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Medicine: After the recess appointment of a Medicare and Medicaid head, an FDA panel drops its endorsement of a widely used cancer drug. Another FDA-approved cancer therapy may not be paid for. It begins. It didn't take long for the health care philosophy of Dr. Donald Berwick, President Obama's choice to head the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services, and an appointee we have labeled a "one-man death panel," to have an effect. Berwick is an admirer of Britain's National Health Service and its National Institute for Clinical Excellence, with the Orwellian-acronym NICE. "NICE," Berwick has said, "is extremely effective...

Medicine: The administration's nominee to run Medicare and Medicaid is a fan of Britain's National Health Service and rationing services. He believes in less discretion for your doctor, more power for your government. 'The decision is not whether or not we will ration care — the decision is whether we will ration with our eyes open" is what Dr. Donald Berwick, President Obama's nominee to head the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services, said in an interview published in Biotechnology Healthcare in June 2009. The question is whether the Senate will confirm Berwick with open eyes. Berwick says: "NICE is...

The Food and Drug Administration approved a new immune-boosting therapy for prostate cancer on Thursday, the first therapeutic vaccine for cancer ever approved by the agency. The approval opens the door to a whole new approach to cancer therapy, adding a unique weapon to the arsenal of oncologists. The vaccine, Provenge, has been shown to extend survival in patients with advanced prostate cancer by four months, more than twice as long as chemotherapy, and to increase three-year survival by 38%. A lot of people have been working in labs, biotechs and pharma companies looking for a proof of principle" that...

The anticipated approval this week of a therapeutic prostate cancer vaccine by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration could be a milestone against the disease and cancer in general, experts say. The vaccine, called Provenge, appears to extend survival in men with advanced prostate cancer, and it does so without the serious side effects associated with chemotherapy, radiation and hormone therapy. "It is certainly exciting to see a drug that has made it this far and appears on the threshold of approval," said Dr. J. Len Lichtenfeld, the deputy chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society. The vaccine is...

Colour change shows the presence of minuscule amounts of key enzymes. Enzymes snip apart the links between nanoparticles, prompting a colour change.Laromaine, A. et al. A detection kit that uses nanoparticles to seek out tiny amounts of disease-related enzymes could offer sensitive and fast diagnoses of cancer, HIV and other diseases.The diagnostic test has been developed and refined by Molly Stevens, a biomedical materials scientist at Imperial College London, and her colleagues. Stevens presented recent work on the test at the American Chemical Society meeting in San Francisco, California, on 21 March.In earlier experiments, Stevens made a test for enzymes...

UC Davis research shows walnuts affect genes related to tumor growth(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — Walnut consumption slows the growth of prostate cancer in mice and has beneficial effects on multiple genes related to the control of tumor growth and metabolism, UC Davis and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Western Regional Research Center in Albany, Calif. have found. The study, by Paul Davis, nutritionist in the Department of Nutrition and a researcher with the UC Davis Cancer Center, announced the findings today at the annual national meeting of the American Chemical Society in San Francisco. Davis said the research findings provide additional...

ATLANTA — The American Cancer Society is urging doctors to make clearer to men that the test used to screen for prostate cancer has limits and may lead to unnecessary treatments that do more harm than good. The cancer society has not recommended routine screening for most men since the mid-1990s, and that is not changing. But its new advice goes farther to warn of the limitations of the PSA blood test that millions of American men get now. It also says digital rectal exams should be an option rather than part of a standard screening.

Monash University biomedical scientists have identified a new way to treat castrate resistant cells in prostate cancer sufferers – the most common cancer in Australian men. For more than 60 years the main way to treat men with prostate cancer has involved removing the hormones that fuel growth of the cancer cells. Although initially effective this treatment inevitably fails and when the tumour growth resumes, the disease in incurable. The team, from the Prostate & Breast Cancer Research Program, has discovered a way to treat these potentially fatal diseased cells, which remain in a patient after they have undergone hormone...

Oscar-winning actor Louis Gossett Jr. says he is being treated for prostate cancer. Gossett, who made the announcement Tuesday, says the disease was caught early and he expects to make a full recovery. The 73-year-old actor says he is going public about the disease because there is not enough emphasis in the African-American community on fighting it with preventive examinations and early treatment. Gossett has appeared in dozens of films. He won an Oscar for best supporting actor in 1983 for his portrayal of the no-nonsense Navy flight school sergeant who whips Richard Gere into shape in "An Officer and...

Enlarge ImageControversial link. A previous study of chronic fatigue syndrome pointed to a retrovirus found in cancerous prostate cells (magnified in inset).Credit: ROBERT SCHLABERG AND HARSH THAKER Here we go again. Late last year, scientists seemed to be homing in on the cause of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS)—excessive tiredness and other symptoms that have no known biological cause--by finding a supposed viral link. But a new paper challenges that link, a development that may plunge the field back into the same confusion and acrimony that has characterized it for years. Many CFS patients report that their symptoms began after...

US researchers have found an antibody that hunts down prostate cancer cells in mice and can destroy the killer disease even in an advanced stage, a study showed Monday.

Oliver L. North, host of FOX News Channel’s documentary series "War Stories," is temporarily off the air while he undergoes treatment for prostate cancer, POLITICO has learned. North’s prognosis is excellent, according to sources. North, the Iran-contra figure, became a popular conservative radio host and U.S. Senate candidate in Virginia in 1994. “War Stories” bills itself as profiling “the wars and warriors that shaped American military history.” When he visits military bases, soldiers and Marines scramble for the autograph of the man they call “Colonel North” but who introduces himself with a breezy, “Ollie North.” From North’s biography on FoxNews.com:...

Controversy over the benefits of screening for breast cancer and prostate cancer hit the headlines and the blogosphere when the New York Times reported that the American Cancer Society is planning to temper its proscreening message for breast and prostate cancers, and a prominent representative of the society denied it on his blog. By the end of the day, the society's chief medical officer, Dr. Otis W. Brawley, posted a firm statement that the ACS stands by its screening guidelines. “The bottom line is that mammography has helped avert deaths from breast cancer, and we can make more progress against...

LOS ANGELES – Dennis Hopper has been diagnosed with prostate cancer and is canceling all travel plans to focus on treatment. Manager Sam Maydew says the 73-year-old actor and artist is being treated through a "special program" at the University of Southern California. Asked about Hopper's prognosis, Maydew said, "We're hoping for the best."

The American Cancer Society, which has long been a staunch defender of most cancer screening, is now saying that the benefits of detecting many cancers, especially breast and prostate, have been overstated. It is quietly working on a message, to put on its Web site early next year, to emphasize that screening for breast and prostate cancer and certain other cancers can come with a real risk of overtreating many small cancers while missing cancers that are deadly... --snip-- The new analysis — by Dr. Laura Esserman, a professor of surgery and radiology at the University of California, San Francisco,...

Could a virus be the cause of chronic fatigue syndrome? A study published last week in the journal Science... --snip-- Further testing after the paper was written found the virus in nearly 98 percent of about 300 patients with the syndrome, Dr. Mikovits said. --snip-- The study received a mixed review from Dr. William C. Reeves, who directs public health research on the syndrome at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He called the research exciting but preliminary, and said he was surprised that a prestigious journal like Science had published it, because the researchers did not state the...

Prostate cancer pathogen may be behind the disease once dubbed 'yuppie flu'. A study on chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) has linked the mysterious and controversial disease to a recently discovered retrovirus. Just last month researchers found the same virus to be associated with aggressive prostate tumours.Chronic fatigue syndrome is seen as a serious but poorly defined disease.PUNCHSTOCK CFS is marked by debilitating exhaustion and often an array of other symptoms, including memory and concentration problems and painful muscles and joints. The underlying cause of the disease is unknown; it is diagnosed only when other physical and psychiatric diseases have been...

Petraeus Has Prostate Cancer By ERIC SCHMITT Published: October 5, 2009 WASHINGTON — Gen. David H. Petraeus, the commander of American military forces in the Middle East, received a diagnosis of early-stage prostate cancer in February but has undergone “successful” radiation treatment to deal with the illness, according to a statement issued late Monday. Stephen Crowley/The New York Times Gen. David H. Petraeus, the commander of American military forces in the Middle East, at the Newseum in Washington last week. He received a diagnosis of early-stage prostate cancer in February. General Petraeus, 56, who as head of the United States...

Toronto researchers have developed a portable device they say will accurately diagnose prostate cancer in 30 minutes. The microchip technology, created by a pair of University of Toronto scientists, will be able to determine the severity of the tumours through a simple urine sample and produce quick diagnosis with no need for painful biopsies. Now heading into the engineering stage, a BlackBerry-sized device should be available for doctors' use within two to three years and eventually could be tuned to detect a broad range of cancers and infectious ailments, the researchers say. "The goal would be to produce a result...

A small molecule earlier found to have both anti-fat and anti-cancer abilities works as a literal turnoff for fat-making genes, according to a new report in the August 28th issue of the journal Chemistry and Biology, a Cell Press journal. The chemical blocks a well known master controller of fat synthesis, a transcription factor known as SREBP. That action in mice that are genetically prone to obesity causes the animals to become leaner. It also lowers the amount of fat in their livers, along with their blood sugar and cholesterol levels. "We are frankly very excited about it," said Salih...