ProCPR Blog

Today I learned about another great advance in medical technology.  This one could be another very important step toward the eradication of cancer, and it was developed by a high school student.  Nanotechnology has helped 17-year-old Angela Zhang to develop what one fellow researcher’s calling the “Swiss Army knife of cancer treatment,” as her gold and iron-oxide nanoparticle does double duty delivering the drug salinomycin to the site of a tumor, in addition to aiding MRI and photoacoustic imaging.

Design of Image-guided, Photo-thermal Controlled Drug Releasing Multifunctional Nanosystem for the Treatment of Cancer Stem Cells – Biochemistry

MENTOR: Dr. Zhen Cheng, Stanford University

“I was surprised by the survival rate of patients who had undergone current cancer therapy.”

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The Melanoma Research Foundation (MRF), the largest private, national organization devoted to melanoma in the United States, issued the following statement in response to the media attention regarding the Environmental Working Group’s recent report on sunscreen effectiveness:

“It is important that we remain vigilant in making safe decisions when it comes to the sun.  Sadly, approximately 65 percent of melanomas—the most serious form of skin cancer and one of the fastest growing cancers in the U.S.—are attributed to ultraviolet exposure,” said Dr. Allan Halpern, member of the MRF’s Scientific Advisory Committee and Chief of the Dermatology Service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.  “Too many people mistakenly view wearing sunscreen as a blank check for spending unlimited time in the sun.  Sunscreen is just one component of sun safety.”

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So, my sister has Thyroid Cancer.  I’m currently awaiting a phone call with the results of the surgery that is going on right now, but I thought I would create a resource guide to places to learn about it online.  There were a lot of things that I didn’t know about with regard to thyroid cancer.

From what I understand, and based on what friends have commented, this is the best form of cancer that she could have gotten, as it is easily treatable.

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Melanoma has reared it’s ugly head again, and this is a reminder before the summer months about the dangers of tanning.  According to Cancer Research UK, in 2003 only 220 women aged 20-29 were diagnosed with malignant melanoma in the UK.  In 2005, the number had jumped to 340 women.  Malignant melanoma is a potentially deadly form of cancer that is now the third most common cancer for women in their thirties.  The other two are breast and cervical cancer.

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Not everyone who is a blood donor can give platelets, but they are a much needed resource.  They can be donated more frequently than blood, because no red cells are taken and iron levels are not affected.

The main problem with platelets, is that they only last five days.

David Dokelman is a man that donates platelets, in memory of his son Andrew.  Andrew Dokelman was only eight years old when he fell ill with cancer of the soft tissue and required regular blood transfusions.  He lost his battle with cancer, but his father was inspired by the generosity of others to become a donor.

“Andrew was receiving platelets and I wondered where they came from,” he said.

“I thought they were made, but then I realised people were donating them – that is why I have been donating since then.

“I am just hoping I am helping other people,” he said.

“People were kind enough to help my son when he was ill. I wish more people donated.

“I just want to go out and shout to people about donating.

“Because I am an old git it takes me an hour and 10 minutes to donate,
but when I was a bit younger it took under an hour. It doesn’t hurt at
all.”

Who can donate?  The following requirements must be met for donations.

-via BBC News

This has the potential to be game changing, when it comes to fighting cancer. Scientists have, for the first time, decoded all of the genes of a person with cancer and found a set of mutations that may have caused or aided the progression of the disease.

A woman who, in her 50s, died of leukemia had donated cells for the research. The scientists sequenced all of the DNA from both her cancer cells and her own normal, healthy skin cells. From there, they were able to identify ten mutations that occurred only within the cancer cells. These mutations were spurring abnormal growth, preventing the cells from suppressing that growth, and enabling them to fight off chemotherapy.

To read more on the study, visit the New York Times. It’s a very exciting development that has a lot of potential to change the world.

“It would be nice to have this kind information on every patient we treat.”

In the UK, there are more than 45,000 new cases of breast cancer each year.  Lifetime risk of developing breast cancer is approximately one in nine.

While 95% of the women surveyed linked excess alcohol to liver disease, and 71% were aware it lead to a heightened risk of liver cancer; 82% of women were not aware of the connection to breast cancer.

There are many different risk factors for the development of breast cancer, from family history to obesity.  But the connection between alcohol and breast cancer is well established.

Women who drink a single large glass of wine per day, 21 units of alcohol per week, increase the lifetime risk by a fifth.  Two glasses each night boosts it by a third.  And three big glasses equals more than a fifty percent increase.

Dr Sarah Cant, from the charity Breakthrough Breast Cancer, said: “Although many factors might affect our risk of getting breast cancer, limiting how much we drink is one thing we can do to try to reduce that risk – it’s never too late to change your drinking habits.”

-via BBC News

Well, this is a really whopper of a story regarding stem cell research.  The Washington Post reports:

Scientists are reporting today that they have overcome a major obstacle to using a promising alternative to embryonic stem cells, bolstering the prospects for bypassing the political and ethical tempest that has embroiled hopes for a new generation of medical treatments.

The researchers said they found a safe way to coax adult cells to regress into an embryonic state, alleviating what had been the most worrisome uncertainty about developing the cells into potential cures.

[...]

Scientists last year shook up the scientific and political landscape by discovering how to manipulate the genes of adult cells to revert them into the equivalent of embryonic cells — entities dubbed “induced pluripotent stem” or “iPS” cells — which could then be transformed into any type of cell in the body. Subsequent work has found that the cells can alleviate symptoms of Parkinson’s disease and sickle cell anemia in mice.

But the first iPS cells were created by ferrying four genes into the DNA of adult cells using retroviruses, which can cause cancer in animals. There was also concern because the viruses integrated their genes into the cells’ DNA in the course of transforming them. In the new work, Hochedlinger and his colleagues used a different type of virus, known as an adenovirus, which does not integrate its genes into a cell’s DNA and therefore is believed to be harmless, to ferry the same four transformative genes into the DNA of mouse skin and liver cells.

-via Washington Post

A group of Japanese scientists are saying they have created human stem cells from tissue taken from the discarded wisdom teeth of a 10-year-old girl.

They believe that their work could lead to another alternative to human embryos as a source for therapeutic stem cells. The researchers say that it will be at least five years before practical medical applications result from the findings.

-via BBC News

In a story that comes as no surprise, an editorial published in the New England Journal of Medicine today has outlined serious concerns about the vaccine. I listed Human papillomavirus as one of the Top 10 Global Epidemics of the Last 10 Years in June of this year for many of the same reasons.

The simple fact is that the overall effect of the vaccines on the cervical cancer they are supposed to treat is still unknown.

It costs about $400 to $1000 for the three necessary doses of the vaccine, and there is no proven length to the immunity, nor is there any information as to whether or not you’ll need any additional shots. If that’s not enough, it only protects against some of the viruses that cause cervical cancer.

There are also some pretty major side effects.

FDA records reveal that, since Gardasil’s approval, nearly 9,000 girls had “bad health events” after receiving their shots. These included 78 reported outbreaks of genital warts, 18 deaths and six cases of Guillain Barre Syndrome, which can result in paralysis. It is unknown whether there are unseen side effects, like decreasing the body’s ability to fight off other strains of the HPV virus.

So, is it really worth it? Really?

-via ABC News