Cancer •

Palliative Care in Terminal Patients

June 28, 2016 By Jason Leathers Leave a Comment

Palliative care offers more options to cancer and dementia patients.

A recent survey showed that families with dementia or cancer patients are more satisfied with the palliative care, and they seem to receive more medical attention than the families of other patients.

However, patients that have life-threatening diseases received less attention and care, and they also had more do-not-resuscitate orders.

The researchers wanted answers on the differences of treatment between patients that were treated in their end-of-life.

Medical care quality depended on the type of disease and the race of the patient.

The lead author of the research said that cancer received most of the attention in end-of-life care. On the contrary, other illnesses were offered less attention.

The study involved surveys for patient’s family members in 58,000 medical cases that had been registered between 2009 and 2012. Family members were asked to share their experiences with palliative care and to rate the treatment quality.

The results showed that 75% of cancer patients and 61% of dementia patients received palliative care and consultations, while only 50% of patients with organ failure received end-of-life treatment and medical attention.

Another fact is that 30% of organ failure patients died in intensive care units, while only 13% of cancer patients died in hospitals.

In both cases, family members were satisfied with the treatment received by the patients. However, the study shows that the quality of palliative care was not comparable.

Another research showed that racial differences induced disparities in the quality of disease treatments. For example, Latinos and black veterans seemed to receive less attention and spiritual care in comparison with other patients.

Palliative care is a multidisciplinary approach to treating life-threatening diseases. Physicians focus more on the way they could relieve the symptoms despite the diagnosis.

This method includes consultations with family members regarding the treatment and the status of the patient, together with information concerning the patient’s well-being and ways to improve their comfort.

This type of care is provided by nurses and doctors with different specialization areas.

Hospice care is more specialized in spiritual and emotional support, and it is more common in patients with incurable diseases that are in the final stage of their medical condition.

Medical care experts say that both types of treatment, palliative, and hospice care should be done at the same time.

The study aims to raise awareness about the importance of the two approaches to end-of-life treatments, in the hope that patients and their families will have access to more information that will help them make better medical care decisions.

Image Source: YouTube

Cell Phones Induced Cancer in Mice

May 27, 2016 By Rebecca McGhee Leave a Comment

Cell Phones Induced Cancer in Mice

Research conducted by the National Institutes of Health found a connection between radiation produced by cell phones and cancer. The study was made on rats and is one of the most expensive programs of the Institute, with over $25 million spent so far.

The study went on for almost ten years.

More than 2,500 lab mice were exposed to radiations for nine hours per day, during two years. After the two years, it seems that the male rodents were predisposed to be affected by two types of cancers. The two categories of tumors were brain tumors (gliomas) and heart tumors (schwannomas).

The result is similar to data collected from other epidemiological studies which showed the same two types of tumors in humans. In 2010, the International Agency for Research on Cancer classified radiation as a possible human carcinogen.

This new study may raise again the question of the impact of cell phones use on health. Industry leaders declare that cell phones do not add any risk to health; while scientists have long sustained that more research should be conducted in order to clear the matter.

Up until now, the general advice was to take precautions when using phones.

NIH representatives say that earlier observational studies performed on large populations of humans did not find enough evidence that cell phones could provoke cancer. The present study will be reviewed by other scientists to make sure that the extrapolation is correct.

In May 2015, a group of scientists from 39 countries brought to the attention of international organizations such as the United Nations and World Health Organization that stricter control is needed on radiations emitted by cell phones.

On the other hand, other groups have lobbied health institutions to remove the cautionary advice against cell phones and publicly to deny any scientifically proven connection between radiation and cancer.

The present study is backed up by three other studies published in 2015, two from Sweden and France and one that researched populations from 13 countries. All three studies show a connection between gliomas and radiation.

Cell phone companies criticized the studies because of the self-reporting manner on which they collected data from participants. The devices were varying in ages. And the span was considered to be only from 5 to 10 years long while cancer in humans can develop in a much longer time.

The advantage of the new research is that all conditions were perfectly controlled. Rats were subjected to the same type of radiation like the one used in cell phones, and the exposure started in utero and continued during the whole life duration of the rat (which is of approximately two years).

The publication of the study may restart the international debate concerning the effects of cell phone radiations. Moreover, the findings can be used by national agencies to help protect customers from potential risks.

Image Source: Wikipedia

Chantix and Zyban Smoking Cessation Drugs Don’t Urge Suicide

April 25, 2016 By Rebecca McGhee 1 Comment

Smoking is one of the most unhealthy habits in which someone can partake. It is responsible for millions of deaths every year, particularly in the form of lung cancer or many other forms of cancer of the respiratory system. It also led to the rise of cancers as the number one cause of death in twenty-one states.

While some don’t really care about the long-term effects of smoking, others most certainly do. And while they would want to quit, they just don’t have the conviction, motivation, or willpower to do so. But medicine has developed a lot of different treatments to help people finally kick the nasty habit.

So why aren’t more people using these treatments, you might ask? Well, the answer is that except for psychological treatments and some nicotine substitutes, most anti-smoking medicines were unrightfully banned or black-boxed because of the constant efforts of the tobacco industry to have their clients addicted.

But finally, seven years after they were slapped with the strictest warning in the country by FDA regulators, multiple studies prove that Chantix and Zyban smoking cessation drugs don’t urge suicide. The two drugs were said to cause conditions which turned to be the regular effects of giving up smoking.

Given a black box warning, the two drugs are now in totally different states of production. While Chantix is about to re-enter mass production, this time with a totally different box, Zyban has been available as generic bupropion for almost ten years, and so it hasn’t been actively marketed in quite some time.

The conditions with which the anti-smoking medications were associated include, but are not limited to hostility, aggression, depression, changes in behavior, generally low mood, and suicidal thoughts and actions. While these symptoms scared off many doctors and smokers, they are merely symptoms associated with quitting smoking, regardless of which, if any medication you may be on.

Results were finally published online on Friday evening, resonating with at least forty earlier studies claiming the same thing – that the two drugs were not at all dangerous, certainly incomparably so to the habit users are trying to quit in the first place. Finally, FDA has seen the black-boxing as what it was – a move by tobacco companies to keep promoting their poison.

The study concluded that the negative effects felt when quitting smoking with the help of either of the two drugs were no different than for those using a placebo, and that is in the worst case scenario. One of the developers of the two drugs also wanted to share his story, saying how he was a lifelong smoker until he quit cold turkey after his entire family died one member after another as a result of years of smoking.

Image source: Pixabay

35-Pound Tumor Removed From A Peruvian Woman’s Abdomen

February 26, 2016 By Germaine Hicks Leave a Comment

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The cancerous tumor started growing when Irianita Rojas Rasma was 8 years old.

The news about the 35-pound tumor removed from a peruvian woman’s abdomen are taking over the internet.

The cancerous tumor started growing when Irianita Rojas Rasma was 8 years old, in her abdomen. After, 14 years later, the 35-pound mass has been removed from the Peruvian woman’s stomach. The tumor grew so large that she looked as if she were pregnant.

The term neoplasm refers to an abnormal growth of tissue caused by the rapid division of cells that have undergone some form of mutation.

The body is made up of trillions of cells that grow, divide, and die in an orderly fashion. This process is a tightly regulated one that is controlled by the DNA machinery within the cell. When a person is growing up, the cells of the body rapidly divide, but once adulthood is reached, cells generally only divide to replace worn-out, dying cells or to repair injured cells.

Neoplasia describes when these cells proliferate in an abnormal manner that is not coordinated with the surrounding tissue. These rogue cells cannot be controlled in the way that normal cells can because they do not die when they should and they divide more quickly.

As this excessive growth persists, a lump or tumor that has no purpose or function in the body is eventually formed. This is referred to as a neoplasm and it may be non-cancerous (benign), pre-cancerous (pre-malignant) or cancerous (malignant).

Now, it took surgeons at the Archbishop Loayza National Hospital three hours to remove the woman’s tumor in what the hospital described as a ‘medical feat.’ Dr. Luis Garcia Bernal, the hospital director, stated that the patient will stay there for observation.

The isolated Amazonian town, Tamshiyacu, provided little chance of the tumor being removed. Then, Peruvian health minister Anibal Velasquez visited the town, heard Rojas’s story and immediately ordered his staff bring the woman to the capital, Lima, for surgery. Rojas was airlifted to Arzobispo Loayza Hospital, where she underwent the three-hour operation.

Irianita is recovering and can be released, but she will stay in Lima for a few more days to so that we can practice additional exams to define the treatment she should follow when she returns to Loreto.

Garcia Bernal declared on Wednesday.

Rojas lives in Tamshiyacu, a remote town in the Peruvian jungle in the northernmost province of Loreto in the Amazon region bordering Brazil.

She says she had already resigned herself to living with the tumor until a fateful, coincidental meeting with Anibal Velasquez Valdivia, Peru’s health minister. Velasquez was traveling in the region this month to monitor the progress of the construction of a health center in Tamshiyacu when Rojas’ case came to his attention.

Officials say Velasquez immediately gave orders to have Rojas transported to Lima to be treated at Archbishop Loayza National Hospital, which belongs to the Peruvian Health Ministry. Rojas and her mother, Karina Rasma, were flown to the capital on February 16. Medical examinations leading to the surgery began right away.

According to Dr. Garcia Bernal, Rojas has a good outlook. Even though they were dealing with a malignant tumor, he said, it was considered low intensity, meaning no chemotherapy will be needed. Ninety percent of patients with this prognosis recover fully, the doctor said.

Health officials said Rojas’ growing tumor caused her constant pain that prevented a normal life. She had dropped out of school and had difficulty walking and even breathing.

Speaking after the successful surgery, the patient’s mother became emotional, according to a statement issued by the Health Ministry. ‘Thanks for giving my daughter a new life,’ Rasma told the doctors.

Image Source: dailymail.co.uk.

An Unusual Proposal That Will Make Your Heart Melt

February 3, 2016 By Rebecca McGhee Leave a Comment

Gideon Robinson is currently battling leukemia.

All the media is talking about this unusual porposal that will make your heart melt. A 5-year-old boy, battling cancer, just became a superhero after proposing to his favorite nurse at the Rady’s Children’s Hospital, in San Diego.

His story is one of those stories you can not read without getting emotional. The little boy, named Gideon Robinson, was diagnosed with leukemia at the early age of 5 years. He is only a kid, but he is tough as iron. During the ‘battle process’ with the awful disease, doctors put a port device into the cancer patient’s tiny chest to pump him full of chemotherapy treatment. Since then, Gideon’s mother calls him “Ironman”.

What his mother didn’t know at that time, is that her little ‘Iron’ boy was not only ‘Ironman’, but also a superhero. Three months after Gideon was diagnosed with leukemia, he made a life-changing decision. He was going to ask his favorite nurse, who he called ‘Tall Sarah’, to marry him.

When talking about ‘Tall Sarah’, Mrs. Robinson says that she was the first nurse that took the most care of Gideon when he was first diagnosed with leukemia and that even when he was really sick and wasn’t his usual outgoing, happy self, nurse Sarah managed to make his day with her fun personality.

Before taking the big step, Gideon asked another nurse whether or not Sarah was married. The nurse let him know that she wasn’t, but really wants to be — and jokingly said to him that he should ask her. That information was enough for little Gideon. He immediately said: ‘I will marry her!’

For a 5-year-old, he’s pretty confident.

his mother said, amused by the situation.

The nurse brought the little boy some craft supplies, and he got to work. After forming a pink and white pipe cleaner into a perfect circle, Gideon hand-picked a purple heart-shaped bead to use as the stone. On the special day, Mrs. Robinson asked her son: ‘How are you going to ask her to marry you?’. ‘I’m going to bend down,’ replied Gideon, while getting down on one knee. I’m gonna say, ‘Sarah, would you have that…’.’

After the rehearsal, the courageous 5-year-old headed for the nurse station to meet his potential bride-to-be. The nurse didn’t know what it was about to happen. She was happy that she had Gideon in front of her, but had no clue about what was coming next. She asked him what he was up to. After a moment of hesitation, Gideon took a leap and popped the big question.

The nurse happily accepted his proposal, as she placed the improvised ring on her finger. The lovely pair sealed the engagement with a tight hug. Now, they make a perfect team and it is certain that their future together will be full of dance parties, laughs and — of course — Legos. At least that’s what Gideon hopes.

Image Source: dailymail.co.uk

Study Shows That 7,500 People Die Daily Due To Cancer In China

February 1, 2016 By Chen Lai Leave a Comment

China is currently fighting against lung cancer.

As sad as it is, a recent study shows that there are 7,500 people dying in China due to lung cancer.

China is known for being a country with good economy and strong military capabilities. However, as per this new report, 2.8 million people died in China last year due to cancer. This terrifying number accounts for one-fifth of the global population death rate.

The above mentioned research was published in the U.S. medical journal CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians. The researchers were able to gather relevant data from hospitals, health centers and the Civil Administration Bureau.

Also, according to the study’s authors, “cancer is the leading cause” of death in the country and it’s “a major public health problem,” as the China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported on Saturday.

Another statement, regarding the study is that “almost 22 percent of global new cancer cases and close to 27 percent of global cancer deaths occur in China” and, more importantly, that ” the cancer profile in China is markedly different from those of developed countries.

The only difference between the cancer profiles of China and those from other developed countries all over the world is that the most common cancer cases in China are lung cancer, stomach cancer, liver cancer and esophageal cancer.

Some other research proves that during the year of 2015, 4,3 million new cancer cases were found in China. The highest number of these cases corresponds to lung cancer. This reasearch was conducted by Dr. Wanqing Chen of the National Cancer Center in Beijing.

Now, what causes the lung cancer and what makes it spread among the population in such a very large number?

The answer is: air pollution and smoking. As the researchers noted, the air pollution in China is one of the worst all over the world. Smoking is, nonetheless, a very bad habit among Chinese citizens, which numbered well over a billion in 2013.

Apart from pollution and smoking, the lifestyle factors, such as alimentation, also account for many cancer cases.

Which brings us to our next point. Happily, there are some tips people can follow in order to avoid getting lung cancer. According to Mayo Clinic, some of these tips are: not smoking, avoiding second-hand smoke, diet, regular exercise, testing your home for radon levels, avoiding exposure to toxic chemicals, eating healthy.

The health crisis that is currently bringing down Chna’s natural developmental course depends merely on reducing these cases of cancer. This would be a great way to solve the crisis and prevent further tragedies among the population.

Image Source: ste.india.com

A Stool Test Is Effective in Detecting Colon Cancer

January 26, 2016 By Rebecca McGhee 1 Comment

Just a regular stool sample

Cancer is slowly making its way as the country’s number one killer, even having made it there in 22 states. Lung and colorectal cancers are both the most common types of deadly cancer, as well as the most easily preventable. But colonoscopies aren’t easily stomached by everyone, so a team of scientists researched whether a stool test is effective in detecting colon cancer.

Spoiler – It is.

The blood stool test had been developed for quite a while now, and is even available for public use, although up until this point nobody knew its effectiveness in subsequent annual screenings.

Fecal immunochemical tests, as they known, work by allowing experts to study the stool samples and look for microscopic amounts of blood that are generally shed by colon tumors.

Despite their recognized efficiency during the first screening, experts still had a number of concerns regarding subsequent tests.

One of this would be that precancerous polyps and colon tumors would have to be quite large in order to drip blood into the person’s stool.

So, the Oakland, California team tracked the yearly blood stool samples of almost 325,000 patients for a duration of four years.

The first year showed 84.5% accuracy in detecting colon cancer, while subsequent annual tests were about 73%-78% accurate.

This is quite low compared to the colonoscopy’s almost 100% accuracy, however because of the blood stool test has to be performed yearly, while a colonoscopy has to be performed every ten years, blood stool tests might turn out to be more effective over-all.

Researchers are in fact sure that yearly tests with the less invasive technology could lead to a higher number of prevented deaths than the once every ten years colonoscopy screenings.

Of course, colonoscopies offer 10 years of protection, while a stool sample test only offers one, but for most people, the invasiveness and unpleasantness generated by the colonoscopy would rather be skipped in favor of yearly stool samples.

The only issue that would be raised by stool sample testing would be that the patient might skip the follow-up necessary colonoscopy in case the initial test turns out positive, in which case the detection would be for nothing.

It turns out that because of the unpleasantness of the procedure, 15% of people getting positive results during their stool sample screening still skipped their colonoscopies.

What the researchers suggest is to offer both options to patients when they come in for screening, as both are covered by insurance companies, and it might actually save more lives by offering a less invasive alternative.

Image source: Flickr

A Blood Test can Show Early Signs of Cancer

January 13, 2016 By Brian Galloway 1 Comment

Using the liquid biopsy technique, scientists will be capable of detecting cancer even if the patient is asymptomatic.

Very soon, cancer will remain a painful memory associated with a troubled past. A team of medical researchers working for Illumina has discovered that a blood test can show early signs of cancer.

In the battle against cancer, one could say that we tried nearly every trick in the book: state-of-the-art chemotherapies, novel radiation therapies and we even begun to retrofit viruses in order to facilitate therapies.

Most of them yielded good results, but this development will certainly improve the odds of patients coming down with this affection.

According to Illumina, this new method of cancer detection called Grail can identify if a patient can develop the disease, even if the symptoms have yet to resurface.

This new concept of identifying cancerous outgrowths in its early stages is the brainchild of Illumina, a gene research company in the United States of America. Recently, the company received a research grant of 100 million dollars from Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates in order to continue the fight against cancer.

According to its maker, the technique used to identify cancer might soon become so accurate, that it will be capable of identifying any form of cancer, including breast cancer, lung cancer or colorectal cancer.

In all appearance, the method is pretty straightforward: the process only takes a little only, and the lab needs only a small blood sample in order to identify his or hers potential of developing cancer.

Despite its simplicity, behind the scene, the technique involves a couple highly advanced gene sequencing techniques. In order to test someone for cancer risks, the doctors will use a novel technique called a liquid biopsy.

Through this technique, the doctors will be able to spot off the fragments of DNA which give off a specific cancer-related signature.

A US-based company has proved that a blood test can show early signs of cancer. The similar researcher is being conducted by the Leicester University in the UK.

Identifying cancer and treating it are two separate things indeed. According to Grail, the technique has the potential of detecting the early signs of cancer and to nip it in the bud. But, as medical literature teaches us, there are some forms of cancer that are not life-threatening.

And the treatment itself, if administered for the wrong type of cancer can be as harmful as a potentially malignant tumor. But professor Flatley, scientists working on the project, said that he and his team can cut down on the error percentage and make the technique very accurate.

Thus, Flatley and his team of scientists are planning on sequencing the DNA strand of over 50.000 people and track the evolution of their cancers.

If a blood test can show the early signs of cancer, then we are not far from developing a fully-functional cure against this harrowing disease.

Photo credits:www.wikipedia.org

Vitamin B3 Keeps Skin Cancer Away

May 15, 2015 By Deborah Nielsen Leave a Comment

The B3 supplement pills have a cost of less than $10 a month and are available in a large number of pharmacies and food stores all across the world. New study shows that taking a B vitamin could help prevent common skin cancers in those who are exposed to highest risk for the disease.

Researchers at the University of Sydney analyzed 386 people who consumed over-the-counter B3 vitamins a 23 percent reduction of non-melanoma skin cancers in subjects who had contacted at least two of the lesions in the previous five years.

Squamous cell carcinoma and Basal cell carcinoma are common types of skin cancer which are often caused by exposure to the sunlight. While the quota of survival for patients whom are affected by these cancers is good, but they tend to reoccur even after successful therapy. In many cases, if left unresolved, these kinds of skin cancers can form large lesions which may need surgical removal.

For the past ten years, an increasing amount of importance has been placed on the relevance of protecting our skin from the sun in order to prevent cancer and also premature aging. This research is promising in that vitamin B3 might become another counter-attack move with the added benefit of keeping away re-occurrence.

This is a small research with a unique demographic that may not necessarily be valid in other parts of the world. It will be discussed by the study authors when they present their discovery at the American Society of Clinical Oncology which will take place later this month in Chicago.

According to recent reports, there are more than 3 million Americans that suffer with these forms of skin cancer each year.

Main cause of skin cancer is the exposure to sun. Sunscreen has been pushed forward for years as an effective way to reduce risk of skin cancer. According to the reasearchers, nicotinamide actively offers skin cells an “energy boost, ” stimulating DNA repair and enhancing the skin’s immune system from ultraviolet light.

It is not certain how long the effect from consuming the pills might last. The vitamin supplement also seemed to reduce the numbers of scaly, thick patches of skin that can become cancer. Those problems were not observed with nicotinamide in the study.

Scientists said that nicotinamide has many differences from a more common form of B3 called niacin.

Image Source: Great News

Study Reveals: Riding Car With Smokers Pose Health Risks

November 14, 2014 By Jason Leathers Leave a Comment

According to the recent study, non-smoking individuals who sit in cars with people who smoke, inhale some of the same cancer-causing substances along with other harmful toxins.

However, it isn’t obvious what this signifies for the health of non-smokers, the scientists stated.

Dr. Neal Benowitz, study senior investigator and a of medicine and bio-engineering and therapeutic sciences at the University of California, San Francisco, said in a university news release, “This seems to be the first ever research to determine contact to these harmful toxins in people exposed to secondhand smoke.”

He further added, “This signifies that while sitting in cars with people who smoke, non-smokers inhale a number of potentially harmful compounds from cigarettes, which are linked with cancer, cardiovascular disease and lung disease.”

For this study, the scientists examined the urine of 14 individuals who sat in the back seat of the parked vehicle while the driver smoked three cigarettes over an hour or so. The vehicle windows were open about 4 inches.

Benowitz said in the news release that the urine tests showed that the non-smokers blood contains high level of several harmful toxins “believed to be the most vital amongst 1000s in tobacco smoke that cause smoke-related disease.”

Gideon St. Helen, the lead author of the study said, “This informs us that individuals, especially children and grown ups with pre-existing health problems such as asthma or cardiovascular disease, ought to be protected against secondhand smoke exposure in cars.”

However, the study author added, that cars were not moving, so we are not obvious that what will happen when cars move and air flow could draw out the smoke.

St. Helen stated, “Nevertheless, the air samples we took were similar in makeup to those seen in previous smoking studies that used closed cars and cars with different ventilation systems in operation. And thus we feel that the general levels of risk to non-smokers that we present is realistic.”

The study is published in issue of Cancer, Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, on 14^th Novemeber.

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