With the advent of the PSA (Prostate Specific Antigen) blood test two decades ago, the screening for and detecting of prostate cancer in the United States has been revolutionized. 

Introduction

PSA is a protein manufactured in the prostate. There is an association between the PSA level and the likelihood of the man having prostate cancer.

Previously, the only screening test for prostate cancer was a digital rectal exam.  That meant a physician inserted his or her gloved finger into the man’s rectum to determine if he or she felt any lumps or bumps in the prostate gland. By that point, the cancer was relatively far advanced. Fortunately, PSA blood tests can detect a prostate malignancy at a much earlier stage. This is known as a stage shift.  Complete Article

Scientists from UCLA say that by modifying the typical Western diet to include more fish and less red meat could reduce the prostate cancer growth rate.  The diet requires eating more omega-3 and less omega-6 fatty acids.  This is the first study to show the impact of diet on lowering an inflammatory response known to promote prostate cancer tumor progression.

They believe this finding may lead to a new treatment or aid in the treatment of prostate cancer.  Omega-6 acids come from corn, safflower oils and red meats which are the predominantly the source of polyunsaturated fatty acids in the Western diet.  The omega-3 acids come primarily from cold-water fish like salmon, tuna and sardines.  Complete Article

New research shows that AstraZeneca’s new breast cancer drug, Arimidex, is better tolerated than tamoxifen, the current gold standard treatment.   The study found that significantly fewer patients in the Arimidex groups had adverse side effects related to their treatment or that caused them to withdraw from treatment.

Reuters reported that Arimidex also had a significantly better risk-benefit profile, taking into account both the chance that patients would have a recurrence of breast cancer and any side effects.

PRnewswire reports that an international panel of breast cancer specialists confirmed value of aromatase inhibitors (AI) such as Arimdex (anastrozole) as a treatment of hormone receptor-positive early breast cancer in postmenopausal women.  Complete Article

Two important findings may help doctors treat cancer.  The first comes from Boston where scientists say that extracts from a mushroom can boost the power of a leading chemotherapy drug used for prostate cancer.  The mushrooms are the same ones used by East Asians for medicine for centuries.

Dr. Chang-Yan Chen said “This species of mushroom has been reported to have some degree of activity in cancer patients. Our aim was to study what effect, if any, extracts of Phellinus linteus have, but we also need to know precisely how it produces these effects.”  Chen is the lead researcher and a doctor at the Boston University School of Medicine in Massachusetts.  Complete Article

A new line of cancer killing drugs is being offered for sale in Britain today.  The so called “SMART” drug attacks tumors by starving them of nutrients and inhibiting the enzyme that signals cells to multiply.  The two-front approach may be better than the single approach now offered by the extremely successful drug Glivec. 

The UK based news agency, Times Online, says that the news drug, Sutent, is “one of the latest three Glivec-like drugs that are at various stages of development, and which cancer specialists expect to prove useful in treating different kinds of tumours.”  Complete Article

Scientists at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center’s Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute in Los Angeles say that a key ingredient found in the Giant Yellow Israeli scorpion, TM-601, can transport radioactive iodine to cancerous glioma cells in the brain.   A Phase I study has been concluded using a synthetic version of the peptide which is found in this scorpion’s venom.

Glioma is an extremely aggressive and deadly form of brain cancer. TM-601 binds to glioma cells and has the unusual ability to pass through the blood-brain barrier that blocks most substances from reaching brain tissue from the bloodstream.  Complete Article

Scientists at Johns Hopkins believe that body heat is the reason why people with testicular cancer have a survival rate far better than patients with other advanced cancers.  Cancers that form in the testicles may do so because they are heat sensitive.  Seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong survived the cancer even after it spread to his lungs and brain.

When the cancer cells spreads to the rest of the body, they may be prone to the increased temperature, making them easier to treat.  The Hopkins researchers say that the temperature boost may have weakened a protein scaffolding within the cancer cell’s nucleus, making the nuclear DNA more vulnerable to chemotherapy and radiation.  Complete Article

An interesting study on mice has shown that stress can cause tumors to grow more quickly, and the effect can be blocked by a medication commonly prescribed for heart disease.  Dr. Anil Sood said "This study provides a new understanding of how chronic stress and stress factors drive tumor growth."  Sood is an associate professor of gynecologic oncology and cancer biology and director of ovarian cancer research.

When the researchers blocked the stress hormone receptors using the heart disease drug propronolol (a beta-blocker) in the mice, they were able to stop the negative effects of the stress on tumor growth. The researchers chose beta blockers because the same hormone receptors, called beta adrenergic receptors, are found in the heart and normally work to maintain blood flow.  Complete Article

Researchers in the U.S. and Canada say that most women, even when they are at a very high risk for breast cancer, can not increase their life expectancy by taking the cancer drug tamoxifen.  Tamoxifen was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 1998 for breast cancer prevention in women who have at least a 1.67-percent chance of developing the disease over the next five years.

The prevention strategy is expensive, according to the researchers.  It costs $1.3 million per year for each life saved.  Joy Melnikow said, "We found that for women at the lower end of the high-risk range for developing breast cancer, there is a very small likelihood that taking tamoxifen will reduce mortality.  This would support revising the current recommended risk threshold for physicians to counsel women about tamoxifen."  Joy is the lead author of the study and professor of family and community medicine at UC Davis School of Medicine and Medical Center.  Complete Article

New drugs used to treat leukemia, including Gleevec, may cause serious heart damage, according to U.S. researchers.  The researchers say that people taking the medication should continue to take it, but should also be closely monitored for heart damage.

The researchers from Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, University of Texas released the caution of Sunday, after they found evidence that treatment caused heart failure in 10 patients.  They say that people taking other drugs in the same class, called tyrosine kinase inhibitors, may also be at risk for heart damage.

The drugs have been very successful in treating chronic myelogenous leukemia or CML, in most patients. They have found that 80 to 90 percent of the patients taking the drug were cancer free for at least five years.  The drugs have also been successful in treating a rare form of stomach cancer called gastrointestinal stromal tumors or GIST.  Complete Article

Researchers have found that 57% of lung cancer patients that undergo thermal ablation survived three years, which is two years longer than the average life expectancy.  The candidates selected for the thermal (heat) treatment were not surgical candidates according to the oncology team which consisted of a pulmonologist, medical oncologist, radiation oncologist and thoracic surgeon.

The treatment involves guiding a needle through the skin into the tumor.  Energy is then applied to the tip of the needle to “cook” and kill the tumor.  The surgeons say the tumors is killed with heat or they can “freeze” it with cold.

The purpose of the study was to assess the clinical outcomes of patients with early-stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).  The thermal ablation (ablation means removal of unwanted tissue) was combined with radiotherapy.  They found that this combination therapy may result in an improved survival over other treatments alone.  Complete Article

Scientists from the Jefferson Medical College and Jefferson’s Kimmel Cancer Center believe that they have found a protein called proepithelin that helps aid in the spread of bladder cancer.  The study was first reported in the July 15^th issue of Cancer Research.

"The fact that proepithelin doesn't appear to strongly promote cell proliferation, but instead promotes migration and invasion – two crucial steps leading to metastasis – suggests that it could be critical for the passage of a cancer from a noninvasive to an invasive phenotype," said Andrea Morrione, Ph.D., research assistant professor of urology at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University and Jefferson's Kimmel Cancer Center in Philadelphia. Complete Article

A new blood test can detect non-small cell lung cancer long before it can be detected by an X-ray or computed tomography (CT) scans.  When tested on people being treated for lung cancer, they have been successful in positively identifying 90 percent of cases.  There have been very few false positive cases when samples were taken from people who did not have cancer.

Early detection of non-small cell lung cancer is important because the average five-year survival rate of only 40 per cent.  Early detection may save lives. This is the first new cancer blood screening test since the development of the prostate cancer PSA screening test.  Complete Article

For the past several years, Lilly Pharmaceuticals and the National Cancer Institute have been conducting a head to head trial called STAR, comparing raloxifene (Evista) to Tamoxifen (Nolvadex) to see if one was better than the other at lowering the risk of breast cancer in high risk women.

As expected, both drugs yielded a strong benefit in lowering the risk of invasive breast in the women studied. Raloxifene appeared to be superior to tamoxifen because it provided equal protection against breast cancer while resulting in slightly fewer cases of endometrial cancer, serious blood clots, and cataracts; although, these differences were not large and may have been due to chance. Nevertheless, the results of this trial were sensationalized and made headlines. Complete Article

Greek researchers say that regular use of Tylenol (acetaminophen or paracetamol) could reduce the risk of ovarian cancer by almost a third.  The meta-analysis included more than 746,000 women over a six-year period.  They found that 4,405 of the women in the eight major studies – from the USA, UK and Denmark – had ovarian cancer.

They looked at all of the studies that included paracetamol and ovarian cancer from 1966 to 2004.  Dr Stefanos Bonovas said “Meta-analysis involves doing a large amount of research into what has been published, summarising the results and combining them using statistical methods. Analyzing a wide range studies can often throw new light on a problem and raise new research questions.”  Bonovas is the lead researcher from the Greek Ministry of Health.

Cancer Treatments - New Tests Helps to Determine the Effectiveness of Targeted Cancer Drugs

Researchers say that a drug used to treat narcolepsy, modafinil, (Provigil), has shown promise in relieving symptoms of fatigue in patients with brain tumors.  These improvements have been shown to be “clinically meaningful” in all areas tested including cognitive abilities (21 percent average improvement), mood (35 percent average improvement) and fatigue (average improvement of 47 percent improvement).

The drugs have already been used to help treat depression and fatigue in patients suffering from with multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, stroke, cocaine addiction, HIV infection, and narcolepsy, a condition that causes spontaneous, sometimes unexpected sleep.  New Brain Tumor Treatment Involves Scorpion Venom – New Narcolepsy Drug used to Ease Fatigue and Depression in Cancer Patients 

Researchers at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center believe yoga, as part of a treatment plan for cancer patients, can improve the quality of life.  Lorenzo Cohen, Ph.D., associate professor and director of the Integrative Medicine Program at M. D. Anderson presented their findings at the 42nd annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

The research included sixty-one women with breast cancer undergoing radiation.  They were randomized and some took yoga classes twice weekly at or around the time of their radiation therapy appointments.  They created a control group that was “to be offered yoga post-treatment.” The patients ranged from Stage 0 to Stage 3.

The researchers found that after just one week of yoga and radiation, the patients reported increased physical function, as well as general health, compared to the control group.  Also, this group reported better social functioning, significantly lower levels of sleep-related daytime dysfunction, as well as marginally lower levels of fatigue overall.  There was no difference in depression or anxiety levels between the two groups. Yoga Improves Quality of Life For Radiation Therapy Patients - Exercise Program Planned for Breast Cancer Chemotherapy - Study

Tykerb, a new drug produced by GlazoSmithKline (GSK), is showing promise in treating breast cancer where Herceptin fails to respond.  Tykerb is a pill that can be taken orally, compared to other chemotherapy drugs which must be injection.  It is also a smaller molecule and can pass through the blood brain barrier to attack breast cancer that has spread to the brain.

According to the researchers, 62 percent of women with HER2 IBC cancers had a clinical response to Tykerb. The women in the study had aggressive HER2 type of breast cancer, and had already taken other drugs until they failed to respond to treatment.  These other drugs included Roche Holding AG's and Genentech Inc's top-selling Herceptin.  New Breast Cancer Treatment Tykerb Pill Competes Against Herceptin - GlazoSmithKline GSK Product Passes Blood Brain Barrier - Low Heart Risk

Patients with breast cancer that overexpress a protein known as the human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER2), can improve their chance of survival by combining Herceptin® (trastuzumab) and Arimidex® (anastrozole), compared to Arimidex alone.  Currently Herceptin is approved for as initial therapy in addition to the chemotherapy agent Taxol® (paclitaxel) in advanced, HER2-positive breast cancer.  Herceptin is also approved as a single agent in patients where breast cancer has progressed following a prior therapy.

In about 30% of the breast cancers, the HER2 protein is overexpressed.  These cases typically have a worse prognosis than women with HER2-negative breast cancer.  According to Roche, the maker of Herceptin, the targeted agent Herceptin binds to HER2 receptors and prevents or reduces replication of cancer cells that overexpress HER2.  Herceptin Improved Treatment For Both Early Stage And Advanced HER2 Positive Breast Cancer - Also Combined With Chemotherapy

Several years ago, Wyeth developed a wesbite called menopausehealth.com as part of an "educational" campaign for women entitled VITALITY: HEALTH AND WELLNESS FOR MIDLIFE AND BEYOND. It piggy-backed off of the ubiquitous TV and print ads featuring Lauren Hutton touting hormone replacement as a longterm therapy for feeling and looking good and for maintaining health. The wesbite didn't outright state that estrogen prevented all of these diseases, just that the evidence was mounting that estrogen LOSS caused all of them and that the small increased risk of breast cancer associated with HRT (which paid breast specialist Michele Blackwood said might not even exist) would, at worst, be mitigated by the reductions in heart disease, colon cancer, Alzheimer's, bone loss, tooth loss, you name it!  A new wesbite launched by Wyeth called knowmenopause.com

Zafira Castaño who is a researcher and Doctor in Biochemistry from the University of Navarra in Spain, discovered a connection between lower levels of αCP4 protein in early stages of lung cancer help tumor growth.

Castaño noticed that these αCP4 protein cells are found on tissue cells within a healthy lung.  However in a lung that was in first phase of cancer there was a loss of this protein.  The αCP4 protein was also lacking in 67% of the tumors as well.

To confirm the findings Castaño took samples of various cellular lines from different kinds of lung tumors.  She then introduced a series of the αCP4 protein to the tumor tissues to see what would result.  Some of the tumors responded to the introduction of the protein.  Tumor proliferations were reduced with malignant tumors of large cells she noticed that their ability to grow was reduced.   Lung Cancer – Tumor growth increases with loss of a Protein

In 1999 an unexpected event occurred when scientists injected cancer cells into a group of mice; one mouse did not get the cancer.  Even after repeated injections the mouse did not get any type of cancer.  It appears the white blood cells from the mouse surrounded tumors and proceeded to kill them, even in advanced forms of cancer.

Not only did the white blood cells kill the cancer in the original mouse, they were able to kill advanced forms of cancer in ordinary mice after injecting them with the white blood cells.  According to Zheng Cui, M.D, “Even highly aggressive forms of malignancy with extremely large tumors were eradicated."  Cui and his colleagues reported this in the on-line edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The Mouse That Cured Cancer – White Blood Cells from Resistant Mice Also Prevented All Forms – One Injection Lifetime Cure - Next Humans

According to a research study from the University of California, Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory air fresheners and cleaning chemicals used indoors could be bad for your health.

When used indoors in a small space, commonly used household cleaners and air fresheners emit toxic pollutants, which are sometimes at dangerous levels and could lead to health problems.

The pollutants along with the secondary pollutants that are formed when mixed with the ozone might exceed regulatory guidelines if used in a small room while cleaning a large surface area on a regular basis.  Chronic exposure increases the toxic exposure and the health risks.

The study researched the amounts of primary and secondary toxic compounds created in with a variety of different cleaning and air freshener chemicals in an indoor setting, to determine any potential hazards of using these products.  Air Fresheners and Cleaning Chemicals could have Health Risks

Botox also known as botulinum toxin A may have a new treatment to help relieve the symptoms of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) also known as enlarged prostate.  Botox which is known to be used in cosmetic procedures to remove wrinkles also helps in treating other conditions.  This new study using the toxin for enlarged prostate may add to Botox’s list of treatments. 

Researchers from the Chang Gung University Medical College, Taiwan and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine completed a study that injected Botox into the men that have an enlarged prostate gland.  They will present their results at the American Urological Association (AUA) and will be published in the AUA proceedings (abstract 1436).  Enlarged Prostate – Botox may help relieve Symptoms of BPH

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) found benzene, a known carcinogen for humans, in several soft drinks.  The FDA says the levels are higher than 5 parts per billion, which is the limit the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) allows for drinking water. 

The FDA said that “although one sample from a production lot may contain elevated benzene levels, it does not mean that all the products from that lot will have elevated levels, or that all lots of a given product will contain elevated levels."

The companies involved have been notified and have reformulated their drinks or plan to comply with EPA standards. According to Forbes reporter, Andrew Bridges, benzene is linked to leukemia and can form in soft drinks containing two ingredients: Vitamin C, also called ascorbic acid, and either of the two preservatives: sodium benzoate and potassium benzoate.  Benzene Found in 5 Soft Drinks - FDA Tested 100 Sodas - Exceeds EPA Levels of Cancer Causing Ingredients - List of Beverages

Researchers from The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC-James) found that a derived form of vitamin E can cause cancer cells to die.  The study was first published in the April 28^th issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

Vitamin E succinate also known as alpha tocopheryl succinate which is available in supplement form is often taken due to the antioxidant benefits.  There has been some previous research that has shown a slight ability to kill cancer cells when taking this supplement.  Vitamin E succinate has been considered a chemopreventive agent.

The method the cancer cells are killed is through a natural process called apoptosis which is a programmed cell death.  The researchers wanted to further understand why the vitamin E succinate was capable of killing cancer cells.  Cancer – Killing cancer cells with a modified Vitamin E Succinate

A U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panel recommended approval (13 to 0 vote) of the first vaccine to fight cancer.  The vaccine, Gardisil (quadrivalent human papillomavirus types 6, 11, 16, 18, recombinant vaccine), is a vaccine that can be used against the human papilloma virus (HPV) which has been linked to cervical cancer.  The FDA is not required to follow the advice of its panels, but they usually do.  A decision on approval by the FDA is expected by June 8.

Gardisil, manufactured by Merck, is a vaccine that is most effective in women before they become sexually active.  It is hoped the vaccine will help prevent hundreds of thousands of women from dying worldwide of cervical cancer.  According to the University of Alabama at Birmingham, it is estimated that 450,000 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer annually and 200,000 women die each year from the disease.  Other sources say the number of deaths might be as high as 300,000 per year.  In the U.S. approximately 12,000 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer, resulting in 4,500 deaths each year.  Gardisil HPV Vaccine Approved By FDA Panel - May Prevent Cervical Cancer - Approval Could Prevent Most Common Sexual Virus

Researchers have discovered that tanning can be addictive, just like drugs and alcohol.  Last year scientists compared frequent tanners and found that tanners that were given the drug naltrexone had withdraw symptoms, but those who got the drug did.  Naltexone blocks a narcotic-like substance produced in the skin during tanning. 

According to Daniel DeNoon of WebMD, the researchers found that a 50-milligram dose of naltrexone could cause physiological withdrawal: nausea, dizziness, and shaking.  This prompted the researchers to stop the study early.  Mandeep Kaur, MD said "In the beginning, we gave standard 50-milligram doses of naltrexone to frequent tanners.  All of them developed symptoms consistent with <withdraw>. So we had to stop that study."  Kaur is a dermatologist at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center.  Addiction to Tanning Physiological Not Just Mental - Tanners Becoming Younger - Good Morning America Segment Highlights Dangers

Two studies highlight the benefits of exercise, including lower risks of skin cancer and bowel cancer.  In the first study, published in the journal Carcinogenesis, exposed female mice to ultraviolet B light (UVB).  The researchers found that the mice that had 24-hour access to running wheels took longer to develop skin tumors and had fewer of them.  The tumors were also smaller in the mice that were exercising. 

Scientists believe that programmed cell death, called apoptosis, can be triggered by exercise.  The problem with cancer cells is that they do not die like normal cells. Dr. Allan Conney said “Preliminary indications from follow-up work in the laboratory suggest that voluntary exercise enhances UVB-induced apoptosis in the skin, and that it also enhances apoptosis in UVB-induced tumors. So, although UVB is triggering the development of tumors, exercise is counteracting the effect by stimulating the death of the developing cancer cells.”  Dr. Conney is Garbe professor of Cancer and Leukemia Research.  Exercise Prevents Cancer By Promoting Cell Death - Both Skin and Bowel Cancer Studies Show Voluntary Workouts Reduce Risk

According to a report on the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine website, consuming too much dairy and meat may increase a man’s risk for developing prostate cancer.

They have assembled a collection of studies that show possible clues as to why the dairy and meat may have contributed to the increased risk for prostate cancer in men. 

They believe that the risk is higher is due to the saturated fat levels among other factors.  In the American diet we consume way too much saturated fat in relationship to the unsaturated fat.  This dietary imbalance could be a large contributing factor.  Prostate Cancer – Consuming excess Milk and Meat may Increase Risk

The Nurses' Health Study (NHS) is an ongoing longterm cohort study examining the health of nurses compared to the general population. It is an observational study that, while interesting, falls short of the precision of a randomized clinical trial. The study, nevertheless, is important because it has prompted further research.

In the NHS, HRT use (either estrogen alone or estrogen/progestin) has been examined among these women for its potential effects on disease outcomes. As many know, it found lower rates of heart disease among hormon