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Hiroshima University researchers have found that fermented stevia extract may fight pancreatic cancer without harming healthy cells—potentially making it more than just a zero-calorie sugar substitute.art samuel/ShutterstockPancreatic cancer shows significant resistance to existing treatments like surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation.“Globally, the incidence and mortality rates of pancreatic cancer continue to rise, with a five-year survival rate of less than 10 percent,” study coauthor Narandalai Danshiitsoodol, associate professor at Hiroshima University, said in a press statement.There’s a growing need to find new, effective cancer-fighting compounds—especially those that come from medicinal plants, said Danshiitsoodol.Fermentation Unlocks Cancer-Fighting PowerThe study, recently published in the International...

A 23-year-old British woman who died after refusing conventional cancer treatment was allegedly undergoing “five coffee enemas a day” under the care of her mother, a controversial health influencer. Paloma Shemirani’s brother made the claim this week during an inquest into her death, which came seven months after doctors told the Cambridge graduate she had an 80% chance of surviving non-Hodgkin lymphoma with chemotherapy, according to the BBC. Instead, she pursued an unproven alternative cancer regimen promoted by her mother, Kate Shemirani, who claimed to have used it successfully in the past. Paloma died of a heart attack on July...

Hair loss is one of the most feared and traumatic side effects of cancer chemotherapy treatment. That's why scalp cooling caps, often worn during chemotherapy, have become an increasingly common sight in cancer wards. Chemotherapy drugs work by killing rapidly dividing cancer cells—unfortunately, they cause collateral toxicity to rapidly dividing healthy cells in our body, like those in the roots of our hair. Automated scalp cooling devices are used just before, during and after chemotherapy. It reduces blood flow to the scalp, meaning less of the drug reaches the hair follicles. But despite its potential, scalp cooling doesn't work for...

Spain is gearing up to lead a bold new charge in the global fight against cancer, promising pinpoint precision and fewer complications. A relatively new proton-powered treatment, known as proton therapy, has just arrived in Spain, and it’s sparking hope everywhere. Unlike traditional radiotherapy (which uses photons), this supercharged method fires protons directly into tumours, stopping the radiation from spilling over into surrounding healthy tissue. Why it matters: Fewer side effects: Because proton beams halt right where the tumour lurks, there’s far less damage to healthy cells. Kid-friendly: In children, it drastically cuts the risk of future complications and developmental...

Search... SERIOUSLY?! Biden Grants Clemency to Doc Who Defrauded Medicare by Withholding Chemo From Cancer Patients Amy Curtis Amy Curtis 9:45 PM on December 14, 2024 AP Photo/Matt Rourke There have been some very interesting, if not downright infuriating, names on Joe Biden's historic clemency list. We told you about the kids-for-cash judge who took bribes to send children to private, for-profit prisons. One of the people President Biden granted clemency to was an Indian-American doctor who defrauded cancer patients by not providing them with their fully prescribed chemotherapy drugs while billing Medicaid for millions. Read: https://t.co/jwddKdayez — Andy Ngo...

Patients with pancreatic cancer who received chemotherapy both before and after surgery experienced longer survival rates than would be expected from surgery followed by chemotherapy, according to a new study. The study included patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), which accounts for 90% of pancreatic cancers. An aggressive cancer with a high mortality rate, PDAC is predicted to become the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the U.S. by 2030. The findings are encouraging for the 15 to 20% of pancreatic cancer patients whose tumors are operable. The single-arm (only one treatment type or regimen) Phase II trial evaluated...

Using patient data from six major U.S. cancer centers, researchers developed a risk prediction model for moderate-to-severe kidney injury after receiving the chemotherapy drug cisplatin in the largest, first generalizable study of its kind Cisplatin is a highly effective chemotherapy that has been used to treat cancer for decades, but it can cause kidney injury that can potentially lead to the discontinuation of life-saving cancer treatments. Investigators developed a comprehensive tool to predict which patients are at highest risk of moderate-to-severe kidney injury after cisplatin. They found the highest-risk patients had as much as a 20-fold higher risk of developing...

For patients with embolization-eligible unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (uHCC), the addition of durvalumab (D) and bevacizumab (B) to transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) improves progression-free survival (PFS), according to a study. Riccardo Lencioni, M.D. and colleagues randomly assigned patients with embolization-eligible uHCC to D + B + TACE, D + TACE, or TACE in a 1:1:1 ratio (204, 207, and 205 patients, respectively). The primary end point was PFS for D + B + TACE versus TACE. The researchers found that PFS was significantly improved for D + B + TACE versus TACE (median, 15.0 versus 8.2 months; hazard ratio, 0.77). Across most...

New research suggests that patients who have insufficient levels of vitamin D before starting paclitaxel treatment are more likely to experience peripheral neuropathy. According to an analysis of 1,191 patients with early-stage breast cancer—using data collected in the SWOG S0221 study—20.7% of patients with vitamin D deficiency experienced at least a grade 3 level of chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN), compared to 14.2% of those with sufficient vitamin D levels. The researchers also found that inducing vitamin D deficiency in an accompanying mice model study caused neurotoxicity-like symptoms. "These results suggest that vitamin D supplementation in patients with lower levels of...

Brain inflammation is a common side effect of ongoing chemotherapy and a catalyst for a range of debilitating physical and psychological symptoms for which there's no solution. But now new research has shown that using a supplement to increase fiber intake while undergoing chemotherapy can significantly reduce brain inflammation and the associated health issues. "Using pre-clinical models, we found that fiber supplementation directly causes positive changes in the gut microbiome and has the potential to alleviate brain inflammation following chemotherapy," Dr. Cross said. "Our study showed fiber reduced inflammation in the brain region responsible for memory by as much as...

Researchers have concluded their phase 2 trial of chemotherapy in combination with the drugs nivolumab, and regorafenib. The findings suggest that regorafenib and nivolumab with chemotherapy is safe and demonstrates some anti-tumor activity in patients with advanced oesophagogastric cancer. Based on these results, a randomized phase 3 clinical trial of the combination is planned. In previous studies, each of the drugs has demonstrated potential effectiveness against oesophagogastric adenocarcinoma. Combining these agents was expected to enhance the overall efficacy of the treatment, potentially providing better results. Despite the initial benefits of immunotherapy (like nivolumab) and chemotherapy in treating oesophagogastric cancer, many...

Since the discovery of hallmark features of senescence such as cell cycle arrest, apoptosis resistance and development of a senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP), efforts in understanding how senescent cells drive aging have grown exponentially. Targeting senescent cells with senolytics or senomorphics hold the potential to mitigate the vast majority of age-related disorders. However, the major challenge in developing novel senotherapies is the paucity of antiaging agents that have decent safety profiles. Prof. Sun Yu recently performed large scale screening of a natural medicinal agent library for senotherapeutic candidates and validated several agents, which showed their excellent potential to serve as...

"We are running low on cisplatin." "The e-mail came. We are out of carboplatin." "How do I prioritize which patients can receive the chemotherapy drugs?" "I can't give my patients the life-saving chemotherapy that they need." These are comments that have been shared in the media by oncologists throughout the country as a response to the chemotherapy drug shortages that started earlier this year. While drug shortages do happen often, the extent of this chemotherapy shortage appears unprecedented as it may be impacting as many as 500,000 Americansopens in a new tab or window. As an oncologist, I aim to...

Doubts about Vladimir Putin’s health have been re-ignited today as leaked Pentagon documents claim the Russian dictator is undergoing chemotherapy for a cancer diagnosis. Top secret intelligence papers were published online last week in what may become the worst breach of US intelligence in American living memory. -snip- Embarrassed US authorities are desperately trying to locate the source of the leaked information, but the 100 pages of sensitive information offer an incredible insight into intimate details about the Russian president’s state of health. Running in parallel to this are even more incendiary rumours about a suspected plot from within Putin’s...

Classified documents from a Pentagon intelligence report have appeared on messaging app Discord since February with top Russian officials reportedly wanting to sabotage Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin plans to "throw" Vladimir Putin's Ukraine war while he's allegedly receiving chemotherapy, leaked Pentagon documents claim. -snip- According to the leaked documents, which have since been removed from the platforms, Russian National Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev and Russian Chief of the General Staff Valeriy Gerasimov want to "throw" the president's war while he's getting treatment for cancer. The memo says: "[The source] on 22 February indicated that Gerasimov reportedly planned to continue...

Researchers in China have discovered that inhibiting a protein called the GABAA receptor can protect intestinal stem cells from the toxic effects of chemotherapy and radiotherapy. The study suggests that the FDA-approved anti-sedative flumazenil, which targets GABAA receptors, could alleviate some of the common gastrointestinal side effects, such as diarrhea and vomiting, induced by many cancer treatments. Because they have to continually proliferate and replace the cells lining the wall of the gut, intestinal stem cells are highly sensitive to chemotherapy and radiotherapy. These treatments damage the DNA of intestinal stem cells and cause them to die, leading to intestinal...

Though chemotherapy can be lifesaving, the cancer treatment often leaves patients suffering from debilitating side effects, including cognitive impairments in processing speed, memory, executive function and attention. Dubbed "chemo brain," these lingering symptoms can dramatically impact patients' quality of life long after they have completed their treatments. Currently, there are no FDA-approved drugs to mitigate these deficits. In breakthrough findings, renowned researcher Daniela Salvemini, Ph.D., and her team have uncovered some of the molecular events that happen when chemotherapy drugs cause these deficits. More promising still, they've found that an already-approved FDA drug designed to treat multiple sclerosis also appears...

Restoring normal functioning in the brains of cancer patients through neurofeedback could potentially alleviate the mental fogginess that many report after treatment, according to researchers. The study is one of the first to indicate that neurofeedback, or electroencephalogram (EEG) biofeedback, could help address cognitive deficits of cancer patients experiencing "chemo brain," a myriad of symptoms that could include problems with memory, concentration and organization, as well as other symptoms like trouble sleeping and emotional difficulties. Previous research has found that neurofeedback, in which brain waves are trained to operate in optimal frequency patterns, has helped improve cognitive function in patients...

Russian president Vladimir Putin has his bodyguards collect his excrement while on foreign trips in a bid to stop people gathering information about his health. A report has revealed that Putin's Federal Protection Service members are 'responsible for collecting his bodily waste' in special packets which are kept inside a dedicated briefcase until they return to Russia. Putin's health has been the centre of much speculation especially in recent months with the catastrophic Russian invasion of Ukraine, as instructed by the leader, including suggestions that he is suffering with cancer, dementia and even Parkinson's disease. And this latest revelation is...

VLADIMIR Putin appeared to retch and splutter through a televised meeting today - sparking fresh fears for his health after claims he's being treated for cancer. The Russian president's face looked bloated as he gripped the table in front of him during talks with Sergey Chemezov, head of state-owned defence giant Rostec. Putin, 69, sat opposite Chemezov - an ally since their KGB days in the 1980s - amid rumours he is being treated for cancer. He seemed to retch several times and struggle to speak throughout the clip released by Russian state TV. It is the latest appearance by...