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There was a FReeper named "Jaysun" back in 2007 and early in 2008, who announced in February of this year that he had contracted some kind of cancer, and that the prognosis was NOT good. He received an outpouring of sympathy in that thread, from me also, who had "talked" to him in personal "FR mail" over some subject of other. His FR profile showed him posed with his new infant daughter. So it was ever so much more touching and hard to bear to hear and read him talking about not being long for this world. He made a...

In a move that could lead to significant changes in medical care for older men, a national task force on Monday recommended that doctors stop screening men ages 75 and older for prostate cancer because the search for the disease in this group was causing more harm than good. The guidelines, issued by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, represent an abrupt policy change by an influential panel that had withheld any advice regarding screening for prostate cancer, citing a lack of reliable evidence. Though the task force still has not taken a stand on the value of screening in...

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — UC Davis Cancer Center physicians today released results of research showing that Vietnam War veterans exposed to Agent Orange have greatly increased risks of prostate cancer and even greater risks of getting the most aggressive form of the disease as compared to those who were not exposed. The findings, which appear online now and will be published in the September 15 issue of the journal Cancer, are the first to link the herbicide with this form of cancer. The research is also the first to utilize a large population of men in their 60s and the prostate-specific...

My cousin Kevin and his wife Lane are experiencing simultaneous major medical problems. Lane has been caring for Kevin since one of his kidneys failed this spring, his condition has worsened and he has been diagnosed with a form of leukemia (Myelodysplasia with refractory anemia with excess blast) and now Lane has been diagnosed with colon cancer. Please keep them both in your prayers as they struggle under this double burden. My cousin Cathy is on her way to help and could use prayers for strength also.

The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center made John Kanzius an offer he did refuse. Kanzius met earlier this month with top administrators from the Pittsburgh health-care system. They told him they wanted to fund all cancer research for his external radio-wave generator. In return, UPMC would have owned the project's intellectual property rights for cancer treatment. Kanzius thought about it for a day. "I told them no," Kanzius said Tuesday, the first time he has spoken publicly about the UPMC offer. "They said they would invest millions of dollars in it, but my question is, do I want a single...

Christina Applegate, the 36-year-old Emmy-nominated star and producer of "Samantha Who?," is reportedly undergoing treatment for breast cancer. An announcement confirming the diagnosis was delivered by a representative of the actress late Saturday on "Extra," the celebrity news show: "Christina Applegate was diagnosed with an early form of breast cancer. Benefiting from early detection through a doctor ordered MRI, the cancer is not life threatening. Christina is following the recommended treatment of her doctors and will have a full recovery."

As a mother of three with no health insurance and a low-wage job, 32-year-old Brandielee Marendo was thrilled to get into the Army. Last year, she entered basic training at Columbia’s Fort Jackson, full of hopes for a career in computers and high-tech air defense. Then she found a small lump in her breast during her third week of basic training. A diagnosis of Stage II breast cancer meant a bilateral mastectomy, chemotherapy and what could be years of follow-up medication. But it didn’t mean an immediate discharge. Marendo is now assigned to Fort Jackson’s “Wounded Warrior Transition Unit,” one...

After a rough couple of weeks, Barbara Wagner finally got some good news Monday. Last month, she found out that her lung cancer, which had been in remission for about two years, had come back. After her oncologist prescribed a cancer drug that could slow the cancer growth and extend her life, Wagner was notified that the Oregon Health Plan wouldn’t cover the treatment, but that it would cover palliative, or comfort, care, including, if she chose, doctor-assisted suicide.

Scientists from The Institute of Advanced Studies at Princeton and the University of California discovered that the underlying process in tumor formation is the same as for life itself—evolution. After analyzing a half million gene mutations, the researchers found that although different gene mutations control different cancer pathways, each pathway was controlled by only one set of gene mutations. This suggests that a molecular "survival of the fittest" scenario plays out in every living creature as gene mutations strive for ultimate survival through cancerous tumors. This finding, which appears in the August 2008 issue of The FASEB Journal, improves our...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A biopsy conducted on skin taken from the face of U.S. Republican presidential candidate John McCain showed no skin cancer, medical authorities said on Tuesday. McCain, who has suffered from skin cancer in the past, had a spot removed from his face during a routine checkup in Scottsdale, Arizona, on Monday and had it checked to ensure it was not cancerous. "The biopsy that was performed did not show any evidence of skin cancer," said Michael Yardley, a spokesman for the Mayo Clinic. "No further treatment is necessary." The spot, visible on the Arizona senator's face and...

The original draft of John McCain’s speech at the Livestrong Summit Thursday evening made no mention of his own struggle with cancer. The text made a jab at Barack Obama, emphasized the need for improved health care and vowed to take on the tobacco industry — but excluded all references to the Arizona senator’s bout with melanoma.

ARLINGTON, VA -- U.S. Senator John McCain's presidential campaign today announced that John McCain will participate in a town hall meeting on cancer alongside Lance Armstrong at the LIVESTRONG Summit in Columbus, Ohio on Thursday, July 24th.

On Friday I reported that the U.S. scored poorly on the Commonwealth Fund’s National Scorecard. Those in favor of universal health care are probably rejoicing. “The U.S. system is dysfunctional beyond repair and we need universal health care!” Yesterday, the Economist reported on an article in The Lancet Oncology journal which found that the U.S. has the best five year survival probabilities for breast and prostate cancer. Score one for those against universal health care. “The American free market is always the best!” How can this be? How can we reconcile these two results? The Lancet Oncology article controls also...

Drug for deadly prostate cancer Aggressive prostate cancer has a poor prognosis Scientists are hailing a new drug to treat aggressive prostate cancer as potentially the most significant advance in the field for 70 years. Abiraterone could potentially treat up to 80% of patients with a deadly form of the disease resistant to currently available chemotherapy, they say. The drug works by blocking the hormones which fuel the cancer. The Institute of Cancer Research hopes a simple pill form will be available in two to three years. We believe we have made a major step forward in the treatment...

FORT MYERS, Fla. - A WINK News exclusive: new details in the possible cure for cancer. On Sunday night, "60 Minutes" re-broadcast their profile of Sanibel resident John Kanzius, which originally aired in April. WINK News talked with John Kanzius Sunday night over the phone. In the conversation, we learned this is just the beginning, and some incredible advancements have been made in the past few months. "That piece was shot in January. The research is so far ahead that piece I look at it in amazement," John Kanzius said. John Kanzius is part-time Sanibel resident. He suffers from leukemia...

Tony Snow, a conservative writer and commentator who cheerfully sparred with reporters in the White House briefing room during a stint as President Bush's press secretary, died July 12 of colon cancer. He was 53. The following was apparently written by Tony a couple of years ago. What a strong testimony to the faith of one person. Oh, that we all could be this strong. Blessings arrive in unexpected packages — in my case, cancer. Those of us with potentially fatal diseases — and there are millions in America today — find ourselves in the odd position of coping with...

I have the sad news of reporting that also succumbing to cancer on Saturday was Patricia “Trish” Bozell, beloved sister of WFB. Our sympathies to our good friend Brent and the entire Bozell family, to Priscilla, Jim, and Reid Buckley, and all friends and family. I read this from Philippians (1:12) as if St. Paul wrote it from Heaven: “To me life is Christ, and death is gain.” It's hard not to read it today as if a message from Tony and Trish, as if to say: Do not be afraid. We’re in good shape. Make sure you come and...

As with most cancers, the risk of breast cancer increases with age. Yet while doctors tell women to have annual mammograms after age 40, they often advise 85-year-olds to go two or even three years between scans. The problem, doctors say, is too little data. Large clinical trials, including those that have found that mammography saves lives, tend to focus on younger people and exclude the very old. A recent study that tried to assess the usefulness of mammography among 80- and 90-year-olds found that very few women in this age group, 22 percent, underwent regular screenings for breast cancer,...

It took only an instant for 58-year-old Gailanne Reeh to go from the picture of health to death's door. By chance, her doctor noticed a lump under her arm during a routine exam. It turned out to be advanced breast cancer... --snip-- What does it mean to say an expensive drug works? Is slowing the growth of tumors enough if life is not significantly prolonged or improved? How much evidence must there be before billions of dollars are spent on a drug? Who decides? When, if ever, should cost come into the equation? --snip-- Mr. Lemieux, who was a sales...

Former White House press secretary Tony Snow died Saturday after a long battle with colon cancer. He was 53. His father, Jim Snow, 76, who lives in The Villages in Lake County, talked about his son with Sentinel reporter Gabrielle Finley. "I saw him in the hospital, spent four or five days with him. I think the hardest thing is he looked like he was making a recovery on Thursday. "His sister called me Thursday and said he had been able to sit up for about 15 minutes and they had reduced the amount of oxygen he had been on....

This is quite a look back, and an emotional one at that. I found this video tonight from the MSNBC website. This was taken while Tony Snow was still alive, and great compassion was shown by David Gregory. I truly believe that anyone who worked with Tony had a deep respect and admiration for him.

Scientists have used a common cold virus to "light up" prostate cancer tumours in different parts of the body. It could make it easier for doctors to track the spread of the disease, and check the effectiveness of treatment. A University of California at Los Angeles team found the virus "infected" prostate cancer cells in mice, then made them visible to scanners.

We get repeated chances to learn that life is not about us—that we acquire purpose and satisfaction by sharing in God's love for others. Sickness gets us partway there. It reminds us of our limitations and dependence. But it also gives us a chance to serve the healthy. A minister friend of mine observes that people suffering grave afflictions often acquire the faith of two people, while loved ones accept the burden of two people's worries and fears.

Mobile phones have become an essential component of modern living. However, the marked increase in the use of wireless mobile telephony throughout the world has also raised some serious health concerns, as mobile phones utilize electromagnetic radiation in the microwave range. While currently available data does not show any negative health effects resulting from the low levels of electromagnetic energy emitted by mobile phones, there is some conflicting scientific evidence that may be worth additional study, according to FDA. "We don't see a risk looking at currently available data, but we need more definite answers about the biological effects of...

Enlarge ImageNanomission.Nanoparticles (blue) hit their target in a pancreatic tumor (top); healthy pancreatic tissue without tumor (bottom left); a pancreatic tumor with nanoparticle (green) targeting the tumor blood cells (bottom right)Credit: (top) Milan Makale/UCSD Cancer Center; (bottom) Bharat Majeti, Eric Murphy, and Milan Makale/UCSD The drugs cancer patients take to destroy their tumors also cause debilitating side effects such as nausea, weight loss, and even heart problems. But now researchers report that they can curb the spread of cancer cells in mice with drug concentrations far lower than the standard dose. The key is using a microscopic particle that...

Researchers at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA have solved the structure of a class of proteins known as sodium glucose co-transporters (SGLTs), which pump glucose into cells. These transport proteins are used in the treatment of chronic diarrhea via oral rehydration therapy, saving the lives of millions of children each year. The solution of the SGLT structure will accelerate development of new drugs designed to treat patients with diabetes and cancer. Led by Jeff Abramson and Ernest Wright of the UCLA Department of Physiology, the research team produced an "atomic snap shot" of an SGLT protein. Using...

Rachel Wright gave her mother nearly an extra three years of life and together they played a pioneering role in the battle against a rare form of cancer called mantle-cell lymphoma. In the fall of 2005, Rachel, an Eisenhower graduate living in Seattle, allowed researchers to harvest her stem cells for transplantation into her mother, longtime Yakima resident Mary Roche Wright. Mary received a new immune system from her daughter that would hopefully fight off the lymphoma cells. The odds that Rachel would even be a donor were only 1 in 10,000. "We often don't even check the daughter because...

FOR five gruelling months, Carol Kanga suffered through treatment for a life-threatening case of throat cancer linked to an unlikely source: a sexually transmitted viral infection. Unable to swallow food or water during chemotherapy and radiation treatment, Kanga was fed through a stomach tube. "The radiation basically burns the skin off the outside and inside of your throat," said Kanga, 52. "It's like there's a fire inside your neck." Kanga's treatment was successful, but the virus that struck her is causing increasing concern among some researchers who think it is causing a small-scale epidemic of throat cancer. That virus, scientists...

A vaccine that targets a common virus may stave off glioma tumor regrowthEditor's Note: This story will be published in the next issue of Scientific American Mind.The deadliest and most common type of brain cancer has a strange bedfellow: cytomegalovirus, a kind of herpes present in about 80 percent of the U.S. population. Now scientists are exploiting this coincidence to treat the cancer with a vaccine that targets the virus and slows tumor regrowth.In 2002 scientists showed that cytomegalovirus, or CMV, was active in the brain tumors but not the surrounding healthy tissue of all 27 patients they tested who...

U.S. Sen. Bob Casey lowered a lighted match to a test tube filled with saltwater. An orange flame instantly erupted from the mouth of the tube. "I'm two for two at igniting the saltwater," Casey said with a smile. Casey spent part of Wednesday afternoon at Industrial Sales and Manufacturing Inc., watching a demonstration of Millcreek Township inventor John Kanzius' radio-frequency device. He is the latest on the list of high-ranking public officials who have trekked to the yellow-brick laboratory on West 15th Street to see the device. Gov. Ed Rendell and U.S. Rep. Phil English, of Erie, R-3rd Dist.,...

John Kanzius couldn’t tell his wife what he was doing. He’d been diagnosed with a rare form of B-cell leukemia in 2002, and he’d endured months of chemotherapy. But still the cancer persisted. As he tells it: “I go into a partial remission or whatever. In another six or eight months, it’s back again. So, I go back into some more chemotherapy.” Then one late night in 2003, unable to sleep and energized with an idea, the chemo-battered Kanzius began to tear apart the couple’s vacation home on Sanibel Island. “Of course, I couldn’t say at that point that I’m...

Just over a year ago several media outlets reported that John Kanzius, an amateur inventor from Erie, Pa., had discovered a seemingly impossible phenomenon: a way to burn salt water by exposing it to radio waves. Videos of the experiment became YouTube sensations, though they garnered as many critical comments as favorable ones. Now that the initial fervor has waned, we checked in with Kanzius, a collaborator and some critics to see how the technique has progressed, or if it's just another example of Web-propelled junk science. Kanzius' concept is simple: expose salt water to 13.56 MHz radio waves and...

LONDON (Reuters) - Just a few more portions of broccoli each week may protect men from prostate cancer, British researchers reported on Wednesday. ADVERTISEMENT The researchers believe a chemical in the food sparks hundreds of genetic changes, activating some genes that fight cancer and switching off others that fuel tumors, said Richard Mithen, a biologist at Britain's Institute of Food Research.

It was a Friday afternoon, and Dr. Allan Friedman was headed for a vacation in Canada when his cell phone rang. Sen. Ted Kennedy, newly diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor, had searched the nation for the best neurosurgeon to remove the growth -- and he wanted Friedman. By the following Monday, a horde of reporters was camped outside Duke Medical Center, and Friedman was performing a tricky operation inside the brain of one of the country's most powerful politicians. It was at once an honor and a burden for a man who has spent 34 years building a reputation...

Denise GallagherJune 30, 1956 - June 29, 2008

A drug developed using nanotechnology and a fungus that contaminated a lab experiment may be broadly effective against a range of cancers, U.S. researchers reported on Sunday. The drug, called lodamin, was improved in one of the last experiments overseen by Dr. Judah Folkman, a cancer researcher who died in January. Folkman pioneered the idea of angiogenesis therapy -- starving tumors by preventing them from growing blood supplies. (snip) "I had never expected such a strong effect on these aggressive tumor models," she said. The researchers believe lodamin may also be useful in other diseases marked by abnormal blood vessel...

New therapies offer promise for patients, say researchers at SNM's 55th Annual Meeting, June 14-18 NEW ORLEANS, La.—Using noninvasive molecular imaging technology, a method has been developed to track the location and activity of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) in the tumors of living organisms, according to researchers at SNM's 55th Annual Meeting. This ability could lead to major advances in the use of stem cell therapies to treat cancer.  "Stem cell cancer therapies are still in the early stages of development, but they offer great promise in delivering personalized medicine that will fight disease at the cellular level," said Hui...

The June 19, 2008 headline reads “US doctors kill skin cancer with cloned T-cells.” Does this suggest that human cloning of embryonic stem cells has been successful in treating skin cancer? Absolutely not! The details of the New England Journal of Medicine report that generated this news coverage reveal that adult stem cells obtained from the patient were used. As reported in ScienceDaily, researchers “removed CD4+ T cells, a type of white blood cell, from a 52-year-old man whose Stage 4 melanoma had spread to a groin lymph node and to a lung. T cells specific to targeting the melanoma...

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Scientists at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center are about to embark on a human trial to test whether a new cancer treatment will be as effective at eradicating cancer in humans as it has proven to be in mice. The treatment will involve transfusing specific white blood cells, called granulocytes, from select donors, into patients with advanced forms of cancer. A similar treatment using white blood cells from cancer-resistant mice has previously been highly successful, curing 100 percent of lab mice afflicted with advanced malignancies. Zheng Cui, Ph.D., lead researcher and associate professor of pathology, will...

HAVANA, June 24 (Reuters) - Cuban scientists said on Tuesday the first vaccine to extend lives of lung cancer patients has been approved by Cuban authorities for use and is available in the island's hospitals. The drug, CimaVax EGF, has been shown to increase survival rates on average four to five months and much longer in some patients, they said in a news conference at Cuba's Center of Molecular Immunology. In contrast to chemotherapy, the traditional treatment for lung cancer, they said CimaVax EGF has few side effects because it is a modified protein that attacks only cancer cells. The...

Enjoy your chocolate with less guilt – a study at the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, which is affiliated with Georgetown University Medical Center, has found that a synthetic chemical based on a compound found in cocoa beans slows the growth of cancerous tumors and speeds their destruction. “We have all heard that eating chocolate is good for you; this study suggests one reason why that might be true,” said researcher Min Kim, Ph.D. “This chemical seems to be safe, which makes sense because it has a structure similar to a natural product in cocoa beans, the same beans used to...

Vitamin D Linked To Colon Cancer Survival ScienceDaily (June 20, 2008) — Patients diagnosed with colon cancer who had abundant vitamin D in their blood were less likely to die during a follow-up period than those who were deficient in the vitamin, according to a new study by scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. The findings of the study -- the first to examine the effect of vitamin D among colorectal cancer patients -- merit further research, but it is too early to recommend supplements as a part of treatment, say the investigators from Dana-Farber and the Harvard School of Public...

A revolutionary cancer treatment may be on the horizon stemming from a breakthrough in understanding how tumors grow. The new hypothesis is that only small numbers of tumor cells, identified as cancer stem cells, are to blame for tumors becoming cancerous. Researchers believe cancer stem cells, which represent only a tiny percentage of tumor cells, create and stimulate the growth of tumors in the same way other stem cells create organs. A drug using the new theory will soon be ready for human trials. “We think it’s going to be very possible to develop safe and effective agents targeting cancer...

A cancer patient has made a full recovery after being injected with billions of his own immune cells in the first case of its kind, doctors have disclosed. The 52-year-old, who was suffering from advanced skin cancer, was free from tumours within eight weeks of undergoing the procedure. After two years he is still free from the disease which had spread to his lymph nodes and one of his lungs. Doctors took cells from the man's own defence system that were found to attack the cancer cells best, cloned them and injected back into his body, in a process known...

US doctors have for the first time successfully treated a skin cancer patient with cells cloned from his own immune system, a study released Wednesday showed. The ground-breaking treatment for advanced melanoma, or skin cancer, led to a long remission for the patient and used his own cloned infection-fighting T-cells, said doctor Cassian Yee, the lead author of the study in the New England Journal of Medicine. Yee and his associates from the Clinical Research Division at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle removed CD4+ T-cells, a type of white blood cell, from a 52-year-old man whose melanoma had...

Agata Mroz celebrating a win in volleyball Rome, Jun 16, 2008 / 12:24 pm (CNA).- Thousands of Poles lined up to say their final goodbyes to Agata Mroz, a young volleyball star who died on June 4 after postponing a bone marrow transplant in order to allow her daughter to be born.At the age of 17, Agata was diagnosed with leukemia. She battled the disease and ended up becoming one of the top athletes in Poland, winning the European Volleyball Championship twice with her country’s team. She joined the professional volleyball team CAV in Murcia, Spain, where she also...

SMITHFIELD, R.I. - Sen. Edward Kennedy enjoyed the Father's Day weekend surrounded by family at his home and preparing to "do battle," undergoing radiation and chemotherapy treatments for his brain cancer, said his son, Rep. Patrick Kennedy. The Rhode Island congressman told The Associated Press his father had been comforted by the company of friends and family in recent days, but that his visitors were aware he needed moments of quiet and breaks from entertaining as he fights the cancerous brain tumor. "Everyone wants to be with him. But we also need to give him space and time to recover,...

With privately bought drugs proving to be up to five times as effective as NHS treatments, The Sunday Times reports on the suffering the co-payments ban is inflicting on patients... The National Health Service is providing dying cancer patients with drugs that are five times less effective than those available privately and is refusing to treat them if they try to buy medicines themselves. One drug for kidney cancer, routinely available through public health systems in most European countries but not to British patients, can reduce the size of tumours in 31% of patients, compared with just 6% of those...

A cancer drug that could have saved Jane Tomlinson's life is being made widely available in the UK. Tomlinson, who died last September aged 43, was denied Lapatinib because her NHS trust would not pay the £6,700 cost. Her husband Mike campaigned for it to be made widely available after her death. Mr Tomlinson said his wife had found it distressing that she did not have easy access to the drug before her death in September. The mother of three raised £1.75m, much of which was used for facilities run by the trust which refused to help her. Mrs Tomlinson...

NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- Paul Newman, who has recently appeared gaunt in photos and dropped plans to direct a play in his Connecticut hometown, is battling cancer, his longtime neighbor and business partner said Wednesday. Writer A.E. Hotchner, who partnered with Newman to start Newman's Own salad dressing company in the 1980s, said the 83-year-old actor told him about the disease about 18 months ago. He doesn't say what kind of cancer, but said Newman is in active treatment. "I know that it's a form of cancer," Hotchner told The Associated Press. "It's a form of cancer and he's dealing...