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May 15,
2009
News
Headlines
Inactivated Virus Induces Apoptosis in
Androgen-Resistant Prostate Cancer Cells
Diet, Exercise Slow Functional Decline in
Older Cancer Survivors
Standard
Chemotherapy Effective in Elderly Women with Early Breast Cancer
Formaldehyde Raises Risk of Deadly Cancers:
Study
Spouses Worry More Than
Prostate Cancer Patients
Carbon Ion
Radiotherapy Effective for Skull Base Tumors
Cancerpage news is updated daily, Monday
through Friday, and on the weekends as
warranted. More than 18 new
articles have been added to cancerpage news since the last newsletter.
To see ALL the latest stories, go to the
cancerpage.com search page and click on Submit (but
leave search field black.)
Cancer Survivor Care
Plan
Build your own
Care Plan
with the help of the the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of
Pennsylvania following hard work led by Carolyn Vachani, RN, MSN, AOCN, to make a
"cancer survivorship care plan building tool" online. After answering questions
about your gender, age, cancer site, treatment, etc. you are offered guidelines
for followup. If you try to fool the tool with answers that don't make
clinical sense, the tool will not move forward to the next step. Check it out for yourself.
It's free and it's available En Espanol, too . When
you're done, you can print your plan in .PDF form.
Medicare Says NO To Virtual Colonoscopy
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
this week decided to withdraw coverage of virtual colonoscopies because the
science hasn't shown that the technique is better at detecting colon polyps
in people aged 65 years old and older. Virtual Colonoscopies use Xray images
and computer software to visualize a patient's colon rather than a camera
on the end of a scope to see polyps. The American Cancer Society recommends the
virtual colonoscopy as an alternative to the conventional colonoscopy.
Read about the ruling here
.
Breast Cancer at Age
10
"Ten years old but fighting
a grown-up battle" is the way one newspaper reports it.
California 5th grader Hannah Powell Auslam was diagnosed with breast cancer
after her Mom found a lump in the child's left breast in March. Pediatric
oncologists don't have must experience with breast cancer but the family found a
doctor at the UCLA Medical Center. Read more about Hannah's story at the above
link or here.
You can see a video report here.
In the Lab/In the
Clinic
Ginger may help further reduce nausea for
people undergoing chemotherapy who are also taking
antiemetic drugs. The results of a large study are
to be reported at the annual American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in Orlando May 30th. Results
were released Thursday in advance of the meeting. Taken
daily, ginger supplements were found to to be "an
effective tool" in reducting nausea and improving the quality of life
for chemo patients. The incoming president of ASCO, Dr. Douglas W. Blayney, told
reporters the study was interesting and rigorous. "It's an important step
forward in improving the quality of care for the 70%
of patients who undergo chemotherapy and experience nausea and vomitting," he said. Patients were given
.5 or 1.0 grams of ginger in
capsule form. The researcher, Julie Ryan, PhD, MPH, assistant professor of dermatology and radiation oncology at the University of Rochester, said
theoretically, ginger in food should also work as long as it's real ginger and not just ginger flavoring, but that would have to be tested.
The randomized trial used supplements. In other news from the lab, British researchers have validated
an Oncotype DX test to help predict the risk of colon
cancer's recurrence. The test can help
doctors tailor treatment after surgery. A separate 21-gene version of the Oncotype DX test
is already available for breast cancer patients. The new version for patients with colon cancer could be available starting in 2010, Dr. David Kerr, professor
of cancer medicine at the University of Oxford, said. The results will be reported in Orlando May 30th.
Specter Cancer Web Site Raises Eyebrows
After questions were raised about the Specter for the
Cure web site, changes were made in
the site's content last weekend to make its purpose clearer - it is
a fundraising site for Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter (a two time
cancer survivor and strong advocate of cancer research finding) but not a web
site raising funds for cancer research. The liberal web site Talking
Points Memo
originally brought attention to what some considered the site's potentially
misleading
pitch.
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