This year’s fifth anniversary edition of The Colondar features beautiful photographs of 13 vibrant male and female colorectal cancer survivors who were all diagnosed under the age of 50. The models bravely volunteer to share their stories and bare their surgical scars to encourage colonoscopies and to raise awareness that colon and rectal cancers can strike anyone at any age.

Throwing all journalistic objectivity aside, I have to tell you I’m a BIG fan of this calendar. While feeling tired, bewildered and more than a little ugly after my own cancer surgery a few years ago, I stumbled across an earlier edition of The Colondar. The striking pictures of these courageous survivors offered me hope that I would soon recover from my cancer and return to a wonderful life.

The 2009 Colondar from The Colon Club

The 2009 Colondars are available from The Colon Club for $16.50 each with shipping included.

Consider getting a couple extras to give as gifts too. In addition to helping friends keep track of busy schedules, they’ll remind people to get screened, encourage cancer survivors throughout the year, and they’ll add something interesting and beautiful to bare office walls — my oncology nurse loved his!

(Click here to order a 2009 Colondar from The Colon Club.)

Note to readers outside the United States: The Colon Club’s web site does not process online international orders. If you’d like to purchase a copy to be mailed overseas, please e-mail them at Info@colondar.com.

The Colon Club is also looking for more survivors to appear in their 2010 Colondar. If you’re interested, please let them know as soon as possible.

Source: Colorectal Cancer Coalition

Technorati Tags: cancer prevention; cancer support groups; oncology; cancer outreach

In 1991, President George H.W. Bush appointed Dr Healy the first woman director of the National Institutes of Health. She was also chosen to lead the American Red Cross during their response to the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.

After being diagnosed with a brain tumor in early 1999, Dr Healy was surprised by some of the awkward comments and gestures she received from those who discovered she was a cancer patient. People who meant well would do inappropriate things like grabbing her hair to see if she was wearing a wig and one woman told her “It’s amazing how good you can look when you’re dying.”

Hoping to spare future cancer patients the discomfort of these difficult encounters, the doctor decided to include practical tips on cancer etiquette when she wrote her own book Living Time – Faith and Facts to Transform Your Cancer Journey.

One simple piece of advice she offers readers is to think about how you’d like to be treated before you start speaking. As the author says,

“One thing you don’t want to do is to instantly assume it’s terminal.”

Bernadine Healy, MD
Oliogodendroglioma Survivor

Living Time covers more than just cancer etiquette, it also contains Dr Healy’s personal and professional insights about cancer treatments and the future of cancer research. To read an excerpt from her book, click here.

Living Time is published by Bantam, a division of Random House, Inc. To find out if a public library near you carries it, check out WorldCat.org

If you’d like more tips on supporting a loved one with cancer, there’s a lot of useful information on the Common Questions on Caring and Helping web page published by Massachusetts General Hospital.

Source: CNN

Related Links: Cleveland.com; getyourheadinthegame.org

Technorati Tags: cancer books; caregiving; cancer support; mixed gliomas; oncology

The Austin, Texas-based corporation submitted Advexin® for priority review by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Monday, June 30, 2008. Advexin® is a gene therapy that’s been under development for 14 years and the first gene-based drug to get this far in the US drug approval process.

Introgen Therapeutics, which is partly owned by MD Anderson Cancer Center researcher Dr Jack Roth and the University of Texas, is also seeking approval to market the drug in Europe.

Advexin® uses deactivated cold viruses to insert p53 tumor suppressor genes into cancer cells. It is designed to restore p53 function in patients who have a low levels of the p53 gene so healthy cells can be replenished while malignant cells die. The company’s clinical trials on Advexin® indicated two-thirds of patients with difficult to treat head and neck cancers may be potential candidates for the treatment.

If the FDA accepts the gene therapy for priority review – and if the treatment meets drug safety standards – approval could come in as little as six months. Without priority consideration, the FDA’s decision would likely take closer to a year. Either way, this application is going to be closely tracked by cancer patients, healthcare providers and pharmaceutical industry insiders who are curious about the potential of gene-based treatments. As one securities analyst said,

“It’s a major milestone for gene therapy, because it’s a first-in-class drug.”

Stephen Dunn
Dawson James Securities

Introgen is also evaluating Advexin® for the treatment of certain breast and lung cancers, but this week’s FDA application is only for the treatment of recurrent head and neck cancer. Approximately 40,000 people are diagnosed with head, neck and throat cancers in the US each year.

If you’re a patient in the US who’d like to learn more about head and neck cancer treatments, you can visit the National Cancer Institute’s Head and Neck Cancer page.

Source: Austin American-Statesman

Related Links: WebMD.com; seekingalpha.com

Technorati Tags: laryngeal cancer; oncology; oral cancer; oropharyngeal carcinoma; personalized medicine and pharmacogenomics; targeted therapies; orphan drugs

Cuban scientists held a news conference earlier this week at the Center of Molecular Immunology in Havana to announce the availability of the new vaccine. They reported that studies had shown CimaVax EGF increased lung cancer patient survival an average of 4 to 5 months and it produced fewer side effects than standard therapies because the vaccine only targets malignant cells.

Several private companies have already been licensed to market the treatment, which will be produced in Cuba.

Cuban health officials said patients from outside the island nation are welcome to travel Cuba for treatment, but American patients may be unable to take advantage of the offer because of travel restrictions put in place by the US in the 1960s. As one Havana scientist said,

“Even though there is a new therapeutic tool approved in Cuba they (US citizens) probably wouldn’t be able to come to Cuba to receive it because of the embargo.”

Tania Crombet, MD
Director of Clinical Investigations
Molecular Immunology Center (Havana)

Health experts estimate lung cancer claims more than 1.3 million lives worldwide each year, with more than 160,000 of those deaths occurring in the U.S.

The vaccine has been approved for clinical trials in the United States and other countries, but approval by the US Food and Drug Administration — if it comes — is not expected for several years. Peru is also expected to make CimaVax EGF publicly available to patients later this year.

If you’d like to learn more about treatments currently available to help lung cancer patients in the US, you can visit the Lung Cancer Page by the National Cancer Institute.

Source: Reuters

Related Links: msnbc.com; BERNAMA.com (Malaysia)

Technorati Tags: bronchogenic carcinoma; oncology; tobacco-related diseases

Cancer-sniffing dogs are trained to sit in front of people or biological samples that carry the scent of specific chemicals present in cancer cells. Previous research has shown these dogs can detect the presence of bladder, breast, prostate and lung cancers simply by smelling a patient or their urine.

RNL Bio cloned Marine, a black Labrador Retriever trained by the St Sugar Cancer Sniffing Dog Training Center in Shirahama, Japan, from skin samples sent to Seoul National University last December. Yuji Satoh, the head trainer at St Sugar’s, made the decision to give Marine’s DNA to the university after a womb disease made it impossible for the dog to give birth.

The three-week-old puppies have been given the names Marine-L, Marine-N, Marine-R and Marine-S. Once the puppies have been trained, one will be donated to St Sugar’s and another to Seoul National University. The company plans to sell the two remaining puppies for $500,000.

RNL Bio used patent-pending technology to enhance the embryo implantation process so multiple births would be possible. As one of the company’s executives said,

“Cloning dogs is nothing new anymore. But we are the world’s first to have cloned four at a time from one surrogate mother. This makes it cost effective, and now we mean real business.”

Jeong Chan, Ra
CEO, RNL BIO Co Ltd

If you’re a cancer patient in the US who’d like to learn more about cancer detection, click here to visit the American Cancer Society Early Detection Guidelines web page.

Source: ABC News

Related Links: france24.com; REUTERS

Technorati Tags: non-invasive medicine; oncology

REGRANEX™ is a topical gel cream prescribed to treat leg and foot ulcers in people with diabetes. The product contains recombinant human platelet-derived growth factor, a man-made substance that stimulates cell growth. The medicine is designed to help heal neuropathic ulcers which, if serious enough, can ultimately lead to amputation.

REGRANEX™ has been prescribed more than 750,000 times since it became available.

The new warnings were issued after a retroactive epidemiological study of more than 4,400 patients showed those prescribed three or more tubes of REGRANEX™ were 5 times more likely to die of cancer.

As a result of the study’s findings, the FDA advises physicians to only prescribe the drug when the benefits to the patient outweigh the potential risks and to exercise extra caution when prescribing REGRANEX™/becaplermin to individuals who’ve already been diagnosed with a malignancy.

A boxed warning is also being added to the product’s packaging. It reads,

“WARNING
An increased risk of mortality secondary to malignancy was observed in patients treated with 3 or more tubes of REGRANEX Gel in a post-marketing retrospective cohort study. REGRANEX Gel should only be used when the benefits can be expected to outweigh the risks. REGRANEX should be used with caution in patients with known malignancy.”

Boxed Warning for REGRANEX™
Issued by FDA, June 2008

REGRANEX™ is marketed by Ethicon©, Inc, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ). The drug is distributed by Ortho-McNeil™.

Tumors or other adverse events associated with REGRANEX™/becaplermin should be reported to the FDA MedWatch Adverse Event Reporting Program (telephone 1-800-FDA-1088 or online at www.fda.gov/MedWatch/report.htm).

If you’d like other information about Regranex, you can call the company’s Customer Communications Center at 1-888-734-7263.

Source: FDA Center for Drug Evaluation and Research

Related Links: FDA News; CNNMoney

Technorati Tags: cancer prevention; comorbidity; drug safety; oncology; pharmacology; patient safety; tumor reporting

Biosensors are already routinely used to monitor the vital signs of patients with cancer and other serious medical conditions while they are staying in treatment facilities. Because the antennas, wires and battery size required to gather and transmit the information are too inconvenient and bulky for patients to wear once they leave the hospital, patients must often return to their physician’s office multiple times for routine follow-ups.

Now, electronics experts at QUB have designed a low-profile wireless antenna measuring less than 5mm which is capable of radiating a signal powerful enough to make remote patient monitoring feasible.

With conventional on-body antennas, the majority of the signal is lost because it’s either transmitted away from or absorbed by the patient’s own body. QUB’s device radiates signals out the side of the antenna rather than the end enhancing the signal’s ability to “creep” the surface of the skin. And unlike traditional wireless antennas, QUB’s device is small enough to be easily incorporated into a wound dressing or the patient’s clothing while they’re engaged in everyday activities.

This new patch-style antenna will be used to further wireless body area network (WBAN) technologies currently under development. In WBAN networks, the antenna signal transmits data from biosensors attached to different parts of the patient’s body to a control unit which stores the data. The information collected on the control unit can then be remotely accessed by healthcare providers 24 hours a day using a computer or mobile phone.

QUB has submitted a patent application on one of the antenna designs and more are predicted to follow. As one of the project leaders said,

“We could change the way that a range of illnesses, injuries and conditions are monitored, perhaps within five years.”

Dr William Scanlon
Institute of Electronics, Communications and Information Technology, QUB

The QUB project was funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).

Source: EPSRC (UK)

Related Links: ScienceDaily; Science Foundation Ireland

Technorati Tags: bioelectromagnetics; electronic health records; health IT; Northern Ireland; telemedicine

And with chemotherapy, radiation, surgery or lab tests on the schedule, it can be hard to find the time to drive from library to library looking for good books to help you get smart about your condition.

Well, the folks at Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) are helping make cancer education a little easier. Google Book Search offers a wide variety of health books you can read for free, as well as previews of other books that haven’t entered the public domain yet. Thousands of educational books and academic journals covering oncology, medicine and nutrition from experts like the National Cancer Institute and the World Health Organization, as well as other science-related texts of interest to researchers and students (physics, chemistry, etc.) are available and easy to access.

My favorite feature: If you want to read a book using the traditional method — away from a computer screen — Google’s site will quickly assemble a list of the public libraries in your state which carry the title. I did a quick search and found more than 43,000 cancer-related titles in less than three seconds. If you decide you’d like to have the book for your permanent collection, the site also lets you know about book retailers offering the book for sale.

For those of you who want a break from studying cancer, fictional literature is available too.

Google Book Search has been around for a few years, but new titles are being added all the time so consider visiting the site again if you haven’t been there in a while. In fact, the University of California, San Diego announced earlier this month that it will be providing Google Book Search access to several million books from their extensive library so their contents can be digitized into Google’s growing database. UCSD is the first university in Southern California to commit to the project. As one UCSD librarian said,

“The library of the 21st century must effectively deliver knowledge and information in an increasingly hybrid environment where the physical and digital coexist. We are thrilled to be a contributor and partner with Google in this effort because it greatly expands access to our collections for faculty, students and members of the public, which is an essential part of our mission.”

Brian E.C. Schottlaender
Audrey Geisel University Librarian, UCSD

If you’re looking for more publications written for cancer patients or professionals, you can find additional information at the following links:

American Cancer Society Publications
CDC Cancer Resource Library
National Cancer Institute Publications

Sources: UCSD News Center and CancerResearchJournal.com

Related Links: The Stanford Daily; The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC)

Related Podcast: Public Access to NIH Research from Science Friday on NPR

Technorati Tags: health literacy; health tools; medical publishing; ePatients; eBooks

Scientists at Brigham and Women’s Hospital have already used the new drug, an orally-administered compound known as TG101348, to successfully treat chronic blood cancers in mice. Brigham and Women’s animal study showed the investigational drug dramatically increased survival rates without causing toxicity.

The TG101348 drug (designed by biopharmaceutical company TargeGen, Inc) works by targeting JAK2, a protein that promotes blood cell growth.

Mutations in JAK2 can produce runaway red and white blood cell growth leading to bone marrow damage, blood clots, painful spleen enlargement, excessive bleeding and infections. While some patients live for years with MPD, others develop AML — a potentially fatal form of blood cancer.

MPD affects approximately 80,000 patients in the US and limited treatment options currently exist. But TG101348’s promising results in mice have the scientists enthusiastic about testing it’s effectiveness in human trials. As one Dana-Farber researcher said,

“A betting person would be excited about this.”

Richard Stone, MD
Oncologist, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

If you’d like to learn more about the TG101348 study, a report has been published in the April 7, 2008, edition of the journal Cancer Cell.

Source: Brigham and Women’s Hospital News

Related Links: American Cancer Society; National Marrow Donor Program; Scientific American

Related Podcast: MMP099 – Acute Myelogenous Leukemia from The Medical Minute

Technorati Tags: polycythemia vera; National Institutes of Health; Howard Hughes Medical Institute; MPD Foundation; Leukemia and Lymphoma Society; Mayo Clinic; hematologic malignancies

Aristolochic acid has been linked with kidney cancer and kidney failure.

Both of the carcinogen-containing products, Tou Tong San (Headache Formula) and Du Huo Ji Scheng Tang (Du Huo Joint Relief), are manufactured by Herbal Science International, Inc.

These dietary supplements are two of twelve items voluntarily recalled by Herbal Science International (also known as Jen-On HerbalScience) because they pose potentially serious health hazards or they contain human placenta, an ingredient banned in the US.

The recalled products were sold on the internet, by acupuncturists, and at herbal stores nationwide. Consumers who purchased the products should immediately discontinue their use and return them to the place of purchase for a full refund. Those who’ve experienced an adverse reaction after taking the products should contact their doctor. Adverse events should also be reported to the FDA’s MedWatch program at 1-800-FDA-1088 or online at www.fda.gov/medwatch/report.htm.

If you’d like to learn about the other Herbal Science International supplements being recalled, you can read the company’s press release here. Additional information can be obtained by calling the company at (626)333-9998.

Source: FDA MedWatch

Related Links: New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM); washingtonpost.com; National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM)

Related Podcast: It’s Easy to Miss the Memo on Product Recalls from NPR

Technorati Tags: dietary supplements; natural medicines; oncology; renal cell carcinoma; kidney disease; genitourinary cancers; arthritis; migraines; urothelial carcinoma