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Former Florida Senate President Jim King, who sometimes fought Gov. Jeb Bush and his own Republican Party over the Terri Schiavo right-to-die battle in 2005, died Sunday after a brief battle with pancreatic cancer, a family spokeswoman said. He was 69

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has pancreatic cancer, South Korean broadcaster YTN said on Monday in an unsourced news flash. Kim's health is one of the most closely guarded secrets in the reclusive communist state. (Reporting by Jack Kim, Editing by Dean Yates)

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Enlarge ImageBlocked. Chemo drugs (green) can't penetrate a pancreatic tumor (blue). White stroma (insert) separates blood flow from tumor cells (light brown).Credit: Stefanie Reichelt, Michal Al Jacobetz, and Kenneth P. Olive; (inset) Kenneth P. Olive Almost 95% of pancreatic cancer patients die within 5 years of diagnosis, and traditional chemotherapy does little to save their lives. Now, cancer researchers think they know why--and how they might get around the tumor's defenses. The work "has huge ramifications for how we approach therapy of this disease," says Margaret Tempero, an oncologist at the University of California, San Francisco. Cancers almost always...

TALLAHASSEE -- State Sen. Jim King, a Jacksonville Republican and 22-year veteran of the Legislature, has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, the lawmaker's longtime spokeswoman said Saturday. “During a recent routine post-legislative session checkup, Senator Jim King was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. While Senator King plans to seek additional medical counsel and aggressive treatment, he is aware that this particular type of cancer is difficult to treat and manage, and that the outcomes are, at best, guarded," said Sarah Bascom, a political consultant and longtime spokeswoman for King, in a statement.

ACTOR Patrick Swayze has reportedly started saying goodbye to family and friends after learning his cancer has spread to his liver. The Dirty Dancing and Ghost star, who in January was told he had pancreatic cancer, has started preparing himself for death, reports say "Patrick recently got word that the cancer had spread to his liver and that is what his doctors said would begin the countdown to the end," a source told National Enquirer magazine. "Patrick knew it was coming because he was suffering increased weakness. "At times, he was so weak that he could barely walk without feeling...

OKLAHOMA CITY — Doctors at the OU Cancer Institute announced Friday that they have discovered a way to find cancer stem cells in tumors, destroy them and keep them from reoccurring. The team of researchers, led by Dr. Courtney Houchen, M.D. and Shrikant Anant, Ph.D., are using the Mushashi-1 protein, which only appears in adult stem cells, to develop a compound that can kill the stem cells and cancer cells, while leaving normal cells untouched. This is the first time doctors have been able to separate the cancer forming stem cells from normal cells. Houchen said they are going after...

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - In mice implanted with human pancreatic cancer tumors, injecting live Streptococcus bacteria, similar to those that cause strep throat, directly into the tumors caused the tumors to shrink and die, German scientists report. "The utilization of live bacteria," as a danger signal, Dr. Claudia Maletzki told Reuters Health, "obviously has great potential for activating the immune system." Given the poor prognosis of patients with advanced pancreatic cancer, "novel" interventions are "imperative," Maletzki and colleagues at the University of Rostock note. In culture experiments, the researchers established that streptococcal bacterium known as S. pyogenes could mediate...

My mother, Connie Loughman, was diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer in August 2007. As you may know (due to the media attention surrounding Patrick Swayze's diagnosis) Pancreatic Cancer has very high mortality rate since most patients are diagnosed at a late stage of the disease and there are few effective treatments. The courage and tenacity my mom has shown in this battle is more than even an adoring daughter like me could have ever hoped for. She has done all she can to fight this terrible disease but now it's my turn to show that same strength and determination and fight...

AURORA, Colo. (CBS4) ― There is new hope for patients diagnosed with inoperable pancreatic cancer. There's a new treatment being studied in Colorado and it has already cured one patient. Most patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer die from it, but a national clinical trial has left Richard Jordan, from Fort Collins, cancer free. Jordan has defied the odds. Just over a year ago, he was diagnosed with inoperable pancreatic cancer -- the tumor was choking a major blood vessel. "You usually don't last more than six months," Jordan said. Doctors at the University of Colorado Cancer Center offered some hope....

Sorry for long title and caps. I am typing thru tears. My mom is dying of pancreatic cancer. She raised my son and I got thru to Red Cross & Hospice and they approved it. Military is denying it saying she is not loco parentis. On top of that nobody knows how to do the paper work. My son is her baby (30 Year Old Marine) and she is all she wants. Seems to be holding on for him. She just took a drastic turn for the worst yesterday. I need a congressman/senator anyone who I can call and try...

Source: Harvard School of Public Health Date: January 17, 2007 Link Found Between Periodontal Disease And Pancreatic Cancer Science Daily — Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer death in the U.S.; more than 30,000 Americans are expected to die from the disease this year. It is an extremely difficult cancer to treat and little is known about what causes it. One established risk factor in pancreatic cancer is cigarette smoking; other links have been made to obesity, diabetes type 2 and insulin resistance. In a new study, researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and...

PHILADELPHIA -- Consumption of Vitamin D tablets was found to cut the risk of pancreatic cancer nearly in half, according to a study led by researchers at Northwestern and Harvard universities. The findings point to Vitamin D's potential to prevent the disease, and is one of the first known studies to use a large-scale epidemiological survey to examine the relationship between the nutrient and cancer of the pancreas. The study, led by Halcyon Skinner, Ph.D., of Northwestern, appears in the September issue of Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention. The study examined data from two large, long-term health surveys and found...

Excerpt - Luciano Pavarotti is recovering in New York after surgery for pancreatic cancer, Terri Robson, his London-based manager, announced today. The legendary 70-year-old tenor had been preparing to leave New York last week to perform in the U.K. when a routine medical test indicated he had a malignant pancreatic mass, which has been completely removed. "Pavarotti is recovering well and his physicians are encouraged by the physical and emotional resilience of their patient," Robson said in a statement. All remaining dates on his 2006 farewell tour have been cancelled, however. ~ snip ~

In one of the largest studies of its kind, UCSF researchers have found that eating lots of fruits and vegetables -- particularly vegetables -- is associated with about a 50 percent reduction in the risk of developing pancreatic cancer. Pancreatic cancer is difficult to diagnose and remains largely untreatable. It kills about 30,000 people in the U.S. each year and has a five-year survival under four percent. The vegetables most strongly associated with increased protection were onions, garlic, beans, yellow vegetables (such as carrots, yams, sweet potatoes, corn and yellow squash), dark leafy vegetables and cruciferous vegetables. Light-green vegetables, tomatoes...