Progress in fight against cancer of ovaries, breasts

Significant progress is being made in the prevention and treatment of ovarian and breast cancer, according to findings discussed at a global oncology conference. "The studies presented at this meeting show impressive progress in disease control and prevention of breast cancer," said Dr. Andrew Seidman, professor of medicine at Cornell University. "Also, two consistent studies demonstrated the benefit of adding bevacizumab (Avastin) to standard chemotherapy for ovarian cancer," he added. Avastin, produced by Swiss biotech giant Roche, blocks the development of blood vessels needed for tumor growth. A clinical trial showed a 52 percent reduction in the risk of progression of recurrent ovarian cancer in women who took Avastin in combination with platinum-based chemotherapy. The most striking finding at the 47th annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology was that Aromasin, which blocks the production of estrogen, reduced by 65 percent the risk of breast cancer in high risk post-menopausal women. Close to three-quarters of breast cancer tumors need estrogen to grow. Annually, there are 1.3 million new cases of breast cancer and nearly 500,000 women die worldwide. In the United States, only lung cancer accounts for more deaths in women. Paul Goss of Harvard Medical School and lead author of the study on exemestane -- sold under the brand name Aromasin -- said it's the "first major clinical trial" in the past 10 years on breast cancer prevention. "Exemestane may be considered a new option for the prevention of breast cancer," Goss said during a press conference. The clinical study was conducted from 2004 to 2010 and enrolled 4,560 women from the United States, Canada, Spain and France who had at least one major risk factor such as being age 60 or older, or having prior breast cancer tumors, including breast cancer with mastectomy. Half the participants received Aromasin, produced by US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, and half were given a placebo. After a period of three years, the Aromasin group had about one third as many invasive cancers as those in the placebo group -- a result corresponding to what researchers expected at the beginning of the trial, Goss said.

Aromastate inhibitors like exemestane are distinct from other anti-estrogen therapies such as tamoxifen and raloxifene, which have been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration as preventative therapies for women at high breast cancer risk. Exemestane, too, has been approved by the FDA, for use in early breast cancer patients. The most common side effects reported by Aromasin users include fatigue, hot flashes, insomnia and joint pain. Also Saturday, researchers said extra radiation treatment lowers the rate of breast cancer recurring in women who have had tumors surgically removed. More than 1,800 women participated, receiving whole breast radiation (WBI) alone or WBI along with radiation to the surrounding lymph nodes. Five years later, women who received radiation treatment to the breast and lymph nodes had a 41 percent lower rate of recurrences near the tumor site and a 36 percent lower rate of cancer recurrences in other parts of the body. "These results are potentially practice-changing," said Timothy Whelan, an oncology professor at McMaster University of Canada and lead author of the clinical study. Dr. Howard Scher, a leading cancer researcher from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York presented the findings of a study on cancer cells. The number of cancer cells that have broken off from the tumor and reached the blood stream affects the survival rate of patients suffering from advanced stages of prostate cancer, he said. One of the problems preventing progress in the fight against cancer is identification of reliable early indicators that may signal whether a treatment can prolong the life of a patient, Scher explained. A Phase III trial known as COU-AA that involved 1,195 patients showed that the drug Zytiga developed by US laboratory Johnson and Johnson significantly improved overall survival in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. The drug helped reduce the number of circulating tumor cells from "unfavorable" to "favorable" counts, the researchers said. The findings could affect development of future treatment procedures because these markers could be used to evaluate the effectiveness of a new therapy in prolonging the patient's life, replacing clinical trials that are longer and more expensive.

Cancer Update from Johns Hopkins

This email has passed by my inbox quite a few times in the last week. I wanted to point out a few things and give a reference to a more reliable source than a forwarding email. Jump to the below link to see what a credible source has to say about the Cancer Update from Johns Hopkins email. Source: http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org Addressing #1: while evasive cancer cells are a challenge and the focus of ongoing research, it does not mean, as the email contends, that all patients, even those treated successfully for cancer, have cancers-in-waiting undetectable but still there. People are treated and completely cured of cancer everyday. Addressing #6-10: Chemotherapy and radiation therapy kills cancer cells with remarkable selectivity, says Nelson. Surgery is the first line of treatment for many types of cancer. It does not cause cancer to spread. Addressing #15: How stress, faith, and other factors influence this is largely unknown. We would like people to be happy, loving, and stress free, simply because it is a nice way to live and can contribute to an overall feeling of well being, says Platz. There is no evidence, however, that a person prevents or causes cancer based on his or her state of mind. Addressing #16: Platz recommends regular exercise as a part of any healthy lifestyle, but says there is no evidence that breathing deeply or receiving oxygen therapy prevents cancer. The viral trend email is below. Many of the tips are just that, good tips. There is no evidence to show that many of these tips are a direct influence on cancer and cancer prevention. This is an extremely good article. Everyone should read it. AFTER YEARS OF TELLING PEOPLE CHEMOTHERAPY IS THE ONLY WAY TO TRY (TRY, BEING THE KEY WORD) TO ELIMINATE CANCER, JOHNS HOPKINS IS FINALLY STARTING TO TELL YOU THERE IS AN ALTERNATIVE WAY. Cancer Update from Johns Hopkins: Every person has cancer cells in the body. These cancer cells do not show up in the standard tests until they have multiplied to a few billion. When doctors tell cancer patients that there are no more cancer cells in their bodies after treatment, it just means the tests are unable to detect the cancer cells because they have not reached the detectable 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. size. Cancer cells occur between 6 to more than 10 times in a persons lifetime. When the persons immune system is strong the cancer cells will be destroyed and prevented from multiplying and forming tumors. When a person has cancer it indicates the person has nutritional deficiencies. These could be due to genetic, but also to environmental, food and lifestyle factors. To overcome the multiple nutritional deficiencies, changing diet to eat more adequately and healthy, 4-5 times/day and by including supplements will strengthen the immune system. Chemotherapy involves poisoning the rapidly-growing cancer cells and also destroys rapidly-growing healthy cells in the bone marrow, gastrointestinal tract etc, and can cause organ damage, like liver, kidneys, heart, lungs etc. Radiation while destroying cancer cells also burns, scars and damages healthy cells, tissues and organs. Initial treatment with chemotherapy and radiation will often reduce tumor size. However prolonged use of chemotherapy and radiation do not result in more tumor destruction. When the body has too much toxic burden from chemotherapy and radiation the immune system is either compromised or destroyed, hence the person can succumb to various kinds of infections and complications.

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10. Chemotherapy and radiation can cause cancer cells to mutate and become resistant and difficult to destroy. Surgery can also cause cancer cells to spread to other sites. 11. An effective way to battle cancer is to starve the cancer cells by not feeding it with the foods it needs to multiply. 1. Sugar substitutes like NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, etc are made with Aspartame and it is harmful. A better natural substitute would be Manuka honey or molasses, but only in very small amounts. Table salt has a chemical added to make it white in color Better alternative is Braggs aminos or sea salt. Milk causes the body to produce mucus, especially in the gastro-intestinal tract. Cancer feeds on mucus. By cutting off milk and substituting with unsweetened soy milk cancer cells are being starved. Cancer cells thrive in an acid environment. A meat-based diet is acidic and it is best to eat fish, and a little other meat, like chicken. Meat also contains livestock antibiotics, growth hormones and parasites, which are all harmful, especially to people with cancer. 4. A diet made of 80% fresh vegetables and juice, whole grains, seeds, nuts and a little fruits help put the body into an alkaline environment. About 20% can be from cooked food including beans. Fresh vegetable juices provide live enzymes that are easily absorbed and reach down to cellular levels within 15 minutes to nourish and enhance growth of healthy cells. To obtain live enzymes for building healthy cells try and drink fresh vegetable juice (most vegetables including be an sprouts) and eat some raw vegetables 2 or 3 times a day. Enzymes are destroyed at temperatures of 104 degrees F (40 degrees C). 5. Avoid coffee, tea, and chocolate, which have high caffeine Green tea is a better alternative and has cancer fighting properties. Water-best to drink purified water, or filtered, to avoid known toxins and heavy metals in tap water. Distilled water is acidic, avoid it. Cancer Cells Feed On: 12. Meat protein is difficult to digest and requires a lot of digestive enzymes. Undigested meat remaining in the intestines becomes putrefied and leads to more toxic buildup. 13. Cancer cell walls have a tough protein covering. By refraining from or eating less meat it frees more enzymes to attack the protein walls of cancer cells and allows the bodys killer cells to destroy the cancer cells. 14. Some supplements build up the immune system (IP6, Flor-ssence, Essiac, anti-oxidants, vitamins, minerals, EFAs etc.) to enable the bodies own killer cells to destroy cancer cells.. Other supplements like vitamin E are known to cause apoptosis, or programmed cell death, the bodys normal method of disposing of damaged, unwanted, or unneeded cells. 15. Cancer is a disease of the mind, body, and spirit. A proactive and positive spirit will help the cancer warrior be a survivor. Anger, un-forgiveness and bitterness put the body into a stressful and acidic environment. Learn to have a loving and forgiving spirit. Learn to relax and enjoy life. 16. Cancer cells cannot thrive in an oxygenated environment. Exercising daily, and deep breathing help to get more oxygen down to the cellular level. Oxygen therapy is another means employed to destroy cancer cells. Johns Hopkins has recently sent this out in its newsletters. This information is being circulated at Walter Reed Army Medical Center as well. Dioxin chemicals cause cancer, especially breast cancer. Dioxins are highly poisonous to the cells of our bodies. Dont freeze your plastic bottles with water in them as this releases dioxins from the plastic. Recently, Dr Edward Fujimoto, Wellness Program Manager at Castle Hospital , was on a TV program to explain this health hazard. He talked about dioxins and how bad they are for us. He said that we should not be heating our food in the microwave using plastic containers. This especially applies to foods that contain fat He said that the combination of fat, high heat, and plastics releases dioxin into the food and ultimately into the cells of the body. Instead, he recommends using glass, such as Corning Ware, Pyrex or ceramic containers for heating food You get the same results, only without the dioxin. So such things as TV dinners, instant ramen and soups, etc., should be removed from the container and heated in something else. Paper isnt bad but you dont know what is in the paper. Its just safer to use tempered glass, Corning Ware, etc. He reminded us that a while ago some of the fast food restaurants moved away from the foam containers to paper The dioxin problem is one of the reasons.

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Please share this with your whole email list Also, he pointed out that plastic wrap, such as Saran, is just as dangerous when placed over foods to be cooked in the microwave. As the food is nuked, the high heat causes poisonous toxins to actually melt out of the plastic wrap and drip into the food. Cover food with a paper towel instead. This is an article that should be sent to anyone important in your life. 1. 2. 3. No plastic containers in micro. No plastic wrap in microwave. No water bottles in freezer