you don’t worry enough about your skin, according to the latest research. It’s almost like you have to whack it into the brains of men--that they are susceptible, just like everyone else, to skin cancer. Take Todd Bernstein for example. “The first marking actually started with my regular Dr. he saw a mark and said this should be removed, of course I didn’t do anything about it until two years later,” says Todd. Todd’s back at the doctor’s office today, to get his stitches removed following the excision of five highly suspicious--in fact, near borderline-- malignant moles. And he still hasn’t learned! “I do put on the sunscreen, my skin, my body, but I’m always in a rush uh especially when I’m outdoors playing golf so I do the basics, but you know it is nice to be in the sun; it feels good,” states Todd, an avid golfer. Rates of melanomas have increased almost 15-fold over the last 50 years. And that increase has been observed disproportionally in men over 50. The problem: men don’t get screened.

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Nanoparticle Technique Delivers More Medicine to Tumors

Extremely tiny particles, or nanoparticles, can now be loaded with 20 times more cancer drugs than ever before, and the load delivered direct to malignant tissue, avoiding many of the awful side effects of cancer chemotherapy, recent research demonstrated. The study, published online in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, employed a safe, biodegradable polymer, or chain molecule, that had been chemically crafted to disrupt the so-called MARK signaling pathway that's involved in most human cancers.

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Nanoparticles Carrying Deadly Genes Destroy Cancer Cells

For the first time, infinitesimal particles, loaded with anti-tumor genes, have been created that can bypass healthy cells and ferry the genes exclusively into cancer cells, stimulating them to manufacture deadly proteins that cause cell suicide, a recent study showed.
   
This means that the therapy could potentially be used to treat previously hopeless cancer that has spread, or metastasized, to various parts of the body.

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New CT Scan Lung Cancer Screening

If you or someone you love has ever smoked, this is a very important story you must pay attention to. A landmark study has just been released which shows you can detect lung cancer early enough to cure it. Here’s the bottom line: We tell you to go get a colonoscopy to screen for colon cancer, to get a mammogram to screen for breast cancer, to get a pap smear, to get a psa test for prostate cancer. But there’s nothing for lung cancer--the number one cancer killer in america. That is, until now.

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Nicotine-Replacement Aids Help in Quitting Smoking

President Obama’s love-hate affair with cigarettes is emblematic of that of thousands of other smokers in America who would like to quit but who are repeatedly pulled back into tobacco’s orbit by stress and addictive urges.

But with all the aids available to smokers today in terms of counseling and nicotine-replacement therapy, "It’s a great time to quit," according to Michael Fiore, director of the Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention at the University of Wisconsin.

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Obesity and Cancer Risk

The American Cancer Society has released the latest edition of it’s Guidelines on Nutrition and Physical Activity for Cancer Prevention. The publish it every five years, and the emphasis now is on--you guessed it--obesity. Yes, being overweight or obese is a significant cancer risk. This contributes to as much as 20 percent of all cancer related mortality. The list of the cancers to which it’s clearly linked is long: breast, colon, uterine, esophagus, and kidney. It is highly suggestive it is linked to these as well: pancreatic, gallbladder, thyroid, ovarian, cervical, prostate cancer, Hodgkin’s disease, and multiple myeloma. Overall, one third of the more than 500.000 cancer deaths in the U.S. each year can be attributed to diet and excess weight.

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Omega 3 Fatty Acid Shrinks Tumors, Improves Chemotherapy

A common omega-3 fatty acid found in fish oil causes cancerous tissue to shrivel while augmenting the benefits of the anti-cancer drug cisplatin and reducing its harmful side effects, a recent study revealed.
   
The study, carried out by a research team led by A.M. El-Mowafy, of Mansoura University, in Egypt, was published in BioMed Central’s open-access journal Cell Division. The experiments, which were performed on solid tumors in rats, lend one more element of support to evidence showing the health benefits of omega-3 fatty acids.

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Outdoor Secondhand Smoke

Studies reveal the hidden dangers behind outdoor secondhand smoke exposure. A 2006 U.S. Surgeon General's Report claims secondhand smoke kills tens of thousands of people each year, and it has long been claimed that second hand smoke can be dangerous through indoor exposure. However little is known about the risks of outdoor inhalation. Recent research from Stanford University examines how smoking can affect the quality of air at park benches, sidewalk cafes and other public places. Researchers concluded that sitting a few feet downwind of a smoker can leave someone exposed to contaminated fumes that are much more concentrated than normal air pollution levels.

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Ovarian Cancer Risk

Ovarian cancer is the leading cause of death among women with gynecologic cancer in North America, according to the American Cancer society. And new research finds yet another reason why women should make their annual appointments for the gynecologist, and make it to that appointment every year.

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Potential Ovarian Cancer Treatment Seeks Out Tumor Cells

Women suffering from metastatic ovarian cancer could eventually be treated with a radioactive compound capable of seeking out and destroying tumor cells, according to an initial study by the Sahlgrenska Academy. The purpose of this patient study, published in the Journal of Nuclear Medicine, was to study the substance's distribution throughout the body and the presence of side effects in nine women with ovarian cancer.

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Prostate Cancer Detection

There is a brand new tool for detecting prostate cancer that could make a huge difference in reducing the chances a cancer will be missed. The bottom line here is not only will cancers be detected more accurately and be less likely to be missed, but it could make it easier to avoid a complete prostate removal, a big, aggressive surgery. Instead, doctors could use targeted therapies that will just destroy the cancer spots, leaving the rest of the prostate intact. Jan winston had been followed by his doctor for a suspicious psa test, the blood test that is a marker for prostate cancer. That number kept rising. “He had done a previous biopsy that was negative. And then he talked about using this machine, and he found it with the biopsy using this mapping capability,” says Jan. Target scan helps minimize the problem of missed diagnosis on biopsy, particularly as a result of inadequate, inaccurate sampling of prostate tissue. Dr. Samir Taneja, Director of Urologic Oncology at NYU Cancer Center, says, “We’re probably missing about a third of cancers on the first biopsy go round so we believe this machine reduces that miss rate and that is something we would like to test in our upcoming clinical trial.”

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Prostate Greenlight Laser Treatment

“It was a living hell, a living nightmare.” Larry Schwartz is describing the excruciating pain he experienced as a result of an enlarged prostate. Larry who works as an events planner said at times the pain was paralyzing. “I could not pass my urine and I had a blockage,” says Larry.

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Prostate Tests Found to Overdiagnose Cancer

Up to 42 percent of prostate cancers detected by a common blood test might never otherwise have come to light in a man’s lifetime, according to a recent study. And this overdiagnosis of the condition has led to countless unnecessary biopsies, surgeries and radiation treatments, not to mention all of the needless anxiety and stress involved.
   
The study “reinforces the message that we are overdiagnosing prostate cancer,” said the American Cancer Society’s Len Lichtenfeld, who was not part of the recent investigation.

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Robotic Technology Allows Fast-Rebound Hysterectomies

A new robotic technique for performing hysterectomies - the full removal of a woman's ovaries and uterus - produces only a few tiny scars on a woman's abdomen and allows her to leave the hospital in only one or two days. The robosurgery also involves less pain, faster recovery (one to two weeks), quicker return to normal activities, less risk of wound infection and less blood loss. A conventional hysterectomy, on the other hand, is heavily invasive, requiring a 6- to 12-inch incision and four to six weeks of recovery. The hysterectomy is the second-most common surgical procedure in America, with some 600,000 being performed annually.

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Saving Bone Cancer Patients' Limbs

Bone cancer is rare, but up till recently if it was diagnosed in a limb, it almost certainly meant an amputation. But that has changed with the advent of internal prosthetics that can replace the diseased bone. Surgeons can now reconstruct a bone with prosthetics if a malignancy is not wrapped around blood vessels. Dr. James Wittig of New York City's Mt. Sinai Medical Center says that, these days, 95 percent of patients with bone sarcomas, which comprise less than 1 percent of all cancers, can have their limbs saved. But some bone cancer sufferers may still be having amputations due to ignorance of the technology.

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Some Colon Cancers May Be Caused by Diarrheal Bacteria

Bacteria that cause diarrhea may also be the cause of some colon cancers, according to research from John Hopkins University. The investigators believe that strains of the common Bacteroides fragilis (ETBF) trick immune systems cells into allowing runaway colon tissue inflammation - a precursor to malignant tumor growth.

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Summer Sun Safety Tips

Protect your skin from the sun's harmful rays. It's summer again, and for most of us, a lot more sun exposure. Protecting your skin from harmful UVA and UVG rays is essential to preventing skin cancer, and it's not a bad idea if you want to avoid wrinkles, sun spots or other signs of aging. Here are some tips from the Skin Cancer Foundation: See a dermatologist once a year - Just before bathing suit season, is a good time to go. You can get prevention tips; find out your risk factors for skin cancer, and determine whether you need to do monthly self-exams.

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Sun Pill

It’s here: a product that claims to help protect you from sunburn…in pill form. The makers call this the “sun defense breakthrough of the decade.” So is it all that? Does it do what its makers claims it does? Some of the experts with whom we spoke aren'’t so sure. A company called pure pharmaceuticals has started marketing this: it’s called Sunpill. Dr. Perry Robins is a dermatologist who has been featured on the Sunpill website and promotional videos. He says Sunpill increases the amount of time you can stay in the sun without burning. “If it is fifteen minutes or thirty minutes depending on the day and your skin type this will increase it fifty percent so you will be able to go out forty five minutes before you get burned,” Dr. Robins states. The proof of the claim?

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Surrounding Normal Cells Can Influence Tumor Growth

It was once believed that the two cells found within a cancerous breast tumor - rapidly growing malignant cells and the normal cells that surround them - existed independently, without interaction. However, evidence emerged indicating that normal-looking cells encouraged cells within the tumor to become malignant, but how they were influencing each other was not known.


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Symptoms Identified For Ovarian Cancer

The notion that ovarian cancer is a "silent killer" without early warning signs has changed. The Gynecologic Cancer Foundation has announced a national consensus on symptoms for ovarian cancer. Symptoms that women should consider as warning signs include: bloating, pelvic or abdominal pain, difficulty eating or feeling full quickly, and frequent or urgent urination. If women have these symptoms daily over the course of several weeks they should consult with a gynecologist about them, particularly if the symptoms are new or unusual.

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Tumors Soften Up Other Organs to Receive Cancer Cells

In preparing to invade other organs in the body, malignant tumors secrete a chemical that selectively accumulates in distant target tissues, a recent study has shown. This chemical then attracts certain bone-marrow-derived cells that attack connective tissue in the organs, preparing the way for the migrating cancer cells.

"Metastasis is not a passive process," said cancer biologist Amato Giaccia, a professor of radiation oncology at Stanford University and senior author of the research, which was published in the journal Cancer Cell. "Cells don't just break off the primary tumor and lodge someplace else. Instead, the cells actually secrete substances to precondition target tissue and make it more amenable to subsequent invasion."

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Two Markers Found for Prostate-Cancer Deadliness

Investigators have found that men who are or have been overweight or who have high insulin levels are more likely to die from prostate cancer. The discovery of these two predictors is important, because doctors now have two crucial clues as to which patients will develop the most life-threatening tumors and therefore which to treat most aggressively.

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Tylenol and Ovarian Cancer

Could a common over the counter pain reliever be a key to the prevention of ovarian cancer? Last week we heard about the dangers of Tylenol, that it could, even in appropriately prescribed doses, affect the liver. Well, here’s a piece of good news: even very low doses of Tylenol might help prevent ovarian cancer. Ovarian cancer patient Irene Elizabeth Janda says any good news is great. “Just plain and simple this is a disease that is still so very silent. Within a matter of days found I was in advanced stage of ovarian cancer.”

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Viruses Being Used to Fight Cancer

It’s common knowledge that viruses make us sick. But a new, counterintuitive logic is coming into play in the war on cancer, namely, that viruses can also make us well.
   
So far, the results of various genetically engineered virus studies are tentative and are just beginning to progress into dozens of clinical trials. Results in some cases are quite encouraging for these oncolytic, or cancer-destroying, viruses. And some therapies could be ready for physicians’ use in the next two or three years, said Frank McCormick, a cancer researcher at the University of California at San Francisco.

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Vitamin D Improves Bowel and Skin Cancer Survival

Higher levels of vitamin D may help improve survival for both skin and bowel cancer patients, according to research published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. The first study followed over 1000 bowel cancer patients for around nine years. Using information gained about sunlight exposure, skin type, body-mass index, and vitamin D intake from food and supplements, researchers estimated the amount of vitamin D in patients' blood at the time of diagnosis.


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Vitamin D and Calcium Associated With Reduced Breast Cancer Risk

Calcium & Vitamin D intake may lower Breast Cancer risk You already knew that calcium and Vitamin D are important for health. But a new study by a team of researchers at Harvard Medical Center suggests that pre-menopausal women who get those nutrients either from foods or supplements are less likely to develop breast cancer. It has also long been thought that vitamin D and Calcium may protect against colon cancer.

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Weight Gain in Postmenopausal Woman and the Risk of Breast Cancer

Well, if you need a reason to lose weight and get into shape, here is a new motivation in the form of a health warning for women: being overweight increases one’s risk of developing breast cancer. The latest study, in the journal of the American medical association, shows that women who gain weight, especially after the menopause, are at a higher risk of breast cancer. Women who gained about 55 pounds or more since age 18 were at a 45 percent increased risk of breast cancer, compared with those who maintained their weight. Women who gained about 22 pounds or more since menopause were at an 18 percent increased risk of breast cancer. But weight loss after menopause lowers circulating estrogen hormones in women, and because estrogen is directly related to breast cancer, weight loss is thought to decrease risk of the disease.

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What is the Polypill?

Dr. Valentin Fuster discusses the Polypill. The Polypill is being developed in response to an important reality surrounding cardiovascular disease. There are three important drugs that can help prevent heart disease (statins, ACE inhibitors, and aspirin). These drugs are not taken for two major reasons. First, the drugs are simply too expensive for much of the world, including countries as developed as Russia. And secondly, in developed nations where the drugs are affordable patients too often fail to comply - after three years 70% of patients do not take the medications as prescribed.

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Your First Visit

By Tauseef Ahmed, MD, FACP Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Division of Oncology / Hematology at New York Medical College Your tests have come back. The news is not good and your doctor refers you to a specialist. Oncologist, Orthopedist, Neurologist, each one trusted by your doctor, each one trained to help you, whatever your problem might be. Each one can and should be helped by you. Here are a few tips to help your caregiver help you:

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