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July
10, 2009
News
Headlines
Bevacizumab May Improve Hearing Loss in Neurofibromatosis
Americans Doubt Own Insurance Plan Will Cover Cancer
More Breast Cancer Patients Can Benefit from Adjuvant Endocrine Therapy
Sanofi's Lantus Linked To Cancer: What is Known?
Diet, Smoking, Exercise Key in Colon Cancer Risk
Blacks Only Face Survival Gap With Some Cancers
Value of Prostate Cancer Screening Still Unproven: Report
Obesity and Smoking Tied to Myelodysplastic Syndromes
Conflicts of Interest Common in Cancer Research
First Drug Approved for Maintenance Therapy in Lung Cancer
Cancerpage news is updated daily, Monday
through Friday, and on the weekends as
warranted. More than 37 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.)
Need Help Paying for
Neulasta?
Amgen might help. It has launched a program for
low-income patients with commerical health
insurance policies who need help paying for Neulasta
prescriptions during chemo (BEFORE DECEMBER 31, 2009). In the form of
a card issued in the name of the Neulasta FIRST STEP program, the
card covers all co-payments or co-insurance during
the first treatment cycle. During all subsequent cycles, the card picks up costs
over $50 per cycle. There is some fine print (for instance, your health care
provider must also participate) and information for patients who don't have
commerical insurance. To find out more - go to the Neulasta First
Step web site Frequently Asked Questions page. SEE IF YOU
QUALIFY.
Neulasta (pegfilgrastim)
is prescribed to boost the production of white blood cells (WBC) that fight
infection when chemo supresses the bone marrow's natural production of those
infection-fighting cells.
Living Well After
Cancer
It's not news any more - the ranks of cancer survivors
are growing. Advances in screening, treatment, and maintenance therapies are
given much of the credit. Health professionals are beginning to recognize the special
needs and concerns of this growing community - now more than 10 million
strong in America alone. The first thing a survivor has to do is be extra
vigilant about thier own health. Keeping an eye on potential late effects of their treatment
or their cancer is a first step. Ask your
doctor what YOUR risks are.
Areas that a survivor migth ask about include:
- heart, thyroid and bone density
- fertility
- intimacy and sexuality concerns
- genetic riskl of cancer amonag siblings and
children
- risk of developing another cancer
- quality of life issues
Planning for Life After Cancer - Guide for Teens
and Young Adults
- PDF guide from the Lance Armstrong Foundation
You can see the
entire series of brochures.. including brochures in various languages and written
for a wide range of cultures, here
. You can download PDF copies or order them for FREE.
Finasteride as PC
Preventive Re-Examined.
Finasteride as a prostate cancer preventive for high
risk men? New examination of an old study concludes - Yes. There
had been concerns that finasteride might raise the risk of aggressive prostate
cancer.. but a new analysis of the old data, published July 7th
in Clinical Cancer Research , concludes that using
finasteride as a preventive
only makes the existing
aggressive cancers easier to detect and does not contribute to their
growth. Read more about the new Stanford School of Medicine
analysis here
.
In the Lab/In the
Clinic
Researchers at Virginia Tech have discovered a way to put
buckeyballs (fullerenes) to work against cancer. Buckeyballs are carbon molecules that are hollow
in the middle. The empty middle can be filled with an imaging agent or,
perhaps in the future, cancer therapy. Since the outside shell is
carbon, it can be more accurately moved to its intended target. So
far the research has only been performed in rats' brains but the buckeyball nanoparticles have proved superior to
existing imaging agents. Read more about the work here
.
The MET gene is a nasty little cancer agent. It's been implicated in
colorectal, treatment-resistant lung cancer, autism, gastric cancer, and
now a particularly aggressive and hard to treat form of breast cancer -
basal breast cancer. Researchers at Michigan's Van Andel Research
Institute have concluded MET could be a good target or future cancer drug
development. While the Met gene is found in a majority of breast cancers,
levels were highest in the hardest to treat basal breast cancers, said George
Vande Woude, Ph.D., who heads the laboratory that conducted the research. Read more here
.
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