 |
 |
|
Today is Thursday, August 28, 2008 |
|
|
When this edition of Words To Live By was originally published, the links below opened active web pages. |
|
News Headlines
Bone Loss
Prevented by Risedronate in Breast Cancer Survivors Coping with Cancer During Disaster Midwest flooding has displaced hundreds of thousands of people, some of them cancer patients in active treatment. Dr. George Weiner of the Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Iowa tells cancerpage the disruption will be different than what occurred after hurricanes Katrina and Ruth when there was widespread and long-term displacement of thousands of people. For instance, the Medical Center at the University of Iowa is fully operational and the flood waters are begining to receded. But many patients who were getting care have lost homes and businesses. Efforts are underway now to extend help to those patients - details will be announced by the American Cancer Society and Lance Armstrong Foundation in coming days. Check back with cancerpage for more information. If you are in active treatment, you can never be too prepared. For more information about getting your ducks in a row, in advance of disaster, go to the Coping with Cancer During a Disaster area of cancerpage for check lists and other helpful information and tips. Warning - Fake Cancer Cures The Food and Drug Administration has teamed up with the Federal Trade Commission and other agencies to crack down on those who would take advantage of cancer patients and their families by hawking the false promise of cures. Warning letters have been sent and materials have been published to spread the word about the bogus products being sold online. List of
bogus cancer cures and links Laughter for Life
Incredible Pluck "I like the feeling I get when my body is working
well." That's what 34-year-old Dov Siporin told the Salt Lake City Tribune
in describing why, with a break in chemo and radiation treatments for colon
cancer, he's participating this weekend in the 178-mile Ragnar Relay Wasatch Back.
Siporin was diagnosed in January with metastatic colon cancer and has continued to
train throughout treatment. "I'm just stubborn as hell," he told the newspaper in talking about the daunting task ahead
this weekend. Read
about his story here. Doctors Turn the Table Insurance companies often often rate doctors on
performance. Now the American Medical Association has released a report card on how some of the
nation’s biggest insurance companies perform in paying doctors for the services
they provide patients. "Billions of dollars in administrative waste would be eliminated every year if third party-payers
sent a timely, accurate and specific response to each physician claim," the AMA says in its report.
You can read a news article about the report here.
In The Lab In Seattle, researchers at the Fred Hutchison
Cancer Research Center say they've successfully sent as case of advanced
melanoma into remission by injecting a patient with a large number of his own
cloned immune cells. The case was reported this week in the New England
Journal of Medicine. The researchers caution this is only one patient and
the results will have to be duplicated in a large study to have wider
significance, but the results are encouraging that cancer may be controlled
without radiation or chemotherapy. Read more about the research
here. Researchers at MIT believe they’ve stumbled on a drug that
will be as effective against colorectal cancer as oxaliplatin (approved in 2004) but
with far fewer side effects. The experimental agent, cDPCP, kills cancer cells in
the same way but it needs a helper cell to do the job. That helper cell is found
in abundance in the colon but not elsewhere in the body. Tests are now proceeding
in mice. Read more about the research
here.
A Brazilian researcher reported in San Francisco this week that weight-loss after stomach-stapling surgery
could help reduce the risk of infection and cancer in morbidly obese people. Alfredo Halpern,
PhD., of the University of São Paulo, Brazil measured the activity of natural killer cells in the
blood of 38 patients who had had gastric bypass (Roux-en-Y) surgery. He said the cells were more active suggesting more
effective immune activity and possibly the ability to fight cancer. Read more about the research
here. |
|
The weekly cancerpage.com newsletter,
Words To Live By, is intended for educational purposes only.
|
![[close window]](/images/buttons/close.gif)