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July
17, 2009
News
Headlines
Capsule Endoscopy Lacks Sensitivity of Colonoscopy
World's Oldest Mother Dies at Age 70: Report
New Heart Disease Test Could Add to Cancer Toll
Hormone Replacement Therapy Tied to Ovarian Cancer
Higher Breast Cancer Risk in Obese Diabetic Premenopausal Women
Risks from Colonoscopy in Elderly Increase with Age, Comorbidities
Roche's Tarceva Extends Lung Cancer Survival
Heavy Drinking May Boost Prostate Cancer Risk
Cancerpage news is updated daily, Monday
through Friday, and on the weekends as warranted. More than 31 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.)
Drug-Food
Interactions
Did you know that eating some foods with some medications
can have an effect on how those medications work? For instance, eating
chocolate with the antidepressants Nardil (phenelzine) or Parnate (tranylcypromine) could
be dangerous. Grapefruit juice can heighten the
effects of a drug. Some cancer researchers have written that these interactions could
be used to good effect not only to enhance treatment but also to save money. The
topic is discussed in an article on
cancerpage here.
Here's more from the FDA about how to identify and
limit food/drug interactions
.
Financial Aid for Cancer
Patients
Sky-rocketing costs of health
care are a major driving force behind health care reform. Leading the
way are the costs of many of the newly developed treatments that
have revolutionized cancer care. The Cancer Financial Assistance
Coalition (CFAC) has established a centralized web site
( www.cancerfac.org ) to help patients who
need it find financial assistance. The CFAC is a coalition of cancer
organizations including the American Cancer Society, Cancer Care, the Leukemia
and Lymphoma Society, Healthwell Foundation, National Brain Tumor
Foundation, and more.
Black Box
Warnings
Warnings have been added to two
smoking cessation drugs - Chantix and Zyban. Both drugs have been associated
with increased risk of neuropsychiatric symptoms. Read
the FDA Safety Advisory here.
Protecting
Fertility A scientific advance funded by the National Institutes of
Health may eventually expand options available to women who
want to have children in the future but face fertility-ending cancer
treatments. Scientists have, for the first time, successfully, grown
undeveloped eggs outside the body to near maturity. This is only the
first of three necessary steps. Read
more here. Young women should discuss fertility
options as part of their overall treatment options. A recent survey of oncologists
found that few follow the American Society of Clinical
Oncology guidelines about discussing fertility issues with their cancer
patients. More information about fertility and cancer can be found at www.Fertilehope.org
Be Wary of Fake Health
News on
Internet
The Association of
Health Care Journalists (AHCJ) raised an alarm
last week about the rise of fake news sites pushing scams
and drugs online. True, a close look at the fine print shows that the sites ARE
really advertisements but the site design can are good at obscuring
that fact. Check out this
example. The site comes with local temp. and doppler
radar, some ABC news footage. Looks just like a local TV station web
site, right? WRONG! It's an advertisement. Here's more from AHCJ with
links to other examples.
In the Lab/In the
Clinic
Brachytherapy not enough for aggressive prostate cancer.
That's the conclusions by researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital who
compared mortality rates in men diagnosed with high risk prostate cancer treated
(through random selection) with brachytherapy (also called seed therapy)
alone or brachytherapy with hormone therapy or external beam radiation
therapy. The results are to be published in an upcoming issue of the
Journal of Clinical Oncology. Read
more about the research here. Researchers at Northwestern University have
discovered a vulnerability in the brain's most dangerous cancer --
glioblastoma - the same type of cancer Mass. Democratic
Sen. Edward Kennedy has been battling. They have identified
a network of genes that work together to
drive the tumor's rapid growth and ability to allude treatment. The hope is
that by identifying this network of genes identifies good targets for
therapy. Read
more here.
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