Donna Karan to Fund Alternative Cancer Research
The foundation run by fashion designer Donna Karan, founder of the DKNY clothing line, is partnering with Beth Israel Medical Center, in New York City, to test yoga, meditation and aromatherapy treatments against cancer over the course of a year.
The alternative approaches will be used to supplement conventional chemotherapy and radiation treatments. Medical staff at Beth Israel will keep close tabs on the results of the Eastern-oriented treatments in order to provide the world with some much-needed empirical evidence of their efficacy or lack thereof.
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Blocking a Protein Halts Tumor Growth
Ovarian tumors seem to thrive in the presence of high levels of a protein known as TG2, short for tissue type transglutaminase. And the more advanced they are, the more TG2 there is. But blocking production of the protein in mice reverses the tumors' growth.
In fact, researchers at the University of Texas' M.D. Anderson Cancer Center found that ovarian tumors, even in their advanced stages, could be shrunk by an average of 86 percent if a biochemical known as siRNA (a tiny strand of ribonucleic acid incorporated in small fat particles injected intravenously) was used together with the chemotherapy drug docetaxel.
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Radiation Increases Breast Cancer Risk in Some
A study on breast cancer patients has found that those below age 45 who get radiation treatments are far more likely to contract cancer in the other, or contralateral, breast. The risk was discovered to be especially higher in women with breast cancer in their family history.
The researchers studied some 7,000 women who had been less than 71 years of age when they were diagnosed. All were one-year survivors of breast cancer, and were treated from 1970-86 in the Netherlands.
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Two Markers Found for Prostate-Cancer Deadliness
Investigators have found that men who are or have been overweight or who have high insulin levels are more likely to die from prostate cancer.
The discovery of these two predictors is important, because doctors now have two crucial clues as to which patients will develop the most life-threatening tumors and therefore which to treat most aggressively.
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New Boon for Pancreatic Cancer Patients
A new drug therapy that annihilates the blood vessels that grow to feed malignant tumors is showing considerable promise in increasing the longevity of patients with inoperable pancreatic cancer.
Recent research, led by Matthias Löhr of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, shows that a drug called EndoTAG-1 (chemical name: cationic lipid complexed paclitaxel), when infused with gemcitabine, can substantially extend life. In his study involving 200 subjects with pancreatic adenocarcinoma, Löhr treated half of them, the control group, with gemcitabine alone.
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Cancer Patients In Need of Psychological and Social Support
A recent report from the Institute of Medicine addresses the toll that cancer therapies have on patients' mental and emotional state that may potentially cause other health problems. Cancer treatments save and prolong many people's lives; however, care that focuses solely on eradicating tumors without acknowledging a patient's well-being can increase the patient's suffering and affect their ability to follow through on treatment. The report proposes that oncology care providers use a new standard of care that accomplishes three goals: screen patients for distress and other problems, coordinate and connect patients with health care or service providers who can treat these problems, and periodically re-evaluate patients to determine if patient care needs adjustment.
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Prostate Cancer Detection
There is a brand new tool for detecting prostate cancer that could make a huge difference in reducing the chances a cancer will be missed.
The bottom line here is not only will cancers be detected more accurately and be less likely to be missed, but it could make it easier to avoid a complete prostate removal, a big, aggressive surgery.
Instead, doctors could use targeted therapies that will just destroy the cancer spots, leaving the rest of the prostate intact.
Jan winston had been followed by his doctor for a suspicious psa test, the blood test that is a marker for prostate cancer.
That number kept rising. “He had done a previous biopsy that was negative. And then he talked about using this machine, and he found it with the biopsy using this mapping capability,” says Jan.
Target scan helps minimize the problem of missed diagnosis on biopsy, particularly as a result of inadequate, inaccurate sampling of prostate tissue.
Dr. Samir Taneja, Director of Urologic Oncology at NYU Cancer Center, says, “We’re probably missing about a third of cancers on the first biopsy go round so we believe this machine reduces that miss rate and that is something we would like to test in our upcoming clinical trial.”
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Your First Visit
By Tauseef Ahmed, MD, FACP
Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Division of Oncology / Hematology at New York Medical College
Your tests have come back. The news is not good and your doctor refers you to a specialist. Oncologist, Orthopedist, Neurologist, each one trusted by your doctor, each one trained to help you, whatever your problem might be. Each one can and should be helped by you.
Here are a few tips to help your caregiver help you:
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New Ovarian Cancer Treatment
There’s new hope for ovarian cancer patients. Doctors are saying that giving chemo through the abdomen rather than through the vein should now be the way many ovarian cancer patients are treated.
This is actually an old method to deliver chemo; it dates back fifty years. It delivers the chemo into what’s called the intra-peritoneal area of the abdomen.
The goal is to get the remaining cancer cells after the tumor is surgically removed, in patients like Eleanor Lewis. Eleanor is looking for a way to lessen the significance of time.
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Radiation Oncology
By Dr. Chitti Moorthy
In recent years, Radiation Oncology has made great strides in cancer treatment. Alone or in combination with other treatments, radiation therapy is dramatically raising cancer cure rates. Leading medical centers provide state-of-the-art radiation therapy in a comfortable and caring environment.
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