| FDA Approves Prostate Cancer Drug
The Food and Drug Administration has approved a new drug to fight the prostate cancer. The Food and Drug Administration has approved a new drug to fight the prostate cancer. Peoria physician Dr. Joseph Banno of Midwest Urological says it holds new promise for those suffering from the late stages of the disease. The new treatment for prostate cancer involves a drug called degarelix. Over the last decade, more and more cases of prostate cancer have been found relatively early...and are treatable through radiation and chemotherapy. But—for a minority –the disease is discovered in its late stages. That's where degarelix, pronounced day–guh–RELL–ix,offers some new hope. Prostate cancer is known to grow in the presence of testosterone, so suppression of testosterone has been a treatment goal for advanced prostate cancer for many years.
Golfer's words ring true about game's paradox
He retired in 1995 when he and his wife, Doris, moved to Palm Coast where he loved playing golf until prostate cancer took control of his life. While receiving chemotherapy treatments from Dr. Becki Melton, Stuart became aware of the patients in the clinic who relied on hospice to transport them each day because they either lived alone or someone was unable to care for them. He was very concerned about those patients and how they were to be cared for, and felt that it was a sad way to live out their final days. Stuart and Dr. Melton began talking about her dream of some day having a hospice facility in Palm Coast. After Stuart's death in 2001, his wife and friends joined with Dr. Melton to begin making this dream a reality. The Hospice House has now been opened for two years or so with eight bedrooms constantly full.
Vitamin D deficiency may increase risk of colds, flu
"A respiratory infection in someone with otherwise healthy lungs usually causes a few days of relatively mild symptoms," explains Carlos Camargo, MD, DrPH, MGH Department of Emergency Medicine and senior author of the study. "But respiratory infections in individuals with an underlying lung disease can cause serious attacks of asthma or COPD that may require urgent office visits, emergency department visits or hospitalizations. So the impact of preventing infections in these patients could be very large."
The authors stress that the study's results need to be confirmed in clinical trials before vitamin D can be recommended to prevent colds and flu. "We are planning clinical trials to test the effectiveness of vitamin D to boost immunity and fight respiratory infection, with a focus on individuals with asthma and COPD, as well as children and older adults � groups that are at higher risk for more severe illness," Ginde says.
Men's treatment 'can help women'
A hormone treatment normally given to men with prostate cancer can help women with early breast cancer, research has found. Zoladex was found to reduce the long-term risk of disease recurrence and death in pre-menopausal women. In men, Zoladex reduces production of the male sex hormone testosterone, which can fuel prostate cancer, and it works in a similar way in women but instead cuts production of the female sex hormone oestrogen - which spurs on the growth of most breast cancers. Zoladex is the brand name of the drug goserelin. It interferes with a mechanism in the brain that regulates sex hormones. A total of 2,706 women were enrolled in the Zoladex in Premenopausal Patients Study led by British doctors at University College London (UCL).
Novartis, Portola ink potential $575M deal
OncoMed's antibodies target cancer stem cells that could be responsible for the growth and spread of breast, lung, ovarian and other solid-tumor cancers. It started Phase I studies just five months ago. Medivation is enrolling patients in a Phase III Alzheimer's Disease trial for Dimebon and last summer. It completed a Phase II study of the drug in July in patients with Huntington's Disease. The Pfizer-Medivation deal included a $225 million upfront payment with the potential for $500 million in precommercial and commercial milestones. Medivation also would receive 40 percent of all profits from the drug in the United States and a royalty on all non-U.S. sales, and Pfizer is paying for 60 percent of U.S. development costs and all non-U.S. development costs. Copyright 2009 bizjournals.com Back to News Home .
Soup kitchen offers free lunch, focus on fellowship
Because the soup kitchen is based out of the youth center, which is a United Way agency and an affiliate of the Tobacco Coalition, the program is also being used to promote health and wellness. "We're going to use this as a captive audience to get health issues into the community," said Nancy Smith, who is a program director at East-John Youth Center. "You're able to get into the community that wouldn't normally have access to this info," said Smith, who cited health topics promoted at the soup kitchen as including prostate and colon cancer. The idea of community itself was one of the leading factors drawing people — some of whom said they were already retired and had not been severely affected by the economy — into the soup kitchen. One of these individuals was Constance Johnson of Dowell who said it was her second week attending.
Silibinin Suppresses Growth of Human Prostate Carcinoma PC-3
Silibinin is currently under phase II clinical trial in prostate cancer patients; however, its antitumor effects and mechanisms are not completely understood. Herein, we studied the efficacy and associated mechanisms of silibinin against orthotopically growing advanced human prostate carcinoma PC-3 tumors. Athymic male mice were orthotopically implanted with PC-3 cells in prostate and 1 week later after surgical recovery were gavaged daily with silibinin (100 mg/kg body weight) for 7 weeks. Silibinin treatment reduced the lower urogenital weight (including tumor, prostate, and seminal vesicle) by 40% (P < 0.05) without any toxicity in mice. Silibinin decreased proliferating cell nuclear antigen expression and proliferating cells (P < 0.001) but increased cleaved caspase-3-positive cells (P < 0.01) and apoptotic cells (P < 0.001) and suppressed tumor microvessel density (P < 0.001) and vascular endothelial growth factor expression (P = 0.02).
'Just for Men's Health' seminar draws dozens
Every subject including nutrition, psychiatric disease, diabetes, renal disease, prostate cancer and erectile dysfunction were discussed. "Nothing is off limits," Pinchback said and the discussion was no-holds-barred. The seminar was exclusively male. Only male doctors spoke. .
Learn to Love: Cauliflower
Cruciferous veggies may help prevent cancer, and they are known to reduce the risk of lung, colon, breast, ovarian, and bladder cancers. This class of veggies, cauliflower included, also benefit the liver and the cardiovascular system. The reasons to love cauliflower are plentiful! Not sure how to cook it? See my new favorite way to prepare cauliflower when you read more. .
(12/15) ASCO recommends increase in cancer research funding and
New Treatment Options for Hard-to-Treat Cancers: Lung and pancreatic cancers are among the most lethal: lung cancer is the top cancer killer in the United States, and just five percent of pancreatic cancer patients survive five years or more following diagnosis.Two studies over the past year identified ways to improve outcomes for people with both diseases - one found that the targeted therapy cetuximab (Erbitux) improves survival for advanced non-small cell lung cancer patients; another found that the chemotherapy drug gemcitabine (Gemzar) improves survival after surgery for patients with early-stage pancreatic cancer. New Cancer Drug Approvals: Identifying and expanding treatment options for people with cancer is critical to improving patient outcomes. This year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved new treatments that will have a significant impact on patient care - the targeted therapy bevacizumab (Avastin) for women with advanced breast cancer that does not express the HER2 protein (the majority of breast cancers), and bendamustine (Treanda) for people with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, a cancer with few treatment options.
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