Recently in the study of over 750 women with breast cancer, a drug sourced from sea sponges known may extend the lives of breast cancer patients whose cancer had come back by an average of two and a half months. Patients who took the experimental drug called eribulin lived an average of about 13 months, compared with about 10 1/2 months for women who did not take the drug.

The new study involved 762 breast cancer patients whose tumors had spread (metastasized) despite two to five rounds of different chemotherapy drugs. Two-thirds of the women got eribulin, which is given as a short IV infusion two days, every three weeks. The rest received whatever treatment their doctor thought was best, usually another chemotherapy drug but sometimes only supportive care to treat pain and fatigue.

Women on eribulin were 19% less likely to die, the study shows. Their cancer also stayed in check slightly longer: 3.7 months vs. 2.2 months for women on standard treatment. Tumors shrank by 30% or more in 12.2% of women on eribulin vs. 4.7% of women in the other group.

Surprisingly, among women whose tumors did shrink, the duration of response was longer for women in the standard therapy group: 6.7 months vs. 4.1 months in the eribulin group. Twelves cautions against putting too much emphasis on that finding, given that there were only about 10 women in the standard treatment group.

The Food and Drug Administration will decide whether to approve eribulin by Sept. 30, Tokyo-based Eisai said last week. The drugmaker is focusing on cancer treatments in anticipation of a decline in sales when its Aricept Alzheimer’s drug loses U.S. patent protection in November.

Side effects of the drug

About 4% of women taking eribulin developed a potentially life-threatening condition called febrile neutropenia marked by infection, fever, and low white blood cell count. That was about three times the rate of women in the other group.

The most frequent side effects with eribulin were fatigue, weakness, low white blood cell count, hair loss, and nausea. The key thing is that only 4.8% of women actually had to stop treatment, due to side effects.

Basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma are more common and less dangerous than melanoma. In fact over 1,000,000 patients are diagnosed with two previous skin cancers each year. Melanoma is the rare and dangerous one. Without proper treatment, melanoma can cause in death.

Basal cell carcinoma

Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) usually appears as a small, nodule or fleshy bump on the neck, hands or head. Commonly, the nodules appear on the trunk region, usually as flat growths. Basal cell carcinoma statistic report tell that more than 90% of all skin cancers in the United States. The good news is easy to detect and has an excellent record for successful treatment.

A basal cell carcinoma almost never spreads to other parts of the body. However, it can grow locally into any organ in its path. This means that if muscle, bone or nerves are beneath the skin with BCC, then it can grow into these structures and destroying them. For example, a BCC around the eye may grow into and destroy the eye.

Squamous cell carcinoma

A squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is a skin cancer that may appear as a bump or as a red, scaly patch. It often is found on badly sun-damaged, fair skin, and because of this often develops on the rim of the ear, the face, and the lips. It is not as dangerous as melanoma, but still leads to an estimated 2,300 deaths every year. When properly treated the cure rate is 95%. SCC may spread to the lymph nodes in the area.

This type of skin cancer may develop in several circumstances as to how dangerous they are. Like cervical and colon cancer, they may be closer to pre-cancerous, highly malignant or somewhere in between. Most develop out of actinic keratoses (rough sun spots), some from old wounds, and some due to a weakened immune system.

Melanoma

Melanoma is a skin cancer that begins in melanocytes, the cells that produce the pigment melanin that colors the skin, hair, and eyes, as well as forms moles. Most of these melanocytes are found in the skin, it causing melanoma of the skin is the most often type of melanoma.

Melanoma is the most dangerous type of skin cancer because it is more likely to spread to lymph nodes and other areas of the body compared to the other basal and squamous cell carcinoma.  Melanoma also can affect the digestive tract, eye, spinal cord, brain or other organs where pigment cells are found.

A Skin Moles is due to a proliferation of the pigment cells, named melanocytes. This is present throughout the skin and is a part of skin pigmentation. When melanocytes occur in cluster formations they result in the eventual appearance of a skin mole. In medical terminology mole also called as melanocytic naevi.

Melanocytic naevi may be present at birth but more usually begin to grow during childhood, although new ones can appear at any age, sometimes in crops. Early naevus cells form nests on the junction between the epidermis (outer layer of the skin) and the dermis (inner layer) so are known as junctional naevi. These are flat, colourful moles.

During adulthood, nests of naevus cells can also form in the dermis (compound naevi) or may only be found in the dermis (intradermal naevi). These naevi are thickened and often protrude from the skin surface. Non-pigmented dermal naevi may also be called cellular naevi. Heavily pigmented dermal naevi appear blue.

The biotechnology drug ipilimumab, which augments the body’s immune response by inhibiting certain proteins, kept advanced non-small cell lung cancer from worsening about a month longer when given in addition to a chemotherapy regimen, data from an abstract of the study showed.

American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) released on Thursday thousands of abstracts, or brief summaries, of studies to be presented next month at its scientific sessions in Chicago — the year’s most important cancer meeting.

In the 203-patient study, subjects were given either ipilimumab in combination with paclitaxel and carboplatin, the Bristol drug followed by the chemotherapy drugs, or the chemotherapy drugs alone. Patients who received the drugs sequentially had median progression free survival of 5.68 months, compared with 5.52 months for those who received the drugs concurrently.

Both ipilimumab groups fared better than those who received only the chemotherapy. Median progression-free survival in that group was 4.63 months, researchers said. Median progression-free survival typically is a measure of time before the disease worsens in half the patients. Ipilimumab is considered one of the most important drugs in Bristol’s development pipeline.

It is also being tested in metastatic melanoma, for which there are currently few treatment options. Highly anticipated late-stage data in melanoma has been kept under wraps and will be one of the highlight presentations at the June meeting.

In the lung cancer trial, the drug moderately added toxicity to the chemotherapy regimen and drug-related death rates were comparable across all treatment arms, researchers said. The researchers conclude the results support further study of the Bristol drug in non-small cell lung cancer.

Source

Even more hopeful is that drugs that target this oncogene are already approved to treat rheumatoid arthritis and are undergoing tests with colon and lung cancers, said lead researcher Nicole Murray, an assistant professor of pharmacology and senior associate consultant in the department of cancer basic science at the Mayo Clinic’s Jacksonville, Fla., branch.

“Pancreatic cancer is a highly lethal disease,” Murray said. “The current chemotherapeutics that we have available have not been very effective.”

For the study, published in the March 1 issue of Cancer Research, Murray’s team looked at the role the oncogene PKC-iota (PKCi) plays in pancreatic cancer. This gene has already been implicated in colon and lung cancers.

The researchers have been studying another gene called KRAS, which is mutated in 90 percent of pancreatic cancers and controls PKCi, but KRAS has not been easy to target with drug therapy, Murray noted. This is why they decided to investigate PKCi.

They found high levels of PKCi, which predicted poor survival, in most of the pancreatic cancer tumors sampled. Patients with high PKCi levels survived an average of 492 days, compared with 681 days for patients with low levels of the oncogene.

Five-year survival was 10 percent for those with high PKCi levels, compared with 29.5 percent for patients with low PKCi levels, the researchers noted.

In addition, in experiments in both cells and animals, the researchers found that PKCi was essential for the growth of pancreatic cancer cells.

“When we knocked out the PKCi genes in pancreatic cancer cells, we showed that these cells did not grow as cancer cells very well; they didn’t invade other tissue very well,” Murray said.

“When we put these cells into mice, we showed that not only did the tumors not grow very well, but they didn’t metastasize well,” she said.

These findings suggest that the arthritis drug aurothiomalate (Myochrysine), which targets PKCi, could effectively treat pancreatic cancer alone or combined with other chemotherapy. It could prevent pancreatic cancer cells from growing or make other chemotherapy more effective, Murray said.

Aurothiomalate is already in a phase I clinical trial for lung cancer patients at Mayo’s Minnesota and Arizona sites, Murray said. A phase II trial being planned will combine aurothiomalate with drugs that target other molecules in these cancers, she noted.

It is possible that a future trial will test aurothiomalate in pancreatic cancer patients, she said.

Besides treating pancreatic cancer, PKCi might also be useful in diagnosing the disease, she added.

The findings intrigued William Phelps, program director for translational and preclinical cancer research at the American Cancer Society. “Pancreatic cancer is in dire need of new therapeutic opportunities. Those things we’ve got don’t seem to work well,” he said.

Each year, about 40,000 new cases of pancreatic cancer are diagnosed in the United States, and about 35,000 people die from it, Phelps said. “Typical survival after diagnosis is five to seven months,” he said.

Pancreatic cancer is particularly resistant to treatment, and most cases are diagnosed when the disease is advanced, said Phelps.

The current drug approved to treat it, gemcitabine (Gemzar), is only minimally effective, Phelps said. “It’s not really giving more than a two-month life extension,” he said.

Targeting PKCi could be worthwhile, Phelps said. “This looks like a pretty good idea to go forward,” he said.

Combining gemcitabine with a drug that targets PKCi could extend life expectancy, Phelps said.

Michelle Duff, director of research and scientific affairs at the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, also finds these results encouraging.

“There is an urgent need for more effective treatment options in pancreatic cancer to improve patient outcomes,” she said. “We are eager to see the results of further studies in preclinical models and eventually clinical trials.”

The pancreatic cancer can be managed best only when it at localized stage. Once the cancer has advanced or metastatic, it would be more difficult to manage. If someone diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, the treatment will handled by a team of specialists, including medical oncologist, surgeons, gastroenterologist, endocrinologists, and dietician who decided which treatment option is best to applied.

There are three kinds of treatment for cancer of the pancreas most often:

1. Surgery, focused a removing the tumor mass or relieving symptoms caused by cancer.
2. Chemotherapy, aimed to suppress the growth or kill cancer cells using chemical drugs.
3. Radiotherapy, aimed to kill cancer cells using high-energy ray radiation.

There many types of surgery for skin cancer treatment, each applied to the specific type and stage of skin cancer. Below are types of skin cancer surgery:

1. Excisional skin surgery is a treatment aimed to remove skin cancer. The surgeon will remove the growth with scalpel, after numbing the area. To make sure, the surgeon will examine a border of skin around the growth, called the margin, under microscope to be certain that all the cancer cells have been removed.
2. Mohs surgery or mohs micrographic surgery is used to remove skin cancer by shaves away thin layers of the growth. Each layer is immediately examined under microscope. The surgery process continues to shave away tissue until no cancer cells can be seen under the microscope. This method allows to removes all cancerous cells and only a small bit of healthy tissue.
3. Laser surgery uses a narrow beam of laser to destroy cancer cells. This type of surgery is most often used for outer layer skin growth only.
4. Cryosurgery uses extreme cold to treat very thin skin cancer or early stage of skin cancer. This surgery is often applied for people who are not able to have other types of surgery. The surgeon applies liquid nitrogen directly to the skin growth to create the extreme cold.
5. Electrodesication and curettage are often used to remove small basal cell skin cancer. This type of surgery is usually a simple and fast procedure. The cancer is removed with curette, a sharp spoon shape tool, and then an electric current is applied to the treated area to kill cancer cells and to control bleeding.
6. Grafts are sometimes applied to close an opening in skin left by surgery. After the skin numbed, surgeon remove a patch of healthy skin from another part of the body. The patch is then used to cover the area where skin cancer was removed. The skin graft allows the patient to take special care of the area until it heals.

The finding is so far based solely on work with mice, but follow-up studies are underway to see if this novel approach could aid in the early diagnosis of lung cancer in humans. Beauchamp and his colleagues published their findings online in the January 2010 issue of PLoS One.

The authors noted that lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. According to the American Cancer Society, nearly 220,000 men and women were diagnosed with lung cancer in the United States in 2009. Nearly 160,000 Americans died from the disease that same year.

Researchers have long sought to expand the ways they could screen for lung cancer at as early a stage as possible, given that the disease often develops in the absence of easily identifiable symptoms.

Setting out to do just that, Beauchamp and his associates devised what they described as a “rigorously controlled animal model” to isolate smell biomarkers in the urine of mice that develop as the result of lung cancer-induced organic compound changes occurring at the molecular level.

On one front, the researchers trained so-called “sensor mice” to recognize the particular scent found in the urine of mice that had developed lung cancer tumors. These mice were ultimately able to tell the difference between mice with lung cancer and healthy mice.

On another front, the authors found that tumor-triggered organic compound changes were both significant and readily identifiable, as a result of chemical comparisons between urine taken from healthy mice and cancer-ridden mice, respectively.

Specifically, the comparisons revealed that odor shifts in urine taken from mice with cancer were often linked to a drop in the levels of particular organic compounds. While Beauchamp described this observation as “surprising,” he confirmed that “although an increase in a compound can change odor, a decrease can change it just as much.”

In turn, the researchers developed “chemical profiles” designed to classify the biomarker compounds of mouse urine as either tumor-related or not. Ultimately, the team found that their classification technique was able to correctly screen for lung cancer in mice 47 out of 50 times.

“But of course the major caveat here is what’s the relevance to human cancer,” cautioned Beauchamp. “This work certainly doesn’t prove that this diagnostic approach will be useful in humans, so we don’t truly know the answer to that question yet as we don’t know how our current work with patients is going to turn out. So I am very hard-pressed to answer how soon this kind of diagnosis could be available for patients and physicians,” he explained.

“But I would think we should know within a year or so whether or not this is something we should go forward with,” he added. “Although in any case, we don’t foresee this as supplanting other diagnostic methods. Rather, we think — if it works — this could be useful as an additional available tool.”

Dr. Roy Herbst, chief of the section of thoracic medical oncology in the department of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology at the M.D Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, described the effort to expand diagnosis options as “huge.”

“The potential for this to help with diagnoses is enormous,” he said. “It’s still just in mice, so it’s still early, but I think it really gets to the whole idea that we’re using modern tools to get a grasp on these dangerous cancers. And if this works it would give us a way to better understand and better identify those who might have lung cancer earlier, and then to treat the disease, and guide the way we treat it, in more effective ways.”

Source: Health Day

The signs of brain cancer may be due to hydrocephalus, which occurs when the tumor blocks the flow of cerebrospinal fluid and causes a build-up in the ventricles. The symptoms or signs also may caused by edema, a condition when a buildup of fluid around the tumor.

Temporal lobe

Once the tumor onset temporal lobe, occasional speech difficulties may happen. Fits may cause strange sensations, short term memory lossan, intense familiarity (deja vu), strange smells, feeling of fear or blackouts.

Frontal lobe

Changes in personality and intellect. Weakness of one side of the body. Loss of smell, swearing or behaving in a way that you normally, wouldn’toccasional speech difficulties.

Cerebellum

Lack of co-ordination affecting speech and walking, unsteadiness, uncontrolled movement of the eyes, neck stiffness, dizziness, and vomiting.

Parietal lobe

Difficulty in organising certain movements. Have problem in understanding or expressing problems and words with writing or reading. Wakness or numbness on one side of the body and loss of feeling in part of the body.

Occipital lobe

Having loss of vision or sight problems on one side. The patient may not notice this at first.

Brain stem

Facial weakness, one sided smile or drooping eyelid. Unsteadiness and uncoordinated walk. Double vision. Rarely, headache or vomiting just after waking, difficulty in swallowing and speaking.

The signs of brain cancer above may be caused by other conditions. If you have any of the symptoms described it is urgent to see the doctor.

Brain cancer are rare, because of this rarity and despite their increasing rate of diagnosis, experts often don’t check patients right off the bat for brain tumors and may point to other conditions. A brain tumour signs may the body process, that is controlled by that part of the brain or the part of the body This means that brain tumours can cause a very wide range of symptoms.

Brain cancer can may also cause problems with thinking, speaking, remembering, concentrating and personality changes. Common signs and symptoms caused by brain tumors may include:

1. Seizures

Seizures are a common symptom of a brain cancer. About one-third of people diagnosed with a brain cancer have a seizure. Seizures are caused by a disruption in the normal flow of electricity in the brain. Those sudden bursts of electricity may cause unusual sensations, loss of consciousness and convulsions.

2. Problems with eyes

This is particularly important if the sight seems to be failing and glasses are not helping. Other problems floating shapes, tunnel vision, include blurred vision, or a loss of vision that comes and goes. Sometimes opticians pick up these problems

3. Headaches

Headaches are not usually the initial symptom of a brain cancer or the only one experienced. Up to half of people with brain tumors suffer from headaches, but they are much more likely to be related to another benign condition. Brain cancer headaches are often accompanied by other symptoms.

Frequent headaches should not be ignored regardless of accompanying symptoms, especially those that worsen with bending over, sneezing or couching.

4. Mental or Personality Changes

These changes can be caused by the disease itself, by increased pressure within the skull caused by involvement of the parts of the brain or by the presence of the tumor that control personality.

brain cancer symptoms may range from problems with communication, memory, speech, or concentration changes to severe intellectual problems and confusion. Changes in behavior, temperament and personality may also happen.

1. Joint and bone pain

Pain in bones and joints is another common symptom of leukemia. This pain is usually a result of the bone marrow being overcrowded and “full.”

2. Anemia

They lack enough red blood cells to carry oxygen through the body, which causes a condition called anemia. Children with anemia may look pale, feel weak and tired and bleed and bruise easily. Also often have fewer than normal healthy platelets and red blood cells.

3. Recurrent infections

Children may experience repetitive viral or bacterial infections. They often have symptoms of infection such as fever, runny nose and cough. Although children with leukemia may have a high number of white blood cells, these white blood cells are immature and don’t fight infection.

4. Dyspnea or difficulty breathing

With T-cell acute lymphocytic leukemia, leukemia cells tend to clump together around the thymus gland. This mass of cells present in the middle of the chest can cause pain and difficulty breathing. Wheezing, coughing or painful breathing requires immediate medical attention.

5. Swollen lymph nodes

Lymph nodes under the arms, in the groin, chest and neck may become swollen when leukemia cells collect in the nodes. Lymph nodes are small bean-shaped structures that filter the blood.

6. Abdominal distress

Abdominal pain also may be a symptom. Leukemia cells can collect in the kidney, liver and spleen, enlarging these organs. Pain in the abdomen may cause a loss of appetite and weight.

The only way to know for sure if the skin is the growth of cancer is a biopsy, he said. This involves removing a small piece of skin and having a pathologist look at it under a microscope in medical laboratory. The biopsy does not remove the tumor is removed only at the top.

Some times the skin to heal after the biopsy because the cancer grows. This does not mean that there is cancer it means that cancer is now covered with a blanket of skin. If the cancer is not completely removed can go deep into the skin and cause severe damage.

Signs and symptoms

Patients present with a shiny, pearly nodule. However, superficial basal-cell cancer can present as a red patch like eczema. Infiltrative or morpheaform basal-cell cancers can present as a skin thickening or scar tissue. It is often difficult to distinguish basal-cell cancer from acne scar, actinic elastosis, and recent cryodestruction inflammation.

The Major Cause

In a few cases, contact with arsenic, exposure to radiation, open sores that resist healing, chronic inflammatory skin conditions, and complications of burns, scars, infections, vaccinations, or even tattoos are contributing factors.

Almost all basal cell carcinomas occur on parts of the body excessively exposed to the sun . On rare occasions, however, tumors develop on unexposed areas.

Prognosis

Prognosis is excellent if the appropriate method of treatment is used in early primary basal-cell cancers. Recurrent cancers are much harder to cure, with a higher recurrent rate with any methods of treatment. Although basal-cell carcinoma rarely metastasizes, it grows locally with invasion and destruction of local tissues.

The cancer can impinge on vital structures like nerves and result in loss of sensation or loss of function or rarely death. The vast majority of cases can be successfully treated before serious complications occur. The recurrence rate for the above treatment options ranges from 50 percent to 1 percent or less.

Prevention

The best way to prevent skin cancer is to reduce your exposure to sunlight. Ultraviolet light is most intense at midday, so try to avoid sun exposure during these hours. Protect the skin by wearing hats, long-sleeved shirts, long skirts, or pants.

Use sunscreen:

• Look for sunscreens that block both UVA and UVB light.
• Apply high-quality sunscreens with SPF ratings of at least 15.
• Apply sunscreen at least 30 minutes before going outside.