Expert Commentary: Delia Chiaramonte, M.D. 01/27/2010
Once a doctor says "you have cancer", your whole world turns upside down. Most people feel confused, afraid and out of control. Here are the 5 most important things to do after your diagnosis.
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Ginger Appears to Relieve Chemotherapy-Related Nausea
Simple ginger root seems to dramatically ease the nausea caused by cancer chemotherapy, a recent study demonstrated. The research, which was revealed at a news conference sponsored by the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), validates what has been standard practice in homes around the world, namely, that taking ginger ale or ginger tea relieves an upset stomach. The study - the largest to date showed that taking a quarter - to a half-teaspoon of ginger a day reduced nausea symptoms by at least 40 percent.
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Social Class No Shield Against Smoking's Toxicity
Smoking erases the health benefits normally conferred by being well-to-do or female, a recent study has found. The findings, which were published online in the British Medical Journal, revealed that even the poorest non-smokers had a lower premature-death rate than smokers of all social classes.
The research was conducted on over 15,000 men and women over a 28-year period. The subjects, who were aged from 45-64 at the beginning of the study, were recruited in western Scotland in 1972-76. Their survival rates were checked at 14 years and 28 years after their enrollment in the investigation. Participants were classified according to whether they were male or female; well-heeled, middle-class or poor; and smokers, never-smokers or ex-smokers. Read more about Social Class No Shield Against Smoking's Toxicity
Cellular "Danger Receptor" Alerts Immune System to Cancer
A chemical “danger receptor” on certain specialized cells senses the cell death characteristic of bodily injury or malignant tissue and then mobilizes the body’s immune system to repair the flaw, a recent study has revealed.
The results, which were reported in the journal Nature, may explain the mechanism behind some cancer-fighting drugs that partly work by stimulating an immune response. The scientists, based at Cancer Research UK’s London Research Institute, in Britain, speculated that knowledge of the receptor could assist in developing strategies to use the immune system to shrink tumors. Read more about Cellular "Danger Receptor" Alerts Immune System to Cancer
Racial Gap in Cancer Mortality Stubbornly Persists
In statistics almost unchanged from those in 1981, blacks have been found to be significantly more likely to develop and die of cancer than whites, a recent study revealed. And blacks, once diagnosed with cancer, don’t live as long as their white counterparts.
In a study co-authored by Ahmedin Jemal, strategic director for cancer occurrence at the American Cancer Society (ACS), it was shown that while cancer death rates have fallen for everyone in recent decades, the gap between whites and blacks is about the same as 28 years ago.
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Two Markers Found for Prostate-Cancer Deadliness
Investigators have found that men who are or have been overweight or who have high insulin levels are more likely to die from prostate cancer. The discovery of these two predictors is important, because doctors now have two crucial clues as to which patients will develop the most life-threatening tumors and therefore which to treat most aggressively. Read more about Two Markers Found for Prostate-Cancer Deadliness
An Alternative, Ethical Source for Stem Cells
A new source of stem cells could be as good as embryonic stem cells for researching and developing treatments for a range of serious diseases, and without the ethical implications of embryonic stem cells. Scientists from Germany and the UK have discovered this new source: routine biopsies of men's testicles. Stem cells from embryos have the potential to become any cell in the body, since a whole person grows from a single fertilized egg. But ethical issues arise because extracting stem cells requires the destruction of embryos. Read more about An Alternative, Ethical Source for Stem Cells
Technique Finds Hard-to-Spot Breast Tumors
A new system nimbly finds tumors masked by dense breast tissue that mammograms ordinarily can't spot - and at half the cost and with a vastly lower rate of false positives. The technique, known as Molecular Breast Imaging (MBI), is especially targeted at the nearly one-fourth of women above 40 who have dense breast tissue, which allows malignancies to lie hidden until it's too late. What's done with MBI is simply to inject a radioactive tracer into the breast. It's absorbed by the cancer cells, and the resulting "glow" is picked up by special cameras. The body excretes the tracer within a day. Read more about Technique Finds Hard-to-Spot Breast Tumors
Skin Cancer May Lead to Other Cancers
A new study suggests that people who have had non-melanoma skin cancer may be at increased risk of developing other cancers, including those that affect other parts of the body. Previous research has already found a link between skin cancer and an increased risk of developing melanoma, a rarer but more malignant form of skin cancer. The study is the work of Dr. Jiping Chen of the National Cancer Institute and is published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Read more about Skin Cancer May Lead to Other Cancers
Vitamin C Has Potential to Slow Cancer
An injection of a high dose of vitamin C may be able to impede the growth of cancer, according to US scientists. The journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found vitamin C to halve the size of brain, ovarian, and pancreatic tumors in mice. However, Cancer Research UK says that large vitamin C doses may interfere with other cancer treatment. Read more about Vitamin C Has Potential to Slow Cancer
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