Archive for September, 2008

Do you know how to identify the brain cancer symptoms? Tumor that is majorly responsible for brain cancer, primarily damages the vital neurological pathways, when the cancer reaches advanced stage. So, it is very important for you to identify the warning signs of brain cancer in initial stages.

Identify the symptoms in early stages to avoid various brain cancer complications!

The symptoms of brain cancer usually develop overtime and its characteristics mainly depend up on the location and size of the tumor present in your brain.

When the tumor is located in the front lobe of your brain then it can possibly cause these symptoms:

• Changes in behavior and also the way you react to emotions.
• Inability to judge things properly.
• Unable to sense different smells.
• Decreased mental capacity.
• Loss of proper vision and also inflammation in the optic nerve. This condition of inflammation in optic nerve is usually referred as papilledema.

If the tumor is located at parietal lobe of your brain, then it can possibly cause these particular symptoms of brain cancer.

• Loss of proper speech
• Inability to write
• Spatial disorders
• Lack of identification
• Seizures

In a first-of-its-kind finding, researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center have discovered that exposure to the hepatitis B virus (HBV) may increase the risk of pancreatic cancer.

The study also suggests that patients with this lethal form of cancer treated with chemotherapy may face danger of reactivation of their HBV.

Pancreatic cancer is diagnosed in 37,000 people in the United States each year, and more than 34,000 people die of the disease annually, according to the American Cancer Society.

It is often diagnosed in the late stages and is especially perplexing because few risk factors are known.

“If this study is validated, it will give us more information about the risk factors of pancreatic cancer and possibly even help prevent it in some cases,” said lead author Manal Hassan, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor in M. D. Anderson’s Department of Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology.

HBV and hepatitis C virus (HCV) are major global health problems, affecting about 2 percent of the population worldwide.

In the United States 1.25 million people have chronic HBV, while 3.2 million have chronic HCV. These systemic viruses can harm the body in a variety of ways, including traveling through the bloodstream and damaging tissues throughout the body.

Cancer patients with tumors that have spread to the brain (brain metastases) who undergo stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) and whole brain radiation have more than double the risk of developing learning and memory problems, compared to those who only have stereotactic radiosurgery, according to a study.

“Results of this study show that initial stereotactic radiosurgery alone, coupled with close observation, could become the standard of care for patients newly diagnosed with brain metastases to best preserve their neurocognitive function,” Eric L. Chang, M.D., lead author of the study and a radiation oncologist at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, said.

“Results of this study could change the practice of how brain metastases are managed in the United States.”

Stereotactic radiosurgery is a specialized type of external beam radiation therapy that pinpoints high doses of radiation directly on the cancer in a shorter amount of time than traditional treatments (one day, instead of several weeks).

Whole brain radiation therapy treats the visible lumps of the cancer and the invisible tumor deposits that are so small they may not be seen on even a sensitive imaging test. Therefore, the entire brain is treated to try to stop the spread of the tumors.

Vaginal cancer is one of the rare forms of cancer that mainly affects your vagina, a muscular tube that mainly connects uterus with other genitals present outside of your vaginal portion. It often occurs in the cells that line up the surface of your vagina.

However, vaginal cancer can occur at any age throughout your entire course of your life. But, it possibly takes place when you cross 60 years of age.

Be aware with the factors that can increase your risk of vaginal cancer!

There are certain factors which can increase your risk of vaginal cancer. Some of the most important factors, which you must consider to decrease your risk of vaginal cancer can mainly include:

• Human papillomavirus (HPV): This virus is generally transmitted with direct exposure to it. HPV virus can greatly increase your risk of various cancers, including vaginal cancer. HPV virus mainly stimulates the growth of cancerous and precancerous cells on your vaginal areas and increases your risk of vaginal cancer. If you have undergone hysterectomy for the removal of uterus or ovaries, even then you are considered to be at increased risk of developing vaginal cancer.

A long-awaited federal study of an X-ray alternative to the dreaded colonoscopy confirms its effectiveness at spotting most cancers, although it was far from perfect.

Medicare is already considering paying for this cheaper, less intrusive option that could persuade more people to get screened for colon cancer. And some experts believe the new method may boost the 50 percent screening rate for a cancer that is the country’s second biggest killer.

“We’re talking about for the first time really screening the population,” said Dr. Carl Jaffe, an imaging expert at the National Cancer Institute who was not involved in the research.

In the new study, the largest of its kind, the so-called “virtual colonoscopy” identified nine out of 10 people who had cancers and large growths seen by regular colonoscopies.

But there were flaws, too. Among them: The radiologists sometimes misread the X-ray, leading them to spot polyps that weren’t there. That led to unnecessary follow-up testing.

The X-ray test’s real value may be in showing who really needs a regular colonoscopy — it was better at ruling cancer out than it was at detecting it, suggests the report in Thursday’s New England Journal of Medicine.

The results of a study presented that Avastin combined with gemcitabine-cisplatin chemotherapy improves the time lung cancer patients live without progression of the disease, according to Swiss drugmaker Roche. There was also a positive trend to extended survival.

Patients with previously untreated, advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) survived up to 30 percent longer without disease progression when Avastin was added to the treatment regimen, according to a final analysis of the “Avail” trial presented at the European Society of Medical Oncology in Stockholm.

The tumor response rate increased by up to 70 percent compared with chemotherapy alone, Roche added.

Roche, which is a partner with Genentech in Avastin development, said the study was not powered to demonstrate an overall survival benefit.

As a result — as previously announced — there was no statistically significant difference in survival between those who did and did not receive Avastin.

But there were some encouraging signs.

An exploratory analysis of overall survival in patients without second-line therapies showed a trend towards improvement of survival in patients given Avastin compared with those given chemotherapy alone, from 7.3 months to 8.7 months.

Read more at Reuters

Are you recommended to have gastrectomy? More often, gastrectomy is preferred for most severe stomach cancer symptoms.

When you have gastrectomy, it is quite common for you to experience nausea, vomiting, nutritional deficiency, weight loss, diarrhea and also dumping syndrome that takes place when the food enters into your small intestine quickly.

You can certainly experience all these side effects of stomach cancer, when you eat more food at a time, more than your digestive system’s capacity. So, if you are really concerned to control these particular changes in your health, here are few tips for you.

Make healthy food choices!

When your body doesn’t get required nutrients at right time and when you lose your ability to absorb essential nutrients, you can develop nutritional deficiencies. So, consult your personal dietician or general physician and take proper suggestions to make healthy food choices.

Implement small, frequent meals in your routine diet program!

After gastrectomy, your stomach may not be able to accommodate large amounts of food at a time. So, try to take small and frequent meals to improve your digestion. This can help you to add enough calories to your body by reducing intestinal symptoms.

Two new studies contain disappointing news for people who’ve undergone colon cancer treatment.

Colon cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer death in the United States, according to background information in the JNCI study.

As many as 80 percent of people diagnosed with colon cancer have localized disease, which means at the time of surgery, it appears that the cancer hasn’t spread to other sites.

When colon cancer is surgically removed, surgeons also remove surrounding lymph nodes to look for any signs that the cancer has spread.

The first study, published in the Sept. 9 online edition of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute (JNCI), found that just 38 percent of U.S. hospitals sampled were testing enough lymph nodes after colon cancer surgery to accurately assess the extent to which the disease had spread.

The second study, in the Oct. 15 issue of the journal Cancer, found that only 40 percent of people who’d been successfully treated for colon cancer were receiving all of the recommended follow-up tests.

Of the first study, Dr. Durado Brooks, director of prostate and colorectal cancer for the American Cancer Society, said, “It’s concerning that such a low percentage of hospitals are in compliance.”