WOMEN HEALTH BEAUTY CENTER

The mind in breast cancer

2007-08-25T21:43:00.001-07:00

An Austrian psychotherapist specialising in counselling breast cancer patients was in Kuala Lumpur for a conference recently to explain the psychological issues involved in a woman who has breast cancer.

WOMEN who have had mastectomy go through a mire of complex feelings which people might not be aware of.

While doctors look into the physical treatment of cancer patients, clinical psychologists, psychotherapists or psychiatrists trained in cancer patient care play an important role in addressing their psycho-social needs and serve as a link between doctors and patients.

For women who are depressed after a mastectomy, the latter would sit down with them and counsel them, said Dr Gabriele Traun-Vogt, a psychotherapist specialising in breast cancer care from the Medical University of Vienna.
“It’s normal for them not to want sex after a mastectomy. That’s because the same organ that gives pleasure in a relationship is now a source of danger,” she explained.

“Breast cancer is also a serious disease but the symptoms are not easily seen.

“They feel that their bodies have let them down,” she said.

To begin to experience healing, patients should start having a positive approach to the scarred breast, she said.

“Touch and feel the part. This is a complex mental process. People need time to realise that it is normal to have problems and they should try to regain their sense of well-being.

“They need to realise that the breast is also the ‘hurting’ part of the body and a woman should touch it lightly again to have a good feeling towards the breast again,” said Gabrielle, who has been a clinical psychologist since she was 21 and has worked with women with breast cancer for nine years.

The action is important because there is a tendency for women to avoid looking at their scarred breasts or touch them, she said.

“By touching it, you are saying to yourself that you are not hating your body.

“Start loving that hurt part by putting some nice cream on it. Buy a nice bra so that you feel better,” she said.

Being able to accept herself makes it easier for a woman to get back to her relationship, which she was not able to while undergoing and coping with treatment.

“Women usually do not share their fears with their husbands because sex is such a taboo subject, and they don’t share with other women because they feel inadequate,” she said.

While psychotherapists counsel the patient, it’s important that friends and relatives provide a listening ear, she said.

“What they need is to express their feelings. They just want to feel cared for,” she said.

Besides contending with sexuality issues, a woman may still wish to consider having children and may wonder if she can conceive, and if she can, she may have fears about the cancer recurring or that she has a shorter life-span.

Her husband too may not want the risk of raising a child all by himself in the event that she dies.

To give advice, oncologists and clinical psychologists usually work together. The oncologists would give medical information such as the risk of cancer recurring and personal prognosis while the clinical psychologists may give some guidance on coming to a decision, said Gabriele.

A woman usually needs a year to get over the chemotherapy side-effects, and she needs to discuss with her partner on how much he wants to have a child and if anything should happen, would they want to take the risk?

The greatest challenge for Gabriele is seeing young women with young children dying of breast cancer.

Usually, even doctors do not know how to help them with their issues, she said.

Under such a situation, she said she would encourage the women to bring in their children to see her as well.

“The children should know what is going on. Six- or seven-year-olds know that their mother can die from cancer and fear that they will not see their mother anymore.

“It’s important to explain to them that their mother may live for months or years and will not die ‘instantly’. That’s because they watch television and may equate death as something instant,” she said.

“It is also important to explain to children that it is not their fault that their mother has cancer because they may think that they, in some magical way, cause their mother to be sick and die.

“It is important to explain to them that cancer is a disease and it’s no one’s fault,” she said.

An example of how an incident may trigger the child to think that way – a mother has been upset with the child, which is common, and she may have said, “You really make me sick,” and when she has cancer, the boy remembers what she said and think that it was his fault and suffer from guilt as a result.

It is important for Malaysia to establish a multidisciplinary approach in cancer patient care because it requires team work from surgeons, oncologists, nurses, clinical psychologists and social workers, said Gabriele, who conducted the “Workshop Establishing Psycho-Oncology in Malaysia” in conjunction with the International Survivorship and Supportive Care Conference in Cancer recently.

“If the surgeon sees that the woman needs more help psychologically, they should know whom to call,” she said.

Psycho-oncology addresses the psychological responses of patients to cancer at all stages, and that of their families and caregivers, as well as the psychological, behavioural and social factors that may influence the disease process, said Gabriele, who oversees 400 newly diagnosed breast cancer patients every year at the university.

Are counsellors not adequate in helping cancer patients?

They usually refer more serious cases such as those suffering from severe anxiety, sleeping disorders, depression, and the danger of suicide to clinical psychologists, psychotherapists or psychiatrists trained in cancer patient, she said.

“If you are able to solve the problem in the beginning, it’ll be easier for the patients later,” she said.

In Malaysia, the field of psycho-oncology is almost unheard and in Europe, it is a relatively new discipline.

Psycho-oncology started in Austria 15 years ago and in Britain 20 years ago as the result of the patients’ rights movement. Patients want to be involved in the decision-making process and have options, said Gabriele.

“If you want to be a centre of excellence in health and medical care, international standards and guidelines require psychological support for the treatment of cancer,” she said.

thestar.com.my

Studying cancer

2007-08-25T21:39:00.000-07:00

How goes cancer research? In a nutshell, it’s going well, slowly, but surely.

WHY can’t we cure cancer when we could even land man on the moon back in 1969?

Inevitably, I get asked this question at every cocktail party when I introduce myself as an oncologist. The other common question is “What’s new in cancer treatment?” The somewhat more verbose and erudite will ask “What progress has there been lately in cancer research and treatment?”
Before I answer all these questions, let us get one thing clear. Cancer is not one disease. The word “cancer” encompasses about a hundred different entities.

Basic cancer research – molecular biology, biochemistry, cancer genomics and proteomics – attempts to tease out the similarities and differences amongst all these entities.

Based on this basic research, clinical cancer research is carried out. It usually entails testing out new treatments, eg a new drug, on patients with a certain cancer.

We have new drugs (sunitinib, sorafenib) to prolong the lives of patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (kidney cancer that has spread widely in the body).

These drugs are different from the drugs (cisplatinum, vinorelbine) used to improve cure rates in patients who have undergone surgery for early lung cancer.

So, a suitable response to the question “Why can’t we cure cancer” is “Which subset of cancer are you speaking of?”.

For many subsets of cancer, cure is possible. For many others, lives are prolonged with meaning and dignity. For a small subset, we have done less well, but good palliation is always possible.
Sixty years ago, breast cancer was treated with surgery alone. To all intents, women were not given additional treatment (adjuvant treatment in medical parlance) after surgery. At least 80% of patients relapsed and eventually died of advanced metastatic disease.

Forty-five years ago, the first chemotherapy trials were started with CMF, an acronym for the three-drug combination of cyclophosphamide, methotrexate and 5-Fluorouracil.

Tamoxifen, an anti-oestrogenic drug, was introduced for early breast cancer almost 30 years ago. With these early developments in the chemical treatment of early breast cancer, only 50% of patients relapsed.

The 1980s and 1990s saw more chemotherapy agents which were effective in this setting ie early breast cancer. Doxorubicin, paclitaxel and docetaxel produced more cures.

A new class of hormonal therapy with greater efficacy and less side effects, the aromatase inhibitors (anastrozole, letrozole, exemestane), was introduced around the late 1990s.

In the early 2000s, trastuzumab, a highly effective targeted therapy (it targets tumours in 20% of women whose breast cancer expresses the HER2 receptor) was introduced.

Today, the overall relapse rate for early breast cancer is down to 30%!

Of course, each subset of early breast cancer patients will experience a different relapse rate. This only goes to reinforce the fact that cancer is a very heterogeneous disease.

We divide up all cancers into small groups and we divide up these groups again into smaller groups – subsets of subsets if you like. And then we treat each subset differently and achieve different rates of success.

The whole point of taking you through in detail the last 60 years of research and treatment in early breast cancer is to show that it is not an overnight business.

To some, 60 years is a long wait for a 50% gain. The impatient ones would like to see all cancer patients (all subsets, all stages, all scenarios) completely cured today.

In reality, scientific cancer research (a subset of all scientific research) is a slow, laborious, intellectually honest endeavour. It starts with hypothesis generation: based on all we know of this subset of cancer and based on the theoretical actions of the new drug, will it work?

We conduct Phase I trials, then phase II trials and finally the phase III randomised clinical trials. But wait, there is more. Findings of the phase III trials are presented and finally published in a peer-reviewed journal. This new drug will eventually be accepted by the mainstream oncological community and it becomes a new standard of treatment. It takes about 20 years for a drug to get from the “bench to the bed”.

No wonder then that alternative cancer treatment (or under another guise, traditional and complementary medicine) is so attractive to so many. It meets many unmet needs with so little hassle. There is no need to trawl through all the available data and scientific methodologies.

Nothing is obvious in science. Nothing is taken for granted. No leaps of faith and no extrapolations here.

Trastuzumab was initially shown to work very well in advanced breast cancer. A 50% response rate was obtained and lives were prolonged.

By simple deduction, trastuzumab should work even better in early breast cancer where the tumour load is much smaller. Yet four randomised clinical trials were conducted at the cost of US1.2bil (RM4.08bil) to see if this drug will also work in early breast cancer. The findings of these trials have now conclusively proven that trastuzumab works very well in early breast cancer.

What of the next 60 years of scientific research in cancer?

Expect more and watch this space carefully. But don’t look for that quick unproven fix offered at every dark street corner.

thestar.com.my

Experts push NHS to use US-style cancer care

2007-08-25T21:37:00.000-07:00

LIKE many other British cancer sufferers before him, Rob Ellert travelled to one of America’s leading hospitals to give himself a better chance of survival.

Now in remission, he is so determined that National Health Service patients should no longer die unnecessarily that he has enlisted Lord Darzi, the health minister, to transfer best practice across the Atlantic. He has also set up a charity to promote American-style cancer treatment in Britain.

Ellert, a 61-year-old businessman, is part of a movement demanding a wholesale overhaul of NHS treatment of the disease. It is led by Professor Karol Sikora and Dr Maurice Slevin, two world-leading cancer experts who are based in Britain. They have set out the reforms needed by the NHS.

Figures published last week in the journal The Lancet Oncology showed that survival rates in this country are among the lowest in Europe, on a par with Poland.

Sikora, a former chief of the World Health Organisation cancer unit and now medical director of CancerPartnersUK, a private company, has taken senior Department of Health (DoH) officials on a tour of American cancer centres in the hope that they will bring back ideas to boost British survival rates.

He and Slevin, a consultant at the London Oncology Clinic, a private centre, have devised an action plan which they argue can be implemented within existing NHS budgets:

- NHS patients must be referred to a consultant within 24 hours of a GP suspecting cancer. At present, urgent cases are referred within 14 days, but many NHS cancer patients do not see a specialist for several weeks

- Scans and biopsies to determine how far a cancer has spread should be carried out within three days. At present, NHS patients can wait months.

- Surgery, radiotherapy or chemotherapy should begin within one week of diagnosis. At present, NHS patients can wait two months for treatment.

- Patients should be monitored weekly by a consultant during treatment to detect immediately if it is not working.

- Patients should be given wider access to powerful new medicines.

- Patients should receive the correct amount of radiotherapy at the correct time. A shortage of radiotherapy in Britain means that NHS patients face long delays and may not receive the correct amount of radiation.

- Patients should be treated in the evenings and at weekends to cut queues. In the NHS, expensive equipment is often switched off after 5pm.

Although the NHS has seen some improvements since the introduction of its cancer plan in 2000, experts believe that its targets are not sufficiently ambitious.

Sikora said: “There should be no delays for cancer treatment. A 62-day wait in the NHS is laughable. Patients can be waiting weeks for scans and months for radiotherapy. In Europe and the US this would all happen within 24 to 48 hours.”

Anni Matthews, 53, who is fighting breast cancer, was told by British doctors in February 2003 that she would be lucky to live until the Christmas of that year. Matthews, a former property company director, increased her chances of survival by travelling to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, Massachu-setts, where her treatment was helped by new “wonder drugs”.

Matthews said: “The Food and Drug Administration [FDA] is known to be very pernickety about licensing new drugs due to fears of legal action. If the FDA approves a new cancer drug, why is there such a delay before it is available to British patients?”

The DoH said: “Last November we announced that we were developing a cancer reform strategy . . . We expect to publish the strategy by the end of the year.”

www.timesonline.co.uk

Talcum powder 'poses cancer risk to women'

2007-08-25T21:14:00.000-07:00

The practice of discreetly puffing underwear with a dab of talcum powder may be increasing women's risk of ovarian cancer.

Research shows that women who use talc have a 17 per cent higher risk of getting the cancer. Researchers say using a small amount of talc in the pelvic area may lead to it reaching the ovaries and increasing the risk of the most common gynaecological cancer in the UK, with more than 4,000 deaths a year.

In the research, published in the International Journal of Cancer this week, data on more than 3,000 women was compared. "We confirmed a statistically significant increase in ovarian cancer risk associated with use of talc in the pelvic region," say the researchers, who are from hospitals and centres taking part in the Australian Ovarian Cancer Study Group.

The increased risk was specifically related to talc use in the pelvic region. Use on other body sites showed no association. "This suggests that use of only a small amount of talc may be required for some talc to reach the ovaries and increase risk of cancer," says the report.

It's not clear how talc could trigger the cancer. One theory is it may be carcinogenic to the covering layer of the ovaries when it get through the vagina, uterus and fallopian tubes to the ovary.

news.independent.co.uk

Eating healthy fruit, vegetables won't stop cancer

2007-08-25T21:12:00.000-07:00

FRUIT and vegetables provide no protection against cancer, according to latest Australian research that has shocked nutritionists.

In a discovery that turns conventional advice on its head, experts have admitted there is "zero evidence'' that eating fruit and vegetables can help people avoid a disease that kills nearly 40,000 Australians every year.

Research presented for the first time at last week's CSIRO Prospects for Cancer Prevention Symposium shows that what people eat is far less important in cancer prevention than previously believed.

Instead, the three prime risk factors driving up Australian cancer rates have been identified as obesity, drinking too much alcohol and smoking.

Staying within a healthy body weight range was found to be more important than following particular nutritional guidelines.

This means a slim person who doesn't eat enough fruit and vegetables would probably have a lower risk of developing cancer than someone who is overweight but eats the recommended daily amount of fruit and vegetables.

The findings emerged from the Cancer Council's Melbourne Collaborative Cohort Study, an ongoing research project involving 42,000 Australians who have been monitored since 1990.

Revealed exclusively to The Sunday Telegraph, they challenge widespread belief in the power of juices and vegetable-based ``anti-cancer'' diets to avoid or fight various types of the disease.

Dr Peter Clifton, director of the CSIRO's Nutrition Clinic, told The Sunday Telegraph there was ``zero evidence'' that eating fruit and vegetables could protect against cancer.

Heart disease is Australia's biggest killer, so fruit and vegetables are still regarded as important in maintaining health.

Professor Dallas English, of the Cancer Council of Victoria, told the symposium that despite decades of research, there was no convincing evidence on how Australians could modify their diet to reduce the risk of cancer.

``The most important thing about diet is limiting energy (kilojoule) intake so people don't become overweight or obese, because this has emerged as a risk factor for a number of cancers, including breast, prostate, bowel and endometrial (uterus),'' he said.

The link between eating red meat and bowel cancer was ``weak'' and the Cancer Council supported guidelines advising people to eat red meat three or four times a week, Professor English said.

His advice comes after Health Minister Tony Abbott last week backed a report, funded by Meat & Livestock Australia, on the dietary role of red meat.

Surprisingly, fibre was deemed to have no significant benefit in avoiding bowel cancer _ although calcium was associated with a 20 per cent reduced risk.

Likewise, a high intake of fat, considered a prime culprit since the 1970s, was found to have only a ``modest'' link to breast cancer.

Smoking caused one in five cancer deaths, while regularly drinking too much alcohol boosted the risk of several cancers including breast and bowel, Professor English said.

He and Dr Clifton acknowledged that eating fruit and vegetables might help people avoid obesity, as they were lower in kilojoules than other foods.

``The risk of every type of cancer is increased by obesity,'' Dr Clifton added.

Both experts predict a surge in cancer as a result of Australia's obesity epidemic, but say exercise can play a vital role in cutting cancer rates, potentially halving the risk of some cancers.

Sydney mother Tauri Smart, 29, said the findings ``take the pressure off'' meal preparation.

She and her husband try to eat healthily and want to set a good example for their daughters Poppy, 3, and Sadie, six weeks.

``I've always tried to push fruit and vegetables, and have a vegetarian meal at least once a week,'' Ms Smart said. ``Being able to have meat makes it easier.''

Nutritionist Dr Rosemary Stanton cast doubt on the findings and suggested the study could be flawed.

www.news.com.au

Cancer's New Pitch

2007-08-25T21:05:00.000-07:00

Sept. 3, 2007 issue - Two summers ago a group of Philadelphia-area women who were preparing for the Breast Cancer 3-Day charity walk met to decide their team name. Kelly Rooney, then a 42-year-old with five children and stage-three breast cancer, tossed out an idea: how about "Save 2nd Base," a playful allusion to that quaint high-school system in which the bases signify the progression from kissing to sex? Rooney designed a T shirt, drawing two baseballs at breast level above the slogan. By the time of the fund-raiser Rooney was too sick to walk, but her teammates wore the shirts—and many spectators commented on how much they loved the idea. So Rooney's sister Erin O'Brien Dugery and friend Kelly Day spent close to $10,000 to trademark the Save 2nd Base tagline and began selling the T shirts online and in boutiques (total sales so far: 1,000). "We can't keep them in stock—they're catching on like fire," says Jen Dailey at People People, a boutique in Stone Harbor, N.J. The women selling the shirts have pledged that after they earn back the money they've invested, 50 percent of profits will go to a breast cancer foundation set up in memory of Rooney, who died last summer.
The 2nd Base shirts aren't the only edgy brand of breast-cancer apparel out there. Since 2004, Los Angeles designer Julie Fikse has sold more than 80,000 shirts carrying variations on the message "Save the Ta-Tas"—and donated $80,000 of her profits to breast-cancer charities. Both slogans garner mostly chuckles and enthusiasm, though a few people have reacted negatively, criticizing them as too crude. (To counter that, Dugery and Day launched a more demure line carrying the slogan "S2B.")

Most people under 60 understand what "second base" means, but the motto creates occasional confusion: Dailey recalls watching an American teenager use pantomime to explain the concept to a Japanese foreign-exchange student, and Dailey had to provide a definition for her sixtysomething mother. But usually, "when someone reads it, they get it, they start laughing," says Dugery, co-owner of the company behind the shirts. And in the face of a devastating disease, a little laughter can feel like a home run.

www.msnbc.msn.com

Cancer fight gets a boost

2007-08-25T20:57:00.000-07:00

Sun Media -- Cancer researchers at the University of Manitoba have landed some major funding from the federal government under a program intended to award funds to the best of the best.

Two of the seven projects being funded across Canada as part of a five-year, $10.1 million initiative will take place here in Manitoba.

Each project will receive about $300,000 a year for five years.

"This is huge," said Donna Turner, an epidemiologist with CancerCare Manitoba who will work on both Manitoba projects. "This is a big coup for Manitoba."

All the projects, funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, focus not on clinical research seeking a cure, but on the care received by cancer patients, both in terms of access and quality. The projects were selected by CIHR via a peer-review process that aimed to choose the most promising projects based on "scientific excellence," ensuring that only the cream of the crop were chosen.
One of the two Manitoba-based projects will look at patterns of cancer incidence, risk factors and care within aboriginal populations in the province.

"One of the things we've never been able to do is separate out what's happening with cancer in our aboriginal populations," said Turner. "We think, based on what other jurisdictions like Ontario have found, that cancer is probably on the rise (among aboriginal people)."

The project should produce a cancer control strategy specific to First Nations.

The second Manitoba project will focus on the role of primary health care providers like family doctors and nurse practitioners in screening for colorectal cancer, as well as their role following treatment.

Led by Alan Katz, an associate professor of family medicine at the U of M, the research team will try to determine how primary health care providers can help improve screening for a form of cancer with high death rates often linked with late detection.

The project will also examine the best way to transfer some of the post-treatment care back from the cancer specialists to the primary care providers.

winnipegsun.com

Pregnancy Life Line center to open in Galena

2007-08-23T23:18:00.000-07:00

Pregnancy Life Line of Stone County announced today it will open a Galena center to better serve north Stone County clients.

Pregnancy Life Line is a nonprofit entity that helps those facing unplanned pregnancies. The Galena office is tentatively scheduled to open Oct. 15 at 103A N. Main St.

The additional center was needed because some clients had trouble attending sessions because of high gasoline prices.

The Galena office will offer services from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday until anticipated growth requires additional hours.

Pregnancy Life Line also has a Kimberling City location.

www.news-leader.com

Teen pregnancy higher than normal

2007-08-23T23:13:00.000-07:00

The teen pregnancy rate in Nanaimo is in decline, but still higher than the provincial and national averages, a possible indicator that health care, social services and education for young women are lagging, according to a researcher.

In 2003, the most recent data available, a rate of 44 pregnancies for every 1,000 girls between ages 15 and 19 was reported.

While that’s down from 76 in 1994, it’s still higher than the 2003 national rate of 32 or the B.C. rate of 30 per 1,000.

Alexander McKay, research coordinator at the Sex Information and Education Council of Canada in Toronto, has studied teen pregnancy rates across the country.

He said research shows that higher teen pregnancy rates generally occur in communities where girls lack a sense of empowerment over their health and future.

“What it really boils down to is that young women who have hope and confidence for their own futures are much more likely to take conscious actions to control their own sexual and reproductive health,” he said.

But, he noted, the factors that influence teens can also be highly individual, and cultural factors can play a role.

Younger pregnancies are considered normal, and even healthy, in some aboriginal communities, where parenting is shared by the extended family, he said.

Noella Rickaby, clinic supervisor at Options for Sexual Health Nanaimo (formerly known as Planned Parenthood), said that while sex educators are in Nanaimo public schools from Grade 5, the curriculum only covers the basics.

“When I would go in to do one class, like one session for a Grade 8 class, it’s not enough. It’s just not enough. Because there’s so much more to sexual health education than knowing about birth control methods and STIs and STDs,” she said.

“That’s definitely a part of it, but there’s also knowing what a healthy relationship looks like, knowing about how to evaluate your own values and beliefs, knowing how to communicate, knowing how to think these things through.

“There’s so much that surrounds it, because really it’s all about healthy relationships.”

www.nanaimobulletin.com

Hilarious pregnancy jest

2007-08-23T23:04:00.000-07:00

CONGRATULATIONS Judd Apatow, you have brought into the world a newborn lead comic actor who will have cinemagoers wailing with laughter for years to come.

His name is Seth Rogen. Who? If you saw The 40 Year Old Virgin, he was the stockroom guy, Cal.

He has “man boobs”, is Canadian and has a wonderful wry line in self-deprecating wit. Rogen’s side-splitting performance as a weed-smoking loser who gets a beautiful blonde pregnant after a drunken one-night stand is what makes Knocked Up a delight.

Director Apatow, who also made The 40 Year Old Virgin, clearly has an eye for talent. A lot of Knocked Up was filmed off the cuff, providing a dangerous edge missing in rom-coms.

The morning after Rogen’s character Ben Stone bedded television presenter Alison Scott, played by Katherine Heigl (from Grey’s Anatomy) the pair go for breakfast. Ben tries to explain that the website he is planning to launch finds nude scenes in movies and boasts: “I’ll show you Meg Ryan’s b***.”

It is risque humour for Hollywood.

Apatow cast Rogen’s real-life best friends as his cannabis-smoking mates. This creates a natural banter, which again pushes the boundaries of good taste.
So what’s not to like? Well, at two hours nine minutes Knocked Up is a bit long for a comedy. Inevitably, the cast struggle to keep up the laugh count over such a period.

The film comes to a close with probably the funniest birth scene ever.

The Sneak left the cinema looking forward to Apatow’s next creation, and hoping the wonderfully immature Rogen doesn’t grow up.

BEST LINE: There are too many to choose from, but the scene where Alison’s bosses are telling her she doesn’t need to lose weight, just to “tighten” was very funny.

The Sneak at the Movies

Pregnant pause ... Ben and Alison visit docs

Pregnant pause ... Ben and Alison visit docs

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Hilarious pregnancy jest

August 24, 2007

Knocked Up
(15) 129mins

CONGRATULATIONS Judd Apatow, you have brought into the world a newborn lead comic actor who will have cinemagoers wailing with laughter for years to come.

His name is Seth Rogen. Who? If you saw The 40 Year Old Virgin, he was the stockroom guy, Cal.

He has “man boobs”, is Canadian and has a wonderful wry line in self-deprecating wit. Rogen’s side-splitting performance as a weed-smoking loser who gets a beautiful blonde pregnant after a drunken one-night stand is what makes Knocked Up a delight.

Director Apatow, who also made The 40 Year Old Virgin, clearly has an eye for talent. A lot of Knocked Up was filmed off the cuff, providing a dangerous edge missing in rom-coms.

The morning after Rogen’s character Ben Stone bedded television presenter Alison Scott, played by Katherine Heigl (from Grey’s Anatomy) the pair go for breakfast. Ben tries to explain that the website he is planning to launch finds nude scenes in movies and boasts: “I’ll show you Meg Ryan’s b***.”

It is risque humour for Hollywood.

Apatow cast Rogen’s real-life best friends as his cannabis-smoking mates. This creates a natural banter, which again pushes the boundaries of good taste.

House about that then ... Ben Stone plays for laughs
House about that then ... Ben Stone plays for laughs

His friend Martin has agreed not to shave or cut his hair for a year as a bet and this results in the others referring to him as shoe bomber Richard Reid and saying he looks like a “woman’s vagina”.

The Sneak is not normally a huge fan of such puerile humour but in Knocked Up it seems to work.

Visits to various gynaecologists, clumsy sex and plenty of embarrassing fumbling make this movie a hysterical reflection of reality. And beneath all the sexual gags is a film with heart. Despite being mismatched, Alison and Ben decide to keep the baby.

Over seven months Ben slowly wakes from his stoned haze and learns enough life lessons to become a great future dad.

Stone me ... Rogen's real-life friends star alongside him as cannabis-smoking mates
Stone me ... Rogen's real-life friends star alongside him as cannabis-smoking mates

So what’s not to like? Well, at two hours nine minutes Knocked Up is a bit long for a comedy. Inevitably, the cast struggle to keep up the laugh count over such a period.

The film comes to a close with probably the funniest birth scene ever.

The Sneak left the cinema looking forward to Apatow’s next creation, and hoping the wonderfully immature Rogen doesn’t grow up.

BEST LINE: There are too many to choose from, but the scene where Alison’s bosses are telling her she doesn’t need to lose weight, just to “tighten” was very funny.

BEST CHARACTER: Ben Stone is the perfect slacker.

FAMILY RATING: Too much sex, drugs and bad language for all the family.

BUM NUMBNESS: It should have been 15 minutes shorter.

Beret good

Finish it ... you just want this movie to end
Finish it ... you just want this movie to end

Seraphim Falls
(15) 112mins

NEAR the end of this Western Liam Neeson’s character Colonel Morsman Carver lays on the floor unarmed and tells Pierce Brosnan’s pistol-pointing Gideon to “go on, finish it”.

At that moment a critic sitting behind The Sneak said under his breath: “Please . . .”.

It was something that your film reviewer had been thinking for the previous half-hour.

At first, you want Gideon to make good his escape in this chase film.

Especially, after he bravely yanks a bullet out of his arm with his knife. Seeing off an adversary by sitting in a tree and dropping his blade on to his head was a pretty impressive move as well.

But as Gideon misses chance after chance to break free from the posse on his tail, you just want Seraphim Falls to end.

www.thesun.co.uk

Magnitude of teen pregnancy

2007-08-23T21:37:00.000-07:00

On Page B-1 of Sunday's paper, there is an article by Tyeesha Dixon declaring the good news that state and national teen-birth rates are decreasing. According to David Landry of Guttmacher Institute, this is because "[Teenagers] are having sex at a later age."

Ironically, Page B-7 that same day contains an article about a 25-year-old man having "consensual" sex with a 13-year-old girl.

The article defines teenagers as ages 15 to 19. At BETA Center, we are seeing pregnant girls younger than ever before -- as young as 11 or 12. The younger the mother, the more likely the pregnancy has come about as a result of non-voluntary sex (including rape and incest) or victimization by older predatory males.

When you include all adolescents -- that is, ages 11 to 19 -- you get a clearer representation of the magnitude of the problem. In Orange County, teen births have increased each year since 2002 -- the greatest increases are in mothers younger than 14 years old. Clearly teen pregnancy remains a critical issue in Central Florida, one that we cannot ignore.

www.orlandosentinel.com

Fake cancer woman sentenced to 28 months jail

2007-08-23T21:28:00.000-07:00

A WEST Australian woman who faked vaginal cancer to get thousands of dollars in donations has been sentenced to 28 months in jail.

Mother-of-two Lisa Marie Mackay, 28, of Port Kennedy, was sentenced today in the West Australian District Court after pleading guilty last week to 25 fraud offences from 2004. She was arrested in 2006.

Judge Michael O'Sullivan said Mackay had received donations including $4,100 from the proceeds of the Karratha Police ball and $1,500 from the Karratha Lions club in north-west WA.

He said she also took the last $50 from a woman whose sister had cancer.

"She apologised for the small amount,'' Judge O'Sullivan said.

"It is a measure of your criminality you were undeterred by this and accepted the money,'' he said.

Mackay also accepted $1755 from a 71-year-old man who had asked her how short she was of the target for her medical treatment.

"Not surprisingly I have received a number of victim impact statements,'' the judge said today.

"The writers of them feeling cheated by you.''

Mackay started pretending to friends and family in 2004 that she had vaginal cancer, forging hospital reports to raise funds for special cancer treatment.

She received donations after publicising her faked plight in a national magazine and two regional WA newspapers.

Judge O'Sullivan said she deserved immediate imprisonment for her criminality.

"The harm done to organised charities operating legitimately has potentially been considerable,'' he said.

He sentenced her to 28 months in jail. He made her eligible for parole, but did not say when.

www.news.com.au

Cancer victim's plight gets action on solariums

2007-08-23T21:19:00.000-07:00

BRAVE cancer patient Clare Oliver is heartened by the community's response to her story that has led the State Government to act.

Ms Oliver was too ill to see visitors yesterday and was trying to retain her strength to celebrate her 26th birthday with friends and family tomorrow.

But in a statement she said she was pleased her story had touched so many people and led the Government to act on solariums.

"I am completely and utterly overjoyed at the fact that such a small action from me can cause such a huge chain reaction in the community," Ms Oliver said.

"I also want to thank everyone who has sent messages of love and support.

"These messages have given me strength."

Ms Oliver this week told how excessive solarium use and sunbaking left her with a melanoma and other cancers that will soon kill her.

Health Minister Daniel Andrews said the voluntary code of conduct for the solarium industry would be made mandatory.

The new rules will mean:

# It will be illegal to provide solarium services to children under 16.

# Those aged 16 or 17 must have parental permission.

# Compulsory health warnings.

The rules, which will be made under the Radiation Act, will be enforced from later this year.

Mr Andrews said it was believed 70-80 per cent of solariums complied with the existing voluntary code.

"We will take action. But we need to get it right.

"It is appropriate over the next couple of months we work through some of the detail.

"There are issues about whether staff have to be trained to a certain level.

"Some issues (are) in terms of fines.

"We will effectively licence each of the 500 solariums, and then there will be obviously a proper enforcement process."

Changes were first flagged in May by then health minister Bronwyn Pike, but had been fast-tracked since Ms Oliver's story went public.

Australian Solarium Association public officer Patrick Holly said he was happy with the announcement.

"We stand behind regulation of the industry," he said.

"Unfortunately, the voluntary code has not worked.

"Compliance ... is easy. Unfortunately, too many people got complacent."

Mr Holly said many Melbourne salons had not complied with standards; some had wrongly allowed unlimited use.

"It's a bit like the cigarette industry. A lot of people comply, but one or two do not."

www.news.com.au

New Cancer Weapon: Nuclear Nanocapsules

2007-08-23T21:11:00.000-07:00

Science Daily — Rice University chemists have found a way to package some of nature's most powerful radioactive particles inside DNA-sized tubes of pure carbon -- a method they hope to use to target tiny tumors and even lone leukemia cells.
"There are no FDA-approved cancer therapies that employ alpha-particle radiation," said lead researcher Lon Wilson, professor of chemistry. "Approved therapies that use beta particles are not well-suited for treating cancer at the single-cell level because it takes thousands of beta particles to kill a lone cell. By contrast, cancer cells can be destroyed with just one direct hit from an alpha particle on a cell nucleus."

In the study, Wilson, Rice graduate student Keith Hartman, University of Washington (UW) radiation oncologist Scott Wilbur and UW research scientist Donald Hamlin, developed and tested a process to load astatine atoms inside short sections of carbon nanotubes. Because astatine is the rarest naturally occurring element on Earth -- with less than a teaspoon estimated to exist in the Earth's crust at any given time -- the research was conducted using astatine created in a UW cyclotron.

Astatine, like radium and uranium, emits alpha particles via radioactive decay. Alpha particles, which contain two protons and two neutrons, are the most massive particles emitted as radiation. They are about 4,000 times more massive than the electrons emitted by beta decay -- the type of radiation most commonly used to treat cancer.

"It's something like the difference between a cannon shell and a BB," Wilson said. "The extra mass increases the amount of damage alpha particles can inflict on cancer cells."

The speed of radioactive particles is also an important factor in medical use. Beta particles travel very fast. This, combined with their small size, gives them significant penetrating power. In cancer treatment, for example, beams of beta particles can be created outside the patient's body and directed at tumors. Alpha particles move much more slowly, and because they are also massive, they have very little penetrating power. They can be stopped by something as flimsy as tissue paper.

"The unique combination of low penetrating power and large particle mass make alpha particle ideal for targeting cancer at the single-cell level," Wilson said. "The difficulty in developing ways to use them to treat cancer has come in finding ways to deliver them quickly and directly to the cancer site."

In prior work, Wilson and colleagues developed techniques to attach antibodies to carbon fullerenes like nanotubes. Antibodies are proteins produced by white blood cells. Each antibody is designed to recognize and bind only with a specific antigen, and doctors have identified a host of cancer-specific antibodies that can be used to kill cancer cells.

In follow-up research, Wilson hopes to test the single-celled cancer targeting approach by attaching cancer-specific antibodies to astatine-loaded nanotubes.

One complicating factor in any astatine-based cancer therapy will be the element's short, 7.5-hour half-life. In radioactive decay, the term half-life refers to the time required for any quantity of a substance to decay by half its initial mass. Due to astatine's brief half-life, any treatment must be delivered in a timely way, before the particles lose their potency.

The study's results are available online and slated to appear in an upcoming issue of the journal Small.

The research was funded by the Welch Foundation, Rice's Center for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology, NASA's Johnson Space Center, the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston and the National Cancer Institute, a division of the National Institutes of Health. Carbon nanotubes were provided by Carbon Nanotechnologies Inc.

Cancer plan 'achieving little'

2007-08-23T21:06:00.000-07:00

Two years after the launch of the Government's Cancer Control Action Plan, detection and access to treatment remain "uncoordinated and ad hoc" throughout New Zealand, says the Cancer Society.

Society chief executive Dalton Kelly said yesterday's report by the Health Ministry's Cancer Control Council showed it was doing "a very good job of monitoring what progress has occurred".

"But what is the point of detecting cancer if we don't have the people, equipment and medicines to treat it?

"Simply monitoring on its own is not going to achieve any results."

The council was "hamstrung" because it had no authority or independence to implement the action plan, he said.

Decision-making and funding control remained in the hands of district health boards.

"What this report shows is that despite the Government's priority objective of reducing the incidence and impact of cancer, its failure to provide any particular body with the responsibility to lead, coordinate and drive the action plan means that very little has, in reality, been achieved."

The effect on patients was that children with cancer were being sent to hospitals in different regions and women with breast cancer were sent to Australia for radiation treatment, while others were being treated with "a truncated, unproven course of Herceptin while desperately raising funds to personally fund the extended course".

Mr Kelly said it was "intolerable" that nine years after the need was identified, cancer patients in the Wellington region were still waiting for a third radiation machine.

The $5 million linear accelerator, which fires a beam to destroy tumours, cannot be installed till the ministry and DHBs decide who will pay an estimated shortfall of $500,000 in treatment funding.

Nursing shortages and the number of radiation therapists and specialists leaving the country highlighted a lack of workforce planning.

Health Minister Pete Hodgson said "good progress" was being made toward reducing the burden of cancer - but there was more work to be done.

About 70 per cent of the milestones in the first phase of the action plan had been achieved or were in progress, particularly under the goals of cancer prevention, screening and early detection.

However, the report highlighted "uneven" progress on goals for diagnosis and treatment, improving quality of life for people with cancer, service delivery, research and surveillance.

Mr Hodgson welcomed the fact that several district health boards were building capacity and capability of the cancer nursing workforce. Work was also under way to develop a national education and training framework for cancer and palliative care nursing.

"There are many good initiatives happening at a local level, and within particular district health boards," he said.

"The challenge now is to make sure these are taken up consistently across New Zealand."

www.stuff.co.nz

NSW boosts cancer funding

2007-08-23T21:03:00.000-07:00

It will allocate $3.5 million to creating an additional 25 metropolitan and rural cancer specialist teams.

Another $1.5 million will go towards a new radiation oncology research and teaching network to encourage more medical students to take up careers in cancer care.

The Government says the funding addresses a shortage of cancer specialists across the state.

The Minister for Science, Medical Research and Cancer, Verity Firth, says governments must do more in the fight against cancer.

"We know that cancer is a disease that will affect the health of one-in-two men and one-in-three women during their lifetime," she said.

"So to mark Daffodil Day, we're encouraging the public obviously to donate generously to the Cancer Council but the Government is also wanting to put its money where its mouth is."

Ms Firth says it is vital that efforts are made to attract students to specialist cancer treatment and research.

"This is about encouraging our brightest and best students to enter cancer research and to help find a cure for this disease, which remains the single biggest cause of premature death in New South Wales," she said.

www.abc.net.au

Breast Cancer Not Regulated to Women; Some Men Battle It too

2007-08-23T21:00:00.000-07:00

According to the American Cancer Society, one in eight women has a chance of developing invasive breast cancer in her life.

But the disease, which is aligned closely with women, can also affect men. One retired San Antonio judge discovered that personally.
James Barlow always prided himself on being prepared to tackle anything, both in his long legal career and in life. But late this spring, doctors shocked the grandfather with the news he had breast cancer.

"You can't prepare for that because it's totally unexpected," he said.

A Family History

For Barlow, his personal diagnosis was not his first encounter with breast cancer. Both his daughters already had been diagnosed with the disease — daughter Melissa in 2003, and Becky last year.

"The most difficult part was telling my mom," said Becky Dorsey. "[That was] because she was already dealing with my sister. Her response was, 'This was just too much.'"

With two daughters already battling breast cancer, the family decided to get genetic testing for a cancer gene.

"They wanted to study why my two daughters both have it," Barlow said.

To the family's surprise, James, not his wife, Virginia, was the carrier. For years doctors believed that breast cancer was inherited only from the mother's side. But as Barlow's case proves, breast cancer can be passed down from either parent.

"I think it may be more common than we think," Barlow said.

At least one family member wasn't surprised by the revelation.

"I wasn't as surprised we inherited the gene from him, as I was [that he] got breast cancer," said Melissa Barlow-Fischer.

According to the National Institutes of Health's Web site, male breast cancer is rare and most commonly occurs in men between ages 60 and 70. Risk factors include radiation exposure, a family history of breast cancer and having high estrogen levels.

For the Barlows, the uncommon diagnosis was most difficult for Virginia.

"Each time someone in the family got it, it was equally hard," she said.

www.abcnews.go.com

New Breast Cancer Clinical Data Accepted for Presentation at San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium

2007-08-23T20:58:00.000-07:00

Predictive medicine company PreMD Inc. today announced that an abstract entitled, 'Galactose oxidase Schiff's reactivity is higher in nipple aspirate fluid from cancerous breasts than from healthy patients' has been accepted for presentation at the 30th Annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS). The SABCS is a leading international symposium for physicians and healthcare researchers involved in breast cancer research.

"We are extremely pleased and honored that this abstract has been accepted for presentation at this influential symposium," said Brent Norton, president and chief executive officer of PreMD Inc. "This study provides valuable clinical insight as to how women with unilateral breast cancer may benefit from testing with galactose oxidase Schiff's (GOS) reactivity. This presentation further strengthens our clinical data and our entire cancer franchise, which we are progressively developing."

GOS reactivity is significantly different between nipple aspirate fluid (NAF) taken from cancerous versus non-cancerous breasts of women with unilateral breast cancer. This study extends these findings and evaluates GOS reactivity in healthy control patients.

The lead author on the study is Dr. Anees B. Chagpar from the University of Louisville. The San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium takes place on December 13-16, 2007, in San Antonio, Texas.

About PreMD Inc.

PreMD Inc. is a leader in predictive medicine, dedicated to developing rapid, non-invasive tests for the early detection of life-threatening diseases. PreMD's cardiovascular products are branded as PREVU(x) Skin Cholesterol Test, to be marketed and distributed by AstraZeneca. The company's cancer tests include ColorectAlert(TM), LungAlert(TM) and a breast cancer test. PreMD's head office is located in Toronto, Ontario and its research and product development facility is at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. For further information, please visit www.premdinc.com. For more information about PREVU(x), please visit www.prevu.com.

This press release contains forward-looking statements. These statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, which could cause the Company's actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, among others, the success of a plan for regaining compliance with certain continued listing standards of the American Stock Exchange, successful development or marketing of the Company's products, the competitiveness of the Company's products if successfully commercialized, the lack of operating profit and availability of funds and resources to pursue R&D projects, the successful and timely completion of clinical studies, product liability, reliance on third-party manufacturers, the ability of the Company to take advantage of business opportunities, uncertainties related to the regulatory process, and general changes in economic conditions.

In addition, while the Company routinely obtains patents for its products and technology, the protection offered by the Company's patents and patent applications may be challenged, invalidated or circumvented by our competitors and there can be no guarantee of our ability to obtain or maintain patent protection for our products or product candidates.

Investors should consult the Company's quarterly and annual filings with the Canadian and U.S. securities commissions for additional information on risks and uncertainties relating to the forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned not to rely on these forward-looking statements. PreMD is providing this information as of the date of this press release and does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this press release as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

money.cnn.com

Housework cuts cancer risk, says researcher

2007-08-23T20:54:00.000-07:00

CALGARY -- Doing chores can help reduce your risk of cancer, says a Calgary health researcher.

Pre-menopausal women who are physically active, especially those who spend a lot of time keeping house, seem to reduce their risk of developing endometrial cancer, which attacks the lining of the uterus.

Stats from a six-year study on European woman showed that about four hours of moderate housework a day was enough to halve a woman's risk of getting this type of cancer.

"In some of those countries, those women were doing an enormous amount of household activity," said Christine Friedenreich of the Alberta Cancer Board.

The amount of exercise women get from doing chores often has been ignored in past studies, Friedenreich said. Her past studies have shown that exercise has a preventative effect against breast cancer, as well.

"It's about trying to get people to increase activity into as many parts of their lives as they can," she said.

www.canada.com

Baby Watch: Halle Berry

2007-08-21T18:01:00.000-07:00

With all the celebrities both adopting and having babies the good old fashioned way, Halle Berry looks to be getting jealous. In fact, some sources are saying the Monster’s Ball actress has a bun in the oven herself.

According to the rumor mill, the X-Men star is two months along in her pregnancy. The father of the child is said to be Gabriel Aubry.
And the expecting mother couldn’t be happier about her soon-to-be-born. A source close to the actress told press, “Halle is so happy right now. She’s wanted a baby for so long.”

With her joy comes the realization that her Diabetes could cause some complications along the way. An insider told press, “But at the same time she’s scared because she is very aware of the complications that having diabetes can cause during pregnancy. She’s doing everything possible to make sure her baby is born healthy.”

Enjoy the pictures of Halle out shopping at Bristol Farms (August 16). Do you think that these photos validate the baby talk? Leave a comment and let us know!

www.celebrity-gossip.net

Another Confirmation Of Christina Aguilera’s Pregnancy

2007-08-21T17:57:00.001-07:00

Sometimes you just have to come clean. But Christina Aguilera hasn’t reached that point yet. She refuses to confirm her pregnancy rumors, but keeps dropping hints that she has a bun in the oven.

The latest clue came to us when she was overheard telling her obstetrician’s receptionist about her excitement to be a mother soon. According to a source, “Christina couldn’t contain her excitement. She said she couldn’t wait for the baby to be born.”
And then there’s always the growing baby bump that’s becoming more and more visible with each day that goes by. She’s had her stage costumes let out to allow for her changing form.

Earlier this summer, Christina’s father Fausto spilled the beans when he was asked about his daughter’s condition. “I’m so excited. I want Christina to achieve all her goals. I wish her all the happiness in the world.”

But when she was asked directly if she was expecting, all Aguilera would say is, “It’s definitely something we can’t wait to begin.”

Enjoy the pictures of Christina out with husband Jordan Bratman, out to dinner and shopping for furniture this past Friday (August 17).

www.celebrity-gossip.net

New eBook Offers Natural Techniques To Prevent Unplanned Pregnancy

2007-08-21T17:54:00.000-07:00

With unplanned pregnancy, especially among U.S. teens, ranking the highest in the developed world, the launch of the new ebook ''Little-Known Secrets for Preventing Unplanned Pregnancy'' has never been more appropriate. The enlightening 23-page ebook is presented in an understanding and conversational tone helping readers of all ages, from young adults to pre-menopausal women, prevent pregnancy using natural, holistic techniques.
With unplanned pregnancy, especially among U.S. teens, ranking the highest in the developed world, the launch of the new ebook ''Little-Known Secrets for Preventing Unplanned Pregnancy'' has never been more appropriate. Now in electronic downloadable format, readers can attain straight-forward, practical advice in the privacy of their own home, with no need to stand in line or face sales clerks.

An astounding 750,000 teen girls get pregnant every year, according to the National Campaign To Prevent Teen Pregnancy. In fact, 31 percent of all young women become pregnant at least once before they reach the age of 20 (1), with four-fifths of these unplanned (2). Oftentimes, contraceptives are too expensive, risky or inconvenient. As a result, unplanned pregnancies can lead to poverty, lost opportunities, social and cultural stigma.

But ''Little-Known Secrets for Preventing Unplanned Pregnancy'', now available in ebook format for download at prevent-unplanned-pregnancy.com, aims to reduce this statistic by educating women about safe, holistic non-contraceptive prevention techniques. The enlightening 23-page ebook is presented in an understanding and conversational tone, assisting readers of all ages, from young adults to pre-menopausal women. ''Little-Known Secrets'' explores both the physical and emotional sides to intimacy, ways to assess a relationship and its longevity potential, actions that can sabotage a relationship and techniques you can use to help prevent unplanned pregnancy safely and naturally.

"There are countless healthy ways women can enjoy sex while preventing unplanned pregnancy," explains Pett, Author of ''Little-Known Secrets for Preventing Unplanned Pregnancy''. "I'm proof positive! For the past 24-years, I've enjoyed an extremely active sex-life with long-term partners and my husband, never once experiencing an unplanned pregnancy, never spending exorbitant amounts of money on contraceptives and never suffering from a single health issue related to my reproductive organs."

''Little-Known Secrets for Preventing Unplanned Pregnancy'' helps women take a more active role in their healthcare and reproductive cycle. So they're able to avoid common and serious medication side-effects including blood clots, stroke, heart attack, migraine headaches, high blood pressure and gall bladder disease. In addition to the serious risks, women can also avoid contraceptive-related weight gain, spotting, nausea and bloat.

This ebook provides step-by-step guidance so women can take control over their body and their life. The small, one-time book purchase can also save thousands of dollars in contraceptive pills and products.

To read glowing customer reviews or download the ebook, visit www.prevent-unplanned-pregnancy.com.

1. Source: National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy analysis of Teen Pregnancy Data, 2006.
2. Source: The Guttmacher Institute's U.S. Teenage Pregnancy Statistics National and State Trends and Trends by Race and Ethnicity, 2006.

About the author
Pett has used the techniques in her book throughout her adult life. At 39, she's never experienced an unplanned pregnancy and has never used conventional contraceptives even through several long-term relationships and her marriage to her husband. She has always enjoyed a healthy, active and daily sex life, carefully planning her one and only pregnancy and conceiving within just two months of trying.

pr-gb.com

New eBook Offers Natural Techniques To Prevent Unplanned Pregnancy

2007-08-21T17:46:00.000-07:00

With unplanned pregnancy, especially among U.S. teens, ranking the highest in the developed world, the launch of the new ebook ''Little-Known Secrets for Preventing Unplanned Pregnancy'' has never been more appropriate. The enlightening 23-page ebook is presented in an understanding and conversational tone helping readers of all ages, from young adults to pre-menopausal women, prevent pregnancy using natural, holistic techniques.
With unplanned pregnancy, especially among U.S. teens, ranking the highest in the developed world, the launch of the new ebook ''Little-Known Secrets for Preventing Unplanned Pregnancy'' has never been more appropriate. Now in electronic downloadable format, readers can attain straight-forward, practical advice in the privacy of their own home, with no need to stand in line or face sales clerks.
An astounding 750,000 teen girls get pregnant every year, according to the National Campaign To Prevent Teen Pregnancy. In fact, 31 percent of all young women become pregnant at least once before they reach the age of 20 (1), with four-fifths of these unplanned (2). Oftentimes, contraceptives are too expensive, risky or inconvenient. As a result, unplanned pregnancies can lead to poverty, lost opportunities, social and cultural stigma.

But ''Little-Known Secrets for Preventing Unplanned Pregnancy'', now available in ebook format for download at prevent-unplanned-pregnancy.com, aims to reduce this statistic by educating women about safe, holistic non-contraceptive prevention techniques. The enlightening 23-page ebook is presented in an understanding and conversational tone, assisting readers of all ages, from young adults to pre-menopausal women. ''Little-Known Secrets'' explores both the physical and emotional sides to intimacy, ways to assess a relationship and its longevity potential, actions that can sabotage a relationship and techniques you can use to help prevent unplanned pregnancy safely and naturally.

"There are countless healthy ways women can enjoy sex while preventing unplanned pregnancy," explains Pett, Author of ''Little-Known Secrets for Preventing Unplanned Pregnancy''. "I'm proof positive! For the past 24-years, I've enjoyed an extremely active sex-life with long-term partners and my husband, never once experiencing an unplanned pregnancy, never spending exorbitant amounts of money on contraceptives and never suffering from a single health issue related to my reproductive organs."

''Little-Known Secrets for Preventing Unplanned Pregnancy'' helps women take a more active role in their healthcare and reproductive cycle. So they're able to avoid common and serious medication side-effects including blood clots, stroke, heart attack, migraine headaches, high blood pressure and gall bladder disease. In addition to the serious risks, women can also avoid contraceptive-related weight gain, spotting, nausea and bloat.

This ebook provides step-by-step guidance so women can take control over their body and their life. The small, one-time book purchase can also save thousands of dollars in contraceptive pills and products.

pr-gb.com

Tips from Liz Lange on How to Banish the Blahs during pregnancy

2007-08-21T17:40:00.000-07:00

Liz Lange is practically a maternity expert. Not only does she have two children of her own, but she spends every working day of her life counseling mothers-to-be on everything from diaper bags to diapers. Please see below for some tips on how expecting mothers can look their best even when they feel their worst.
1. Dress
“The best thing to do on the days you feel enormous is to actually show off your pregnancy."

Liz strongly urges all expecting mothers to find maternity clothing that fits them properly. Just as in your non-pregnancy life, clothing that is too tight or too loose can make you look and feel larger. Another quick fix for when you are feeling down about your new size? Try what Liz calls “dipping,” which is dressing from top to bottom in one color such as black or dark brown.
2. Beauty
“Nothing wakes up your look like mascara, even if you can’t stand makeup, invest in a good black mascara to instantly revive your appearance. It’s like a cup of coffee for tired eyes.”

Liz also suggests treating yourself to a facial every few weeks to really let the glow of maternity shine through. Even if you have never had a facial before in your life, starting during pregnancy is a wise time as many women undergo dramatic complexion changes and need to be re-educated on how to care for their new skin.
3. Exercise
“You’re first impulse might be to veg out in front of the TV when you feel crummy, but you should do just the opposite. Don’t worry, you don’t need to run a marathon, but just a simple walk around the block will get your heart pumping and jumpstart your spirits.”

Liz also recommends that women try to schedule some moderate exercise at least 2-3 times a week during their pregnancy. It aids in circulation and strengthens the body for labor. Liz always suggests consulting a doctor before starting any exercise routine, however.

Do you have any tips for banishing the pregnancy blahs?

www.celebrity-babies.com

NJ March of Dimes program aims to ease pregnancy for black women

2007-08-21T17:37:00.000-07:00

With premature births and infant deaths more common among black mothers, the March of Dimes is starting a program in New Jersey to train volunteers on how to help pregnant black women address stress, nutrition and other issues.

The charity's New Jersey chapter, based in Cranbury, has begun offering a nine-week instructional program called Body and Soul. The program will be held in churches and health clinics.

"Research has not been able to capture the true experience of being an African-American in the U.S., but we suspect that racism and stress are closely intertwined and have a huge impact on pregnancy outcomes," Xenia Acquaye, the chapter's associate director of program services, told The Star-Ledger of Newark for Monday's editions.

Expectant moms who are anxious or depressed have a higher risk of having babies who suffer from sleep problems on into their toddler years, according to a recent study run by University of Rochester researchers.

So among other things, the Body and Soul program will focus on teaching mothers relaxation techniques, coping skills and the positive effect of spirituality on health. Other topics include nutrition and exercise during pregnancy.

Even with the program, many pregnant women could still be anxious about whether they have enough money to care for a new baby, on top of meeting basic needs, said Diane Brown, head of the Institute for the Elimination of Health Disparities at the UMDNJ-School of Public Health in Newark.

"The causes of stress may not necessarily be abated" by the program, she said.

Infant mortality in New Jersey has declined overall since the early 1990s, but compared to white babies, black babies here are still more than two times as likely to die before their first birthday. Also, black mothers run the highest risk of delivering a premature baby.

"We are very, very full and are caring for many very fragile, very sick babies," said Dr. Richard Inwood, associate director of newborn medicine at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center.

That's despite various state grants that have been distributed to help black women get early prenatal care.

Just last Saturday, Capital Health System's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in Trenton sent home a baby that is one of the smallest ever born in New Jersey.

Tamera Dixon, born to an immigrant from Jamaica, weighed slightly more than 11 ounces when she was born on April 25. She was delivered about 15 weeks early by Caesarean section because of serious health suffered by her mother. The baby has since grown to 4 pounds, 8 ounces and has an excellent prognosis, so doctors gave the OK for her to go home with her parents.

www.newsday.com

Latest Study on Results of Antidepressant Use during Pregnancy

2007-08-21T17:31:00.000-07:00

A new study on Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was released by the New England Journal of Medicine or NEJM showing results in the use of some antidepressants in the course of pregnancy. According to the study, the use of these antidepressants during certain stages in pregnancy, like in particular, the "selective serotonin-reuptake inhibitors or widely known as the SSRIs, have not significant effect on the increase in risk of having birth defects.
The study was entitled "Use of Selective Serotonin-Reuptake Inhibitors in Pregnancy and the Risk of Birth Defects." It has discovered that there are few or no significant increase involved in the threats of acquiring most birth defects during the time all of the SSRIs have been studied simultaneously.

The findings of the study includes birth defect risks like congenital heart disease, which was once associated with the use of SSRI in earlier studies. However, researchers have also found out that there were associations between the use of SSRI and three definite defects in birth. These defects involve the brain, one kind of abnormality in development of the skull and in the gastrointestinal organ.

According to CDC's epidemiologist, Jennita Reefhuis, the overall results of their studies were generally encouraging, especially regarding the issue of antidepressants use for the duration of pregnancy. Reefhuis is also among the group of authors that spearheaded the study.

Reefhuis further stipulated that it is known that the mother and infant both benefit once the pregnant women who has critical depressive illness manages to stay with certain treatment. The threats have differences according to various SSRIs and categorization of women.

Reefhuis stated that it is important for the pregnant women to discuss the benefits and risks of SSRI medication during the time of their pregnancy. She also noted that even if their study have found some association between the increased threat of having three explicit birth defects associated with SSRI use, the increase are actually minimal and were not discovered previously on studies concerning same issue.

A second SSRI study in connection with birth defects that was published by NEJM on June 28 that has not found any such association with overall birth defects. On the other hand, it found important connections between certain SSRIs and a number of birth defects.

Reefhuis declared that for every pregnancy there is a 3 percent risk of having defects during birth, without regard to exposures to antidepressants. There is a lifetime risk for women to acquire major depression by 10 – 25 percent. The highest prevalence of this is when they are in their childbearing years of during 18 – 44 years old.

The CDC has intentions of continuing their study the associations of SSRI and risks of birth defects in order to shed light on whether there is a true risk existing with the antidepressant use while pregnant.

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www.sbwire.com

Does Mother Who Over-Indulge in Junk Food During Pregnancy Can Affect the Baby's Craving for the Same Diet?

2007-08-21T17:26:00.000-07:00

Tests carried out on pregnant rats by Royal Veterinary College researchers showed that when fed a diet of biscuits, crisps and sweets as opposed to a balanced diet, their offspring chose to eat more unhealthy food.
Children might inherit junk food cravings from mothers who over-indulge in a fatty and sugary diet during pregnancy, suggests new research.

Tests carried out on pregnant rats by Royal Veterinary College researchers showed that when fed a diet of biscuits, crisps and sweets as opposed to a balanced diet, their offspring chose to eat more unhealthy food.

"This is an interesting study," said Tracy Kelly, Care Advisor at Diabetes UK.

"We already know that it is important for women to eat a healthy, balanced diet - before, during and after pregnancy.

"The link between junk food and obesity-related conditions such as Type 2 diabetes are well known. In recent years, we have also seen a worrying increase of children and young people developing Type 2 diabetes, a condition which traditionally affected people aged over 40.

"However, this research was only trialled on rats and much more work needs to be done before we draw any firm conclusions on how a junk food diet in pregnancy can affect the baby's craving for the same diet."

www.nutritionhorizon.com

Church speaks about family dramas

2007-08-21T17:23:00.000-07:00

Charlotte Church has spoken for the first time about her mother's overdose and laughed off reports that fiance Gavin Henson cheated on her. The 21-year-old is expecting her first baby next month.

Rugby star Henson was reported to have kissed shop assistant Tracy Donnelly during a trip to Belfast, but Church told OK! magazine: "Well, of course at first hearing something like that pulled at my heartstrings, but then I thought, nah, he wouldn't do that to me."

Church was said to have thrown Henson out but she insisted: "In reality, me and Gavin were at home."
The pregnancy was unplanned and Henson made her take two pregnancy tests before believing the result. "I did say to him, 'What do you mean the result can't be right?' And he said, 'I just want us to be sure, I don't want us to get our hopes up'," she revealed.

The former Voice of an Angel can't wait to get her pregnancy over with.

She said: "You know, being pregnant is unbelievable. All you ever hear about is the morning sickness, but it's a massive strain on the body. My organs are all squashed up and my liver is just crushed to the back of my spine. But I'm ever so happy, even though the birth part of it is pretty s*** by the sounds of it!"

In the interview to publicise her new autobiography, Keep Smiling, Church told of the moment she found her mother, Maria, unconscious after taking an overdose of sleeping pills and paracetamol.

"It was a tough time. At first when I found her, I was angry because I thought she'd tried to kill herself. But she said all she had wanted to do was sleep for a few days to forget about what had happened. She said she wasn't trying to kill herself, or so she says. When I found her, I didn't panic, I just went straight into this calm mode - I had to."

Church phoned NHS Direct, who told her to take her mother to hospital, an instruction which the singer said "put the fear of God in me".

"I was worried about her and I made sure I took all the necessary steps to make sure she was okay. It wasn't a nice experience to go through. To see my mum like that was awful, no one ever wants to see their mother go through that."

Church said her mother had been diagnosed as a manic depressive and had been self-harming since the age of 20. "Sometimes she used to show me her scars when she was drunk, but she would never dare cut herself in front of me. I'd go mad."

Maria took the overdose after discovering that her husband had been having an affair with a family friend.

Church said of the other woman: "If I saw her today, I'd poke her eyes out because she was the cause of so much pain to my mother."

www.rte.ie

Preventing Miscarriage Before Pregnancy

2007-08-21T17:19:00.000-07:00

Women's health specialists say there are eight things a woman can do before she gets pregnant to help lower her odds of having a miscarriage.

Dr. Mable Roberts, an obstetrician/gynecologist, said the average miscarriage rate is about 15 percent due to problems related to chromosomes.

However, once a heartbeat is detected, those odds drop significantly.

“If you have an identifiable pregnancy and you see a baby with a heartbeat by ultrasound, that percent of risk drops to about three percent,” she said.

While moms can't control everything, Roberts said there are eight things a woman planning a pregnancy can do to lower her odds of having a miscarriage.

1. Don't smoke.
2. Don't drink alcohol
3. Take a multi-vitamin with folic acid
4. Get regular exercise
5. Eat a healthy diet
6. Get body weight close to ideal numbers
7. Balance blood sugar levels if you have diabetes.
8. If you take medications, make sure they are compatible with pregnancy--especially those for high blood pressure.

Roberts says most of the time it all comes down to pretty much one thing:

“The healthier you are the lower your chances of miscarriage,” she said.

If you've had a previous miscarriage, Roberts said prenatal testing may also be recommended.

www.13wham.com

Not bowing to pregnancy

2007-08-21T17:11:00.000-07:00

Pregnancy and using her garage for practice has been no impediment to archer Jo Armstrong winning her first national title.

Seven months pregnant, Jo took out the gold medal in the women's recurve division at the National Indoor Archery Championships.

Jo said while the baby bump did not effect her "pull back" technique, it did add another dimension.

"It was more a mental concentration thing with the baby moving around."

Shooting from 18m away from the target, Jo's combined scores of 509, 525 and 509, each from a possible 600, meant she breezed to the title.

Her score would have also been good enough to be placed sixth in the men's competition.

The championships were held at four venues around the country, with Jo travelling to Dunedin to compete, and then the results were collated and compared.

Jo said she was pretty chuffed with her result as she had worked hard to keep her fitness up for the event.

"I decided to make it the last event and it has been tough but well worth it."

The mother-to-be started her archery career while attending university in Cambridge, England, where it was a popular pastime.

Jo decided to get back into the sport a couple of years ago and roped in her husband David and two stepsons, who all loved it.

At the moment the teacher is also still managing to beat her student husband and both are members of the Geraldine Archery Club.

Getting the right distance to practise at home is a bit more problematic.

Jo has to open their garage door and then shoot into the garage, which she admitted took the neighbours by surprise at the start.

Deputy principal at St Joseph Primary School in Timaru, Jo says her workmates are used to her fitness regimes as her other passion is Latin dance, which she was also teaching up to a couple months ago.

Jo said it would be a tough choice if she had to pick between archery and the salsa, both of which she loved.

After having the baby she intends to again pick up the bow and hit the dance floor.

www.stuff.co.nz

Foxy Brown Lies To Police; Reveals Pregnancy, Marriage Plans

2007-08-21T17:06:00.000-07:00

Rapper Foxy Brown is in trouble with the law, yet again.

This time, Mahwah, New Jersey police busted the female rapper last week for allegedly giving a false name and birth date to officers after she was stopped for running a stop sign.

On top of that, she was talking on a handheld cellphone.

According to the Associated Press, the 27-year-old rapper (real name: Inga Marchand) was allegedly driving her SUV with a suspended registration while carrying a suspended license.

She was taken to the city's police headquarters where she was issued seven traffic citations and later released.

In related news, the New York Post is reporting that Foxy has recently confirmed that she is expecting a baby and is getting married very soon.

She is quoted as telling the paper, "I'm getting married in September. I'm pregnant."

The identity of her soon to be husband and further details regarding her pregnancy were unknown at press time.

www.ballerstatus.com

Scots 'worst' for cancer survival

2007-08-21T17:01:00.000-07:00

Cancer survival rates for people in Scotland are among the worst in Europe, according to new research.

The percentage of Scottish women surviving the disease for more than five years was the lowest in Europe, despite massive investment programmes.

The study, published in the Lancet Oncology, charted patients diagnosed in 21 countries who survived cancer for more than five years.

In Scotland, less than half of women were alive five years after diagnosis.

With only 48% of women surviving, Scotland sits at the bottom of the league table, despite having three-times the health budget of places like Poland and the Czech Republic.

This compares with 52.7% in England and 51.9% in Ireland.

Common cancers

Survival rates for Scottish men were also in the bottom four of the league table, with only 40.2% living more than five years after diagnosis.

The authors of the report said that survival rates for cancer were highest in northern Europe, although they were improving in eastern Europe.

The report also revealed that Scottish survival rates for different types of cancer were among the lowest in Europe.

For kidney cancer, the survival rate was 45.9%, the lowest of the 21 countries, while the 71% survival figure for prostate cancer was among the lowest.

The number of women alive five years after breast cancer diagnosis was 77.3%, similar to England at 77.8%.

In Scotland, 16.6% of people survived stomach cancer for five years, similar to England but almost half the figure in Italy, where 33.2% of patients live on.
One of the authors of the report, Prof Ian Kunkler, consultant in clinical oncology at the Western General in Edinburgh, warned against making direct comparisons with Scotland and eastern European countries.

He said: "One has to be very careful about the comparison with Eastern Europe as the amount of cancer registration data that we have from places like Poland and the Czech Republic is less than we have for the UK, where we have a virtually complete cancer registration."

The study compared five-year survival rates for eight common cancers.

It found that, overall, rates were improving and gaps between rich and poor countries were narrowing.

But although Scotland spends £1,500 per capita a year on healthcare, three-times more than Poland, Slovenia and the Czech Republic, the results do not always reflect the outlay, according to the report.

Survival rates for Hodgkin's disease and lung cancer in Scotland were similar to those in eastern Europe.

The 28.5% of women surviving ovarian cancer was similar to England, where 29.3% survive, but behind France, which tops the table with 36.4% of patients alive five years after diagnosis.

Minister for public health Shona Robison said: "We are on track to meet the 2010 target of a 20% reduction in mortality rates from cancer in the under-75s.

"Figures show that since 1995 there has been an 18.1% drop in the overall rate of deaths from cancer in Scotland.

"There have been significant improvements in survival from cancer in Scotland.

"However, although significant improvements have been made in recent years, we are not complacent. We know there is still more to do to make sure Scots have the best possible chances of long-term survival following a cancer diagnosis."

news.bbc.co.uk

Cranberry Could Juice Up Ovarian Cancer Treatment

2007-08-21T16:57:00.000-07:00

Gulping down a glass of cranberry juice might greatly boost an ovarian cancer patient's sensitivity to chemotherapy, a new study suggests.

In laboratory experiments, pre-treating ovarian tumor cells with the juice bumped up the cancer-killing power of drugs sixfold, researchers say.

The study authors stressed that the finding is still experimental and preliminary, but it could offer a new option for patients whose ovarian cancer has become resistant to treatment.

"This was surprising and encouraging," noted study lead author Ajay P. Singh, a research associate and natural products chemist in the department of plant biology and plant pathology at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J.

"We don't consider them to be a drug, but cranberries are already very well known to have antioxidants that boost the immune system and body strength, prevent urinary tract infection and help fight cardiovascular disease. So, we knew that cranberries would certainly not harm cancer patients. And now, we found that they actually increase sensitivity to chemo several-fold," he said.

The finding was to be presented Tuesday at the national meeting of the American Chemical Society being held this week in Boston.

Ovarian cancer is the seventh most common cancer in the United States and the fifth leading cause of cancer death among American women, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

Chemotherapy treatment commonly centers on so-called "platinum drugs", such as cisplatin and paraplatin. However, many women develop therapeutic resistance, necessitating the use of ever-higher doses that in turn raise the risk for both nerve damage and kidney failure.

To assess cranberries' ability to alleviate this problem, Singh and Rutgers colleagues Dr. Laurent Brard and Rakesh K. Singh teamed up with K.S. Satyan of the Molecular Therapeutics Laboratory at Brown Medical School's Women and Infants Hospital.

With funding from the U.S. National Institutes of Health, the authors collected ovarian cancer cells from patients experiencing platinum drug resistance. They then exposed some of the cells to a purified extract drawn from a store-bought cranberry drink that contained 27 percent pure juice. Doses varied, reaching a maximum of about one cup of juice.

All the cancer cells were subsequently treated with paraplatin chemotherapy.

The result: Cells pre-treated with the juice extract were killed at a rate that was equal to six times that of cells unexposed to cranberry components.

In addition, the juice appeared to slow both the growth and spread of some cancer cells.

It's not yet clear how cranberry juice might kill ovarian cancer cells, the researchers said, although an antioxidant unique to cranberries -- the "A-type" proanthocyanidins -- could be key.

This specific antioxidant is not present in other fruits and appears to bind with -- and block the activity of -- tumor proteins found in ovarian cancer cells, increasing their sensitivity to chemo.

Singh cautioned that it remains to be seen whether the cranberry-chemo effect can be repeated outside a lab setting. Testing in mice and rats is about to begin, followed by human trials, the scientist said.

However, even if the effect holds up, Singh stressed that cranberry compounds should not be considered any cure for cancer. They might have a role as adjunct treatment alongside existing drugs, he said.

Dr. Robert Morgan, Jr., section head of medical gynecologic oncology at the City of Hope Cancer Center in Duarte, Calif., agreed that the "cranberry effect" warrants further study.

"I think this is a very fertile and promising branch of research," he said. "But one needs to make sure this is proven in clinical trials, and you'd need to be sure about the levels of the compound needed and which active agent in the cranberry juice is actually causing this increase in sensitivity."

"Of course, cranberries are non-toxic, and the compounds they contain are part of the family of flavonoids found in grape seeds, which have been shown to be potentially beneficial in breast cancer," he added. "So, there's certainly no risk of harm here. There's just a lot more research that needs to be done."

www.ajc.com

Washington U. joins cancer research consortium

2007-08-21T16:55:00.000-07:00

Washington University School of Medicine joined the Multiple Myeloma Research Consortium (MMRC), an organization of 13 leading U.S. academic centers designed to speed the development of new myeloma therapies, the school said Tuesday.

Washington University School of Medicine serves as a major center for multiple myeloma treatment and research in the St. Louis area.
"As a member of the MMRC, we can provide our patients with access to novel medications that would not otherwise be available," Dr. Ravi Vij, assistant professor of medicine in the division of oncology and a medical oncologist with the Siteman Cancer Center at Washington University School of Medicine and Barnes-Jewish Hospital, said in a statement.

Multiple myeloma is the second most common blood cancer, according to a release.

Washington University in St. Louis is a private teaching and research university. Washington University School of Medicine is affiliated with Barnes-Jewish Hospital and St. Louis Children's Hospital.

www.bizjournals.com

Banton 'shattered' by vicious cancer diagnosis

2007-08-21T16:49:00.000-07:00

Anti-asbestos campaigner Bernie Banton says he was "shattered" on Friday to learn he had developed an asbestos-related cancer.

Mr Banton's doctors have diagnosed a vicious form of an abdominal cancer, peritoneal mesothelioma, on top of his pre-existing lung disease, asbestosis.

The 60-year-old plans to sue his former employer, building materials company James Hardie, for compensation to ensure his family is adequately cared for after he dies.

The money would come from the same fund he fought to have established for asbestos victims.

Mr Banton, flanked by his wife and son, has spoken publicly about the news from a bed in Sydney's Concord Hospital.

He says he will fight this very personal battle with the same vigour he used to get compensation for asbestos victims from James Hardie.

"I put on a brave face but I was shattered," he said.

"There's absolutely no other word for it - 'shattered'. I just never, ever saw it coming."

'One in a million'

Mr Banton says he was surprised with the speed the cancer hit him.

He says he knew something serious was happening to him a few days before he was admitted to hospital last Friday, but he still cannot believe it.

"I feel like I've been kicked in the guts," he said.

His doctor, Professor Stephen Clark, says it is a rare disease, which Mr Banton says shows the insidious danger of asbestos.

"The fact that I've ended up with this triple whammy - well, you heard Dr Stephen Clark say 'one in a million'," he said.

Mr Banton's lawyer, Tanya Segelov, says her client could have just months to live.

"Unfortunately, it is a disease with a poor prognosis ... and it is a very painful and horrible disease," she said.

Ms Segelov says there is no doubt Mr Banton contracted the cancer as a result of his work at James Hardie.

Combet's tribute

The outgoing secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, Greg Combet, has expressed his sadness over the news.

Mr Combet worked closely with Mr Banton during the campaign for compensation from James Hardie.

He says his thoughts are with his friend.

"Bernie Banton has enormous heart and courage," he said.

"I know that he will fight this disease with all his strength and all his might, and he will have the support of the Labor movement as well as his family."

abc.net.au

Study: Dark-Colored Fruits and Veggies Fight Cancer

2007-08-21T16:45:00.000-07:00

The darker the berry, the sweeter the juice, so goes the saying.

But it turns out the darker berry or plum or grape, for that matter, the stronger the cancer-fighting properties.

Researchers conducting a recent study found that the compounds that give some fruits and vegetables their rich colors are powerful cancer deterrants.

Evidence from laboratory experiments on rats and on human colon cancer cells also suggests that anthocyanins, the compounds that give color to most red, purple and blue fruits and vegetables, also slow the growth of colon cancer cells.

“These foods contain many compounds, and we're just starting to figure out what they are and which ones provide the best health benefits,” said Monica Giusti, the lead author of the study and an assistant professor of food science at Ohio State University, in a news release.

The findings, which Giusti presented August 19 at the national meeting of the American Chemical Society in Boston, also bring scientists a step closer to figuring out what gives fruits and vegetables their cancer-fighting properties.
Giusti and her colleagues found that in some cases, slight alterations to the structure of anthocyanin molecules made these compounds more potent anti-cancer agents.

In their studies on human colon cancer cells grown in laboratory dishes, the researchers tested the anti-cancer effects of anthocyanin-rich extracts from a variety of fruits and vegetables. They retrieved these anthocyanins from grapes, radishes, purple corn, chokeberries, bilberries, purple carrots and elderberries.

The plants were chosen due to their extremely deep colors and high anthocyanin content.

The researchers found that the amount of anthocyanin extract needed to reduce cancer cell growth by 50 percent varied among the plants. Extract derived from purple corn was the most potent and used the least amount of extract (14 micrograms per milliliter of cell growth solution) to cut cell numbers in half.

Chokeberry and bilberry extracts were nearly as potent as purple corn. Radish extract was the least potent and it took nine times as much (131 milligrams per milliliter) of this compound to cut cell growth by 50 percent.

“All fruits and vegetables that are rich in anthocyanins have compounds that can slow down the growth of colon cancer cells, whether in experiments in laboratory dishes or inside the body,” Giusti said.

In additional laboratory studies, researchers found that anthocyanin pigments from radish and black carrots slowed the growth of cancer cells anywhere from 50 to 80 percent.

Pigments from purple corn and chokeberries not only completely stopped the growth of cancer cells, but also killed almost 20 percent of the cancer cells while having little effect on healthy cells.

www.foxnews.com

Government criticised over cancer care

2007-08-21T16:44:00.000-07:00

Government criticised over cancer care

The Government has been criticised for failing to deliver on commitments made to cancer care in the wake of a new EU cancer care study.

The Eurocare 4 report covering 80 cancer registries across 23 countries is published in The Lancet Oncology today and shows Ireland is still lagging behind European countries and in some cases eastern European countries.

"I hope the government will treat these shocking figures with the seriousness that they deserve and that Minister for Health Mary Harney will now make a determined effort to get the Cancer Treatment Plan back on track," said Labour Party spokeswoman on health Liz McManus.

Ms McManus said the Government had failed to live up to its own commitment to deliver the BreastCheck screening programme to women in the west, north west and south, meaning many women are being denied the opportunity of early diagnosis and treatment.

She also said the long promised cervical cancer screening programme has not yet materialised and the country was waiting a decision on whether or not a cervical cancer vaccination programme is to go ahead.

"Many people had hoped that the Cancer Treatment Plan launched by Minister Harney in 2005 would have led to an improvement in the situation. However, a leaked document in January of this year exposed the implementation of the plan as a shambles, with long delays and significant cost overruns," Ms McManus said.

The Department of Health and Children welcomed the Eurocare 4 report saying the Government had made decisions in the last year to move cancer care up to a new level to achieve better outcomes for people in every region of the country.

The Minister has made available an additional €20.5m this year for cancer control (including screening, acute services and research), the Department said in a statement.

It said this marked an increase of 74 per cent on the comparable 2006 investment and includes €3.5m to support the initial implementation of the HSE National Cancer Control Programme.

"Since the implementation of the first National Cancer Strategy in 1997, approximately €1 billion has been invested in cancer services nationally. The Government has invested substantially in all regions to improve cancer survival. Over 100 additional Consultants have been appointed in key areas of cancer care such as Medical Oncology, Radiology, Palliative Care, Histopathology, and Haematology,' the Department added.

www.ireland.com

Europe cancer survival up, but Brits still dying

2007-08-21T16:43:00.000-07:00

Cancer survival has improved across Europe, with eastern European nations beginning to close the gap with western neighbours, according to a study covering the decade up to 2002.

The study, published in the British journal The Lancet, showed a clear link between high rates of survival and the amount spent on health, but pointed out that Britain lagged well behind other countries with similar national health budgets.

An accompanying editorial in the influential journal called for a "fundamental reassessment" of Britain's cancer policy in light of the fact that survival rates were comparable to eastern European countries that spent two-thirds less.

"So has the cancer plan worked? The short answer is seemingly no," it concluded, suggesting that the National Health Service should be "divorced from political control and short-term political gains."

The 23-country study, the largest of its kind, said that the survival rate for the most common cancers - colorectal, lung, breast and prostate - and for ovarian cancer was highest in Nordic countries, with the exception of Denmark, and in central Europe.

It was somewhat lower in southern Europe, including Spain and Italy, lower still in Britain and Ireland, and lowest in eastern Europe.

Poland and the Czech Republic showed sharp improvement across most major cancers in the period studied, suggesting that eastern European countries were closing the health gap.

From 1991 to 2002 survival rates in eastern Europe improved from 30.3 to 44.7 per cent for colorectal cancer, from 60 to 73.9 per cent for breast cancer, and from 39.5 to 68.0 per cent for prostate cancer.

For patients diagnosed in 2000-2002 survival for patients across Europe with tumours was significantly lower than in the United States - 47.3 per cent for men and 55.8 per cent for women, compared to 66.3 and 62.9 per cent respectively, the study noted.

The journal called for the development of a "pan-European cancer plan" to promote modern diagnostic and treatment facilities.

www.abc.net.au

Samaritan Licenses Tumor Inhibiting Cancer Drugs That Also Distinguish Cancerous Tumors to Improve On Chemotherapy

2007-08-21T16:31:00.000-07:00

Samaritan Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (AMEX:LIV), a developer of innovative drugs, announced today that it has entered into an exclusive licensing agreement with Georgetown University for a patent covering the Peripheral Benzodiazepine Receptor (PBR) which has led to Cancer drug candidates with the ability to inhibit cancerous tumors; and an imaging technique that could possibly distinguish cancerous tumors for a more targeted and improved chemotherapy.

The patent entitled "Etoposide Conjugates with PBR Ligands" describes PBR as a high affinity drug and cholesterol-binding protein that has become an attractive target for cancer therapies and cancer imaging. Over-expression of PBR has been observed in a variety of cancers, including brain, breast, colorectal and prostate cancers.

money.cnn.com

Smoking during pregnancy may increase blood pressure in newborn babies

2007-07-31T11:50:00.000-07:00

Babies born to mothers who smoked during pregnancy face the risk of developing high blood pressure during the initial months of their life, according to a study by researchers at the University Medical Center in Utrecht, Netherlands. The details of the study are due to appear in the September issue of Hypertension.

The study called the Wheezing Illnesses Study Leidsche Rijn (WHISTLER) involved 456 women who were pregnant. Researchers found that just six percent or 30 of the women smoked when pregnant. However babies born to these mothers had systolic blood pressure that was 5.4 millimeters of Hg higher than babies born to mothers who never smoked during pregnancy.

Systolic blood pressure (SBP) is the upper reading of the blood pressure figure and is the pressure exerted by the blood when the heart is in a contracted state. Diastolic blood pressure (DBP) is the lower of the blood pressure figures and represents the pressure when the heart is in a relaxed state.

“Our findings indicate maternal smoking during pregnancy has a direct substantial impact on systolic blood pressure in early infancy and is another reason for women not to smoke during pregnancy,” said lead author Caroline C. Geerts. “This association appears to occur in utero and doesn't appear to be due to the postnatal environment of the infant.”

But the researchers did not find any association between smoking during pregnancy and the diastolic blood pressure of newborn babies. Smoke exposure also did not have any significant effect on the heart rate of newborn babies. However the researchers were not sure if their findings would have an impact on the blood pressure of the babies when they grew up.

“It is unknown if our findings will have an impact on blood pressure later in life," Geerts said. "From a prevention point of view, it is important to determine these early life risk factors, to know at what age they exert vascular damage, and ultimately whether childhood interventions lead to actual cardiovascular risk reduction.”

source : www.earthtimes.org

Overweight women at risk of pregnancy complications

2007-07-31T11:48:00.000-07:00

NEW YORK - The heavier a woman is before pregnancy, the greater her risk of a range of pregnancy complications, a large study suggests.

Using data from more than 24,000 UK women who gave birth between 1976 and 2005, researchers found that the risk of problems, such as high blood pressure, pre-eclampsia and premature delivery climbed in tandem with a woman's pre-pregnancy weight.

The findings, published in the online journal BMC Public Health, add to evidence that obesity is a risk for mothers and newborns.

They also support the belief that all pregnancies in obese women should be considered "high risk," and managed accordingly, conclude the study authors, led by Dr. Sohinee Bhattacharya of Aberdeen Maternity Hospital.

The researchers found that compared with normal-weight women, obese women were 50 percent more likely to have post-delivery bleeding and twice as likely to deliver prematurely. They were also more likely to need an emergency C-section or to have labor induced.

Morbidly obese women had the highest risk of suffering pre-eclampsia, a potentially serious pregnancy complication marked by a sudden rise in blood pressure and kidney abnormalities.

In contrast, the study found that women who were underweight before pregnancy tended to have the lowest risk of all these complications. They were, however, more likely than normal-weight women to have an underweight newborn.

The results add to growing evidence of the importance of a mother's weight in pregnancy outcomes, according to Bhattacharya's team.

"The evidence for obesity as an important complication in pregnancy is mounting," the researchers write, it is time for physicians to be aware of these findings and start using them in their practice.

Besides good prenatal care, they note, this means counseling overweight women to lose weight before they become pregnant.

source : www.chinadaily.com.cn

Return From Operational Service Due To Pregnancy

2007-07-31T11:45:00.000-07:00

Media reports during the last week have discussed the repatriation of a female Army officer from Afghanistan in October 2006, and more recently, the actions of the member's Commanding Officer.

The female officer involved has expressed her concern through the Defence chain of command at the public exposure of traumatic and very personal issues.

The circumstances of the member's return to Australia and miscarriage, including her Commanding Officer's involvement, were investigated at the time of the incident by the Australian Deputy Commander in Afghanistan.
It was found that the member's return to Australia was consistent with policy and that the actions of the Commanding Officer were appropriate.

In light of this recent speculation, however, Defence is reviewing the advice provided to the Commanding Officer that assisted his decision-making.

Defence has no further comment on this matter at this stage.

Defence understands that some anonymous comments are circulating in relation to command of the first Australian deployment to Oruzgan Province in 2006.

Defence is aware of these comments and will not respond to anonymous allegations. Defence will treat seriously any formal representations made by named persons.

Defence can confirm that allegations against the Commanding Officer by a single individual under his command were investigated in November 2006. This included interviews with key personnel from the Reconstruction Force Headquarters, as well as the female officer who was repatriated as a result of her pregnancy. All stated that they had no issues with the Commanding Officer and the review subsequently concluded there was no substance to the allegations.

Among the achievements of the Commanding Officer who led the first Reconstruction Task Force in Oruzgan Province, was the establishment of an effective and very well regarded ADF presence in a demanding and complex operational environment.

Air Chief Marshall Angus Houston said that he had "the highest regard for the reconstruction and security achievements of the Commanding Officer in a challenging and dangerous operational tour, from which all personnel deployed home safely."

source : www.scoop.co.nz

HealthSmarts: Preparing for pregnancy

2007-07-31T11:42:00.000-07:00

We are all familiar with the increased infertility rates facing many American couples today. With approximately one in 10 couples struggling to get pregnant, it is impossible not to know someone having difficulty conceiving. As our friends describe the injections, medications and timed intercourse, most of us are confronted with the uncomfortable realization that getting pregnant may not be that easy.

For many women today, pregnancy is something we delay as we attempt to build our careers or solidify our marriages. Often, the ability to conceive is taken for granted, and many women do not even think actively about pregnancy until getting pregnant becomes difficult.

While much has been written on how to get pregnant or what specialists to see, I believe that we can have more success getting pregnant if more time and energy is spent on preparing for pregnancy rather than focusing only on getting pregnant. In healing traditions around the world, pregnancy and the ability to conceive are an overall reflection of a woman's total health.

As women prepare for pregnancy, it is important to acknowledge some of the more established causes of infertility. These include:

1. Age: Unfortunately, age is a critical fertility predictor. The older the male or female partner, the higher the risk for infertility. Fertility rates in women begin to fall at the age of 34 or 35, and then drop sharply again at 40 and 43. In men, fertility appears to decline after age 40.

2. BMI: The body mass index or BMI is also critical in women. BMI is a calculation used to assess weight in men or women. A BMI greater than 30 (or less than 20 in women) is associated with decreased fertility in both men and women.

3. Cigarette smoke exposure: Chronic exposure to cigarette smoke has been shown to decrease fertility in both men and women.

Education on common infertility risk factors can help couples plan for children and make health changes before hitting the infertility roller coaster. For example, a couple in their late 30s that may have recently married would be better off getting pregnant early in the marriage rather than waiting to approach their 40s. A young woman who smokes or has a partner who smokes may be better off directing her energy toward quitting smoking rather than trying to get pregnant. Finally, a woman (or man) with a BMI greater than 30 may have more fertility success if she works to lose weight rather than trying to get pregnant.

While understanding the infertility risk factors are an important first step in pregnancy preparation, most couples can benefit from additional pregnancy planning at least one year before attempting to become pregnant. I recommend that couples develop a "Pre-Pregnancy Plan," in which they develop strategies to create an environment conducive to fertility. A Pre-Pregnancy Plan would include:

1. Stress and Lifestyle Assessment

Stress is known to alter hormonal profiles in women, which in turn affects fertility. Couples should take some time to evaluate the stressors in their lives. For some women, the stress may be financial, while for others, stress is related to work or relationship demands. Confronting these stressors with your partner and then finding ways to minimize the stress ultimately improves overall health and hormonal profiles in women.

2. Nutrition Assessment

Many integrative physicians believe that creating an optimal nutritional environment aids fertility and weight management. Following a diet high in essential fatty acids and B vitamins, while low in sugar and processed carbohydrates, may aid fertility. Couples may benefit from keeping a food diary for 1-2 days, and then reviewing that information with a nutritionist or an integrative physician for suggested changes. While over-supplementation with vitamins is never recommended, a nutritional supplement called Fertility Blend for Women has been shown to improve fertility rates in some women.

3. Self Care

Finally, all women should develop routine self-care strategies that help minimize stress and conserve energy. Self care can take the form of relaxation therapies like massage and meditation. Some women may benefit more from moderate exercise programs like yoga or swimming that are mentally relaxing while being physically active. Maintaining friendships is another way to feel connected and less stressed. I recommend that all women engage in at least one self-care technique daily. These routines help in battling unexpected stressors and improving fertility.

In Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine, pregnancy is the culmination of a woman's creative energy, and must be honored and respected. Our present culture forces many women to ignore their creative energy, only understanding its value after much heartache. By learning to prepare for pregnancy rather than compete for the outcome, integrative physicians believe that many women can avoid the tumultuous path of infertility treatments and constant anxiety. I encourage all women to develop their own pre-pregnancy plan through which they honor their energy and achieve their best health.

--
(Dr. Bhatia is a physician and fellow at the University of Arizona Program in Integrative Medicine. She has practiced pediatric emergency medicine for seven years and is certified in holistic medicine, nutrition and acupuncture. She is a recurring medical guest on CNN/Headline News. Please feel free to contact her with questions at tasneembhatia8@yahoo.com.)

--
(The medical information provided in this column is for informational purposes only, and is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. If you have any questions regarding a medical condition, always seek the advice of a medical doctor or other qualified health provider.)

www.earthtimes.org

Woman faked pregnancy for gifts

2007-07-31T11:40:00.000-07:00

Police in Jacksonville, Fla., say a 27-year-old woman pretended to be pregnant with quadruplets to receive gifts, donations and discounts.

Authorities said Clarissa Robbie Linnabary received special treatment from U.S. Navy and Marine Corps families, local businesses and friends after she claimed to be carrying four unborn children, WJXT-TV, Jacksonville, reported Tuesday.

The Camden County Sheriff's Office and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service discovered the woman was never actually pregnant after two witnesses came forward and said they believed Linnabary was lying.

www.upi.com

Pregnancy program's message - Just Say 'Know'

2007-07-31T11:37:00.000-07:00

HAGERSTOWN - The government hasn't been able to lower teen pregnancy rates. Nor have the schools, as Washington County continues to rank high - sometimes even first - in the state in this problem area.

So now the religious community is getting ready to launch its faith-based program called Just Say "Know" in hopes of finding favor with parents and young people alike.

"I discovered this program in 2006 while at a conference for Christian educators in Oklahoma," said Cindy Reeder, Christian educator/program facilitator at First Christian Church in Hagerstown.

An eye-opening experience for Reeder, the conference prompted her to bring the concept back to Washington County in hopes of having a similar training activity for parents, grandparents, clergy and anyone else who wants to know how to talk about sex with teenagers and younger children.

The conference's keynote speaker, the Rev. Linda Adam Goddard, is coming to Hagerstown to present the Just Say "Know" Christian Sexuality Training Sept. 28 and 29, Reeder said.
Held at First Christian Church, the Sept. 28 workshop will be from 7 to 10 p.m., while the Sept. 29 session will be from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The cost is $25.

So far, 26 people are signed up, Reeder said, noting there is room for several hundred at First Christian. Lutheran, United Methodist, United Church of Christ, Brethren and Catholic are among the denominations expressing interest in the program.

Reeder said parents are the first educators of children and equipping them to talk with their children is the goal of the program.

"We will be talking about everything from A to Z, not just abstinence," Reeder said.

Carrol Lourie, coordinator of the Washington County Teen Pregnancy Prevention Coalition, said Washington County has the fourth-highest teen pregnancy rate in Maryland.

"We're first with teenage white girls," she said.

Because of these startling figures, Reeder pushed hard to get the program going in Washington County, with the Teen Pregnancy Coalition as a sponsor, along with the faith community.

"I went to Charlotte Walsh of Faith Community Nursing Council at First Christian Church and said I believed the council should do this," Reeder said.

Walsh said the council represents 42 churches with Faith Community Nursing groups, formerly known as parish nurses. The members are enthusiastic, she said.

The reality is that youth get messages about sex everywhere, including television, movies, magazines, friends and school, and faith communities have got to join the conversation.

"One of the values of the coalition is that everyone has a place at the table," Lourie said. "Some who are for abstinence only will come and learn there has to be more than one approach."

Teams trained in September will be equipped to offer the curriculum to adults and youth in their own churches, Walsh said. The curriculum includes modules for adults and children in elementary through high school.

Every module includes information and support for parents in talking with their children about sex.

"You cannot teach what you have not been taught," Walsh pointed out in describing the course. "Youth need to make good spiritual decisions about sex and intimacy."

source : www.herald-mail.com

Pregnancy: What's safe and what's not

2007-07-31T11:35:00.000-07:00

If you're pregnant it can feel like you're being bombarded with conflicting advice. Friends, websites, health visitors and GPs all seem to have different views on what you can and can't do.

But far from being clued-up, a survey for Organix children's food has revealed six in 10 expectant mums are still not sure what's safe to eat or drink.

And Mirror nutritionist Angela Dowden says it's not surprising. "Part of the problem is that midwives are so pressured for time that issues like nutrition get pushed to the bottom of the pile," she says.
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So what can and can't you do when you're pregnant? We sort the facts from the fiction...

Alcohol

If you have a drink your baby will be having one, too - and the effects can last a lifetime. Alcohol molecules pass through the placenta very easily. They kill nerve endings and damage connections between brain cells.

Up to 6,000 babies a year are born in Britain with foetal alcohol spectrum disorder.

Symptoms range from memory and attention problems to physical abnormalities.

In May, the government strengthened its advice - saying pregnant women should avoid alcohol altogether.

But if you must drink, the official advice is no more than one to two units of alcohol once or twice a week. A pint of ordinary-strength lager or a 175ml glass of wine is approximately two units.

If you've already had a drink or two during your pregnancy don't panic. The way booze affects your baby depends what stage you're at, how your body deals with drink and your genes. "Stop now. You will have a healthier baby if you stop," says Susan Fleisher of the National Organisation on Foetal Alcohol Syndrome.

Find a safe alternative by replacing a tipple with a non-alcoholic beer and wine.

Smoking

One in five women smokers don't give up during pregnancy, according to research by the British Medical Association. Yet the thousands of toxic chemicals in smoke, including carbon monoxide, starve the foetus of the oxygen it needs to grow.

It means babies born to smokers are on average 7oz lighter than normal - and 15 times more likely to die from cot death.

But it's never too late to give up. Dr Peter Nathanielsz, author of Prenatal Prescription, says: "Even stopping late on can help your baby."

There's also help for mums trying to kick the habit. Some nicotine patches and chewing gum have been approved for use by pregnant women but check with a doctor.

Diet

"FOR the most part, healthy eating during pregnancy is the same as at any other time," says Angela Dowden.

But some foods are definitely off the menu.

According to Food Standards Agency nutritionist Sam Montel, pate - even vegetable pate - could contain the listeria bug. The same goes for soft cheese like camembert, brie and blue cheeses. And liver is out because it can contain very high levels of vitamin A which is potentially damaging to the foetus.

But it's not all bad news. These days thorough cooking will cut the risk posed in the past by salmonella and toxiplasmosis. Eggs, meat and shellfish are all safe if properly cooked.

The other good news is that the right diet will give your unborn child a head start in life. Oily fish, which is rich in omega 3 fatty acids, is thought to help make your child smarter. But the Food Standards Agency advises no more than two portions a week.

Beauty

Hair

Tests on animals have suggested that in high doses some chemicals found in hair dyes and cosmetics might cause birth defects.

To be safe, NHS Direct advises women to wait until they are 12 weeks pregnant before dyeing their hair. Opt for foil highlights and ask your hairdresser not to apply dye too close to the root or use plant-based products like henna.

Make-up

Recent research has found women absorb 5lbs of chemicals a year from cosmetics, some of which could enter the baby's bloodstream. But last month this claim was dismissed as an urban myth by the British Skin Foundation charity. To be cautious, use a simple emollient moisturizer with no synthetic preservatives or fragrance.

Stay fit

Antenatal exercise instructor Joanna Percival says: "As the baby grows, pressure on the pelvic floor increases - so avoid high-impact exercises, jogging and jumping."

Also, don't lie on the floor as it puts pressure on vessels carrying blood to the foetus, and forget stomach crunches after 20 weeks. But the Department of Health says half an hour of walking or swimming a day will help you get back in shape quicker after the birth.

'The guilt will live with me forever'

Jacky Steele, 40, from Northern Ireland, was confused over how much alcohol she was allowed to drink while pregnant.

Kyle was diagnosed with Foetal Alcohol Syndrome after doctors spotted the tell-tale symptoms: small eye openings, a thin upper lip and no groove between his nose and upper lip.

'i'd been advised that it was fine to drink in moderation so I continued to have the odd glass of wine when I was out with friends or on special occasions. I have a sensible attitude to alcohol. I drank two glasses of wine with dinner every other day - so around six glasses a week.

"When Kyle was nine months old he got a bad chest infection. Worried, I took him to A&E at Belfast Children's Hospital. A doctor took one look at his flattened features - a symptom of the syndrome - and diagnosed FAS.

"She asked if I had any idea what I'd done to my son. I looked at her blankly. I had no idea what FAS was. She was so angry.

"Now Kyle, who is five, needs 24-hour care, can barely speak and communicates with sign language. In addition to kicking and biting me, he bites himself. I have to strap him into a special chair at meal times and he wears a helmet outside to prevent him harming himself.

"Every time I look at him I have to deal with the guilt, that I'm to blame. Now I'd say to any mum: 'Don't do it.' OK, you could drink a bottle of wine and have a healthy baby. But some women can have just the odd glass and have a baby like mine. That could be you.'

www.mirror.co.uk

Pregnant pause?

2007-07-31T11:28:00.000-07:00

During her first pregnancy four years ago, Erin Shea didn't even bother to ask her doctor whether she could keep taking an antidepressant. She figured the answer would be no.
So Shea stopped on her own. She struggled through the next nine months with panic attacks, the condition for which she had started taking Zoloft.
Her second pregnancy, which culminated in her son's birth in June, was completely different. This time, her obstetrician knew she was on the anti-depressant, and she remained on the drug.
"I made a big mistake," says the Indianapolis resident of her original decision. "So many medications, when you're pregnant, you're not supposed to take. I just assumed that I couldn't take it. . . . I should have used my senses and asked."
It's an issue that faces a lot of women when they find out they're expecting: Is it better to quit taking antidepressants because they might harm the fetus, even if that means allowing depression to potentially complicate a pregnancy?
Most doctors don't issue blanket recommendations either way. A decade ago, data didn't exist to show that such drugs could be taken during pregnancy. Studies conducted in recent years, however, suggest that in most cases, the medications, known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), cause no damage to a fetus.
The decision should be an individual one between a patient and her doctor, according to guidelines released in December by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. That statement also recommended against the use of Paxil, which it said is associated with an increased risk of cardiac malformations.
About one woman in 10 experiences depression during pregnancy or post-partum, according to the group. Two to three percent of women take antidepressants while they are pregnant.
"The population at most risk for depression is reproductive-age women," says Dr. Jonathan Lupton, an obstetrician-gynecologist with Southside Ob-Gyn. "So the population that's most likely to have it is the population we're most likely to see as pregnant patients."
Experts say they engage in a detailed discussion with their patients, asking about the woman's history of depression, whether she's been hospitalized, and whether she wants to remain on medication.
They also let them know that studies suggest infants exposed to SSRIs during pregnancy may have a higher risk of being admitted into the neonatal intensive-care unit and be of low birth weight.
Some babies may experience a short-term withdrawal from the SSRI after birth, experts say. They may be irritable, jittery and breathe rapidly. These drugs taken in the last trimester may also increase the risk of a rare lung problem.
On the flip side, doctors point out, pregnant women who go untreated for depression may have other problems. They may indulge in unhealthy behaviors, from sleeping or eating poorly to smoking and drinking.
"Moms need to be well during the pregnancy," says Dr. Diana Dell, an assistant professor in the departments of psychiatry and obstetrics-gynecology at Duke University Medical Center. "And when a person is anxious and depressed, they generate some pretty noxious chemicals on their own."
A study published last year in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that 68 percent of women who went off their anti-depressants during pregnancy relapsed, compared with 26 percent of those who stayed on the drug.
For Shea, who tried one pregnancy off Zoloft and one on, there was no debate about which was better.
In her first pregnancy off antidepressants, she had regular panic attacks. The day after her daughter came home from the hospital, Shea was in the emergency room with a panic attack.
Only after her daughter was born did Shea, now 26, tell her doctor she'd gone off the medication during her pregnancy. Not necessary, he told her.
During her second pregnancy, Shea stayed on the drug. She even received it in the hospital after her son's birth.
"I'm glad I took it," she says. "After her, I cried for two months with the baby blues, and with him I didn't have them at all."
Some doctors, however, caution that the jury is still out on the lifelong safety of these drugs. Just because they don't have the same immediate effect as, say, thalidomide (which caused birth defects), does not necessarily mean that problems will not arise down the road for children exposed to these medicines in utero, they say.
"The unknown part from the drug perspective is, does this -- in two years, 10 years -- does this affect child development?" says Dr. Peter Marcus, an associate professor of obstetrics-gynecology at Indiana University School of Medicine. "And that's a big wash. There are not that many good studies to determine long term follow-up on these kids."
That's why some encourage patients who describe their symptoms as mild to consider alternatives to medications. Dr. Kevin Henderzahs, an obstetrician-gynecologist with the Community Health Network, suggests his patients try counseling instead. For some, becoming involved with their religious community or relying on friends and family will work, he says.
"Depression is a very serious and common problem for women, and if they need to be treated, it is OK, but on the other hand, we don't want to treat people that don't absolutely need medicines with them. There are other ways to treat them," Henderzahs says.
For those who opt to stay on medication, he recommends taking the lowest effective dose.
IU's Marcus also refers many of his patients, whether they opt for drugs or not, to a post-partum depression support group to ward off any problems that might arise.
Other women may take their own steps to ensure that they and their unborn children are as safe as possible.
Years before Heather Hutchinson of Fishers conceived, she switched from another antidepressant to Prozac, which she had heard was safer in pregnancy than other related drugs. The experience of weaning off one drug and taking another persuaded her that she needed the medicine.
"It's not all mind control," said the mother of 3-year-old twins and an infant. "You have a chemical imbalance. That is something that you cannot help, and there's nothing wrong with getting help with it."

www.indystar.com

GMA's Roberts: I Have Breast Cancer

2007-07-31T11:27:00.000-07:00

A little more than a month after Good Morning America's longtime movie critic Joel Siegel succumbed to colon cancer, the ABC morning show has been rocked with more bad news.

In a stunner of an announcement, GMA coanchor Robin Roberts announced Tuesday she has been diagnosed with breast cancer.

"I never thought I'd be writing...I have breast cancer," she writes in a message posted on ABCNews.com.

"It all started a few weeks ago. We had gotten the news that our dear colleague and friend Joel Siegel had passed away and we began preparing for our special tribute show for him. I did a piece about Joel's courageous battle with cancer, reporting on the way my friend had lived his life and been such a successful advocate for the importance of early cancer screenings.

"That very night when I went to bed, I did a self breast exam and found something that women everywhere fear: I found a lump."

Roberts immediately went to the doctor, and a biopsy determined she had "an early form of breast cancer."

"Hearing the doctor say those words out loud was surreal," Robert writes.

But the 46-year-old telejournalist is remaining upbeat.

"I am so blessed that I found this in the early stages and the prognosis is so promising that my doctor expects me to be flying planes and hanging on to submarines in the middle of the Atlantic and scaling the Mayan pyramids in no time," she adds.

Roberts, who rose from news reader to GMA coanchor in May 2005, is scheduled to undergo surgery on Friday and will then begin a course of treatment. She did not go into further detail.

In discussing her medical condition on Tuesday's program with coanchor Diane Sawyer, Roberts noted there's no history of the disease in her family and said she is determined to be a cancer survivor.

"I will get up like everybody else, I will go to work, I'll say 'Good Morning America,' I will have my good days and bad days, so be kind to me on the message board when I've had my bad days and the hair goes," she joked, then grabbed Sawyer's hand and raised it up. "This is my Thelma. We call ourselves Thelma and Louise, and we're in the convertible right now. Full speed ahead."

Roberts closed the segment thanking viewers for their love and support and preaching the value of early detection.

More than 250,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer each year, but the survival rate has climbed thanks to increased education about the disease and early screenings to help catch it before it spreads.

source ; www.eonline.com

Exercise, caffeine may stop skin cancer

2007-07-31T11:24:00.000-07:00

DRINKING a double espresso a day and taking regular exercise may help prevent skin cancer.

A study on mice at Rutgers University in New Jersey showed that a combination of exercise and some caffeine -- equivalent to one or two cups of coffee a day -- protected against the effects of the sun's ultraviolet-B radiation, which can lead to cancer.

The caffeine and exercise seemingly conspire to kill off precancerous cells whose DNA has been damaged by UVB-rays, the authors say.

The study was published yesterday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Groups of hairless mice, whose exposed skin is vulnerable to the sun, were the test subjects in experiments in which one set drank caffeinated water -- the equivalent of up to two cups of coffee for humans; another set exercised on a running wheel; and a third group both drank caffeine and ran.

A fourth group, which served as a control, neither ran nor drank caffeine.

All of the mice were then exposed to lamps that generated UVB radiation that damaged the DNA in their skin cells. The Rutgers team looked for evidence of programmed cell death, also known as apoptosis, among the four groups of UVB-treated mice.

Apoptosis is the process by which cells with badly damaged DNA destroy themselves as a natural defence against illness and infection.

Drugs that induce apoptosis are currently being investigated as a means of preventing different types of cancer, but Allan Conney, one of the authors, said that the combination of caffeine and exercise appeared to have a similar protective effect.

Compared with the UVB-exposed control animals, the caffeine drinkers showed an increase of about 95 per cent in UVB-induced apoptosis, the exercisers showed a 120 per cent increase, and the mice that were both drinking and exercising showed an increase of nearly 400 per cent.

Dr Conney said the cumulative difference seen in the caffeine-drinking runners "can likely be attributed to some kind of synergy between the two factors".

Previous research has found that coffee may reduce the risk of developing gallstones, kidney stones and colorectal cancer.

www.theaustralian.news.com.au

Alcohol consumption linked to bowel cancer

2007-07-31T11:21:00.000-07:00

A major study has found new evidence which links alcohol consumption with bowel cancer.

The findings from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) suggest that people who drink one or two glasses of wine or beer a day increase their risk of developing the disease by about 10 per cent.

Dr Kat Arney of Cancer Research UK, one of the groups helping to fund the study, says the results are important.

"It's involving more than half a million people, so the data we're getting out of it is quite significant," she said.

"They've got around 18,000 people who develop bowel cancer and that allows you to do really quite powerful statistics to find out the links between causes of cancer and how much they might increase your risk."

source : abc.net.au

Two-Drug Combo Tough on Kidney Cancer

2007-07-31T11:18:00.000-07:00

Kidney cancer might have met its match in a new combination of cancer drugs, a new study shows.

Used together, interferon alpha, a drug that boosts the body's ability to fight off tumors and infections, and sorafenib, a drug that cuts off a tumor's blood supply, led to significant tumor shrinkage in 33 percent of patients in a U.S. pilot study.
"We found that by combining a drug that enlists the immune system's help in combating cancer with one that cuts off a tumor's blood supply, we could substantially increase patients' response rates to treatment," lead investigator Dr. Jared Gollob, of the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center in Durham, N.C., said in a prepared statement.

Used alone, each drug is only successful in fighting 5 percent to 10 percent of tumors. But the new study finds that the combination works much better. Sorafenib is sold under the brand name Nexavar.

The drugs had an additional benefit, the researchers said, in that the combo therapy doubled the time before tumors began to grow again. According to Gollob, most tumors begin growing again after about five or six months when treated by either drug alone.

Reporting in the Aug. 1 issue of theJournal of Clinical Oncology, Gollob and his research team gave 40 study patients sorafenib in pill form twice daily and interferon alpha injections three time a week for eight weeks. If the patient's tumor had not grown or had shrunk after eight weeks, they repeated the cycle after a two-week break until the tumors disappeared or the cancer got worse. The researchers monitored the tumors using computerized-tomography (CT) scans.

The approach completely destroyed tumors in two of the 40 patients.

Researchers plan to begin a multi-site clinical trial that will analyze the impact of giving patients increasing doses of sorafenib alone after their tumors have shrunk as much as possible on the combination treatment.

According to the U.S. National Cancer Institute, about 51,000 people suffer from kidney cancer every year, and almost 13,000 will die from the disease. The majority of patients are men over the age of 45. The cancer is especially deadly, because it very rarely causes symptoms until it has reached an advanced stage. By the time kidney cancer rates stage IV status, it has spread to other organs such as lungs, liver and bones. People are given six months to two years to live once they reach stage IV, and only about 10 percent are alive five years after diagnosis.

The Duke team noted that one of the biggest challenges facing doctors and patients with kidney cancer is the cancer's resistance to chemotherapy, radiation and other common cancer-fighting tools.

source : www.washingtonpost.com

Gold Nanoparticles May Pan Out As Tool For Cancer Diagnosis

2007-07-31T11:16:00.000-07:00

Science Daily — When it comes to searching out cancer cells, gold may turn out to be a precious metal.
Purdue University researchers have created gold nanoparticles that are capable of identifying marker proteins on breast cancer cells, making the tiny particles a potential tool to better diagnose and treat cancer. The technology would be about three times cheaper than the most common current method and has the potential to provide many times the quantity and quality of data, said Joseph Irudayaraj, an associate professor of agricultural and biological engineering.

"We hope that this technology will soon play a critical role in early detection and monitoring of breast cancer," said Irudayaraj (pronounced ee-roo-THY'-a-razh), leader of a research team that developed a new method for fabricating the nanoparticles that is published in the journal Analytical Chemistry. "Our goal is to see it in commercial use in about four years."

The gold nanoparticles, or nanorods, are tiny rod-shaped gold particles, even smaller than viruses, which are equipped with antibodies designed to bind to a specific marker on cell surfaces. Researchers analyze these surface markers, proteins on a cell's exterior, because they can contain valuable information about what type of cell they belong to or what state that cell may be in.

"In cancer diagnosis, the ability to accurately detect certain key markers will be very helpful because certain types of cancers have specific surface markers," Irudayaraj said.

In another study published last month in Nano Letters, Irudayaraj showed that the nanorods, when combined with a special imaging technique, were capable of recognizing cancer stem cells by binding to known markers on their exterior. Cancer stem cells are important to detect because they are particularly invasive and more likely than other types of cancer cells to spread, or metastasize, to other organs. These and other types of cells the technology utilizes are obtained from blood tests as opposed to biopsies.

The nanoparticles, or "gold nanorod molecular probes," are fabricated so that their size is unique to their target marker. That way, when nanorods bind to their marker, they "scatter," or disrupt light in a characteristic manner that researchers can then pair to the nanorod's dimensions, its antibody and the target cancer marker, which must be present for binding to occur.

More than 200,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer every year in the United States, and 80 percent of those women receive some type of therapy, Irudayaraj said. Since 40 percent of them will have a relapse, regular monitoring, which this technology aims to do, is vital.

Irudayaraj said using gold nanorods for cancer detection will be about one-third the cost of the current analogous technology, called flow cytometry. This method works by attaching fluorescent probes to cancer cells, whereas the nanorod technology has its basis in sensing plasmons, or sub-atomic particles present in the gold nanoparticles.

The nanorods also require only a few cells, whereas flow cytometry requires hundreds to thousands of cells. This could be advantageous when dealing with scarce sample sizes, Irudayaraj said.

Irudayaraj and his team - postdoctoral researcher Chenxu Yu and Harikrishna Nakshatri, a researcher at the Indiana University School of Medicine - demonstrated that the nanorods bind to three different markers. Two of the markers were used to calculate the invasiveness of the cancer cell, while one marker - present equally among the different cancer types - was used to calculate the degree to which the other markers were expressed, or present. Irudayaraj said his gold nanorods may be able to detect as many as 15 different markers in the future, possibly opening the door for even more comprehensive tests.

Ultimately, Irudayaraj imagines a new kind of routine and cost-effective procedure for the identification of cancer cells. A patient gives blood, from which cancer cells are obtained. Nanorods are then added to bind to specific markers, if present. Next, the cells are placed on a microscopic slide for imaging. After the rods absorb and re-emit radiation, a special camera records the scattered light, which a computer helps to analyze. Finally, based upon the data, a diagnosis is made.

Irudayaraj received funding from Purdue and the Indiana University School of Medicine, and the work was conducted at the Bindley Bioscience Center, of which he is a member. He plans to further develop the technology in the future and is researching mechanical properties of the nanorods and the surface markers to which they bind. He hopes to create nanoparticles that are capable of binding to more markers and to provide more information about these markers and what they reveal about the state of the cell.

source : www.sciencedaily.com

Medicare Eases Proposed Restrictions on Anemia Drugs Used by Cancer Patients

2007-07-31T11:14:00.000-07:00

Medicare has eased up on some of its proposed restrictions on the use of popular anemia drugs made by Amgen and Johnson & Johnson.

The decision, announced late yesterday, could provide some relief for the two companies, which have already experienced steep drops in sales of the drugs because of concerns that the products might be making cancer worse. The new policy is still expected to curtail use of the drugs, however.

The federal Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services had proposed in May to sharply limit coverage for the drugs — Aranesp from Amgen and Procrit from Johnson & Johnson. Some analysts had predicted at that time that use of the drugs could be cut by as much as 50 percent.

But in a public comment period that followed, the agency received more than 2,600 comments, many of them from doctors, medical societies and patient groups who said the proposed restrictions went too far, were not based on scientific evidence and would possibly harm patients. That prompted yesterday’s pullback.

“In a lot of respects it looks as though C.M.S. has blinked in the face of the huge outcry over the initial proposal,” said Geoffrey C. Porges, biotechnology analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Company. Still, he said, the new policy would nevertheless mean a “significant reduction” in use of the drugs.

Both Amgen and Johnson & Johnson said yesterday that they were still studying the 61-page decision and could not comment immediately.

But investors reacted favorably, sending shares of Amgen by more than $2 in early after-hours trading, though it then began to drop back. Shares had closed at $56.19, up 57 cents.

Shares of the larger and more diversified Johnson & Johnson rose about 30 cents after hours, having closed at $60.07, up 30 cents.

Medicare’s decision is expected to influence how private insurers pay for the drugs, which are synthetic versions of erythropoietin, or EPO, a hormone that increases the production of oxygen-carrying red blood cells.

“Our goal was to maintain physician autonomy while ensuring the safety of our Medicare beneficiaries,” Herb B. Kuhn, the acting deputy administrator of the agency, said in a statement.

Medicare’s final “national coverage determination” still retains some significant restrictions. For instance, the program will not cover the use of the drugs to treat the anemia caused by cancer itself, as opposed to anemia caused by chemotherapy. The drugs are approved only for the anemia from chemotherapy but had been widely used by patients not getting chemotherapy.

But other proposed restrictions have been lifted, like ones that would have barred reimbursement for the drugs’ use during chemotherapy for certain types of cancer or for patients being treated with the cancer drugs Avastin and Erbitux.

Medicare also relaxed the requirements for beginning anemia treatment. Its proposal in May had said doctors should wait until a patient’s hemoglobin — the oxygen-carrying component of red blood cells — dropped below 9 grams per deciliter, close to the point at which blood transfusions would be considered. Yesterday it said treatment could begin when the hemoglobin level drops to 10.

In the past many doctors had started treatment when hemoglobin levels were even higher than 10.

The agency also said it would leave to local contractors the decision on whether to pay for the drugs to treat myelodysplastic syndromes, a family of bone marrow diseases that can lead to leukemia. Medicare had proposed to deny such coverage, drawing protests from patient groups.

The policy issued yesterday relates only to the use of the drugs for cancer patients, not for patients with kidney failure.

Aranesp is Amgen’s biggest-selling product, with sales last year reaching $4.1 billion.

But the safety concerns have already started to take a toll. Worldwide sales of Aranesp fell 10 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier, to $949 million. In the United States the decline was even steeper — 19 percent, to $578 million.

Johnson & Johnson’s worldwide sales of Procrit, which is called Eprex outside the United States, fell 6 percent, to $758 million. In the United States, sales plunged 14 percent, to $449 million.

source : www.nytimes.com

Potential cancer treatment is discovered

2007-07-31T11:13:00.000-07:00

cancer researchers have discovered a potential new genetic treatment that causes tumors in mice to self-destruct.

The researchers, led by Stanford University Associate Professor Dean Felsher, discovered switching off a single malfunctioning gene can halt the limitless division of tumor cells.

Felsher said the possibility a cell's natural mechanism for ensuring its mortality could be used to vanquish tumors opens the door to a new approach for developing anti-cancer drugs.

The gene Felsher's team studied produces a protein called Myc, which promotes cell division. A mutation of the gene causes cells to overproduce the protein, prompting perpetual cell division and tumor growth. By turning off the mutated gene, the researchers found not only did uncontrolled cell division cease but the cells also reactivated a normal physiological mechanism, called senescence, which makes it possible for a cell to eventually die.

"What was unexpected was just the fact that cancer cells had retained the ability to undergo senescence at all," said Felsher. Cancer researchers had long thought senescence had to be irreversibly disrupted for a tumor to develop.

The study appears in the advance online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

source : www.sciencedaily.com

Mathematicians Propose New Model for Cancer Growth

2007-07-31T11:11:00.000-07:00

What do zebras, bacteria, and cancer have in common? They all can evolve in response to pressures in their environment. This simple biological fact inspired researchers from the University of California, Irvine, to study cancer in a new light. They used the tools of mathematics (rather than biology) to test a theory that that tumors change their mutation rate "intentionally" throughout their development, in order to grow as quickly as possible. This research was published in the Royal Society's journal Interface.

For some time now, laboratory scientists have known that cancer cells behave very differently from normal cells, constantly changing their genetic makeup. As Natalia Komarova explains, a normal human cell has 23 pairs of chromosomes, "but if you look at the cancer cell it's a complete mess: some chromosomes are present only in one copy, some are missing, some are present in five or six or ten copies." This phenomenon of losing and gaining genetic material as cells divide is called genetic instability.
Komarova notes that everyone who studies cancer knows that genetic instability (and the mutations it causes) are important for cancer cells: cancer couldn't spread without it. It's not so clear why this mutation rate slows down in later stages of the tumor. She says that this has been observed experimentally, but researchers can't decide whether it's important for cancer growth or if it's just a side-effect of cancer.

To try to understand the process, Komarova and her colleagues turned to optimal control theory, a branch of mathematics used to determine the most efficient pathways, and they applied it to the mystery of cancer growth.

Their results showed that it was indeed advantageous for cancer to be highly genetically unstable in its earlier stages and to become more stable later on. "So it kind of pays off to change all the time," says the mathematician, "to lose chromosomes, to gain chromosomes, at the beginning; and then stop doing this and remain at the same level for the rest of the natural history of a tumor."

Natalia Komarova is a mathematician, not a medical researcher. But Dr. Andrew Pierce, of the University of Kentucky College of Medicine, says her results make sense because they parallel what many living organisms do to thrive in their environment. He points to the way bacteria develop resistance against an antibiotic, "and so the idea is 'OK, my current genetic solution isn't a very good solution anymore, so let's mix it up and try a bunch of random stuff and see if something can be come up with randomly that just happens to work better.'"
Dr. Pierce explains that this fits with the current theories on evolution. He says that the stress from the environment is reduced once the right genetic mutation has been found. "It perfectly fits with their result", he concludes, "that now that a new solution has been acquired what you don't want to do is keep on messing with it, you know? If it's not broken, don't fix it."

Knowing the reason for a tumor's genetic instability, mathematician Komarova says, might affect the development of cancer treatment strategies. She explains that some treatments are mutogenic, that is, they make cells mutate. Chemotherapy, she says, is very mutogenic, and small molecule inhibitors are not.

Although her research is not at that point yet, Komarova says she would like to incorporate treatments and their mutogenic properties into her model.

She says mathematical tools can enhance medical research. Their work is not experimental notes Komarova, they don't work in a lab, but they believe that their work could help create theories for laboratory researchers. "We kind of provide ideas or explanations to the medical community", she adds.

Dr. Neal Meropol, from the Fox-Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, agrees that a multidisciplinary effort might help find the best alternatives. He says it's good that researchers from other disciplines, like mathematicians, are coming up with new ideas. "We are certainly learning the hard way," he says, "to some extent, through our failures, that a team approach to solving the cancer problem is required if we're going to achieve our holy grail of eliminating death from cancer in the future."

University of California mathematician Natalia Komarova hopes that her research will give the medical community food for thought during their quest for new approaches to fighting cancer.

source : www.voanews.com

Cancer Treatment Centers of America Selects AT&T to Provide Network Services

2007-07-31T11:01:00.000-07:00

today announced the implementation of advanced network solutions for Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA). CTCA is a national leader in cancer treatment, specializing in complex and advanced-stage disease.

With headquarters in Schaumburg, Ill., the CTCA approach to cancer treatment fully integrates state-of-the-art medical care with scientifically supported complementary therapies like nutrition, naturopathy, physical therapy, psychosocial counseling and spiritual support. The unique CTCA, patient-focused approach to cancer treatment is provided at its facilities located in Suburban Chicago, Tulsa, Philadelphia, Seattle and a new facility planned for the Greater Phoenix area.

AT&T will supply network solutions to CTCA's Schaumburg and Zion locations, protecting the facilities' access and daily data transmissions from interruptions. As a secure connection, AT&T's Optical Carrier 3 (OC3) Sonet Rings will provide a scalable interface capable of handling the network's diverse signals and the capacity for multiple user access from its Schaumburg and Zion locations.

AT&T's Sonet technology will also support future infrastructure upgrades and enhancements by CTCA. Using bidirectional lines structured into a ring, the Sonet consolidates Ethernet, data, video and voice traffic onto a single transport that maximizes bandwidth. The ring's multiple-line architecture provides redundancy, protecting CTCA's network services from catastrophic fiber cuts, service interruptions and other security hazards.

"At CTCA, everything we do is focused on improving our patients' treatment experience," said Chad A. Eckes, chief information officer for CTCA. "Our ability to access real-time patient medical information 24 hours a day, seven days a week is critical to our commitment to providing our patients with the most efficient, highest-quality cancer care in the country. AT&T's reliable network solutions and our redundant design will allow us to operate more efficiently and confidently while maintaining a continuous flow of electronic medical information to the clinician."

Note: This AT&T release and other news announcements are available as part of an RSS feed at www.att.com/rss.

About Cancer Treatment Centers of America

Founded in 1988, Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA) provides a comprehensive, patient-centered treatment model that fully integrates traditional, state-of-the-art medical treatments with scientifically-supported complementary therapies such as nutrition, naturopathy, psychological counseling, physical therapy and spiritual support to meet the special, whole- person needs of advanced-stage cancer patients. With a network of cancer treatment hospitals and community oncology programs in Illinois, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Washington with a new hospital scheduled to open in Arizona in winter 2008, CTCA encourages patients and their families to participate in treatment decisions through its Patient Empowerment Medicine(SM) model.

source : money.cnn.com

Early Sign Of Pregnancy – Begin A Safe Journey

2007-07-26T02:11:00.000-07:00

Pregnancy week by week calendars can help you learn about the early signs of pregnancy. Your pregnancy journal can be a nice record of your pregnancy and your various experiences.

Awareness of early signs of pregnancy or early pregnancy symptoms is vital to ensure proper care of mom-to-be right from the time of conception until the birth of the baby. If you are trying to have a baby, make it a point to observe any change in your body 10 to 12 days after your last period. Any sort of change could be an early sign of pregnancy. Most of the pregnancies are lost during the first few days. Therefore, it is important to recognize the symptoms of conception, confirm it through tests, and follow the medical advice to avoid miscarriages. In fact, a woman requires due care throughout her pregnancy period.

Some Early Signs Of Pregnancy

If you feel nausea in the morning, or smell of foods and beverages like tea, coffee, colas etc. makes you vomit, it could well be signifying conception. Another early signs include missing your periods, brownish or pinkish vaginal discharge prior to or on the due date of menses, and tenderness or swelling in breasts. Tenderness or swelling of breasts can be felt as early as within hours of conception.

The moment you feel any of the above symptoms, you must not waste time in getting yourself examined for confirmation of pregnancy. Once it is confirmed that you are pregnant, you must take due medical advice and begin preparations for the joyous but complicated journey ahead.

Coping With Pregnancy

The thought and experience of carrying a baby in your womb makes you feel unique and complete. Nevertheless, those nine months can sometimes seem to be extremely tiresome and prolonged. The nausea, pain, breathlessness, sleepless nights, there is so much to endure. It is therefore wise to adopt measures to put up with this. One excellent and established means of soothing your mind and body is to keep a pregnancy journal. In this journal, you can document the symptoms, emotions, and anxieties you feel right from the early sign of pregnancy until the time you deliver the baby. You can pen down the pains and joys you go through during the period. Not only does this help you relieve your mind, but also provides reference points for other woman in your circle who might be having babies later.

Keep A Track Of Your Baby’s Growth

Medical science generally describes the growth of the baby on weekly basis. Most of the pregnancy calendars and guides provide details of baby’s shape, features, and motions during various stages of pregnancy by dividing the total period or term into 40 weeks.

From the early sign of pregnancy until the moment you go into labor, you should try to match your symptoms and baby’s movements with those mentioned in the pregnancy week-by-week calendars. If you find anything abnormal in baby’s growth, rush to the obstetrician.

An early sign of pregnancy as the name suggests is the early or first indicator of pregnancy. When the pregnancy is confirmed, maintain a pregnancy journal to keep track of your pregnancy week by week to enjoy a healthy pregnancy.

source : www.americanchronicle.com

Coping With The First Trimester of Pregnancy

2007-07-26T02:06:00.000-07:00

Congratulations, you are pregnant! The first trimester of pregnancy is the first stage of pregnancy that calls for a lot of adjustment in your lifestyle as well as an intense preparation to go through the different stages of pregnancy that you will face in the due course of time.

You will feel nausea; you will feel extremely tired; and your doctor will recommend bed rest. This is because your body is going through a series of changes and needs relaxation to endure these drastic changes with ease.

Body Changes

The first trimester of pregnancy brings along many changes physically and emotionally. Firstly, your body will increase in size so that it can accommodate the expanding fetus. This will make your feel uneasy. Some women think they are sick and get unduly worried about their health. Relax! This is just your body’s way of coping with the changes and there’s nothing to worry about.

Morning sickness is the most common complaint of women during the first trimester of pregnancy. Besides this, you may feel tired without doing much work. Your breasts may enlarge and become tender. Some women experience frequent urination at this stage. You might also feel constipated or bloated. Indigestion is another discomfort to cope with. Whatever might be the discomfort; this stage of pregnancy development is going to be difficult, as you are constantly adjusting to new changes and learning new things. However, once you are through with the first trimester of pregnancy, the final stage of pregnancy is not far away.

Other Discomforts

Besides nausea and exhaustion, you might gain some pounds, experience heartburn, and also feel dizzy. So, it’s best not to exert yourself in this stage. You might also get leg cramps, as your calcium levels fall during the first trimester of pregnancy. Some women experience the development of Varicose veins on their body parts.

Most of these discomforts are natural and not an issue to worry about. However, if any of the above mentioned symptoms get severe, you must consult your doctor immediately.

Tips To Face The Discomforts Of The First Trimester Of Pregnancy

# Have 5-6 small meals everyday instead of the conventional 3 large meals.

# Stay away from oily and spicy stuff, as it may lead to worsening of morning sickness.

# Ensure that the food you eat is cooked properly.

# Your folic acid or vitamin C intake should be 0.4 milligrams everyday.

# Do not stand for prolonged period of time.

# Ensure that you get a complete 8-hour sleep daily.

# Do not lift heavy objects.

# Do not exert yourself physically.

# Stop smoking.

# Reduce your alcohol consumption.

# Traveling should be avoided at this stage. However, if you must, then avoid a bumpy ride.

# Never take any mediation without consulting your doctor.

# A light exercise regime is best. However, consult your doctor before starting any form of exercise.

With the above tips, the first trimester of pregnancy should not be as difficult as it is dreaded to be!

The first trimester of pregnancy is the first stage of pregnancy. This stage of pregnancy development is the time when you need to be extra careful because during this pregnancy trimester, you are prone to many pregnancy complications and risks. Visit Pregnancy for more details about different stage of pregnancy, baby stage during pregnancy, pregnancy symptoms, pregnancy exercises, pregnancy diet, maternity clothing, breastfeeding and other topics related to pregnancy and women’s health.

source : www.americanchronicle.com

Isla Fisher says pregnancy

2007-07-26T01:47:00.000-07:00

Isla Fisher says pregnancy has given her temporary memory loss - and she can barely remember her own name.

The Australian actress, famous for roles in Scooby Doo and The Wedding Crashers, is seven months pregnant by her fiance Sacha Baron Cohen.

Promoting her new film Hot Rod, she told the Daily Mirror: "I have amnesia. I don't remember what I just said. Someone just asked me what music I'm listening to right now and I said Nick Cannon, who's apparently like some rapper! That is obviously what I'm not listening to right now.

"No, I can barely remember my name."

The 31-year-old is busy making the challenging conversion to Judaism, so that she can marry the brains behind Ali G - 35-year-old Sacha next year.

"I'm still learning about Judaism and I love it," she told the paper. "There is no crash course if you really want to learn."

source : www.thisisnottingham.co.uk

Officials: Sexually transmitted disease, teen pregnancy problems in Midland

2007-07-26T01:42:00.000-07:00

A national report released Wednesday named Texas as the state with the worst teen pregnancy rate in the country, and Midland sex education officials say local teens also have high rates of sexually transmitted diseases.
"Last year, the health department reported 200 girls between the ages of 13 and 18 as having been diagnosed with chlamydia," said Pat Snyder, a registered nurse and teen pregnancy coordinator for the Midland Independent School District.

Snyder said the total number of people she helped last year was 275, which included parents and pregnant teens.

"I've had girls as young as 11 pregnant; they're getting sexually active younger," Snyder said. "The specific ones I've worked with have had older siblings and the girls did not look their age. They're maturing faster now than they did this time a year ago."

The report, provided in the KIDS COUNT data book, is a precursor to the fall release of The State of Texas Children 2007.

Released by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the report shows Texas averages 63 births per 1,000 females ages 15-19. The report also stated that nationally, there are 41 births for every 1,000 teens.

The state did improve by 9 percent between 2000 and 2004, but having a total of more than 51,000 births to Texas teens put the Lone Star State at the top of the list.

"The recidivism rates are high (for teen pregnancy)," Snyder said. "Some of them are on their third babies and are only about 18."

Years ago, if a teen got pregnant she would be shipped out to the alternative school. But Snyder and her supervisor Tracey Dees said their main goal is to keep the girls in school and see them graduate.

Dees, the supervisor of health care services in MISD, said most of the MISD girls who get pregnant graduate.

"We try to help them get a support system regardless of whether they have a support system at home," she said. "Once you are pregnant, there is another life to be taken into consideration. We have daycare services at Coleman high school; if they are going to succeed, let's make sure we get them an education."

In addition to the school curriculum, other agencies make efforts to educate teens on abstinence and what is considered "safe" sex.

Judy Rouse, executive director of the Life Center, said their sex education program is based on medically accurate facts and abstinence.

"We have an abstinence program that's been in schools since 1998," she said. "It follows a regular pattern of education. We talk about the media, we talk about relationships and 'Is safe sex really safe?' We discuss the myth of safe sex."

Rouse said not only does the center's program offer dialogue about sex, but it also informs teenagers about laws pertaining to them and sexual intercourse.

"With our program, we help (teens) decide for themselves what's best for them."

But Dees also pointed out the decision of becoming sexually active is not the only thing teenage girls have to deal with.

"We've had kids who have been sexually assaulted and they become pregnant and some who have been beaten by their parents because they're pregnant," Dees said. "And that's the hardest part."

Teen girls are not the only ones affected by teen pregnancies; teen fathers have their own issues to deal with as well.

"We've also got these daddies, too. Where does he fit into this? Some teens stay together, but for some, after she's pregnant it's over," Dees said.

"Some don't want anything to do with (the baby), but some of them are so young they don't know what to do."

Dees said the goal of her office is to not judge the teens for their actions.

"There's no imposition on our personal beliefs or morality. It's about how we as health care providers can help them bring healthy babies into this world," she explained.

Frances Deviney, Texas KIDS COUNT director, said information for the report is primarily gathered from the census bureau, but it also comes from the U.S. Center for Disease Control, the U.S. Department of Education and the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System.

"Texas ranks 37th on overall child well-being," Deviney said.

In addition to being the state with the highest teen birth rates, one in four Texas children lived in poverty in 2005, ranking the Lone Star State as 44th in the nation.

"Texas consistently rates at the bottom," Deviney said. "We need to remember that we cannot look favorably upon our state if our kids are in such conditions."

source : www.mywesttexas.com

IU cancer doctor curing even more

2007-07-26T01:38:00.001-07:00

Indiana University's Dr. Lawrence Einhorn, who pioneered a cure for the majority of men with testicular cancer and cured Lance Armstrong, has developed a way to treat the small percentage of patients who do not respond to initial therapy.
Einhorn combined high doses of chemotherapy with a transplant of patients' stem cells to combat the disease. The results appear in today's New England Journal of Medicine and could further cement IU's reputation as the go-to place for the cancer that affects about one in 400 men.
More than 60 percent of the 184 patients whom Einhorn and his IU colleagues treated with this regimen saw their tumors disappear.
"Just as it's overwhelming to be told you have cancer, what's even more overwhelming is to go through a very difficult three months of chemotherapy only to be told the cancer has come back," said Einhorn, Lance Armstrong professor of oncology at the Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center. "The fact that we can now talk about curing 60 percent of cancer is really spectacular. I wish we could do this in all diseases."
Brownsburg resident Zach Canada benefited from the treatment.
Diagnosed with testicular cancer in October 2005, Canada was relieved to hear statistics about the chance of recurrence. About 95 percent of men with testicular cancer will be cured by initial treatment. For patients like Canada, whose disease had not spread, the success rate is even higher.
"I thought, 'Sweet!' " he said.
Canada, now 35, went through three rounds of chemo, and the tumor was gone.
But almost a year to the day of his diagnosis, he felt a pain in his abdomen. The tumor had returned. Einhorn prescribed a grueling three months of chemotherapy and infusions.
"It was shocking, very shocking," Canada said. "But for me, there really wasn't another option. I'm fortunate enough to be in the backyard of one of the greatest cancer centers in the United States, so I didn't question it."
Canada spent 30 of the next 50 days in the hospital. At the end, a scan revealed it had been worth it.
The tumor was gone.
Einhorn's method involves delivering chemotherapy in doses about five times higher than the original treatment. Because these doses can cause severe side effects, including low blood counts, blood is collected from patients before chemo and frozen.
That blood contains stem cells that will develop into healthy blood cells and help with recovery. The doctors deliver these stem cells to the patient in a process similar to a blood transfusion.
Until about 10 years ago, Einhorn relied on bone-marrow transplants to collect the stem cells, but this newer technique does not require patients to undergo operations.
"The patient's blood counts recover much more rapidly, which allow us to give a second course more rapidly," he said. "So there's not so much time in between the courses of chemotherapy so the cancer can start growing. Even though there was pessimism about high-dose treatment, this is a very different model, so that was our enthusiasm for doing it."
Although others in the field treat relapsed patients with standard therapy, the IU researchers suggest this might be a better option, said Dr. David Vaughn, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
"This provides a lot of evidence that if you do that, the patients have a better response," he said. "It shows that this high-dose therapy with stem-cell transplantation can be done with a significant degree of patient safety."
However, he noted that three patients in the study experienced drug-related deaths, and three others developed leukemia.
But the fact that the majority of his patients did so well led Einhorn to the New England Journal, one of the field's premier publications, when it came time to publish.
"We still get problems from some insurance companies, saying that this is experimental, and having it with the imprimatur of the New England Journal of Medicine makes it easier for patients to get this therapy," he said. "Secondly, this is something that everybody in the world should be doing."

source : www.indystar.com

GPC Biotech Shares Fall on FDA's Vote on Cancer Drug

2007-07-26T01:27:00.001-07:00

GPC Biotech AG shares fell 33 percent after a U.S. panel recommended delaying a decision on the company's experimental prostate cancer drug.

The decline wiped about 180 million euros ($247 million) from GPC's market value after a panel of advisers to the Food and Drug Administration voted 12-0 yesterday to wait for more data on the treatment, called satraplatin. GPC, the company leading the drug's development, said it doesn't expect to have a survival analysis from its 950-patient study for another year.

Shares of Martinsried, Germany-based GPC fell 4.93 euros to close at 9.82 euros in Frankfurt. The stock had already lost 37 percent of its value after the FDA staff suggested on July 20 that available data wouldn't be enough to secure approval for the medicine by next month. Spectrum Pharmaceuticals Inc. would receive a portion of the drug's sales under a licensing accord with GPC.

``It would be a huge blow to GPC if satraplatin is not approved at all,'' said Isabella Zinck, an analyst at UniCredit in Munich. ``Right now, the product hasn't been rejected, it has just lost the chance of having an accelerated review. We can't say this is the end of GPC.''

Spectrum shares fell 71 cents, or 15 percent, to $4.09 at 12:11 p.m. in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading. The Irvine, California-based company has had a licensing agreement for satraplatin since 2002.

The panel advising the FDA recommended a delay until there is more data on whether satraplatin helped men with prostate cancer live longer. The FDA usually follows the recommendations of its advisers, although it isn't required to do so.

Better Than Narcotics?

``I'm not certain that satraplatin is better than narcotics'' in treating pain and improving quality of life, FDA panel member Otis Brawley, an oncology professor at Emory University in Atlanta, said yesterday. ``I do believe that satraplatin will meet that survival endpoint, but I think we need'' the data to be sure.

GPC Chief Executive Officer Bernd Seizinger said on a conference call today that he was disappointed with the FDA panel's recommendation.

The agency ``has the full range of options available to it,'' Seizinger said. ``It could issue an approvable letter, it could also issue a non-approvable letter.''

Regulators were scheduled to make a decision by Aug. 15 under an expedited review program for new compounds that serve an unmet need or represent significant improvements over existing drugs. The treatment, which is for use in men who haven't responded to chemotherapy, would be sold under the brand name Orplatna.

Enough Cash

Interim data from the clinical test submitted by GPC doesn't prove the drug helps prostate cancer patients live longer, the advisory committee said. The panel, which met in Rockville, Maryland, also questioned how the company did its analysis of disease progression and pain reduction in the study.

A slowdown in the death rate of patients on the trial means overall survival data won't be available for another six months, later than expected.

GPC has ``sufficient cash to get to the final survival analysis,'' said Martin Braendle, head of investor relations.

GPC said patients who took satraplatin in combination with steroids had a 33 percent lesser risk of cancer spreading than those taking steroids alone. Side effects from the drug were mostly mild and included nausea and fatigue.

``Without additional clinical trials, positive survival data appear to be the only way the drug will ever make it onto the market,'' Friedman Billings Ramsey analyst Robert Uhl wrote today in a note to investors. Uhl cut his rating on Spectrum to ``market perform'' from ``outperform,'' and reduced his price target for the stock to $5.50 from $12.25.

Drug Side Effects

Satraplatin would become the first oral chemotherapy agent with platinum as the active ingredient if it eventually wins regulatory approval. Similar therapies, such as Sanofi-Aventis SA's Taxotere, must be given intravenously.

Taxotere is now the only approved treatment shown to improve survival in prostate cancer patients who have stopped responding to hormones. The injections extended lives by a median of 2.4 months in a clinical trial, although doctors representing GPC told the panel that the benefits of such drugs are limited by the potential for serious side effects.

``This is a rapidly progressing, debilitating and ultimately fatal disease,'' said Nicholas Vogelzang, of the Nevada Cancer Institute. ``There is an urgent need for effective and well- tolerated therapies.''

Almost 219,000 U.S. men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer this year, and 27,050 men will die from the disease, according to the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland.

source : www.bloomberg.com

Lou Henson being treated for cancer

2007-07-26T01:24:00.000-07:00

LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) -- Former New Mexico State and Illinois coach Lou Henson is being treated again for cancer.

Henson, 75, said Wednesday he has the same form of intestinal non-Hodgkin's lymphoma he was diagnosed with four years ago. He began chemotherapy treatments Tuesday in Champaign, Ill., where he lives during the summer.
"It's the same thing as what I had before. You can't ever completely get over it and we knew it would probably come back," Henson said. "We felt good about that because we know we can put it in remission again."

Henson underwent 81/2 hours of chemotherapy Tuesday with no ill effects. In fact, he said he played 18 holes of golf on Wednesday morning.

Henson retired in January 2005, 21 wins short of 800 victories. He was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma two years earlier and was hospitalized in 2004 with viral encephalitis, which left his right leg paralyzed.

Henson coached at New Mexico State, his alma mater, from 1966 to 1975, then spent 21 years at Illinois before retiring in 1996. He returned to New Mexico State after Neil McCarthy was fired before the start of the 1997-98 season.

Henson is the winningest coach at New Mexico State and Illinois and led both schools to the Final Four -- the Aggies in 1970 and the Illini in 1989. He compiled a career record of 779-413, the eighth-winningest men's coach in Division I history.

source : sportsillustrated.cnn.com

Outcome Of Prostate Cancer Surgery Depends On The Experience Of The Surgeon

2007-07-26T01:20:00.000-07:00

Science Daily — According to a new study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, prostate cancer patients treated by highly experienced surgeons are much more likely to be cancer-free five years after surgery than patients treated by surgeons with less experience.

"The difference in outcome among patients who were treated by surgeons with varying degrees of experience is clinically relevant and likely reflects a true relationship between surgical technique and cancer control," said the study's lead author Andrew Vickers, PhD, Associate Attending Research Methodologist, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC).

Many studies have examined the relationship between surgical experience and patient outcomes. However, it is often unclear whether the findings are related to differences in surgical technique or result from differences in clinical variables or tumor characteristics. In the current study, the researchers adjusted for cancer severity, so that differences among surgeons likely reflect differences in the techniques they use rather than just differences in the patients they see.

Investigators analyzed the cancer outcomes of 7,765 prostate cancer patients who were treated with radical prostatectomy -- surgical removal of the prostate -- by one of 72 surgeons at four major US academic medical centers over a 16-year period. Sophisticated statistical models were used to evaluate the link between the total number of prostatectomies performed by the surgeon prior to each patient's operation and biochemical recurrence of prostate cancer (defined as a rising PSA level of more than 0.4 ng/mL).

The results showed that the risk of recurrence five years after surgery was 17.9 percent for patients treated by surgeons who had performed 10 operations and 10.7 percent for patients treated by surgeons who had performed 250 operations. This means that patients treated by inexperienced surgeons were nearly 70 percent more likely to have a recurrence of their prostate cancer than those who were treated by surgeons with greater experience. According to the analysis, one out of every 14 patients treated by an inexperienced surgeon will have a recurrence.

The results were described in terms of a learning curve, which showed a dramatic improvement in cancer control with increasing surgical experience up to 250 prior operations; however, there was no large change in recurrence rates with additional surgical experience.

"The learning curve is steep and did not start to plateau until a surgeon had completed 250 prior operations," said the study's senior author, Peter Scardino, MD, Chairman, Department of Surgery, MSKCC. "Surgeons with little experience get significantly poorer results than those who have more."

"Our results provide support for what other studies have implied -- that good technique is learned and increased volume leads to improved outcomes," said Dr. Vickers. "However, our focus on cancer outcome, the size of the difference in outcome associated with increasing surgical experience, and the large number of cases required before the learning curve starts to plateau, suggests that more serious attention should be paid to the issue of surgical quality."

The researchers note that the surgical technique of experienced surgeons may differ from that of surgeons with less experience. They conclude that further research is needed to determine how surgical technique might differ between these groups and to identify the critical aspects of radical prostatectomy that are associated with improved cancer control.

"Although the successful practice of surgery presumes a lifetime of learning, the large number of cases required before the learning curve plateaus suggests the need to expand opportunities for training in surgical technique for surgeons in the early years after residency training," said Dr. Scardino.

Researchers from the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, OH, and Wayne State University in Detroit, MI, also contributed to this study. The research was funded in part by a grant from the National Cancer Institute and by the Allbritton Fund and the Koch Foundation.

Group therapy fails to improve breast cancer survival

2007-07-26T01:18:00.000-07:00

Group therapy fails to improve breast cancer survival

A follow up to a previous study on group therapy in breast cancer patients finds group therapy does not prolong the lives of women with metastatic breast cancer. Published in the September 1, 2007 issue of CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the new case-control trial finds patients with metastatic breast cancer who took part in weekly group psychotherapy had similar survival rates as those given literature-based patient education. Earlier results from the same researcher had suggested a survival benefit of group therapy for women with metastatic breast cancer. However, the new study did find that women with estrogen receptor (ER) negative tumors did show survival benefit, and that group therapy improved quality of life (QOL), according to Eurekalert, the news service of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Early reports in the 1980s and 1990s, including published studies by Dr. David Spiegel from Stanford University, found that group psychotherapy for women with metastatic breast cancer improved survival. Dr. Spiegel’s 1989 study found that women who received group therapy for one year were more likely to be alive 18-months after diagnosis compared to a group of patients who received no therapy. Four subsequent studies had similar results, but six other studies failed to confirm the finding. Dr. Spiegel and co-investigators sought to replicate their original finding in a new randomized prospective study. For the new study, half (64 of 125) of a group of 125 women with metastatic breast cancer received one year of weekly group support and psychotherapy, in addition to one year of educational literature offered to all subjects. All also received standard oncological treatment for their metastatic breast cancer.

Dr. Spiegel and colleagues found no difference in overall survival between the two groups. Women who received supportive group therapy survived a median of 31 months, while group that received educational literature survived a median of 33 months. Further analysis did show a clear benefit for women with ER-negative tumors. Median survival in women with ER-negative tumors who received group therapy was 21 months longer than those who received educational literature (30 months versus 9 months). There was no survival benefit from psychotherapy treatment among women with ER-positive tumors. These women have benefited from improved hormonal treatments, such as aromatase inhibitors.

While there was no overall survival difference due to group therapy, Dr. Spiegel and colleagues point to the clear psychological benefit of group psychotherapy for women with metastatic breast cancer, writing that “being confronted with their ‘worst fears’ as they see others die of the same illness, with help in managing the strong emotions that understandably arise, is emotionally helpful for patients and not physically harmful.”

source : www.hindu.com/

NSW cancer most prevalent in regional men: report

2007-07-26T01:13:00.000-07:00

The New South Wales Cancer Council has released its map of the rate and type of cancers across the state between 1998 and 2002.

The report compares cancer incidence and mortality rates by Local Government Areas with the state's average figures.

It has found that men in regional NSW are more likely to die of preventable cancers such as head, neck, lung and oesophagus cancer than their city counterparts.

The report also found that the mortality rate from cancer increases for men living on the north and south coast, and for men living in the western suburbs of Sydney.

Women living in Penrith, southern Sydney and the eastern suburbs are more likely to die from lung cancer, while north shore women have a higher rate of breast cancer.

Liver cancer was found to be one of the most rapidly increasing cancers in the state, and the report says it is more concentrated in inner and south-western Sydney suburbs, where there are large migrant populations.

The Council's Chief Doctor, Andrew Penman, says this may point to a higher rate of Hepatitis B infections among migrants from Vietnam, China and the Pacific.

"We believe it makes the case quite strongly for a coordinated national approach to Hepatitis B," he said.

"If liver cancer is detected early, it would improve survival from the very low level at the moment of ten per cent."

The study did not look at the reasons for the cancer trends, but Dr Penman, says local knowledge can be used to find solutions.

"There are usually logical reasons why we see geographical variations in men and women being diagnosed with, and dying from cancer," he said.

"It can be as simple as increased access to effective services, increased awareness amongst local GPs to look out for certain symptoms, lifestyle factors such as drinking, smoking and diet, or even a higher predisposition towards particular cancers among certain ethnic groups.

"This report is the first step in identifying community needs and moving towards a more equitable cancer prevention and treatment strategy."

The report was compiled by the NSW Cancer Council Epidemiology Research Unit, using data from the NSW Central Cancer Registry.

source : abc.net.au

Breast cancer rate decline tied to less hormone use

2007-07-26T01:10:00.001-07:00

Patient treatment records from a large HMO show that the recent decline in breast cancer rates is linked to a sharp drop in use of hormone replacement therapy and not to declines in mammography, researchers said Tuesday.

Dr. Andrew Glass and his colleagues at Kaiser Permanente Northwest in Portland, Ore., found a drop in breast cancer rates among their patients from 2003 to 2006 even though mammography rates remained virtually constant, they reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

A lower mammography rate means fewer breast cancers are detected. Researchers are not sure why the rate declined, but contributing factors include the closing of some mammography centers, the cost, the discomfort and fewer visits to doctors' offices because of the drop in hormone replacement therapy.

By using a patient population for whom the mammography rate remained constant, "we were able to disentangle mammography from hormones," Glass said.

In an editorial in the same journal, Dr. Donald Berry and Dr. Peter Ravdin of the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston agreed that declines in mammography could not be responsible for the bulk of the decline in breast cancer.

"The only known factor that would seem to explain the precipitous drop in incidence is the sharp decrease in use of menopausal hormone therapy," they wrote.

No one is suggesting that estrogen triggers the formation of breast tumors. Rather, most researchers think that it accelerates the growth of existing tumors. Stopping hormone replacement therapy slows the growth of small tumors, delaying their detection for perhaps a couple of years and producing an apparent decline in incidence, Berry and Ravdin speculated.

Prescriptions for estrogen and progestin fell by nearly half in 2003 after 2002 results from the Women's Health Initiative linked an increased breast cancer risk to hormone replacement therapy.

Berry and Ravdin reported last year that breast cancer rates fell 7 percent in 2003, attributing the decline to decreased use of hormone therapy. A second report this year showed that by the end of 2004, the incidence had dropped 11.8 percent among women over 50, the primary consumers of hormones.

source : www.mercurynews.com

Pancreatic cancer no death warrant

2007-07-26T01:06:00.000-07:00

There are survivors

Having survived pancreatic cancer for more than 5.5 years, I appreciated the Chronicle's July 23 article "Doctors step up pancreatic cancer fight." I've made it a priority to speak to many patients who have had this disease and their caregivers: All are looking for information.

Most especially, they are looking for positive news of research and treatment.

It is hard enough being diagnosed with cancer, but hearing that it is one that is so difficult to treat makes the diagnosis even more difficult. While pancreatic cancer can be a tough disease to beat, it is important for everyone to remember that there are survivors.

I am blessed to be one and hopefully, with advances in pancreatic cancer research, there will be many more who are just as blessed.
Locals' visibility

The Chronicle's July 23 article "Pancreatic cancer fight" accurately portrayed a medical battle that has received minimal media coverage and inadequate medical research.

And until locals such as Robert Finger and Marvin Zindler brought some local visibility, this medical crisis had been ignored here in Houston.

However, the Chronicle focused solely on a "legacy of death" in its article. Why not take this report beyond its negative conclusion and find a reason for hope? I have the authority to expect hope, as I was diagnosed with stage 3 pancreatic cancer, which later spread to new malignancies on my liver (like Zindler). But I fought it with combined medical and homeopathic therapies and am now in remission.

source : www.chron.com

Beef, breast cancer and fundraising

2007-07-26T01:01:00.000-07:00

Earlier this year, the Calgary Stampede issued a press release saying: "The 2007 Calgary Stampede will see a concentrated focus on the beef industry." In October, the Stampede will play host to "Beef 2007," the International Livestock Congress. Nothing odd about that. After all, rodeo and the beef industry are inextricably linked, with one promoting and supporting the other. What is odd is that the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation (CBCF) would involve itself with activities that promote the consumption of beef when meat has been linked to cancer in numerous studies.

In the past couple of years, a number of rodeos across Canada, most notably the Calgary Stampede, have taken part in a fundraising campaign for the CBCF called Tough Enough to Wear Pink. Supported by the Wrangler clothing company, the campaign raises money through the sale of pink Wrangler shirts and other pink-themed merchandise, a percentage of which goes to the CBCF.

Everyone seems to benefit. Wrangler's brand is promoted and the CBCF gets money for cancer research. And the rodeo can associate itself with a worthy cause — quite handy to blunt criticism over its controversial treatment of animals (although one anti-rodeo activist recently told a Calgary newspaper that it was like putting pink icing on a cow pat).

But, while the CBCF joins the cowboys, cattle producers and meat companies at rodeo barbecues across the country, shouldn't it consider the health implications of the product it is indirectly helping to promote? In 2007 alone, several pieces of research have made connections between meat consumption and breast cancer.

Earlier this month, a well-publicized study showed that Asian women who adopted the Western "meat-sweet" (high in meat and sugar) were at higher risk of developing breast cancer. In May, a study funded by the American Institute for Cancer Research found that women who consistently consume a diet high in grilled, barbecued or smoked meat and low in vegetables and fruit significantly increased their risk of developing post-menopausal breast cancer. In April, an eight-year study at the University of Leeds found that women eating large amounts of red and processed meat have a significantly higher chance of developing breast cancer compared to those on vegetarian diets.

Earlier studies made similar findings. In 2006, for example, a Harvard Medical School study found that younger women who regularly ate red meat appear to face an increased risk of breast cancer. In 2003, a study at the Portland VA Medical Center found red meat intake was significantly associated with an increased breast cancer risk.

These come on top of a number of studies associating meat consumption with a variety of other cancers, such as colon, stomach and bowel.

While scientists may debate whether there is enough evidence for a certain causal relationship between meat and breast cancer, surely there is sufficient information to raise serious concerns.

Some cancer charities recommend limiting meat consumption. The World Cancer Research Fund, for example, advises eating no more than 80 grams of red meat a day. Obviously, a precautionary approach makes sense to some experts.

Given all this, you would think that the CBCF would stay well clear of even the most tenuous association with the meat industry. Linking up with rodeos and cattlemen is a bit like the Canadian Lung Association raising funds at an event sponsored by the tobacco industry.

The hoopla that surrounds the Tough Enough to Wear Pink campaign is supposed to raise awareness of cancer. But are all those people buying pink shirts at rodeos being made aware of the mounting research that links cancer and meat? Perhaps that wouldn't go down too well when the Calgary Stampede is hosting "Beef 2007."

Everyone wants to find a cure for cancer, but there seems to be more and more people interested in preventing the disease. If diet, including the reduction of meat consumption, proves to be part of an effective prevention strategy, then how will the CBCF justify its public relations connections to the very people who help promote meat?

Perhaps it's time the CBCF looks beyond lucrative fundraising schemes and seeks partners more in line with its purpose.

source : www.theglobeandmail.com

Group therapy fails to improve breast cancer survival

2007-07-25T06:16:00.000-07:00

A follow up to a previous study on group therapy in breast cancer patients finds group therapy does not prolong the lives of women with metastatic breast cancer. Published in the September 1, 2007 issue of CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the new case-control trial finds patients with metastatic breast cancer who took part in weekly group psychotherapy had similar survival rates as those given literature-based patient education. Earlier results from the same researcher had suggested a survival benefit of group therapy for women with metastatic breast cancer. However, the new study did find that women with estrogen receptor (ER) negative tumors did show survival benefit, and that group therapy improved quality of life (QOL), according to Eurekalert, the news service of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Early reports in the 1980s and 1990s, including published studies by Dr. David Spiegel from Stanford University, found that group psychotherapy for women with metastatic breast cancer improved survival. Dr. Spiegel’s 1989 study found that women who received group therapy for one year were more likely to be alive 18-months after diagnosis compared to a group of patients who received no therapy. Four subsequent studies had similar results, but six other studies failed to confirm the finding. Dr. Spiegel and co-investigators sought to replicate their original finding in a new randomized prospective study. For the new study, half (64 of 125) of a group of 125 women with metastatic breast cancer received one year of weekly group support and psychotherapy, in addition to one year of educational literature offered to all subjects. All also received standard oncological treatment for their metastatic breast cancer.

Dr. Spiegel and colleagues found no difference in overall survival between the two groups. Women who received supportive group therapy survived a median of 31 months, while group that received educational literature survived a median of 33 months. Further analysis did show a clear benefit for women with ER-negative tumors. Median survival in women with ER-negative tumors who received group therapy was 21 months longer than those who received educational literature (30 months versus 9 months). There was no survival benefit from psychotherapy treatment among women with ER-positive tumors. These women have benefited from improved hormonal treatments, such as aromatase inhibitors.

While there was no overall survival difference due to group therapy, Dr. Spiegel and colleagues point to the clear psychological benefit of group psychotherapy for women with metastatic breast cancer, writing that “being confronted with their ‘worst fears’ as they see others die of the same illness, with help in managing the strong emotions that understandably arise, is emotionally helpful for patients and not physically harmful.”

SOURCE : www.hindu.com

Cancer risk seen with very low cholesterol levels

2007-07-25T06:14:00.000-07:00

CHICAGO - Lowering bad, or LDL, cholesterol is one of the top strategies for preventing heart disease, but taking it too low may raise the risk of cancer, a study cautioned on Tuesday.

The red flag comes from a large-scale retrospective analysis of 23 studies involving statin drugs such as Lipitor, Pravachol and Zocor which lower cholesterol. More than 41,000 patients participated in the trials.

Researchers were looking at the data to evaluate the side effects of these drugs -- specifically whether they damage liver or muscle cells -- when they noticed that low LDL levels were associated with an increased cancer risk.

They found an extra case of cancer for every 1,000 patients with low LDL (low-density lipoprotein) levels compared to higher LDL levels.

The finding is preliminary and further studies will be needed to determine whether the malignancy is a side effect of the drugs or a function of low levels of this type of cholesterol, the researchers cautioned.

"This analysis doesn't implicate the statin in the increasing risk of cancer," said lead author Richard Karas, professor of medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston.

"The demonstrated benefits of statins in lowering the risk of heart disease remain clear; however certain aspects of lowering LDL with statins remain controversial and merit further research."

John LaRosa, an authority on statins at State University of New York said there was insufficient evidence to suggest that "there is any problem with LDL lowering that outweighs its significant benefits on vascular disease."

However, "we must continue to be vigilant in ensuring that its benefits clearly outweigh its risks," he wrote in an editorial that was printed with the study in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

As to the main question of the study, whether the drugs damage the liver and muscle cells, the investigators said they found no link between lowering LDL and liver or muscle irritation.

They did however find that liver toxicity levels increased with higher statin dosage. Those findings come from records on more than 75,000 patients.

source : www.channelnewsasia.com

Outcome Of Prostate Cancer Surgery Depends On The Experience Of The Surgeon

2007-07-25T06:11:00.000-07:00

Science Daily — According to a new study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, prostate cancer patients treated by highly experienced surgeons are much more likely to be cancer-free five years after surgery than patients treated by surgeons with less experience.
"The difference in outcome among patients who were treated by surgeons with varying degrees of experience is clinically relevant and likely reflects a true relationship between surgical technique and cancer control," said the study's lead author Andrew Vickers, PhD, Associate Attending Research Methodologist, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC).

Many studies have examined the relationship between surgical experience and patient outcomes. However, it is often unclear whether the findings are related to differences in surgical technique or result from differences in clinical variables or tumor characteristics. In the current study, the researchers adjusted for cancer severity, so that differences among surgeons likely reflect differences in the techniques they use rather than just differences in the patients they see.

Investigators analyzed the cancer outcomes of 7,765 prostate cancer patients who were treated with radical prostatectomy -- surgical removal of the prostate -- by one of 72 surgeons at four major US academic medical centers over a 16-year period. Sophisticated statistical models were used to evaluate the link between the total number of prostatectomies performed by the surgeon prior to each patient's operation and biochemical recurrence of prostate cancer (defined as a rising PSA level of more than 0.4 ng/mL).

The results showed that the risk of recurrence five years after surgery was 17.9 percent for patients treated by surgeons who had performed 10 operations and 10.7 percent for patients treated by surgeons who had performed 250 operations. This means that patients treated by inexperienced surgeons were nearly 70 percent more likely to have a recurrence of their prostate cancer than those who were treated by surgeons with greater experience. According to the analysis, one out of every 14 patients treated by an inexperienced surgeon will have a recurrence.

The results were described in terms of a learning curve, which showed a dramatic improvement in cancer control with increasing surgical experience up to 250 prior operations; however, there was no large change in recurrence rates with additional surgical experience.

"The learning curve is steep and did not start to plateau until a surgeon had completed 250 prior operations," said the study's senior author, Peter Scardino, MD, Chairman, Department of Surgery, MSKCC. "Surgeons with little experience get significantly poorer results than those who have more."

"Our results provide support for what other studies have implied -- that good technique is learned and increased volume leads to improved outcomes," said Dr. Vickers. "However, our focus on cancer outcome, the size of the difference in outcome associated with increasing surgical experience, and the large number of cases required before the learning curve starts to plateau, suggests that more serious attention should be paid to the issue of surgical quality."

The researchers note that the surgical technique of experienced surgeons may differ from that of surgeons with less experience. They conclude that further research is needed to determine how surgical technique might differ between these groups and to identify the critical aspects of radical prostatectomy that are associated with improved cancer control.

"Although the successful practice of surgery presumes a lifetime of learning, the large number of cases required before the learning curve plateaus suggests the need to expand opportunities for training in surgical technique for surgeons in the early years after residency training," said Dr. Scardino.

Researchers from the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, OH, and Wayne State University in Detroit, MI, also contributed to this study. The research was funded in part by a grant from the National Cancer Institute and by the Allbritton Fund and the Koch Foundation.

source : www.sciencedaily.com

GPC Biotech Shares Fall on FDA's Vote on Cancer Drug

2007-07-25T06:10:00.000-07:00

GPC Biotech AG shares fell as much as 42 percent, a record, after a U.S. panel recommended delaying a decision on the company's experimental prostate cancer drug.

The decline wiped 226 million euros ($310 million) from GPC's market value after a panel of advisers to the Food and Drug Administration voted 12-0 yesterday to wait for more data on the treatment, called satraplatin. GPC, the company leading the drug's development, said it doesn't expect to have a survival analysis from its 950-patient study for another year.

Shares of Martinsried, Germany-based GPC fell 4.62 euros, or 32 percent, to 9.94 euros at 2:15 p.m. in Frankfurt. The stock had already lost 37 percent of its value after the FDA staff suggested on July 20 that available data wouldn't be enough to secure approval for the medicine by next month. Spectrum Pharmaceuticals Inc. would receive a portion of the drug's sales under a licensing accord with GPC.

``It would be a huge blow to GPC if satraplatin is not approved at all,'' said Isabella Zinck, an analyst at UniCredit in Munich. ``Right now, the product hasn't been rejected, it has just lost the chance of having an accelerated review. We can't say this is the end of GPC.''

The panel advising the FDA recommended a delay until there is more data on whether satraplatin helped men with prostate cancer live longer. The FDA usually follows the recommendations of its advisers, although it isn't required to do so.

Better Than Narcotics?

``I'm not certain that satraplatin is better than narcotics'' in treating pain and improving quality of life, FDA panel member Otis Brawley, an oncology professor at Emory University in Atlanta, said yesterday. ``I do believe that satraplatin will meet that survival endpoint, but I think we need'' the data to be sure.

GPC Chief Executive Officer Bernd Seizinger said on a conference call today that he was disappointed with the FDA panel's recommendation.

The agency ``has the full range of options available to it,'' Seizinger said. ``It could issue an approvable letter, it could also issue a non-approvable letter.''

Spectrum shares fell 9.4 percent to $4.80 yesterday. The Irvine, California-based company has had a licensing agreement for satraplatin since 2002.

Regulators were scheduled to make a decision by Aug. 15 under an expedited review program for new compounds that serve an unmet need or represent significant improvements over existing drugs. The treatment, which is for use in men who haven't responded to chemotherapy, would be sold under the brand name Orplatna.

Enough Cash

Interim data from the clinical test submitted by GPC doesn't prove the drug helps prostate cancer patients live longer, the advisory committee said. The panel, which met in Rockville, Maryland, also questioned how the company did its analysis of disease progression and pain reduction in the study.

A slowdown in the death rate of patients on the trial means overall survival data won't be available for another six months, later than expected.

GPC has ``sufficient cash to get to the final survival analysis,'' said Martin Braendle, head of investor relations.

GPC said patients who took satraplatin in combination with steroids had a 33 percent lesser risk of cancer spreading than those taking steroids alone. Side effects from the drug were mostly mild and included nausea and fatigue.

``Without additional clinical trials, positive survival data appear to be the only way the drug will ever make it onto the market,'' Friedman Billings Ramsey analyst Robert Uhl wrote today in a note to investors. Uhl cut his rating on Spectrum to ``market perform'' from ``outperform,'' and reduced his price target for the stock to $5.50 from $12.25.

Drug Side Effects

Satraplatin would become the first oral chemotherapy agent with platinum as the active ingredient if it eventually wins regulatory approval. Similar therapies, such as Sanofi-Aventis SA's Taxotere, must be given intravenously.

Taxotere is now the only approved treatment shown to improve survival in prostate cancer patients who have stopped responding to hormones. The injections extended lives by a median of 2.4 months in a clinical trial, although doctors representing GPC told the panel that the benefits of such drugs are limited by the potential for serious side effects.

``This is a rapidly progressing, debilitating and ultimately fatal disease,'' said Nicholas Vogelzang, of the Nevada Cancer Institute. ``There is an urgent need for effective and well-tolerated therapies.''

Almost 219,000 U.S. men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer this year, and 27,050 men will die from the disease, according to the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland.

source : www.bloomberg.com

FDA needs more data on GPC cancer drug

2007-07-25T06:06:00.000-07:00

U.S. regulators should wait for more data before deciding whether to approve GPC Biotech AG's (GPCG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) proposed prostate cancer pill Orplatna, an advisory panel said on Tuesday in a 12-0 vote.

The committee said it was important to see if patients who took Orplatna in a company trial lived longer than others who got a placebo. GPC officials said it could take another year for that information to be available.

"Survival benefit may well be seen, but I don't think we see it at the current time," said Dr. Wyndham Wilson, a panel member and National Cancer Institute researcher.

An interim analysis as of June 15, 2006, showed survival was no better with Orplatna than a placebo, U.S. Food and Drug Administration staff said.

Orplatna, known generically as satraplatin, is the lead product candidate for Germany-based GPC Biotech.

Spectrum Pharmaceuticals Inc. (SPPI.O: Quote, Profile, Research), which licensed the drug to GPC, has the option to co-promote Orplatna in the United States. Pharmion Corp. (PHRM.O: Quote, Profile, Research) owns rights to sell the drug in Europe and some other territories.

The FDA usually follows recommendations from its panels of outside experts. The agency is expected to decide whether to clear Orplatna based on current data by Aug. 15.

The panel vote came after U.S. markets closed. Pharmion shares fell 4.5 percent in after-hours trading, while Spectrum shares dropped 21 percent in light trading after the market closed.
Earlier, GPC shares fell 2.8 percent on Nasdaq before being halted while the panel considered Orplatna. The company's American Depositary Receipts were not trading after hours.

GPC Chief Executive Bernd Seizinger said the company believed strongly in drug's potential and was "extremely disappointed" with the panel recommendation. "We will continue to work with the FDA as the agency continues its review," he said in a statement.

GPC is seeking permission to sell Orplatna for patients with prostate cancer that has stopped responding to prior chemotherapy and resists hormone treatments.

Orplatna is a platinum-based drug that can kill cancer cells. Platinum therapies are commonly used in chemotherapy regimens, but the ones currently on the market must be given intravenously. Orplatna is a pill.

The company studied 950 patients treated with satraplatin or a placebo plus the steroid prednisone.

Orplatna patients in the trial lived a median of 11.1 weeks without their disease getting worse, compared with 9.7 weeks for placebo patients.

But FDA reviewers questioned whether that measurement was an acceptable basis for approval and said there were issues with how disease progression and pain were assessed.

GPC officials said Orplatna clearly helped men with advanced prostate cancer who have no other approved treatment options. They said the drug should be cleared based on current data.

"We are talking about a huge unmet medical need for a painful and debilitating disease ... There is no question satraplatin works. There is evidence of disease control, evidence of symptom contol, and there is evidence of safety," Dr. Marcel Rozencweig, GPC's chief medical officer, told the panel.

The company had told the FDA that a final survival analysis could be available by year's end. But officials said during the meeting that fewer-than-expected patients in the trial were dying, which could delay a final evaluation for about a year.

The interim survival analysis was based on 463 deaths. A total of 700 are needed for a final analysis, FDA staff said.

SOURCE : www.reuters.com

Cedara Software Releases Cedara I-Response(TM) Workstation Dedicated to Cancer Therapy Assessment

2007-07-25T06:04:00.000-07:00

Cedara Software, a Merge Healthcare company , and a leading medical imaging software and services company, announced the release of the Cedara I-Response application, designed to help evaluate, assess and monitor the effect of cancer therapy over time using data from multiple modalities. In addition to providing tools for the standard anatomical measurements used for tumor assessment in cancer management and research, Cedara I-Response can analyze both PET/CT and MR-based diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI). By providing the ability to visualize changes in tumors resulting from cellular and metabolic mechanisms during the course of treatment, Cedara I-Response provides clinically relevant information that potentially could be used to make mid- treatment therapy adjustments in an attempt to improve clinical outcome.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20030430/MRGELOGO )

"As cancer therapies evolve and become more sophisticated, personalized treatment methods are employed, the tools needed to assess the success of those treatments must also evolve," said Cedara Software president, Loris Sartor. "I-Response addresses this challenge by offering multiple assessment methods in a single application, to accommodate the diverse needs of individual physicians in their quest to optimize treatment."

Cedara I-Response also features patented functional Diffusion Map(TM) (fDM) technology based on landmark work done at the University of Michigan. This functionality enables physicians to analyze DWI studies to visualize and quantify changes over time in the microscopic motion of water in healthy and diseased tissues. University of Michigan investigators have demonstrated that fDM can identify brain tumor patients who are responding to radiation (plus adjuvant chemotherapy in some cases) after only three weeks of treatment, more than two months earlier than conventional methods. "I-Response could provide a standardized avenue for individualized early treatment response monitoring in oncology patients," said Brian Ross, Ph.D., co-director of the molecular imaging program at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, and professor of radiology and biological chemistry.

The results of each analysis are included in automatically generated reports, as well as exporting the results to file for import into a site's existing data repositories. I-Response is available to OEMs as a standalone workstation, it also can be tightly integrated into existing PACS solutions using Cedara's unique C4(TM) integration platform.*

* The C4 enabled version of I-Response is a work-in-progress.

Cedara Software is a Merge Healthcare company focused on the development of customized software solutions and development tools for the medical imaging OEM market. Cedara's solutions enable OEM companies to accelerate their time-to-market, reduce development costs and access new streams of revenue. Cedara's software is deployed in hospitals and clinics worldwide and is licensed by many of the world's leading medical device and healthcare information technology companies. Cedara's technologies and engineering services span all the major digital imaging modalities and a wide variety of clinical specialties including radiology, orthopaedics, women's health, oncology, cardiac imaging, clinical trials, imaging for the veterinarian market and more. For additional information, visit our website at http://www.cedara.com.

Merge Healthcare is a leading medical imaging software and services company. Our innovative software solutions use leading-edge imaging software technologies that accelerate market delivery for our OEM customers, while our end-user solutions improve our customers' productivity and enhance the quality of patient care they provide. For additional information, visit our website at http://www.mergehealthcare.com.

All trademarks appearing in this release are the property of Cedara Software Corp. and/or Merge Healthcare.

KITS BRING CANCER HOPE

2007-07-25T05:44:00.002-07:00

A Huge drop in bowel cancer has been predicted if people use the self-testing kit being sent over 60s in Notts.

It is part of a new nationwide screening programme to pick up the disease and treat it early.

Experts at Cancer Research UK said there would be up to 20,000 fewer deaths over the next 20 years if just 60 per cent of those eligible for bowel screening went ahead with the simple test.

The kit is being sent out to people aged between 60 and 69 as part of the national bowel cancer screening programme. There are almost 35,000 cases of bowel cancer diagnosed each year in the UK.

source : www.thisisnottingham.co.uk

KITS BRING CANCER HOPE

2007-07-25T05:44:00.001-07:00

Poor diet in pregnancy can cause child obesity: study

2007-07-25T05:41:00.000-07:00

The diets of pregnant women may have an important role in determining whether their children will be obese later in life, a new study suggests.

The study by New Zealand and British scientists indicates that children born to mothers who ate badly during pregnancy may be more likely to put on weight later in life.

Scientists at the University of Auckland's Liggins centre say the way the foetus adapts to the environment in the womb can determine how it reacts to food later in life.

If the womb is low in nutrients, the foetus may predict food supplies will be low later in life and set its metabolism to store and conserve fat, the researchers led by Professor Peter Gluckman said in a statement Tuesday.

The study says if this early prediction proves false and food -- particularly food high in fat -- is readily available, the child may be programmed for adult obesity and conditions such as heart disease and diabetes.

"The study poses questions of fundamental importance that change the whole way we think about who we are," Gluckman said.

He said the study may be important in explaining why genetically similar individuals can have markedly different metabolisms later in life.

"It changes the way we should think about tackling the obesity epidemic."

The study, based on tests on the metabolisms of rats, was done in collaboration with New Zealand's National Research Centre for Growth and Development and the University of Southhampton in Britain.

www.france24.com

36 Weeks Pregnancy - What to Expect

2007-07-25T05:39:00.000-07:00

Here you are, 36 weeks of pregnancy gone and only 5 more weeks to go what a great time to celebrate. But it is not over yet. Right now your baby should be around 6 pounds. He/She fat is probably dimpling on his/her cheeks, knees and elbows. Isn't this exciting. You're nesting instincts are probably starting to go into high gear as you prepare for the coming of your new addition to the family.

At 36 weeks pregnant mothers have stated that they are at this point feeling a little overwhelmed. Being overwhelmed may come from that fact that you may want to prepare everything in such a short period of time. Cleaning the house, getting the crib set up, going shopping for new cloths, making sure all the hospital plans are done or even something as simple as having the right car seat ready for taking your child home. Wow, I feel overwhelmed now. Wooo.

At 36 Weeks of pregnancy your body dimensions may be probably about 13 inches long from crown to your backside. Your belly may feel a little itchy at the 36 weeks pregnancy mark. This is common, lather up with plenty of lotion as this may stop some of the dryness. It may not help the stretch marks but it should help the itchiness.

Your baby should be around 6 pounds now. Fetal development at this point should include:

* The baby is practicing blinking

* The baby is sucking and the muscles are fully developed

* The babies’ gums have become rigid

* The brain is increasing development and growing rapidly

It is common for babies to move into their birthing positions at 36 weeks. Your doctor will begin to use the term "presentation" to describe the baby lying over the cervix. This is when the babies head is in a down position under the cervix. In 95% of the births today this is the position most common seen. The other "presentations" known are breech, transverse, face, shoulder, or brow presentation.

This is a great time for you and your baby. I hope you enjoy your birth and stay safe..

Kenneth Elliott is the proud owner of first symptom of pregnancy. A website devoted to educating women about pregnancy and being pregnant. Also see: Pregnancy Exercise Tips for Future Moms , and Pain Control Options.

source : pr-gb.com

Dispelling Pregnancy Myths: Eating for 1.5

2007-07-25T05:30:00.000-07:00

Ivy had been eating tuna sushi almost every day. But before becoming pregnant, she wisely had a checkup, which revealed high levels of mercury in her blood that could damage a fetus. Shocked, she stopped eating tuna and postponed pregnancy until the mercury had cleared her system. Last month she gave birth to a full-term healthy boy.
Mercury from eating certain kinds of seafood is just one of many nutrition-related hazards that can confront a pregnant woman or one who wishes to become pregnant. At the same time, some pregnant women worry needlessly about nonexistent nutritional risks.

The March of Dimes, which strives to make every pregnancy as well-planned and successful as Ivy’s, is making a new push to dispel nutritional misinformation and replace it with advice based on solid scientific evidence. Some of the advice may come as a distressing surprise to women, who may be fond of foods or drinks that could endanger their pregnancy.

For example, pregnant women are advised to steer clear of deli meats, including sliced turkey, unless they are fully cooked again before being eaten. But the March of Dimes, among other experts, suggests that it is safe to drink one or two cups of caffeinated coffee a day during pregnancy, whereas consuming too much herbal tea (and three or more cups of coffee a day) can be risky and may result in a miscarriage.

A Healthy Diet

The organization is also concerned about the current notion among some women that it is O.K. to gain 40 or more pounds when pregnant with one baby. Excessive weight gain in pregnancy not only makes it harder to shed the extra pounds after childbirth. It also increases the risk to the mother of gestational diabetes, dangerous rises in blood pressure (pre-eclampsia), the need for a Caesarean delivery and postpartum infection. For the baby, a mother’s excessive weight gain raises the risk of neural tube defects, birth trauma and fetal death near term.

Studies of tens of thousands of pregnancies showed that how much a pregnant woman should gain for the best chance of a healthy outcome for both mother and baby depends on how much she weighed before becoming pregnant.

Accordingly, the March of Dimes suggests that normal-weight women should gain 25 to 35 pounds; overweight women 15 to 25 pounds, and underweight women 28 to 40 pounds. But a woman having a multiple birth should gain more, depending on how many babies she is carrying.

When a woman is eating for two, or better yet, when she is contemplating getting pregnant, is an ideal time to learn the principles of good nutrition and put them into practice. The basics of a healthy diet during pregnancy are the same as what everyone should eat at any time of life:

¶Whole grains, like brown rice, whole wheat bread or whole oat cereal: 6 to 11 servings a day

¶Dairy products, like low-fat or nonfat milk, yogurt or hard cheese: 3 to 4 servings a day

¶Protein, like meat, poultry, fish, beans, nuts or eggs: 3 to 4 servings a day

¶Vegetables, like broccoli, carrots, green beans, tomatoes or beets: 3 to 5 servings a day

¶Fruits, like oranges, bananas or apples: 2 to 4 servings a day

The trick is to know what a portion means because “eating for two” does not mean a woman should double her caloric intake. Only 300 additional calories a day are needed to sustain a healthy pregnancy, provided those calories come from nutritious foods.

Here are some examples of a single serving: one slice of bread, a half-cup of rice or pasta, one cup cold cereal; one cup milk or yogurt, two one-inch cubes of cheese; two ounces of cooked meat, poultry or fish, a half-cup of cooked dried beans, two tablespoons peanut butter; a half-cup of cooked or cut-up vegetables, one cup salad greens, three-quarters cup of vegetable juice; one apple, banana or orange, a half-cup of cut-up fruit, three-quarters cup of fruit juice.

Be sure, too, to drink plenty of water — up to 64 ounces a day — and get regular exercise. Pregnant women can walk, dance, swim and do yoga, but should avoid high-risk activities like scuba diving and skiing.

Foods to Avoid

Many popular foods are potentially dangerous during pregnancy. Pregnant women should refrain from the following:

Raw fish and shellfish, a possible source of the parasite Toxoplasma that can cause fetal blindness and brain damage.

Large predatory fish like swordfish, shark, king mackerel and albacore tuna (fresh or canned), which can contain risky levels of mercury. The Food and Drug Administration says to limit albacore tuna to 6 ounces a week, but it is acceptable to eat up to 12 ounces a week of chunk light tuna, shrimp, salmon, pollock and catfish.

Undercooked or raw meat, poultry and seafood. Use a meat thermometer and cook pork and ground beef to 160 degrees; beef, veal and lamb to 145 degrees; whole poultry to 180 degrees; and chicken breasts to 170 degrees.

Unpasteurized milk and soft cheeses — feta, Brie, Camembert, Roquefort, queso blanco, queso fresco and Panela, unless the label says “made with pasteurized milk.” They may contain the food-poisoning bacteria Listeria that can cause miscarriage, premature birth, stillbirth or fatal newborn illness.

Hot dogs and deli meats, unless cooked until steaming hot. These can become contaminated with Listeria after processing.

Refrigerated pâtés, meat spreads and smoked seafood (unless it is cooked before you eat it). Canned versions are safe.

Soft-scrambled eggs and foods like homemade salad dressing and eggnog made with raw or lightly cooked eggs. Cook eggs until the white and yolk are firm to avoid salmonella poisoning.

Raw sprouts, including alfalfa, clover, radish and mung bean.

Herbal teas and supplements. Their safety in pregnancy is unstudied. Some, like black cohosh or large amounts of chamomile tea, can raise the risk of miscarriage or premature birth.

Alcohol, which can cause fetal damage, including mental retardation and abnormal behavior. Although an occasional drink may be all right, no safe amount has been established.

Extra Vitamins Needed

Pregnant women and those contemplating pregnancy are advised to take a daily prenatal vitamin that contains 400 micrograms to 600 micrograms of folic acid to help prevent neural tube defects, as well as 18 milligrams to 27 milligrams of iron to prevent iron-deficiency anemia, linked to premature birth and low birth weight babies.

But prenatal supplements do not contain enough calcium; 1,000 milligrams a day are needed to protect a pregnant woman’s bones and build strong bones and teeth in her baby. Be sure to eat enough calcium-rich foods, like milk, cheese and leafy greens, or take a calcium supplement daily.

source : www.nytimes.com

FISHER BLAMES AMNESIA ON PREGNANCY

2007-07-25T05:27:00.000-07:00

Australian actress ISLA FISHER is suffering from amnesia - symptoms she believes are a direct result of her pregnancy.
The Wedding Crashers star is engaged to Borat funnyman Sacha Baron Cohen and is reportedly seven months pregnant - although the couple have yet to officially confirm they are expecting.
Nonetheless, Fisher blames her recent forgetful nature on her impending motherhood.
She says, "I have amnesia. I don't remember what I just said.
"Someone asked me what music I'm listening to right now and I said Nick Cannon, who's apparently like some rapper! That is obviously what I'm not listening to right now. No, I can barely remember my name."

www.pr-inside.com

Diet during pregnancy may affect baby's metabolism - study

2007-07-25T05:25:00.000-07:00

Pregnant women are likely to be the next target of healthy eating campaigns in the wake of breakthrough New Zealand research linking obesity to an expectant mother's diet.

Scientists have found children born to mothers who ate poorly during pregnancy are more likely to become obese later in life.

The revelations provide a clue as to why some people have a faster metabolism than others – the New Zealand research shows a rat mother eating a balanced diet had babies with a higher metabolism.

Rats whose mothers had a poor diet or too little food were more likely to become obese.

Once out of the womb the rats compensate their poor nutrition by storing fat.

Scientists have successfully used a drug called leptin to reverse the effects of poor diets in pregnant rats.

In humans, Professor Wayne Scahill says good diet is the best defence.

“That leptin was able to correct it in this particular animal model doesn't simply mean that poor diet during pregnancy can be easily fixed after birth. I think it would be erroneous to assume that. The focus should be on optimum nutrition.”

The Obesity Action Coalition says it has huge implications for the way it will promote healthy eating.

“It seems now that we should be starting with young women who are even considering having families later, to make sure that they get good nutrition all through their lives and that they maintain a good healthy diet,” says the coalition’s Lee Sturgess.

The Liggins Institute says the findings are at the forefront of obesity research worldwide.

The landmark study will be published in an American science journal this week.

www.tv3.co.nz

Britney Spears Pregnancy Reports Puts Her in Meltdown Mode?

2007-07-25T05:23:00.000-07:00

Britney Spears might be pregnant. So who would be the daddy? It could be her former lover and rehab coach John Sundahl. He has claimed to be her lover and said that he dumped him for Daimon Shippen. Shippen has been out of photos for a few days and Britney has been in meltdown mode. Is she really with child? It would be her third.

Britney Spears Pregnancy Reports Puts Her in Meltdown Mode?
Britney Spears Pregnancy Reports Puts Her in Meltdown Mode?

"She's been secretly filling her pals in on the good news since last week," NW reports an 'insider' as saying. Britney is in shock herself, this definitely wasn't planned. But she's thrilled just the same." Is this really true?

So the may or may not be preggers fallen starlet decided to go to OK! Magazine for a tell all and that did not go well. According to multiple sources, Britney's behavior during the interview was "nothing less than a meltdown." She was, according to our sources, "completely out of it" during the shoot. The photos are "so bad" AOL's TMZ.com reports that to publish them could "kill her career."

Film at eleven? Sort of. OK! has a big issue ready and they are going to run with it. In an exclusive statement to TMZ, OK! Editor-in-Chief Sarah Ivens said, "OK! Magazine spent a heartbreaking day with Britney Spears and witnessed first-hand an emotional cry for help that will leave you shocked and sad. This week, on newsstands Friday, the truth will be told."

source : www.nationalledger.com

Breakthrough in obesity battle

2007-07-25T05:19:00.000-07:00

A breakthrough involving New Zealand scientists points to new ways of handling the developed world's obesity crisis.

People who became obese were thought to be victims of bad genes which caused them to pack on the kilos.

But the scientists' discovery suggests destiny may be reversed through good nutrition in early childhood.

The scientists from Auckland University's Liggins Institute and their colleagues in Britain are examining how a mother's diet in pregnancy can determine if a baby will become obese in adulthood and suffer heart disease and diabetes.

The Government is deeply concerned about New Zealand's rapidly rising rate of obesity and the predicted increase in diabetes that this will fuel.

More than 20 per cent of adults are obese, double the rate 30 years ago, and a further 35 per cent are overweight.

The scientists have shown that if a mother is undernourished, her children's bodies are set up to cope with a life of scarcity.

But the energy-dense "hamburger and milkshake" diet of modern Western society is likely to result in children who are likely to become fat - unlike those from mothers who eat a balanced diet during pregnancy.
In a study by the Liggins Institute, Southampton University and AgResearch to be published this week in a United States journal, the researchers describe molecular changes that can occur after dietary intervention in early childhood.

Liggins director Professor Peter Gluckman, one of the researchers, said it also showed that genetic switches set in the womb could be reversed by nutritional changes in early childhood.

"It changes the way we should think about tackling the obesity epidemic," he said from Britain last night.

"It's probably the most important intellectual breakthrough we've made in understanding development."

In the experiments, the newborn offspring of well-fed and undernourished female rats were dosed with leptin, a hormone that signals to the body when it has eaten enough. When the young rats became adults, the long-term effects were measured by checking genes that regulate metabolism in the liver.

Rats from well-fed mothers reacted to leptin in the opposite way to those from undernourished mothers.

Professor Gluckman likened the process to female honey bees developing as either queens or workers, depending on whether they were fed royal jelly as larvae.

"This is the first suggestion that this fundamental biological process operates in mammals, and has major implications for addressing issues such as obesity," hesaid.

"Not everyone is the same - gene switches have been moved in early development to make some more or less sensitive to fat in the diet."

Implantable contraceptives thwart pregnancy equally well

2007-07-25T05:05:00.000-07:00

A new study has revealed that implantable contraceptives are extremely effective when it comes to preventing unplanned pregnancies.

However, the devices are barely used in developed countries and only a bit more popular elsewhere.

The review analysed studies of three kinds of implants - Implanon, Jadelle and Norplant. The last is currently unavailable.

Researchers tracked women in nine studies for two to five years, and found a total of five pregnancies among the 2,776 participants.

"No one implant was found to be any more or less effective," said study co-author Rebecca French, a senior research fellow with the Margaret Pyke Centre at University College London.

These numbers are not surprising, according to French. Surveys conducted in the United States, which asked women about pregnancies that occurred while they were using birth control, suggest that five in 10,000 women who use implants will become pregnant during a yearlong period, she said. By contrast, U.S. studies suggest that about three in 1,000 women who correctly use the birth control pill for a year will get pregnant, French said; the number is estimated to be eight in 1,000 among women who miss some pills.

"Implantable contraceptives are very effective methods for preventing unplanned pregnancy," French said.

Systematic reviews draw evidence-based conclusions about medical practice after considering both the content and quality of existing medical trials on a topic.

All of the studied implants prevent pregnancy in the same way. Once inserted under the skin of the upper arm, the implants release the hormone progesterone into the body.

"This thickens the mucous in the cervix, which makes it difficult for sperm to travel through the cervix to reach an egg,. Implants also work by making the lining of the womb thinner, making it less likely to accept a fertilized egg," French said.

Contraceptive implants have been readily available since the 1980s. In 2003, the World Health Organization estimated that some 11 million women worldwide were using the devices.

The review compiles data on nine studies comparing one type of implantable contraceptives to another; none compared implants to other forms of birth control.

Eight of the studies - with 1,578 women total - compared Implanon to Norplant; the makers of Implanon sponsored these studies. Another 1,198 women took part in a single study comparing Jadelle to Norplant.

According to French, there were no pregnancies in the studies that compared Norplant to Implanon. In the one other study comparing Norplant and Jadelle, there were three pregnancies among Jadelle users and two among Norplant users.

Of the three implants, only Implanon is currently available in the United States.

Irregular vaginal bleeding was a common side effect of the implants, but more than 80 percent of women were still using their implant at two years.

"Women in developed countries were much more likely to say that they discontinued using implants because of changes to their menstrual cycle. Few women in developing countries gave this as a reason for discontinuation," French said.

It took less time to remove Implanon and Jadelle when compared to Norplant, and Norplant caused more problems during removal, the review found.

Andrew Kaunitz, professor and assistant chairman at the University of Florida's Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, said the review findings reflect existing knowledge about the implants.

"They're convenient, they're safe and they're associated with bleeding problems," he said.

Women do not use contraceptive implants commonly in the United States, and Kaunitz said he has only prescribed the devices for five women.

The makers of Norplant decided to stop marketing it in the U.S. in 2002 after multiple complaints about side effects. That negative publicity might explain why American women have not embraced contraceptive implants, Kaunitz said.

Women now have a variety of options for long-acting birth control, including Depo-Provera (given via injection) and contraceptive patches, he added.

The implants are also expensive, costing several hundred dollars each plus the cost of implantation, Kaunitz said. Other female contraceptive methods, like the birth control pill, do not require such a large upfront cost. Though initial costs are high for implants, French said in the long term the devices are cost-effective because they reduce costs associated with unplanned pregnancy.

Kaunitz said that he suspects that implants might become more popular if their manufacturers advertise them. After all, he said, they are actually more effective at preventing pregnancy than surgical sterilization, and the implants are reversible - women can become pregnant again once a clinician removes the implant.

The study appears in the latest issue of The Cochrane Library, a publication of The Cochrane Collaboration, an international organization that evaluates medical research.

source : www.dailyindia.com

Researchers to study ABC cancer cluster

2007-07-17T07:44:00.000-07:00

A group of medical researchers will put the ABC under a microscope and examine a breast cancer cluster at the broadcaster's old Brisbane studios that has seen 15 women diagnosed with the disease since 1994.

The group, comprised of surgeons, pathologists, medical oncologists and other researchers, will look at tumour samples taken from all women who are willing to be part of the study and search for patterns or links between the cases.

They will look, in particular, for evidence of human papillomavirus or mouse virus, which are both known to be associated with breast cancer.

Director of pathology at the Princess Alexandra Hospital, Glenn Francis, said he approached cancer survivor and former ABC journalist Lisa Backhouse following last week's news of yet another diagnosis.

Mother of four Angela Eckersley, 40, was found to have invasive breast cancer about three weeks ago and underwent surgery last week. She was the 15th former employee to be diagnosed in 13 years.

An expert panel convened last year could not find a cause for the cluster at the work site, which had a cancer rate up to 11 times higher than the general working community.

Staff were evacuated from the riverside site at Toowong in December last year, but former newsreader Lisa Backhouse said both the ABC and the scientific community should study their cases further.

Dr Francis said he and his colleagues had often discussed the case and were spurred on by Ms Backhouse's comments last week that no one had examined the women's tumour samples to look for similarities.

He said the study may not find a cause for the cluster but could shed new light on the mystery.

"We have quite a lot of data on sporadic breast cancers across Queensland and we can look at those and see if they match or if they're somehow different.

"If that was the case then that would indicate there is some association or that those patients are somehow linked together."

Dr Francis said the study would use tumour samples taken from the women at the time of diagnosis, which are stored in pathology labs for at least 20 years.

The group would need each woman's consent and a detailed picture would take up to a year to compile, involving a lot of "very laborious, hands-on work" at cold temperatures.

Dr Francis said it was difficult to predict what they would find, but the disease needed further probing.

"Generally we know about certain associations with breast cancer, like family history or increasing oestrogen levels, but why one particular patient will get it and another with the same history won't, we still don't know."

source : www.brisbanetimes.com.au

New target found for cancer treatments

2007-07-17T07:42:00.000-07:00

U.S. scientists may have found a new target for anti-cancer drugs by focusing on the protein activated by a gene involved in many tumors.

In experiments with human cells and animal models, Duke University Medical Center researchers studied "ras," a gene integral in normal cell growth. But when the gene is mutated and becomes overactive, it can lead to the unregulated proliferation of cells that's the hallmark of tumor formation.

"Since it has been so difficult to target the ras gene itself with drugs, we tried to determine if something that ras activates could be a possible target for a drug or therapy," said Christopher Counter, an associate professor of pharmacology and cancer biology and senior member of the research team. "We found a specific target that could be susceptible to drugs and if these findings are proven true in human trials we could have a new way of treating ras-dependent cancers."

The Duke research, with graduate student Brooke Ancrile as first author, is reported in the July 15 issue of the journal Genes & Development.

source : www.sciencedaily.com

Can the right food cut cost of cancer pills?

2007-07-17T06:38:00.000-07:00

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Taking advantage of the power of food to boost the effectiveness of drugs could sharply lower the cost of cancer treatments, U.S. researchers said on Monday.

"We can use drug interactions to our advantage," said Dr. Ezra Cohen, a cancer drug expert at the University of Chicago Cohen, whose work appears in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

He and colleague Mark Ratain analyzed data from a recent clinical trial showing how food affected GlaxoSmithKline'snew breast cancer pill Tykerb, known generically as lapatinib.

The drug is supposed to be taken on an empty stomach. But taking it after a full meal would boost the amount of the drug circulating in the body by 167 percent, and taking it after a high-fat meal would boost it by 325 percent, the researchers found.

That might allow patients to use 40 percent less to achieve the same effect as taking it on an empty stomach. At a cost of $2,900 a month, the change could save each patient, or insurers, $1,740 or more a month, the researchers said.

And washing it down with grapefruit juice might allow patients to use as much as 80 percent less, they said. That could reduce the recommended dosage from the current five, 250 mg pills on an empty stomach to just one pill with a full meal and grapefruit juice chaser, they said.

But the researchers hastened to say they are not recommending that patients try this on their own.

"The first word of caution is 'do not try this at home.' The last thing we want is to have patients take their drug with food or change the dose on their own," Cohen said in a telephone interview. "That could be potentially dangerous."

The point, he said, is that instead of looking at drug interactions with food as something to be avoided, researchers should seek ways to benefit from them.

Food sometimes enhances the effectiveness of drugs because some foods are broken down by the same processes that the liver uses to break down drugs. If liver enzymes are all busy working on the food, they are not available to break down as much of the drug, meaning it circulates for longer in the system.

Cohen and Ratain are currently studying the effect of grapefruit juice, which is known to delay the breakdown of many drugs, on Wyeth's immune suppressant drug sirolimus or Rapamune, but there are many possibilities.

"The list can go on and on in terms of the agents that could be favorably modified to reduce dose and perhaps specific side effects," Cohen said.

Venom may treat cancer

2007-07-17T06:37:00.000-07:00

NEW YORK: Scientists in the US have claimed that scorpion venom may help in the treatment of a wide range of cancers.

Scorpions occur naturally in parts of Africa, America, India and the Caribbean. The majority of scorpions are harmless to human beings although the sting is extremely painful and requires treatment.

Researchers have found that when applied to tumours, the chemical chlorotoxin found in scorpion venom can distinguish cancer from healthy tissue, even when it affects only a few hundred cells and could improve the treatment of a wide range of cancers, reported the online edition of the Daily Mail .

Scientists believe it will help guide surgeons and result in more successful treatment. "By allowing surgeons to see cancer that would be undetectable by other means, we can give our patients better outcomes," said James Olson, a doctor who led the US research team.

By joining the chemical chlorotoxin to a fluorescent marker, Olson and his team created a molecular beacon that lights up tumours. Painting a suspect area with the compound makes it easier for surgeons to remove every bit of cancer without damaging the surrounding healthy tissue.

This is especially important in the brain, where 80 percent of recurring malignant tumours appear at the edges of the surgical site. The paint marks out tumours with at least 500 times more sensitivity than a magnetic resonance imaging scan, the researchers found.

The scientists said that in tests on mice, it highlighted brain tumours as small as one millimetre in diameter. They are now preparing for human clinical trials. The researchers said the technique could be used in operating theatres in the US in as little as 18 months.

source : timesofindia.indiatimes.com

'Two-week Wait Rule' Is Failing Breast Cancer Patients, Study Suggests

2007-07-17T06:01:00.000-07:00

'Two-week Wait Rule' Is Failing Breast Cancer Patients, Study Suggests

Science Daily — The 'two week wait rule' is failing breast cancer patients and needs to be reviewed urgently say the authors of a seven year study examining the impact of the target, published on the British Medical Journal website.
At the end of the last century death rates from breast cancer in the UK were among the highest in Europe. Long waiting lists, resulting in delayed diagnosis and treatment, were thought to be partly responsible. In 1998 the Department of Health brought in the '2 week wait rule' which stipulated that by April 1999 all patients with suspected breast cancer should be seen by a specialist within two weeks of referral by a GP.

Many studies have questioned the validity of the 2 week wait rule, but this is the first to assess the long term impact. Dr Shelley Potter and her colleagues gathered data on the number, route and outcome of Primary Care referrals to the Frenchay Brest Care Centre in Bristol between 1999 and 2005.

There were 24,999 referrals to the centre during this period, with GPs classifying each patient as being either 'urgent' according to 2 week wait criteria or 'routine'. Between 1999 and 2005 the number of annual referrals to the centre increased by 9%.

Routine referrals decreased by 24% but 2-week wait referrals increased by 42%. Despite the changes in referral patterns the total number of cancers remained constant over the 7 year period.

Yet the researchers found the percentage of patients diagnosed with cancer in the 2-week wait group decreased from 12.8% to 7.7% whilst the number of cancers detected in the 'routine' group increased from 2.5% to 5.3% over the same time period. In 2005 more than 1 in 4 (27%) patients ultimately diagnosed with cancer in 2005 was referred non-urgently. Dr Potter describes the increase in cancers diagnosed from the routine population as "alarming" and says:

"These patients are also potentially being disadvantaged by longer clinic waits and delays in diagnosis as waiting times for routine referrals have increased in the face of increasing service demands from the dramatically increased number of patients referred under the two week rule, over 90% of whom have benign disease."

Despite increasing numbers of referrals, waiting times for the 2 week wait group were always well maintained say the authors. However waiting times for routine referrals increased, these patients currently have to wait 30 days.

They conclude by saying: "The system is failing patients and a change is urgently needed."

source : www.sciencedaily.com

Brain cancer therapy impairs kid's learning ability

2007-07-17T05:56:00.000-07:00

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Children who have undergone radiation treatment for brain cancer tend to have lower grades in school than their healthy peers, investigators in Finland have found. Still, most survivors in their study group completed the ninth grade at the appropriate age.

Though other studies have reported overall educational achievements of brain tumor survivors, this is the first to assess the effect of the cancer and radiation therapy on grades in school and in specific subjects, Dr. Paivi M. Lahteenmaki and colleagues point out in the journal Neurology.

Lahteenmaki, from Turku University, and associates gathered data from national registries for 300 cases of childhood cancer and 1473 healthy subjects of similar age, sex, and residential area. Patients had been diagnosed with cancer before age 16, were born between 1974 and 1986, and were alive at their 16th birthday.

The analyses showed several variables that affected subjects' grades, including gender, age at diagnosis, and exposure to brain radiation.
The effects of radiation therapy were more pronounced among boys whose radiation therapy was administered when they were older than 7 years old, the authors report, whereas girls were more affected by radiation therapy prior to school age.

The overall average academic grade was lower in patients than comparison subjects. Boys' grades were lower than those of girls, which was also seen among healthy children. However, girls' grades were impacted more by the disease and its treatment than were the boys'.

The greatest difficulty was studying a foreign language, the report indicates. Lahteenmaki and associates observed that effects were more moderate for mathematics and physical education, whereas the differences were minor for classes taught in the mother tongue.

Despite their lower grades, 94 percent of brain tumor survivors completed the ninth grade of Finnish comprehensive school at the usual age of 16 years.

"Children diagnosed with brain tumors, even low-grade ones treated with surgery only, should be monitored closely during and after treatment to identify early signs of learning disabilities," Lahteenmaki's group concludes, "and to maximize intervention strategies for the successful completion of scholastic goals."

source : www.sciam.com

Mother who found 31 cancer cases in family has double mastectomy

2007-07-17T05:48:00.000-07:00

A mother of three underwent a double mastectomy after discovering that 31 of her relatives had suffered from breast cancer in the past 200 years.

Eleven years ago Alex Best, then 29, decided to look at her family tree, which medical experts have described as one of the most extreme in the country. A week later Miss Best had breast cancer diagnosed herself.

After learning of her family history, she had contacted a genetics expert, Professor Gareth Evans, to find out if she was also carrying the gene. By chance the research team had been studying her family tree but had not been allowed to contact surviving family members. A test confirmed that she was carrying the gene and had an 85 per cent chance of developing the disease.

A cancerous growth was found in one of her breasts so she decided to have both removed to avoid becoming the latest victim.

Miss Best, a former advertising representative from Wilmslow, Cheshire, said: “I was 16 when my mother was given four months to live. She struggled on for two years but she had a very large breast cancer, the size of an egg. Her four sisters also had breast cancer — it’s wiped my family out.”

The research team had drawn up a chart that was coded to show if relatives were dead or alive and revealed how Miss Best was one of 16 relatives suspected to be carrying the gene.

She continued: “What was really disturbing was that next to your name was a circle. It was coloured in completely if you were dead, white if you were alive and half if you could be a gene carrier. There was my name with a half-coloured circle. It was almost like sticking a pin in a voodoo doll.”

Professor Evans, a world-leading researcher in breast cancer genetics, based at the Genesis Prevention Centre in Manchester, said: “What we most of all want to do is stop women getting the disease in the first place and develop further strategies to reduce the risk of breast cancer.”

Ten years later Miss Best is still clear of the disease, thanks to ground-breaking treatment in Manchester.

She recently gave birth to a third daughter, Lucia, with her partner, John, despite having been told that she may never have been able to conceive again because of the six months of chemotherapy she had.

Genesis is Europe’s first breast cancer prevention centre. It opened last week. Miss Best hopes that it will help further medical improvements, sparing others the same ordeal.

She said: “I am hoping to God that by the time my girls have grown up there will be some kind of preventative gene replacement therapy available for families like ours.”

A possible link between asthma and obesity has been found by scientists in London (Nigel Hawkes writes). Scientists at King’s and Imperial Colleges in London have found that the Th2 cells that control inflammation in the lungs and contribute to asthma also produce a protein, encoded by the gene PMCH, which is known to increase appetite. The discovery was reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Dr David Cousins of King’s College London, said: “Our study provides evidence for a possible mechanism linking obesity and asthma. However, as people with asthma aren’t always obese, we now plan to look at possible genetic polymorphisms, or variations, of PMCH to see the role they play.”

source : www.timesonline.co.uk

Grapefruit link to breast cancer

2007-07-17T05:44:00.001-07:00

Eating grapefruit every day could raise the risk of developing breast cancer by almost a third, US scientists say.

A study of 50,000 post-menopausal women found eating just a quarter of a grapefruit daily raised the risk by up to 30%.

The fruit is thought to boost levels of oestrogen - the hormone associated with a higher risk of the disease, the British Journal of Cancer reported.

But the researchers and other experts said more research was still needed.
The women had to fill in questionnaires saying how often they ate grapefruit and how big their portions were.

Oestrogen important

The researchers, at the universities of Southern California and Hawaii, found that women who ate one quarter of a grapefruit or more every day had a higher risk of breast cancer than those who did not eat the fruit at all.

Previous studies have shown that a molecule called cytochrome P450 3A4 (CYP3A4) is involved in metabolising oestrogen hormones.

And grapefruit may boost blood oestrogen levels by inhibiting this molecule, allowing the hormones to build up.

The researchers found that in women who ate at least a quarter of a grapefruit daily, levels of oestrogen were higher.

They said: "It is well established that oestrogen is associated with breast cancer risk.

"Therefore, if grapefruit intake affects oestrogen metabolism leading to higher circulating levels, then it is biologically plausible that regular intake of grapefruit would increase a woman's risk of breast cancer."

More research

And they said this was the first time a commonly eaten food had been linked to an increased risk of breast cancer in older women.

However, they warned that more research was needed to confirm the findings which may have been affected because they only took into account intake of the fruit, but not grapefruit juice.

Breast cancer accounts for almost a third of all cancers in women, and previous lifestyle factors linked to the disease include drinking alcohol and being overweight.

Dr Joanne Lunn, a nutrition scientist at the British Nutrition Foundation said: "This is an interesting study of a large group of post-menopausal women whose diet and health have been followed for many years.

"However, this study is simply a piece of the jigsaw that will eventually help us to understand how our diets affect our health.

"Although we are beginning to get a better awareness of how our diets can modify the risk of diseases such as cancer, we are still a long way from identifying particular foods that might specifically increase or decrease risk."

However, she said that some dietary patterns are associated with a reduced risk of certain cancers and that a diet rich in a variety of different fruits and vegetables could help reduce the risk of heart disease and some cancers.

source : news.bbc.co.uk

Grapefruit link to breast cancer

2007-07-17T05:44:00.000-07:00

Science works in preventing pregnancy

2007-07-17T05:37:00.000-07:00

Birth control is back. Not that it ever went away, despite the ardor with which conservative culture warriors have pushed their antediluvian attitudes about women and sex -- and notwithstanding the official sanction the Bush administration has given this retro-think.

Barr Pharmaceuticals, maker of the "Plan B" morning-after contraceptive pill, estimates that sales doubled since the Food and Drug Administration approved over-the-counter sale of the product after a long, politically inspired delay. Opponents had argued that the pill is tantamount to abortion -- which it is not. A woman takes the medication after unprotected sex, and it works like a high dose of birth-control pills. Plan B brought in $40 million annually when it was available by prescription only, according to Barr spokeswoman Carol Cox. The company estimates that sales this year, which marked the start of marketing without a prescription to women 18 and older, will reach $80 million.
More teenagers who have sex, meanwhile, are using condoms -- 63 percent used a condom during their last sexual intercourse, according to data compiled by the National Center for Health Statistics. That's up from 46 percent of sexually active high school students who reported using condoms in 1991. Progress in reducing the rate of births to teenage mothers that began in the 1990s has held steady. So fewer girls are becoming mothers before they are emotionally and financially ready -- and fewer babies are born burdened by the toxic mix of poverty and social stress related to teenaged parenting.
It turns out that protecting ourselves against unwanted pregnancies never went out of style.
Not even after years in which anti-abortion activists have tried to restrict women's access to birth control with faith-based rhetoric that draws a link between abortion and contraception -- though the only connection is that the failure to use birth control leads to more unwanted pregnancies and more abortions. Not even after the Bush administration's unrelenting war on science, a crusade that includes showering unprecedented amounts of federal dollars on abstinence-only sex education. The programs have been found to have no effect in inspiring teenagers to delay having sex, have fewer sexual partners or abstain from sex altogether.
"I believe what's happening in this country is, no longer are we listening to the vocal minority," says Mary Jane Gallagher, president of the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association. "I think the taboo created by that vocal minority does not hold any water."
Still, half of all pregnancies in the United States are unintended and half of those end in abortion. The U.S. rate of teen births is still the highest in the industrialized world -- it's about twice as high as the rate in Canada and about seven times higher than teen birthrates in such countries as Japan, Denmark and Sweden, according to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. Nearly a third of American girls and young women will get pregnant at least once before they reach 20.
"The problem is that we're acting like this isn't a problem, and it certainly is," says Jessica Sheets, a spokeswoman for the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy.
Washington continues to promote what doesn't work. A House appropriations panel recently approved a 25 percent hike in funding for abstinence-only sex education programs, despite a Democratic takeover of Congress that was supposed to bring some sanity -- and science -- back into the sex-ed discussion. Congressional leaders have said they included the increase to assure a smoother political course for the measure, which also contains funding for a broad range of health, education and labor programs.
It was political expedience, not science, that led the FDA to approve the nonprescription sale of the morning-after pill only for adults. There's no medical reason why sexually active teenagers should not take it. And there's every reason to expect they would benefit most from it, since impulsive teens are more likely to have unprotected sex than are adults. "We are always on the side of protecting yourself," says Sheets, who adds that the pregnancy campaign's new interactive Web site for teenagers is likely to include information about the morning-after pill. "It's 100 times better than getting pregnant at 14."
Splitting the difference is the route to political compromise. But Solomon knew well he could not split the biblical baby in two. No middle ground that imposes ideology on medical science is fair to women and girls. Because after all, there's no such thing as being half pregnant.

source : www.indystar.com

Schizophrenia linked to immune response in womb

2007-07-17T05:34:00.000-07:00

TANYA NOLAN: A US scientist says he's discovered why viral infections caught during pregnancy can significantly increase the risk of a child developing a mental illness later in life.

Professor Paul Patterson from the California Institute of Technology has told a neuroscience conference in Melbourne that it's a protein produced by pregnant women to help fight infection that leads to an increased risk of the baby becoming schizophrenic or autistic.

Fellow neuroscientists say the finding is in line with other research being carried out in the field, but stress that genetic factors also play a key role in the development of mental illnesses.

Barbara Miller reports.

BARBARA MILLER: Don't drink, smoke, take drugs, get stressed, eat raw fish. The list of nos for pregnant women is long.

And they include some over which women may feel they have little control, such as getting a cold or the flu. A viral infection during pregnancy is associated with an increased chance that the baby will develop schizophrenia or autism.

Professor Paul Patterson from the California Institute of Technology says by carrying out experiments on mice, he's figured out why.

PAUL PATTERSON: It appears from our work that the body's natural mechanism for fighting a virus, which includes producing proteins in the blood, some of those proteins, one in particular called Interleukin Six, is a key for altering foetal brain development that leads to these abnormal behaviours.

BARBARA MILLER: So, in what percentage of the mice did you detect these abnormal behaviours in their offspring?

PAUL PATTERSON: Yeah, it's not in every mouse, it's in the majority of the mice.

BARBARA MILLER: Would that suggest that the majority of the women who do have influenza during pregnancy would have to worry that their child may develop abnormally?

PAUL PATTERSON: Well in humans it's not the majority, it's an increase of about three to seven-fold over normal.

Of course not every woman who gets a cold during pregnancy will have a schizophrenic offspring, that's because of… presumably because of the genotype, you have to have a certain set of genes to be susceptible to these environmental insults.

BARBARA MILLER: Women, pregnant women, hearing this would be extremely worried. Do you think they should be?

PAUL PATTERSON: I don't think it's a matter of alarm, I think it's just a matter of commonsense really.

You know, I do it myself because I don't like to get colds. So when I go shopping, after I get in my car I wipe my hands with a disinfectant and when my child is sick with a cold, I'm always washing my hands after touching him and contacting his clothes and so on, I washed my hands.

These are commonsense measures. It's just that we don't do them normally because we're not hyper worried about a cold; we just accept it as a fact of life.

BARBARA MILLER: Professor Patterson's research has not yet been accepted for publication. But Professor Ian Hickie from the Brain and Mind Research Institute at the University of Sydney says the findings appear to be in line with other work being carried out in the field.

IAN HICKIE: I think it adds further to the research that has been going on in looking for the specific aspects of the immune response in the mother that may be affecting the brain development in the child.

And that's one of the strong theories in schizophrenia is that there is something in the environment that alters the brain development early on in children who later go on to develop schizophrenia in later life.

And that that may not be simply genetically determined, it may depend on some exposures, things like infection in the environment.

BARBARA MILLER: Professor Hickie says pregnant women who do contract a viral infection shouldn't panic.

IAN HICKIE: We're still talking at an individual level about low risk.

Schizophrenia is not a common illness per se, but schizophrenia is a very severe illness in many cases. So we're talking about trying to look at preventative strategies that might reduce the risk overall. And understanding another link in that puzzle gives us some chance then of looking at preventative strategies.

TANYA NOLAN: That's Professor Ian Hickie from the University of Sydney's Brain and Mind Research Institute.

source : www.abc.net.au

Malawi: Pregnancy And Antiretroviral Therapy Information

2007-07-17T05:22:00.000-07:00

Women who are taking anti-retroviral (ARVs) to assist their immune system that is being compromised because of HIV/AIDS need to have all the information on family planning methods available in order to make an informed choice about becoming pregnant and about their delivery.

Misinformation on taking ARVs while pregnant could result in a woman stopping HIV/AIDS treatment for fear of harming the unborn baby, making it more difficult for the drugs to work effectively when therapy is resumed.

According to a member of staff at a local hospital that provides reproductive health services the main problem is that women still find it difficult to take up the Voluntary Counseling (VCT) making it also difficult for a pregnant woman to access the necessary information on the maintenance of drug therapy while pregnant. "A woman may have started taking ARVs secretly but the misinformation that the HIV/AIDS will deform the unborn baby encourages them to stop taking the drugs while pregnant" she said.

It is also very important for a woman to have the necessary information in order to make the choice on weather to fall pregnant or not.

Flone* has been on ARVs for over five years. Her partner for over four years who is also taking ARVs wanted to have a baby making it necessary for her to seek medical advice. "The important thing is that we were honest with each other from the beginning. We went for testing together and began taking medication. After some time we began talking about having a child and asked medical advice on what we should do". She says.

Flone was given all the information on how to continue taking her medication while pregnant and how to make sure that there is minimal risk of passing the virus to the baby.

"We looked at the options and decided that since we were both healthy and strong we would try to have a baby. The baby is now six months old and all the tests that have been taken so far have been negative," she says with a smile.

Asked if she was not afraid to take the risk, she replies, "I had all the information and I knew that there was a risk of passing the virus on to the baby but I followed all the advice that I was given. I am sure that all will be well," she adds confidently.

'The support I get from my partner is also very important as I used to think I had made a mistake sometimes while pregnant, but he would encourage me to look forward to having the baby".

There are many couples like Flone and her partner who are taking ARV therapy and would like to have a baby. Information is vital on what they should do in order to have the maximum benefit from the drugs while pregnant.

A gentleman working for a reproductive health provider says it is important for a woman to be given all the assistance to prevent pregnancy if she is HIV positive and does not want to become pregnant.
"We have to know what kind of therapy she is on so that we can advise her on which contraceptive works best with the drug she is taking. In most cases the safest and most effective contraceptive is the condom," adding that this form of contraceptive will also protect the woman from HIV of a different strain as well as protect her partner.

"This is the best family planning method and it is effective for both of them and it will protect them from further infections including Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs).

Information on ARVs and pregnancy will assist women in maintaining drug therapy while pregnant thus reducing and risk of noncompliance of treatment by women when they decide to become pregnant.

source : allafrica.com

Knowsley teenage pregnancy scheme awarded

2007-07-17T05:21:00.001-07:00

Knowsley teenage pregnancy scheme awarded

Knowsley has beaten off strong competition from around the UK to scoop a top prize in the 2007 Municipal Journal (MJ) Awards.

Knowsley won the Reducing Health Inequalities Achievement of the Year Award for The Young Women’s Teenage Pregnancy Project which is credited with reducing the teenage pregnancy rate in North Huyton by up to 32%.

The Project is a partnership between Knowsley PCT, Knowsley Council, North Huyton New Deal for Communities, North Huyton Sure Start and the Youth and Play Service.

The project offers one to one interventions to raise self esteem and offer information and advice, around 4000 contacts with young people have been made.

The successful initiative has been used as the model for the Sexual Health Outreach Team, which provides youth work and clinical interventions across Knowsley.

Children’s Champion Cllr Christine O’Hare said: “It was fantastic to receive this award and I think it is a great example of the power of partnership working. I’d like to congratulate everyone involved and to thank them for all their hard work.

But the people who will really benefit from this award are local young people who can rest assured that in Knowsley they have access to the best sexual health services and advice.”

The project was jointly funded for two years by North Huyton New Deal for Communities and North Huyton Sure Start, which was then taken forward as the blueprint for the long term Borough-wide provision by KPCT.

This is the second year running that Knowsley has won this category at the MJ awards, the PITSTOP men’s health programme being the winner last year.

source : aboutknowsley.typepad.com

Eleven-year-old keeps pregnancy a secret

2007-07-17T05:18:00.000-07:00

An 11-year-old primary school pupil who was raped last year but kept her ordeal a secret until a month ago, has given birth to a baby boy.

The baby was born in Tygerberg Hospital on Thursday.

The family of the the girl, who lives in Bishop Lavis, have decided to give up the boy for adoption.

A senior security officer has been arrested in connection with rape and will appear in the Bishop Lavis magistrate's court on Monday.

The girl left the hospital on Friday without the baby, but has asked to see him once a month.

The double trauma of the rape and the subsequent birth has shocked the family.
Both the child and her family are set to receive counselling from today.

The girl, who is in Grade 6, turns 12 in October.

She lives with her father and grandmother in Valhalla Park.

But she did not tell them or anyone else about the rape last November in Langa.

She continued to attend school until the end of term last month, with her family still unaware that she was pregnant.

When the Cape Argus visited the girl in hospital on Friday, she was frail, shy and withdrawn, but managed a smile.

She was dressed in a gown and a pink hooded top and sought comfort under her grandmother's arm.

Asked her about her wellbeing, she answered softly: "I'm fine and I'm looking forward to some rest at home."

The nurses on duty were protective of her as people gathered around and craned their necks to catch a glimpse of the pre-teen mother as she walked down the long corridor to a waiting car.

Nurses assured her that social workers would visit on a regular basis and said a relative would collect her medication on Friday.

When asked what was the first thing she would wanted when she got home, she replied: "A good lunch and some sleep."

Her grandmother said on Sunday that in June a neighbour had pointed out that the girl looked pregnant.

"I took a urine sample to the local chemist and had it tested. It was positive," the grandmother said.

The girl's father told the Cape Argus that he was "heart-broken and upset" and described the perpetrator who raped his daughter as being "worse than a monster".

"Her pregnancy has affected her school work, and I'm in the process of having her transferred to another school as we fear she will be victimised and teased by her schoolmates.

"This would have been her second last year at primary school.

"We need to come to terms with this now and start a new life," her father said.

Fighting back tears, he said they had been forced to give up the baby for adoption.

"How can a child look after a child?" he asked.

Approached for comment, a prominent medical doctor, Yusuf Noor, said it was "very traumatic. It will stay with her for the rest of her life".

"Depending on the size of her pelvis, womb and other parts of her body, she may not be able to give birth normally again and she may have complications.

"However, it depends on the treatment given to her before the birth by a gynaecologist.

"The greatest problem will be a psychological one. It is very traumatic to give birth at that age," Noor said.

Her grandmother said: "I hope the counselling programme and sessions are completed before she is summoned to testify in court."

The 48-year-old security officer who will appear in court today is a former neighbour and a family friend.

The girl was raped near the Langa power station, according to the charge sheet.

The arrested man is already in custody facing a charge of attempting to murder his former wife. He allegedly shot and wounded her in the parking area of a church in Eastlake Island Drive, Marina da Gama, on January 20.

source : www.iol.co.za

Factors that can make pregnancy go wrong

2007-07-17T05:16:00.000-07:00

Pregnancy is no longer something to be afraid of especially in this modern day of technological improvement as well as the amazing advancement of modern medical science. Even the normal discomforts of labour are no longer a problem to most young mothers. Seye Adeniyi reports that knowing all the impediments to smooth pregnancy will help women to have stress-free delivery.

How do you know you are pregnant? Believe me, many women cannot answer this ques tion and even those who have something to say might not be able to give correct, explanatory answer. The truth is that many women don’t know their reproductive status, some cannot even calculate their safe or unsafe period, yet they are educated.

But to answer the question, if you are “regular”, the first indication that will show that you are pregnant is that you would have missed your monthly period. At the same time, you may feel unusually cheerful and your breast may even begin to enlarge. Some women may be experiencing “unnecessary tension and may feel nervous with a slight feeling of nausea in the morning. A little vomiting at the early stage of pregnancy is also not uncommon or serious. What all this feelings mean is that nature has started making a few normal adjustments in your body as a result of the pregnancy.

If you skip stop your next period which many called monthly menstruation, then it is advisable to see your doctor. The doctor may have to carry out laboratory tests on you such as complete blood count, urinalysis, etc. The physician might also listen to your heart beat and lungs to be sure you are in a good health condition. Other things your doctor may ask you to do include height, weight, blood pressure tests, pulse feelings/test, blood types etc. Knowing these would also help your baby in many ways. Your urine test is also very important for the doctor to be sure that your kidney is functioning well.

Every woman should realise the fact that pregnancy is not something to be afraid of in this modern day of technological advancement and development. This notwithstanding, not all pregnancies end well. Few pregnancies may end with a baby’s death, or with the birth of a baby who is handicapped or deformed due to certain reasons. Some of the things or factors that may make a pregnancy end or go wrong are stated below:

Ectopic pregnancy:-
This is also called tubal pregnancy and is a rare complication in which the fertilised ovum or embryo becomes blocked in its passage through the fallopian tube. This situation, according to Dr. Boniface A. Oye-Adeniran, a consultant obstetrist and gynaecologist at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Lagos, is when the embryo continues to grow as it normally would when inside the uterus. But the problem with this kind of pregnancy development is that the space within the tube is too small to allow much expansion. So, the tube may rupture, causing a serious haemorrhage and also an intense pain in the pelvis.

“If this is not checked on time, by discouraging such development or expansion, the life of both the pregnant woman and that of the developing foetus are in grave danger. This is a situation when the pregnancy becomes dangerous and a big threat to the life of the woman and in such a situation, an urgent surgery would have to be done”, Dr. Oye-Adeniran stated while talking to health reporters recently on how to maintain safe pregnancy and avoid abortion.

This type of pregnancy had actually gone wrong from the beginning and it would not end well. On how it happened, the consultant explained that after conception, the fertilised egg, instead of moving down into the womb, gets stuck in the fallopian tube and begins to grow there. Many factors could be responsible for this type of pregnancy. Infections like stapphylococus could cause it, resulting in the blockage of the fallopian tube preventing the fertilised ovum from travelling to the uterus for proper implantation.

Other infections could also block the fallopian tube. However, signs of an ectopic pregnancy usually occur after a missed period. The signs include a back pain on one side down in the abdomen, vaginal bleeding, and sometimes the feeling of faint. “If you get a strong one-sided pain and it is possible you may be pregnant, it is imperative to see your doctor. Also, if you have suffered from sexually transmitted diseases like gonorrhoea, syphilis, herpes, vagina candiasis etc, it is better to get yourself properly treated before you conceive. Not doing this may result in the blockage of the fallopian tube”, the doctor advised.

Miscarriage
Heavy bleeding during the child-bearing age may be due to miscarriage or abortion. A miscarriage can be very difficult to come to terms with. Feelings of anger or guilt usually accompany such experiences anyway. It is a sense of loss, so the affected woman would have to grieve over the lost baby just as she would over the death of anyone very close to her.

Miscarriages are quite common, especially before twelve weeks when it is believed that at least one in six pregnancies end in this way. A miscarriage does occur at the early stage when there is something wrong with the baby; while a latter miscarriage can be due to the placenta not working properly, or the cervix being weak and opening too early.

On what could be responsible for miscarriages, Dr. Oye-Adeniran said any lady who has done abortion before risks miscarriages later in future. Explaining, he said the dilatation and curettage (D and C) operation which many women usually do to get rid of either unwanted or unplanned pregnancies could predisposes them to the ugly, painful experiences of miscarriage by the time they would actually want to have children.

“Many of our ladies engage in D and C. But what they don’t know or what many of them failed to understand is that the instruments used for this abortion especially by quacks may damage the neck of their fallopian tube. In the process of one or two or even several dilatation, the instruments may either cause the weakness of the neck of the cervix, making it loose to hold pregnancy while in the process of curetation, the lining of the womb will be scraped or sucked away which may later prevent the fertilised ovum from getting implanted to the uterus because the womb might be too weak to hold pregnancy. So tell me, how would miscarriage not happen in such women with series of D and C operations?”, he asked.

Many people also believe that making love in pregnancy can be the cause of miscarriage. The fact is that it is very unlikely as confirmed by many doctors who spoke with Your Health. Doctors do call a miscarriage an “abortion” or a “natural abortion”. They define it as the ending of a pregnancy month before the 28th week. After the 28th week, a baby has a good chance of survival if it is delivered. But before the 28th week, its chances are less. An early miscarriage often happens around the time a woman would have expected to have her monthly period. It can be like a period, with bleeding and a similar sort of aching pain, and may be happening on and off, while a later miscarriage after the first three months, is more like labour itself.

Losing a baby just before or after birth
A pregnancy can also end in what is called a still birth. This mean the baby is already dead before it is born. Some babies however die immediately after birth. Most of the time, the causes of these deaths are not known unless a post mortem examination is done on the dead baby.

Medical abortion
Sometimes, a pregnancy would have to be ended for medical reasons. It is even possible for the pregnancy to be “medically aborted” in mid-pregnancy when the woman would have been carrying the baby for some time and feel committed and tied to the unborn child. But your doctors would definitely tell you the reasons why such pregnancies have to be ended. For instance, if the pregnancy becomes a big threat to the life of the woman, such a pregnancy may have to be terminated depending on the decision of the doctor, says Dr. Oye-Adeniran. Giving an example, he said if the scan of the pregnancy reveals that the developing foetus is a “monster”. For instance, if the developing foetus has no hands, or even with two or three heads, what do you think should be done? Should the pregnant woman be allowed to carry such a ‘monster’ till delivery stage, when it can even become a big threat to the life of the woman during delivery?. Definitely there is no point carrying such type of pregnancy to term.

Of what purpose is a child with two heads or four legs or hands? This would be a monster that would not even benefit the couple. So it is better to remove such a pregnancy before carrying it to term. Although the permission or consent of both the husband and wife would be sought before ending such pregnancy. The doctor would advise them of the problem attached to leaving such a child to be born and the effect on the woman’s health. Even it could also pose a threat to the life of the woman during delivery. These are some of the things to consider before such a pregnancy is ended. This is what is called a permitted abortion anyway”, he emphasised.

Speaking further, he said if the mother has been previously operated upon and the uterus (i.e. womb) stitched at that time, and she is carrying another pregnancy where the scan confirmed that the position of the baby inside the womb could rip open the already operated womb, don’t you think it is advisable to end such pregnancy by immediately bringing out such baby that poses great danger to the life of the woman whose womb has already been stitched before?”he concluded.

source : www.tribune.com.ng