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Breast cancer survivors may be at higher risk for falls

TORONTO — Breast cancer treatment may have an adverse effect on survivors of the disease by putting them at greater risk for falls, research suggests.

For the small study, U.S. researchers looked at 59 postmenopausal breast cancer survivors. Study participants were on average 58 years old and had either recently finished chemotherapy or were on an adjuvant endocrine therapy.

For some women, chemotherapy can cause a small but significant amount of bone loss over the course of treatment. Adjuvant hormonal therapies have been found to accelerate bone loss and contribute to higher fracture risk.

Researchers from Oregon Health & Science University in Portland surveyed the prevalence of falls among participants within the previous year and then tracked their falls over the following six-month study period.

Findings to be published in the April issue of the Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation showed 58 per cent of breast cancer survivors had experienced a fall in the previous year, with half reporting they fell more than once.

Nearly half, or 47 per cent, fell within six months after joining the study, a rate nearly double the 25 to 30 per cent annual fall rate reported for community-dwelling older adults over the age of 65.

Researchers found 76 per cent of breast cancer survivors reported falling after their cancer diagnosis within the 18-month span.

Study lead author Kerri Winters-Stone said for the past five or 10 years, there has been increasing evidence that breast cancer survivors may be at higher risk for bone fractures compared to those who haven’t had the disease.

There has been research trying to understand how bone loss might be accelerated in women who have breast cancer and how that might contribute to fractures. However, there’s been a lot less attention paid to falls as a potential risk factor for these increased fractures, she noted.

Winters-Stone said her research team was interested in trying to understand more about why falls may increase in women with breast cancer.

After asking participants about their fall history, they were taken through a series of physical tests to determine if they were at increased risk for falls. They included tests of muscular strength and balance.

Winters-Stone said researchers found one particular balance test discriminated between women who had and had not fallen. The test measured their ability to balance on a platform in conditions in which the only sensory system keeping their balance in check was the vestibular, or inner ear, system.

“In this particular test, women with a history of falls didn’t do as well when they were required to maintain their balance with only input from their vestibular system,” said Winters-Stone, an associate professor and associate scientist at the university’s school of nursing and a member of the Knight Cancer Institute.

“That suggested to us there may be some deficit in the control of balance of this particular physiological system,” she said in an interview from Portland.

She said women who took longer to identify differences in contrast in a visual contrast-sensitivity test were also more likely to have a history of falls. There may be something about their visual processing speed that had changed following cancer treatment that might cause this increased risk, she said.

Winters-Stone said women should be aware that there might be changes that occur as a result of chemotherapy that could affect their balance.

As they progress through treatment, they shouldn’t ignore changes in balance they sense or merely attribute such changes to growing older, she noted.

“I don’t think that women have to be fearful of falling, particularly since what that tends to do is cause them to restrict their activity, and we actually want women to remain as active as they can both during and after cancer treatment,” she said.

“I think that women should also take note of any changes that they sense in their stability and their balance, discuss it with their oncologist and also be proactive about taking some steps to maintain balance during treatment as well as after.”

Possible new treatment strategies for pancreatic cancer found

Scientists have identified a protein that can be modified to improve the effectiveness of one of the most common drugs used to treat pancreatic cancer.

The University of Georgia research found that a cell-surface protein called CNT1, which transports cancer-killing drugs into tumor cells, was reduced in function in two thirds of pancreatic tumors.

By improving the function of CNT1, the researchers increased the effectiveness of the cancer-killing drugs in pancreatic tumor cells derived from human patients, said lead-author Raj Govindarajan.

The drug most commonly used to treat pancreatic cancer is called gemcitabine and works by entering into the DNA of cancer cells and stopping replication.

Many pancreatic tumor cells are resistant to gemcitabine, which makes the disease very difficult to treat, explained Govindarajan.

The researchers identified different methods to enhance CNT1 function and slow growth of the tumor cells.

They found that by using additional drugs that inhibit pathways that degrade CNT1, they could partially restore its normal function and transport more gemcitabine into the tumor cells to prevent proliferation of the tumor.

Govindarajan and his colleagues also found that CNT1 was likely regulated by tiny RNA molecules called micro-RNAs.

“We could potentially use micro-RNAs to increase CNT1 expression and increase tumor-cell targeting of gemcitabine,” said Govindarajan.

The finding has been published in the March edition of the journal Cancer Research. (ANI)

Therapy to ‘Fool Cancer Cells into Killing Themselves’

A personalized therapy that will fool cancer cells into killing themselves has been developed by a Wayne State University School of Medicine researcher.

Developed by Karli Rosner, assistant professor and director of Research in the Department of Dermatology, the treatment uses genetic constructs that contain a genetically modified enzyme to seek out and destroy cancer cells.

The unique concept, patented by the university, was successfully demonstrated on melanoma cells that are resistant to routine treatments such as chemotherapy or radiotherapy.

The success of the therapy in killing melanoma suggests a similar outcome in treating other cancers.

Rosner modified the genetic code for DNase1, a highly potent DNA-degrading enzyme, and altered its genetic composition by deleting a part of the code, mutating another part and adding an artificial piece of code.

Through these changes, the altered DNA program is translated into a modified protein. In contrast to the natural protein, the modified protein will not be eliminated from the cancer cell, will resist deactivation by cell inhibitors and will gain access to the cell’s nucleus. he cancer cell, unaware of the destructive potential of the modified code, translates it into a protein that evades the cell’s defence mechanisms and enters the nucleus.

In the nucleus, the protein damages DNA by chopping it into fragments without the need for other medications.

Following damage to DNA, the cell’s organelles disintegrate and the cancer cell dies.

Cancer Treatment News

Siemens join hands with HCG

Under this collaboration, Siemens will work with HCG to develop software, undertake research & development and conduct training programs that will ensure better alternatives to the clinicians & more effective treatment to the patients.
Siemens’ Ltd. has joined hands with Healthcare Global Enterprises Ltd. (HCG) to start the first Centre of Excellence for Cancer Care in Asia. With this initiative, HCG becomes the first hospital in Asia to collaborate with Siemens’ for a seven year period to focus on various projects in Oncology.

Under this collaboration, Siemens will work with HCG to develop software, undertake research & development and conduct training programs that will ensure better alternatives to the clinicians & more effective treatment to the patients.

Speaking to the media on this collaboration, Dr Bernd Montag, CEO, Imaging & Therapy Systems Division, Siemens Healthcare Sector, Siemens AG. said “HCG covers the complete spectrum of cancer care from early diagnosis to the most advanced therapy, and we are delighted to enter into this collaboration with them. Together, we are confident of making significant contribution to the evolution of modern Cancer Care“.

Ragavan, Country Head, Healthcare Sector, Siemens Ltd., and Head – Imaging and Therapy division of Siemens South Asia cluster further added, “In India, Cancer is the second largest killer in the spectrum of non-communicable diseases. The geographical spread of good quality cancer treatment centers is very poor as most of the centers are situated in main metros. HCG, over the past 10 years has contributed significantly to establish high quality Cancer Care centers in the Tier II and Tier III cities of India and we have been associated with them as the exclusive technology provider for the Radiation Oncology field. This new collaboration agreement takes our relationship from a transaction level to a strategic level and we are excited about this development.”

The objective of the collaboration is to bring together the clinical excellence and experience in managing and treating cancer patients of HCG and the unique innovations in technology from Siemens Ltd., which help ‘Fighting cancer – Fast and Focused’. For example, to ensure the exact location of the tumor in real time and target the radiation accordingly, Siemens has introduced the unique IM-RealART solution which allows for real-time re-planning; taking into account the actual tumor shapes on a particular day. This solution which includes the CT Vision system, Intelligent treatment replanning software, Artiste Linear Accelerator and 160 Leaf Multileaf Collimator is a revolutionary solution for advanced form of radiation therapy treatment – Adaptive Radiation Therapy (ART). This solution is available only at HCG- Bangalore and is a boon to the Cancer patients of India.

Dr B.S. Ajaikumar, Chairman, HCG said “Our vision is to be at the forefront of technology and introduce revolutionary methods to treat cancer patient, this can be only achieved by working with organisations with a similar vision. The earlier trend used to be of clinicians travelling overseas for training, research & development. Now they will be trained in India at HCG. The collaboration with Siemens is a step in this direction.”

Doctors Saying “Less is More” in Breast Cancer Treatment

Patty Molinaro, says, “Every advance that we make that makes the experience of breast cancer easier for the woman is a wonderful thing.” Patty Molinaro who is a breast cancer survivor and Nurse Navigator for the Susan G. Koeman Foundation is talking about the results of a study published this week by the American Medical Association Journal.

Between 1999 and 2004 doctors conducted a study at 115 different hospitals with roughly 450 patients who had lymph-nodes surgically removed and 450 who received only chemotherapy or radiation. The results showed that the survival rate was the same between the less invasive and surgical treatment.

Dr. Lydia Schrader, Breast Cancer Surgical Onchologist says, “If we can avoid doing that in these younger women and still have the same outcome, that’s a great advantage.” Meaning patients can avoid the horrible side effects associated with lymph node removal.

Dr. Lydia says, “Axillary lymph-node dissection have a higher risk of infection. A higher or long term issue related to fluid collections under the arms.”
So women who choose the less invasive treatment will have less to worry about in the long run as far as side effects go with this surgery. That way the main focus can be fighting for their lives. Patty says, “It’s just another reason why we need to continue to have research done. And we need to continue to try to find easier, more effective, less invasive, type treatments.”

Cancer Treatment News

Anti-Estrogen Drugs May Be Effective Lung Cancer Treatment

New research has found that a long-known drug to help treat breast cancer may also be used to reduce death risks from lung cancer as well. The drug is an anti-estrogen and has been known for nearly 30 years.

The study can be found in Cancer, a journal published online.

The drug, called tamoxifen, was shown to decrease lung cancer death risks in women with breast cancer. Researchers claim the results may be premature to use this drug as a treatment option for lung cancer patients, however.

Researchers believe this drug may be instrumental for lung cancer patients as lung cancer is believed to be caused at least somewhat by estrogen.

Another finding experts have explained is that in previous studies, lung cancer risks were shown to increase during menopause as women underwent hormone replacement therapy. Based on that, researchers believed the use of an anti-estrogen might be an effective treatment option for lung cancer as well.

For this study, researchers examined health records of 6,655 women. Each woman had a breast cancer diagnosis, and nearly half of the women were treated with an anti-estrogen drug, primarly tamoxifen.

For women receiving anti-estrogen treatment, lung cancer death risks were nearly 90 percent lower than in women who did not receive treatment.

Limitations on this study could have been the sample size, as only 40 women developed lung cancer.

Additionally, some studies involving mice have explained that tamoxifen may increase lung cancer risks.

Compiling all information, researchers firmly believe additional studies need to be performed.

New blood test key to future of cancer treatment

A new cancer test that performs a liquid biopsy in patients garnered widespread headlines last week, but it’s not going to immediately transform treatment of the disease.

In some ways the most significant aspect of the test may be that it highlights the promise of both early cancer detection and personalized medicine, two key areas of medical research that may, one day, combine to end much of the menace of cancer.

“I’m pretty optimistic about the future of cancer treatment,” said Dr. Kent Osborne, director of the Dan L. Duncan Cancer Center at Baylor College of Medicine.

“I think right now we’re just at the tip of the iceberg with the problem, but we now have the tools to work through them. It’s an exciting time.”

The new blood test, developed by Boston scientists and to be brought to market by Johnson & Johnson, is driven by something akin to a hairbrush with 78,000 tiny bristles.

Blood passes through the bristles, which are far enough apart to let red and white blood cells pass through but can trap larger tumor cells. In addition, there are biological particles on the bristles — antibodies – that stick to cancer cells. The goal is to capture stray cancer cells shed by tumors as they spread through the body – no easy thing as fewer than 1 out of billion cells in the blood may be cancerous even with an aggressively spreading disease.

Initially, scientists say, the test will be used on cancer patients who have undergone therapy to determine if the cancer has come back, and if so, how the resurgent cancer cells have mutated.
Tests for mutations

This is one of the areas that Massachusetts General Hospital, Sloan-Kettering, the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston will study with a $15 million grant from the Stand Up to Cancer telethon, run by the American Association for Cancer Research.

“A tumor may shrink after initial treatment,” said Dr. John Heymach, an associate professor at M.D. Anderson who will be involved in the clinical trials in Houston.

“But afterward, individual cancer cells often develop secondary mutations. We want to know if we can use this test to identify those secondary mutations because, if so, we have different drugs that may be able to treat secondary mutations,” Heymach said.

The test, in essence, combines both cancer detection and personalized medicine in a tidy bundle. This may provide a glimpse into the future of cancer therapy.

In terms of detection, scientists have a ways to go. Indeed, it may never be possible to detect very early cancers from a single blood test, Heymach said.

Whereas a spreading cancer may not shed that many tumor cells, it produces hundreds to thousands times more cells than an early cancer.

For now the best way to detect tumors early is a CT scan, which can find tumors as small as a sugar cube.
Researching proteins

But in Houston labs and across the country, scientists are trying to develop an array of technologies to sniff out cancer in its early stages, when it’s most vulnerable.

In addition to looking for cancer cells in blood, scientists have also turned to identifying proteins associated with tumors as well as small bits of RNA – material like DNA that contains genetic information – that appear to correlate with cancer.

“A lot of groups are looking at different biomarkers,” said Osborne, the Baylor physician, who is working with RNA material. “You can see the potential if we find some markers that tell us there’s a cancer there before we can see it on an X-ray.”

The blood test, with its ability to capture cancer cells for analysis, extends the potential of personalized medicine, the notion that by better understanding the biological nature of a person’s illness, a better treatment can be tailored to the patient.

On average, drugs work in about 50 percent of patients, said David Gorenstein, associate dean for research at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston. Doctors want to do much better.

The classic example of personalized medicine comes from the drug Herceptin.
Complex challenge

Clinical trials initially showed the drug had only a mild beneficial effect on patients. Then scientists discovered that women whose breast cancer tumors produced an excessive amount of a certain protein, about one-quarter of patients, responded very well to treatment with Herceptin. Patients who didn’t produce large amounts of the protein saw no benefit.

The promise of personalized medicine is that, by understanding the genes and proteins involved in various cancers, doctors can gain a much better understanding of how to attack a disease with various drugs.

But the personalized medicine successes such as Herceptin are so far the exception, rather than the rule, when it comes to pinpointing the right drug for a disease.

“Biology is very, very complex,” Gorenstein said. “We have 20,000 genes, half a million proteins, and they all interact through signaling. We have mapped the human genome, but we don’t understand what all the genes are doing, nor all of the networks and pathways of protein interactions that constitute life.

“There’s a huge amount of unknowns. But the technologies that have developed over the last 10 years have rapidly accelerated the process by which we can understand these things.”

Cancer News and Treatment

Tanning beds still draw fans despite skin cancer risk, new study finds

Are tanning beds still popular? Apparently so. A new study finds 18% of women and 6.5% of men in America say they use tanning beds, even though indoor tanning has been linked to an increased risk of skin cancer.

Researchers at the University of Minnesota based their findings on surveys of 2,869 white people between age 18 and 64 who were asked about their recent indoor tanning habits. In addition, the study says, most didn’t know that using tanning beds could increase their chances of getting skin cancer. Check out this abstract of the study published Monday in the Archives of Dermatology.

Warnings about indoor tanning are hardly news. This American Cancer Society report explains why tanning beds are linked to higher rates of melanoma.

And teens are particularly at risk. “Young people tend to think they’re not vulnerable to skin cancer,” dermatologist Hanspaul Makkar says in this Hartford Courant story. “Most of the damage that leads to skin cancer happens before the age of 18.”

How much exposure is too much? College students posing as teens set out to assess how well tanning businesses complied with laws and federal guidelines regarding exposure to UV radiation. This Los Angeles Times story reports on the findings.

Flexible Fitness: Exercise may decrease breast cancer risk

According the American Cancer Society, breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in American women, affecting more than 250,000 women a year.

Multiple studies have examined what steps individuals can take to lower the risk of both diagnosis and recurrence. One common theme in these studies is exercise.

Numerous studies have found a link between exercise and decreased cancer recurrence and mortality. The main conclusion of these studies is that moderate intensity exercise lowers the risk of new cancer development, progression of current tumors and recurrence once in remission.

In fact, some studies have shown a decrease in recurrence of up to 30 to 40 percent for those who exercise moderately for three to four hours per week. Both moderate- and high-intensity exercise have been correlated with decreased breast cancer death, though high-intensity exercise does not confer the same preventive benefits as moderate exercise. It was also found that women with hormone-responsive tumors especially benefited from regular exercise, as exercise tends to lower estrogen levels in the body.

Why does exercise lower breast cancer risks? The answer to this question is not fully known, but two current hypotheses look at the body’s estrogen and insulin levels. Research has shown that obesity increases the risk for developing breast cancer, especially in post-menopausal women. It is also known that obesity and weight gain increase the body’s estrogen levels after menopause.

Conversely, estrogen levels are lowered by physical activity and are further kept in check by reducing body fat, a byproduct of exercise. Therefore, one plausible answer to this question is that exercise and weight loss may have a protective effect by lowering a woman’s blood-estrogen level.

The second hypothesis centers around insulin levels, which are increased by obesity and weight gain. Some studies have suggested that an increase in circulating insulin may lead to decreased survival rates with breast cancer. Therefore, exercising moderately is an important step for women to take in order to reduce their cancer risk or decrease the risk of cancer recurrence.

This is also significant because weight and exercise are influencing factors that women can control, unlike other risk factors like the environment or genetics. Exercise guidelines include moderate exercise totaling three to four hours per week. The American Cancer Society recommends walking at a moderate pace for 30 minutes daily, which would fulfill these guidelines.

Other forms of aerobic exercise are also acceptable, but moderate intensity appears to be an important factor. Housework and general occupational activity, on the other hand, have not been shown to confer protective benefits against cancer. It is suggested that these activities are not of sufficient intensity to confer protective benefits, unlike moderate recreational activities.

There can be some roadblocks to achieving these exercise goals –– chiefly the fatigue and de-conditioning that can result from cancer treatment. Lifestyle changes can also be difficult to make, and motivation level and depression can influence success.

If these are issues you are dealing with, find support from medical practitioners, friends or community groups to help you achieve your goals. Take your health into your own hands and strive for an active, healthy lifestyle while reducing your cancer risk.

Cancer News

Hormone Therapy Worsens Breast Cancer, Study Finds

Hormone treatment after menopause, already known to increase the risk of breast cancer, also makes it more likely that the cancer will be advanced and deadly, researchers are reporting.

The treatment studied was the most commonly prescribed hormone replacement pill, Prempro, which contains estrogens from horse urine and a synthetic relative of the hormone progesterone.

In recent years women have been urged to minimize hormone use, and the new findings lend that advice even more weight, according to the first author of an article published this week in The Journal of the American Medical Association.

Many doctors assume that women can safely take hormones for four or five years for menopause symptoms like hot flashes and night sweats, said Dr. Rowan T. Chlebowski, the first author and an oncologist who treats breast cancer patients at the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, Calif.

“I don’t think you can say that now,” he said. “I know some people have to take it because they can’t function, but the message now is that you really should try to stop after a year or two.”

Dr. Chlebowski said it was not known whether there is any length of time for which these hormones can be taken without increasing breast cancer risk.

The new information comes from the continuing follow-up of 12,788 women who were in the Women’s Health Initiative, a major federally financed study that compared women taking hormones with a group taking placebos. The study was halted in 2002, three years ahead of schedule, because researchers found that the hormones were causing small but significant increases in the risk of breast cancer, heart disease, strokes and blood clots in the lungs.

The 2002 study had a huge impact. Before it came out, there was a widespread belief that hormones would reduce women’s risk of heart disease and generally keep them youthful, sexy and healthy. For many doctors and patients, the study shattered that faith.

Six million American women had been taking hormones, but the number quickly fell by about half. The breast cancer rate also began to decrease soon after, and many researchers attribute the decrease to the drop in hormone use.

The new report increases the average follow-up time to 11 years from the original 5.6 years. It is the first report from the Women’s Health Initiative that includes death rates from breast cancer related to hormone use.

The researchers found small but significant increases in several harmful effects in women who took the hormones. As the study previously showed, women taking hormones are more likely to develop invasive breast cancer. Their rate of the disease was 0.42 percent per year, compared with 0.34 percent per year in the placebo group.

Among women with breast cancer, those who took hormones were more likely to have cancerous lymph nodes, a sign of more advanced disease — 23.7 percent, versus 16.2 percent in the placebo group.

More women who took hormones died from breast cancer — 0.03 percent per year, versus 0.01 percent per year in the placebo group. That translates to 2.6 deaths per 10,000 women per year among those taking hormones, twice as many as the 1.3 deaths per 10,000 in the placebo group.

Among women who had breast cancer, those who took hormones also had a higher death rate from other causes — 0.05 percent per year, versus 0.03 percent per year. In other words, there were 5.3 versus 3.4 deaths per 10,000 women per year — 1.9 extra deaths in hormone users.

It is not known for sure why the women taking hormones had more advanced tumors. But previous research has found that hormone treatment can cause delays in diagnosis by increasing breast density, making tumors harder to see on mammograms.

The more advanced state of the tumors in women taking hormones may help explain their increased death rate from breast cancer. Dr. Chlebowski said that in theory, the hormones may also help breast cancer and other cancers to grow and spread — which makes them more deadly — by stimulating the formation of blood vessels that feed tumors. He said that a report last year from the Women’s Health Initiative also found that although hormone treatment did not increase women’s rate of lung cancer, hormone use was linked to a higher death rate among women who had the cancer.

Another author of the new study, Dr. JoAnn E. Manson, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, said women should not take the hormones at all unless they really need them, for moderate to severe symptoms like hot flashes and night sweats that disrupt sleep and really ruin their quality of life.

“It would be wonderful if there were effective options for women with moderate to severe hot flashes and night sweats that provided quality-of-life benefits without risks,” Dr. Manson said.

At the same time, she said, the new information should not necessarily alarm women who have taken the hormones, because the new report found only 1 to 2 additional breast cancer deaths per 10,000 women per year among those taking hormones.

Dr. Manson said it was the women who took hormones the longest who had the real increase in risk.

“The data suggest it is cumulative long-term use,” Dr. Manson said. “Women should avoid long-term use. I think that’s the bottom line.”

She said that women who want treatment should take the lowest possible dose that eases their symptoms.

Noting that many women are taking other hormone formulations in hope of avoiding Prempro’s risks, Dr. Manson said little was known about the drugs and more research was urgently needed.

“We really need to know what the health effects are,” she said.

She said more research was also needed to find out whether women who took hormones early in menopause had the same risks as women who started the drugs later.

An editorial accompanying the journal article said that the researchers had probably underestimated the increase in deaths from breast cancer due to hormone therapy, and that “with longer follow-up, the deleterious effect will appear larger,” even though the women are no longer taking the drugs.

The editorial writer, Dr. Peter B. Bach, a physician at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, said that although the increase in cancer in the study might seem small, it becomes large when multiplied out over the population. He also questioned the advice being given to women, to consult their doctors about risks and benefits, and to take the lowest possible doses of the hormones for the shortest possible time. Like Dr. Chlebowski, he said there was no data to determine whether there is any safe interval.

“The fallback is that doctors and patients should be deciding this on a one-to-one basis, weighing risks and benefits,” Dr. Bach said in an interview. “How do you do that when you don’t know what the risks are? It’s a data vacuum. You can’t counsel your way through a clinical decision when you don’t have information.”

He added, “If you care about preventing this disease and keeping women from suffering and dying from it, then it’s hard to look at these drugs and not have serious concerns about them being used, even for what are intended to be relatively short periods of time.”

Stars Make Strides Against Breast Cancer

The Lincoln Stars hockey team and the American Cancer Society are pleased to announce that over $15,000 was raised for the “Making Strides Against Breast Cancer” campaign over the past weekend. The Stars wore specially-designed Breast Cancer-themed jerseys for their game against the Waterloo Blackhawks on Friday, October 15th at the Ice Box. The jerseys were sold in a live auction immediately following the conclusion of the game to benefit the American Cancer Society (ACS).

In addition, “Breast Cancer Awareness” t-shirts were sold at the game to raise additional funds. In total from the jersey auction and t-shirt sales, the Stars raised $15,150 for the American Cancer Society.

“We are so proud to partner with the American Cancer Society for the third season in the ‘Making Strides Against Breast Cancer’ campaign. Through the generosity of our fans, we’re able to raise funds in the fight against cancer and hopefully save lives,” said Jen Morand, Director of Corporate Sales and Marketing for the Lincoln Stars.

The event was sponsored by Art FX Screenprinting & Imaging, 92.9 The Eagle, Texas Roadhouse and FastFrame Lincoln.

Wyeth Wins Latest Trial Over Drugs’ Cancer Risk

A federal jury has sided with Wyeth Pharmaceuticals in the latest lawsuit that accused the drugmaker of not disclosing a link between its hormone replacement therapy and a higher risk of breast cancer.

A Little Rock jury deliberated briefly Tuesday before siding with Wyeth, which argued that it adequately warned doctors and patients of the risks associated with its Prempro and Premarin drugs.

Margaret Wilson and her husband, Billy Wilson, sued the drugmaker after she developed breast cancer after taking Prempro for 4½ years. The suit was one of thousands pending nationwide over the hormone replacement therapy.

Pfizer Inc. bought Wyeth for $68 billion in 2009.

Novak diagnosed with breast cancer

Actress Kim Novak has been diagnosed with breast cancer.

Novak, best known for her starring role in the 1958 classic Vertigo, is undergoing cancer treatment and is expected to make a full recovery, according to her manager, Sue Cameron.

“It was caught early by a routine yearly mammogram and is undergoing treatment,” Cameron told The Hollywood Reporter.

“All her doctors say she is in fantastic physical shape and should recover very well.”

Novak, 77, has also featured in notable films including Picnic, Pal Joey and Bell, Book and Candle.

She last appeared in Liebestraum in 1991, but her scenes were cut following a dispute with director Mike Figgis.

Cancer Treatment and Prevention News

October: National Breast Cancer Awareness Month

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month – a campaign launched 25 years ago to raise awareness of breast cancer nationwide. We post below some news on the disease for those who may be interested. Becoming aware of this disease and having it diagnosed in its early stages is not enough. Many patients still die prematurely no matter how rigorously they are treated.

A new study reported online in the journal Cancer found women whose wives or girlfriends are diagnosed with breast cancer are at a higher risk of developing mood disorders, such as major depression, that are so severe they require hospitalization.

The study suggests that men need emotional, social, and economic support to meet their psychological needs after their partners are diagnosed with breast cancer.

Previous studies have already shown that male partners of breast cancer patients are more likely than others to develop major psychosocial problems. But the current study found the disease raised risk of severe depression in men whose female partners were diagnosed with it.

Christoffer Johansen MD, PhD, DSc (Med), of the Institute of Cancer Epidemiology in Copenhagen, Denmark and colleagues analysed data from 1,162,596 men ages 30 years or older to see how frequently partners of women with breast cancer were hospitalized with disorders like major depression, bipolar disease and other serious mood altering conditions.

During 13 years of follow-up, 180 of the 20,538 men analyzed were hospitalized with a mental disorder like depression.

Compared to men whose wives or girlfriends were not diagnosed with breast cancer, men with partners diagnosed with the disease were an overwhelming 309 percent more likely to develop a mental disorder.

The higher risk of being hospitalized was found in men whose partners were diagnosed with severe breast cancer compared to men whose wives or girlfriends were not diagnosed with the disease. Men whose significant others experienced a relapse were also more likely to develop depression compared to those whose wives/girlfriends were free of cancer. When female breast cancer patients died, their partners were 3.6 times as likely to develop depression compared to those whose partners survived.

“A diagnosis of breast cancer not only affects the life of the patient but may also seriously affect the partner,” said Prof. Johansen.

“We suggest that some sort of screening of the partners of cancer patients in general and of those of breast cancer patients in particular for depressive symptoms might be important for preventing this devastating consequence of cancer,” Prof. Johansen added.

Breast cancer patients with physical limitations more likely to die earlier.

A new study published online in The Journal of the National Cancer Institute suggests that breast cancer patients with basic physical limitations or disabilities that disallow them from simple everyday life tasks are more likely to die;such limitiations can be either a direct cause of the disease itself or its treatment.

The study led by researchers at the University of California – San Fransisco found breast cancer survivors who reported physical limitations after breast cancer treatment had the same risk of dying from breast cancer as those without limitations; however, they were more likely to die from other conditions.

Additionally, older women as well as overweight breast cancer patients were found more likely to have functional impairments for at least 18 months after treatment.

According to a press release by the UCSF, the findings suggest that physical activity is important in improving the outcome; simple modifications in habits that allow more physical activity would greatly improve patients’ health.

“Our study provides evidence of why it is important to develop interventions that improve physical function, to mitigate the adverse effects of physical limitations,” said Dejana Braithwaite, PhD, first author of the study and assistant professor at UCSF’s Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center.

“Intervention strategies – on the part of the individual, the community and the health provider – should emphasize physically active lifestyles,” Braithwaite added.

The association between physical inability and death risk was derived from an analysis of data from 2,202 women with breast cancer in California and Utah on their endurance, strength, muscular range of motion and small muscle dexterity after initial treatment such as chemotherapy, radiation therapy or hormone therapy. The women were followed for a 11-year period and as many as 36 percent were found physically inactive.

Physical activity has been associated with a better long-term prognosis in breast cancer patients, while physical inactivity has been linked to bad outcomes.

A health observer suggested that breast cancer patients who died early may not voluntarily be physically active. Those who were physically inactive may have a worse condition in the first place. That is, physical inactivity may simply serve as a “biomarker” to indicate the severity of breast cancer and their overall health condition.

Healthcare reform law provides education on breast cancer prevention in young women

Breast cancer when found in young women tends to be more aggressive compared to breast cancer diagnosed in older women. Media reports say the healthcare reform law provides measures against development of breast cancer in women between ages of 15 and 44.

Under the law, the centers for Disease Control and Prevention is required to create education programs that are focused on young women and breast cancer and to encourage a healthy lifestyle that promotes prevention and early detection of the condition.

The law also provides $9 million annually between 2010 and 2014 for groups to help young women with breast cancer. Under the law, the National Institutes of health will develop new screening methods to prevent breast in young women and improve early detection, which is believed to cut risk of dying of the disease.

Breast cancer is diagnosed in 250,000 women in the United States and 10 percent of them are younger than 45 years, according to the American Cancer Society.

Simple steps can limit risk of cancer

By Ranit Mishori
Special to The Washington Post
Tuesday, September 28, 2010

There was a time when “cancer” was a word that was only whispered in polite society. It was the devastating, invidious illness that almost nothing could be done about. Death from cancer was ugly, unavoidable and best not thought about until you absolutely had to. Preventing it was thought to be, in most cases, out of the realm of possibility.

Today, we know a great deal more about cancer and have made advances in its treatment. Yet many of us are still in denial, reluctant to engage the topic in our daily lives.

In fact, there are a number of common-sense ways to reduce your risk of getting certain kinds of cancer. No guarantees, but there are steps you can take now to improve your odds.

And guess what? They’re the same things you do to avoid getting heart disease. That’s right: Watching your weight, avoiding junk food and getting exercise – which you already knew will would help to fend off a heart attack – also greatly reduce your chances of getting cancer.

According to the American Cancer Society, about a third of the 550,000 American cancer deaths each year are linked to obesity, poor diet and inactivity. Another third are due to smoking.

In other words, one of the biggest contributors to cancer risk is lifestyle – and that’s something over which you have control.

The numbers behind this statement? “Forty percent of breast cancer cases in the U.S. – about 70,000 cases a year – could be prevented” by changes in behavior, says Susan Higginbotham, director of research for the American Institute of Cancer Research.

A German study published last year in the Archives of Internal Medicine showed a 36 percent reduction in cancer risk overall among people who changed to more-healthful habits. A Harvard School of Public Health study described 44 percent of cancer deaths as avoidable in a report that appeared in BMJ, a British medical journal.

None of this is easy, but bad habits can be changed, and it’s good to know which ones count when it comes to reducing your risk of cancer. So here they are:

Obesity

More than 100,000 cancer cases each year – cancers of the uterus, esophagus, pancreas, kidney, gallbladder, breast and colon – are linked to being overweight, according to the AICR. Scientists believe it partly has something to do with estrogen stored in and produced by our fat cells.

In women, “fat cells are a major source of estrogen after menopause,” says Michael Thun, vice president emeritus of epidemiology and surveillance at the American Cancer Society. That estrogen, he notes, “promotes the development of uterine and breast cancer.”