Tag Archive for 'Cancer'

Type 2 diabetes may mean shorter life

Published on March 7, 2011 in Health and Wellness. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , .

A middle-aged person with Type 2 diabetes will lose about six years of their life due to the disease. According to researchers, this is just one year less than a smoker would lose of the same age. Additionally, he or she has more than double the chance of dying from cardiovascular disease as someone who does not have diabetes and the report also says that they are 25 percent more prone to die of cancer. The report was based on an international study of more than 820,000 people that was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

There is more bad news for people with Type 2 diabetes. The study indicates that they are also more likely to die from kidney disease, pneumonia, liver disease, infectious diseases and even intentional self-harm.

This study was run by the Emerging Risk Factors Collaboration at the University of Cambridge in England. The data collected is particularly upsetting because of the speedy incidence of diabetes cases in the United States, most likely from the increase in obesity. There is currently an estimated 25.8 million Americans with diabetes, which is 10 million more than just 20 years ago.

Dr. David Kendall of the American Diabetes Association said that researchers already knew that diabetes could cut short one’s lifespan but this recent study shows just how many years of life could be lost and to what causes.

Also shown in the report was the fact that people with pre-diabetes, having blood glucose levels higher than normal but not yet diabetic, are at risk from many of the same causes of death. There is an estimated 79 million Americans who have pre-diabetes.

Kendall said that even though diabetes is frequently seen as just a condition instead of an illness, as something one can just live with. He said, “well, in fact, this shows that it is associated with a significant risk of both morbidity and mortality.”

The report from the Emerging Risk Factors Collaboration found that diabetics were 2.32 times as likely as non-diabetics to die from cardiovascular disease and 25 percent more likely to die from cancer. Also diabetes was somewhat related to death from cancers of the pancreas, ovary, colon, liver, rectum, lung, bladder and breast.

The study did not have enough proof on whether Type 1 diabetes, when the pancreas stops producing insulin, is associated with a risk for cancer.

 

Studies find that immune therapy is effective against cancers

Published on June 8, 2009 in Health and Wellness. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

In the past, doctors have used methods such as surgery, chemotherapy and radiation to fight that dreaded disease called cancer. Now, after 30 years, doctors have come up with a fourth way to battle cancer by using something completely natural, the immune system.

This new approach is called a cancer vaccine, even though it treats the disease instead of preventing it. Researchers have recently claimed that this vaccine prevented a common form of lymphoma from getting worse for more than a year. Progress is usually very slow and success with new treatments can be measured in many long days or even weeks, so this is big news in this field of research.

Experimental vaccines developed to fight against prostate, melanoma and neuroblastoma, which is a childhood tumor that is frequently fatal, produced positive results in late-stage testing. These results came in recent weeks, after many years of struggling in the lab.

Dr. Len Lichtenfeld, of the American Cancer Society, said he isn’t sure what they did to make the breakthrough. Dr. John Niederhuber, director of the National Cancer Institute, said that it was not one single moment, but many discoveries concerning the immune system that are finally beginning to show benefits.

This said, no one knows just exactly how long these benefits will last, whether boosters will be needed or if vaccines will one day provide a cure. Numerous vaccines must be custom-made for each patient, so the questions are just how practical and costly will these vaccines be? There are no sure answers yet, although there were several studies on vaccines that were reported during the weekend of June 1 at the oncology group’s annual meeting in Florida.

Dr. Patrick Hwu, melanoma chief at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, said that one of the main problems has been getting the immune system to “see” cancer as a threat. Some viruses such as the flu or polio are easy for the immune system to recognize because they look so different from regular human cells.

To help tell the difference between normal cells and cancer cells, numerous cancer vaccines pull a substance from the surface of a cancer cell and adhere it to something that the immune system sees as foreign, such as a shellfish protein in the lymphoma vaccine.

To ensure that the assault is as powerful as possible, doctors attach a substance to cause the immune system to be on an elevated alert.

Ways you can reduce your risk for getting cancer

Published on June 2, 2009 in Health and Wellness. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

The scary news is that around one out of every three people in the U.S. will come down with some kind of malignancy during their lifetime. This year alone, almost 1.4 million new cases will be diagnosed and more than 565,000 will die from cancer. After heart disease, cancer is the second leading cause of death in America.

So can you bring your risk down of getting cancer to begin with? Yes, say scientists at the Harvard School of Public Health. They estimate that almost 75% of American cancer deaths can be prevented. Read on and find out how you can begin to guard against many forms of cancer.

Given these grave statistics, there are things you can do to protect yourself starting now.

Checkups and screening tests are an absolute must. Men from 15 to 35 should get a periodic doctor’s testicular exam along with regular self-exams. Men who are older than 50 should have regular colon cancer screening and should talk to their doctor about being screened for prostate cancer.

Well, everyone hopefully knows by now that tobacco is deadly, so avoid all types of tobacco use, including second-hand smoke.

Saturated fat and red meat seem to cause an increase in the risk for getting colon and prostate cancers, so limit charbroiled and deep-fried foods. Eat more fruits, vegetables and whole grains. To protect yourself from heart disease, eat fish two to three times a week.

Hopefully by now, most everyone knows to exercise routinely. Physical activity of any kind has been proven to reduce the risk of colon cancer and might even help prevent prostate cancer. The good news for women is that exercise seems to bring down a woman’s risk for breast and reproductive cancers. Also, exercise can help protect you even if you don’t reduce your weight.

Speaking of weight, try to stay lean. Being obese increases your risk for getting many forms of cancer. Exercising and healthier eating will help to bring your weight down, but see your doctor first before starting an exercise or diet program. 

Many people enjoy a drink now and then, but don’t over do it. Moderation really is key. Too much alcohol can increase your chances of getting cancers of the mouth, larynx, esophagus, liver and colon. Unfortunately for women, it also increases their risk for breast cancer.

When visiting the doctor, get medical imaging only when necessary, so that you avoid over-exposure to radiation. Get your home checked for radon, because it increases your lung cancer risk. When out in the sun, protect yourself from getting skin cancer, with sunscreen, sunglasses and a hat.

Industrial and environmental toxins can increase our risks for getting cancer, so avoid exposure to things such as asbestos fibers, benzene and poly-chlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).

Try to avoid infections that can lead to cancer, including hepatitis viruses, HIV and the human papillomavirus, most of which are sexually transmitted.

Think about going on a low-dose aspirin regimen. It appears that men who take aspirin or other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, have a lower risk for getting colon cancer. Although it is an unproven benefit that can cause gastric bleeding and side effects, low-dose aspirin protects men from heart attacks and the most common type of stroke.

Finally, make sure that you get enough vitamin D. Most experts are now recommending 800 to 1,000 IU a day, which is almost unattainable without a supplement. Also, getting about 10-15 minutes of unprotected sunlight a day can increase your vitamin D levels. Vitamin D can help reduce your risks of getting prostate cancer, colon cancer, and other malignancies.

Screening tests can assist in detecting malignancies at their earliest stages, but you should also be alert to symptoms of the disease. The American Cancer Society created this simple reminder several years ago:

The American Cancer Society’s 7 warning signs:

C: Change in bowel or bladder habits

A: A sore that does not heal

U: Unusual bleeding or discharge

T: Thickening or lump in the breast or elsewhere

I: Indigestion or difficulty in swallowing

O: Obvious change in a wart or mole

N: Nagging cough or hoarseness

Workplace smoking ban is debated by N.C. legislators

Published on March 10, 2009 in Health and Wellness. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

In a state that still produces the most tobacco in the country, N.C. legislators have started to discuss a ban on workplace smoking.

Leah Devlin, the State Health Director, told the House Health Committee on February 26 that smoking is extensively banned from offices, which protects the health of white-collar workers from secondhand smoke. It has been proven that secondhand smoke raises the risk for heart disease and cancer. The big effect of the bill will be on blue-collar and restaurant workers who are currently lacking the ability to force smokers to go outside to smoke.

In 2005 and 2007 a less influential form of the legislation was unsuccessful in getting passed. This month in Virginia, which is pretty tobacco-friendly, a limited ban on smoking in restaurants and bars was passed. Currently, the bill has been passed from the N.C. House Health Committee to the House Legal Issues Committee, so the bill is still in progression.

Alcohol may raise risk for some cancers

Published on March 2, 2009 in Health and Wellness. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

A study was done involving about 1.3 million British women that provided even additional proof that moderate drinking can raise the risk for a few cancers.

At breast cancer screening clinics, British researchers questioned middle-aged women about their drinking habits and observed their health for seven years.

One-fourth of the women said they did not drink at all. Almost all the others said that they drank less than three drinks a day, and the average had one drink a day. The lightest drinkers were compared with people who drank heavily.

On February 24, University of Oxford researchers reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute that for every extra drink each day, there is an increased risk of breast, rectal and liver cancer. In this study, it did not matter what kind of alcohol was consumed. In earlier research, consuming alcohol was associated with esophageal and oral cancers only when smokers drank.

However, moderate drinkers in reality had a smaller risk of thyroid cancer, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and renal cell cancer. The alcohol risk is minor for the average woman. About 118 out of every 1,000 women form any of these cancers in prosperous countries, but the study found that every added daily alcoholic drink affixed 11 breast cancers and four of the other types to that rate. The researchers deduced that 13 percent of those cancers in Britain can be blamed on alcohol.

So what is safe now? Well, moderate alcohol use has been believed to be heart healthy for a long time, although the new research doesn’t discuss it. This encourages more debate about what levels are safe. It is already established that U.S. health guidelines suggest that women should consume no more than a drink a day; two drinks per day are suggested for men, because they metabolize alcohol differently.

Because of all this, officials have been concerned about giving the wrong message – giving young people, pregnant women and those vulnerable to alcoholism – the green light to drink alcohol. It has been difficult for them to balance the declaration of the benefits of alcohol without influencing people to begin drinking or abusing it.

Some patients should not receive certain cancer drugs

Published on January 28, 2009 in Health and Wellness. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

According to a recent recommendation from the American Society of Clinical Oncology, many patients who have advanced colon cancer should not use some of the most advanced medicine that is used to combat the disease.

Even though it doesn’t sound right for a team of doctors treating cancer to hold back on a popular treatment for lots of patients, it is more important in cancer research to determine what patient’s health will most likely improve on these cancer drugs. These drugs are not only expensive but can be quite harmful.

Patients whose tumors have specific mutations in a gene called KRAS should not get a class of drugs including Erbitux, which is co-marketed in this country by Eli Lily and Bristol-Myers Squibb, as well as Amgen’s Vectibix.

Studies have revealed that patients having these mutations, 35% in this immense study, do not benefit from these drugs. A savings of about $600 million a year could be made by not using Erbitux for these patients, the WSJ reports. Amgen proclaimed that the information called for a label change for Vectibix. The WSJ was told by a British spokesman that Bristol and Lilly positively anticipate working with the FDA.

Breast self-exams are questioned

Published on October 22, 2008 in Health and Wellness. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

October is breast cancer awareness month and their are reminders everywhere to do self-exams. Even though this is the case, studies continuously disclose that breast self-exams are not likely to diminish breast cancer deaths and in some cases, do more harm than good to healthy women.

This disassociation between what’s advised and research came up again in August when an international group that evaluates medical science, named the Cochrane Collaborative, were in accordance with two earlier studies that showed no proof that screening lessens deaths. The organization says that breast exams “cannot be recommended” and warns that research “suggests harm in terms of increased numbers of benign lesions identified and increased number of biopsies performed.” A similar conclusion was indicated when two earlier studies were performed on Russian and Chinese women. This study revealed that a self-exam may be a waste of time, and many women are not diligent about doing it right and frequently enough to make a significant difference.

The American Cancer Society; the U.S. Preventative Service Task Force, an proficient panel that distributes the federal government’s official recommendation on preventive medicine; the National Breast Cancer Coalition; and the Journal for the National Cancer Institute are all currently disputing or examining the importance of self-exams.

This said, the same amount of doctors strongly assert that telling women to not do monthly self-exams is even more dangerous. One such advocate is the director of Kaiser Permanente’s breast surgical services in Sacramento, California, Dr. Balazs Bodai. He became distinguished when he created the breast-cancer awareness stamp. “Talk to any busy breast cancer surgeon, and they’ll tell you 30 percent of the diagnoses are made by the patient-not that they have cancer but they found their own lumps,” Bodai says. He said that he has seen patients with normal mammograms who later found a lump and it turned out to be cancer. Some patients have even caught it early enough by doing self-exams to avoid radiation and chemotherapy.

Then there is Dr. Marisa Weiss, a breast oncologist and founder of Breastcancer.org, who says that the Cochrane guidelines are very unwise and ill-advised.

Another one who stresses self-exams is Susan Stone, who is a chief of certified nurse midwives for Kaiser Permanente in Sacramento. She talks about the importance of helping women be the experts on their own bodies and health. Her recommendation is that women check their own breasts occasionally so they will know what feels normal and be able to recognize when there is a change. Then if a change is found, they can contact their caregiver for evaluation. Kaiser Bodai, who is very upset over the self-exam controversy, agrees with her.

Breast cancer detection can be aided by computers

Published on October 6, 2008 in Health and Wellness. 0 Comments Tags: , .

New research has indicated that a radiologist using a computer is just as good as two radiologists for finding breast cancer on a mammogram. These computers detect questionable areas on X-rays for a radiologist to take a closer look.

Women are screened using mammograms for early signs of breast cancer, but these tests are not always complete. Usually in the U.S., one radiologist  reads the X-ray, and cancers are occasionally missed.

CAD, or computer-aided detection, was created to aid radiologists in finding more cancers. These computer programs, which were approved ten years ago, are used for around a third of the nation’s mammograms, but the importance and precision of the technology is being debated.

In Britain, mammograms are normally checked by two radiologists or technicians, which is obviously thought to be superior than one review. Some researchers wanted to find out if a single expert, assisted by a computer, could detect as well as two people. British researchers studied the mammograms of 31,000 women.

It was found that computer-aided detection found almost the same amount of cancers, 198 out of 227, compared with 199 for the two readers.

In countries like the U.S., computer-aided detection could increase the cancer-detection rates to the level achieved by double reading. What was found was that one reader using CAD can locate as many cancers as two readers can.

It is recommended by the U.S. government that beginning at age 40, women should get mammograms every one or two years. Authorities say that there are not enough radiologists to perform two readings, and a second look is not paid for by insurers, but Medicare pays an additional $15 for computer-aided detection.

That extra money has helped start these computer checks. More places are expected to use them as they change to digital images form film X-rays, which cuts out a step in the process. 

This research was funded by the British government and a charity called the Cancer Research UK.

Study reveals CT colonography is effective at detecting colon cancer

Published on September 29, 2008 in Health and Wellness. 0 Comments Tags: , .

A much anticipated federal study of an X-ray alternative to the uncomfortable colonoscopy has confirmed its efficiency at detecting most cancers, although it has some drawbacks.

More people may be persuaded to get screened for colon cancer, because Medicare is currently considering paying for this lower cost, less invasive option. Some experts believe that the new procedure may increase the current 50 percent screening rate for a cancer that is the country’s second biggest killer among cancers. Lung cancer is the number one killer right now.

In the new study, which is the largest of its kind, the “virtual colonoscopy” found nine out of ten people who had cancers and large growths that were spotted by regular colonoscopies.

Unfortunately there were also imperfections. One of them was that radiologists sometimes read the X-rays wrong, causing them to find polyps that were not there. This led to unneeded follow-up testing.

The real usefulness of the X-ray test may be in finding who really needs a regular colonoscopy, because it was better at ruling out cancer than at discovering it, according to the  September 18 report in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The standard screening for colon cancer is the colonoscopy, in which a long, thin tube supplied with a tiny video camera is pushed through the large intestine to view the lining. A great benefit to this method is that any growth detected can be removed during the procedure.

A colonoscopy usually does require general anesthesia and a missed day of work. Liquids or pills are also used to clean out the bowels.

CT colonography, also known as virtual colonoscopy, was the focus of the study. It is a detailed X-ray of the colon that is cheaper, quicker and much easier on the patient than normal colonoscopies.

As with the colonoscopy, it also requires the bowel to be cleansed, but uses something that can be potentially dangerous-radiation.

Colonoscopies cost up to $3000 compared to the X-ray test at $300 to $500. Although most insurers are not covering it so far, Medicare is contemplating it.

The colon cancer rate has dropped 42 percent in the U.S. since 1960. As mentioned earlier, it still remains the second highest cancer killer.

The point of screening, recommended each year beginning at age 50, is to find growths before they become cancerous.