According to a recent report in the Journal of Thoracic Oncology, a blood test has been developed to detect lung cancer years before it is diagnosed. US researchers reported that this test takes blood samples from patients and finds out if they have possibilities to develop non-small-cell cancer in future.

Lung cancer is one of the most common causes of deaths due to cancer. Non-small-cell lung cancer being the most common kind of lung cancer, it has a survival rate of only 5 years on an average, and that too for only 40% of people. According to the researchers of University of Kentucky, profiling of the anti-bodies, when incorporated to comprehensive strategy of screening, can be very powerful in early detection of lung cancer. Attempts have been made to prove the reliability of the test and if it is confirmed, it will become the first blood screening procedure for any type of cancer; after PSA test or prostate specific antigen used to determine the presence of prostate cancer.

Although there are CT scans or computer tomography scans which can find tumors of lung cancer, but these scans have a very high rate of showing false positives. Due to this, many people who are shown positive with CT scans have to undergo the unnecessary painful procedure of biopsy to remove the suspicious lump and later find out that the lump was actually non-cancerous at all.

In most cases, by the time lung cancer is diagnosed or start to show symptoms, it is already too late to treat the disease. According to researchers, a test has been developed which can detect the proteins that the body produces during early formation of tumors in the lungs. The test had been conducted on people who were under treatment for lung cancer. Result showed that it correctly identified 90% of the cases with lung cancer and when conducted on people not suffering from lung cancer, it came up with a very low percentage of false positives.

Blood samples of lung cancer patients taken years before were also tested. The test correctly identified cancer in 4 out of 7 samples taken a year before being diagnosed, and in all samples taken 2, 3 and 4 years earlier. The researchers explained that the lung cancer can be present in a person to as much as 3-4 years before the tumor reaches a size that can be identified by radiographic detection.

Prostate cancer is a disease that has engulfed men from all parts of the world. Such a widespread about the disease has led to increase concern whether prostate cancer screening is really helpful. A recent review found that this screening procedure does not provide much evidence on survival benefit.

Prostate cancer screening know as PSA or Prostate Specific Antigen reduced the mortality risk of prostate cancer by barely 20% in the best case scenario, as per the reports of the University of Texas Health Science Center published in July-August issue of the CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians. The life time risk result from the screening is shifted from 3% to 2.4% but it has not come without paying a price. The risk of diagnosis has increased from 6%-9% with no screening to 17% -20% of heavily screened individuals. The researchers have also noted that unresolved issues with PSA threshold argue against the efficiency of the screening.

According to experts, the PSA screening should be conducted only in mutual decision making program between the individuals and their physicians. For the past 20 years, prostate cancer screening is based on the blind faith of early detection rather than being based upon the evidence of decreased mortality rates. Experts also commented that decrease in the costs of healthcare can only be possible if the testing is done on the basis of evidences rather than on the basis of faith or profit based medicinal practice.

It has been estimated that 55% of men who are 50 years or older get a PSA screening every year out of which 75% get tested at least once in their life time. This dramatically affected the incidence rates of prostate cancer; as lifetime risks of diagnoses increased significantly after the introduction of PSA screening in the US in 1980s. According to the statistics, it was 7.3% in 1977 while it has risen to 17% in 2005. Finding more cases in prostate cancer is a poor goal as it gets virtually present in men as they get older. The main aim is to reduce the risks of death due to prostate cancer and its morbidity or other related healthcare expenses.

Since the year 1993 which is only 4-5 years after the screening was introduced, there is a continuous decline in age-adjusted death rate due to prostate cancer which was 39.3 per 100,000 men to 24.6 in 2005. A group of experts said that the decrease cannot be attributed to screening because the disease has a very long natural history. Other things that can explain the decrease in mortality rate can be significant innovations and improvements such as surgery, hormonal therapies and radiation during the same period in which screening proliferated. According to the computer models, 29% to 50% of the prostate cancers detected by screening do not have the possibilities of having clinical significance and therefore were over-diagnosed.

Only around 10% men with localized prostate cancer choose for active surveillance in place of treatment, which come with higher risk of urinal, sexual and bowel related complications. Whether the screening saves lives from prostate cancer or not can only be verified with a well-conducted, well-designed and prospective randomized scientific trial. Some of the trials that have already been published are:

• The Quebec study which found that 16% extra death cases in screening group compare to non-screening group.
• According to a Swedish trial, 47% higher rates of diagnosis and 4% higher risks of deaths due to prostate cancer randomized to screening as compared to those that were not offered the screening procedure.
• Interim analysis of US Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian Cancer Screening test revealed that there are no significant differences between the two.
• An interim analysis of European Randomized Study of Screening for Prostate Cancer (ERSPC) revealed a ratio of 0.80 in mortality rate that favored screening but near double in incidence.

The ERSPC says that in order to prevent one death due to prostate cancer, 1410 people need to be screened and 48 more prostate cancer cases need to be treated. Thus, a man who undergoes screening has 48 more times risks to be harmed through screening than he can be saved, 9 years after the diagnosis.

A peer-reviewed journal of medicine, published by the American Cancer Society, recently stated that men who drink alcohol heavily have higher risk of developing prostate cancer. It is also found that the use of heavy alcohol may also diminish the effects of finasteride, a drug which is used to reduce prostate cancer risk.

The study has been based on the PCPT (Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial), a study conducted by the National Cancer Institute, which proved that finasteride is effective in enlarging the prostates so that men can urinate freely. Finasteride was believed to reduce risk of prostate cancer by at least 25%.

In the study, the researchers of University of California observed the drinking pattern of more than ten thousand men which included the frequency, type and amount of alcohol the men were taking. It has been found that, men who consumed at least 50 gms of alcohol every day and men who drank heavily (more than 5 times per week) had more risk of developing high grade prostate cancer. High grade cancer is the most aggressive form of prostate cancer. 50 gms of alcohol is equivalent to 3.5 liquor drinks or 4 beers or 4 wine glasses. The study also showed that men who consume beer heavily are at a higher risk as compared to liquor or wine. But this conclusion may be the result of the fact that men drink more beer than any other type of alcohol.

Taking finasteride can lower the risk of low-grade prostate cancer but if one consumed alcohol heavily, then it is believed that alcohol is able to cancel out the effects of finasteride and thus it is not effective on heavy drinkers. Alcohol is known to interfere with the enzymes that are required for the processing of the drug. If you take finasteride for decreasing prostate cancer risk and at the same time, consume alcohol, then you must consult your doctor who will tell you whether you should continue taking the drug or not. This may lead to some difficult adverse effects like no interest in sex and erectile dysfunction.

If you are a regular alcohol drinker, then you should consider to cut back. Although its relation with prostate cancer is still not proven, alcohol is known to be linked with other type of cancers like throat cancer, larynx cancer, liver cancer, breast cancer, esophagus cancer and colon cancer. Women are advised by the American Cancer Society to take only one drink in a day while men can take up to 2 drinks per day.

In general terms, a drink means beer (12 ounces) or wine (5 ounces) or 80 proof distilled spirits (1.5 ounces). It would also be better to consult a doctor to know about other life style choices that can be helpful in reducing risk of cancer. These may include maintaining healthy body weight, doing regular exercise, eating healthy diet and taking regular cancer screening.

The results of this study seem to be different from those of other studies and according to the researchers, more studies are required to be conduced to confirm these findings.

So far, majority of people are living with the misconception that only sunshine is responsible for the killing form of skin cancer. But, just recently studies have stated that there is something else that can cause skin cancer. A report has stated that the number of moles on our skin is responsible to a great extent in the risk of getting melanoma - a serious type of skin cancer. The report has cleared the misconception that not only sunshine is the sole reason that can cause one skin cancer and people are unnecessarily worrying about that. As per the studies, sunshine plays a very nominal role in causing the risk of melanoma.

Melanoma is the most critical type of skin cancer that is capable of spreading to other parts of the body. A possible treatment for melanoma is by removing the mole at a very early stage. The cancer can also start on a normal looking skin and it can even occur on a very fair skin where there is not even a single mole visible. With regards to deaths caused by melanoma, the occurrence of melanoma is about 10% of all skin cancer cases, but mostly skin cancer deaths are caused by melanoma only. In a sense, it is a very dangerous disease.

According to a study, every year around 1500 people die in England because of this killing cancer. An international team of researchers have discovered two genes that determine the number of moles someone will have and the possibility of getting skin cancer. According to professor of genetic epidemiology, Tim Spector of King’s College London, moles play a major role in increasing the risk of melanoma rather than the sunshine. Above all, the two genes discovered by the researchers control the number of moles and raise the possibility of getting melanoma. The researchers strong believe that health warning for people with more than 100 moles would be very useful.

Cancer Research UK’s director of health information, Sara Hiom, said that the research does not contradict with other scientific evidence that shows most of the skin cancers are caused due to long exposure to ultraviolet rays. She said that people with more moles are at higher risk of melanoma, therefore they should take extra care while exposing in the sun. She also pointed out that melanoma rates in UK have increased quadrupled in the past 30 years – parallel to the increased popularity of “sun holiday” together with the availability of artificial ultraviolet.

Over the past 30 years, the melanoma incidences have increased rapidly in the European countries. According to the estimation made by World health Organization, around 132000 cases of melanoma take place every year. According to the researchers, sunlight which is the most vital source of vitamin D can play a very important role in our health, shortage of sunlight may increase the death rate from other cancers, premature ageing, depression as well as osteoporosis. They added that official health warnings about avoiding the sun have been overstated and scaring people unnecessarily.

Early this month witnessed a major breakthrough in the treatment of prostate cancer when a team of medical professionals operated a British patient with a surgical robot.

Believe it or not, he is indeed the first individual to get his prostate removed by incurring a whopping £2 million on the gadget. The operation was successful and the 48-years old patient known by the name of Jeremy Lineham, was allowed to leave for home the following day.

The keyhole surgery was carried out in one of the reputed hospitals of Europe, London Guy’s Hospital and it is also know that an earlier version of the same robot has been used for some time. Following the success of the operation, Declan Murphy, the consultant urologist remarked, “Jeremy’s operation was a great success and we are impressed with the enhanced performance of the new robot”. The urologist further added that the range of motion and the dexterity of the robot are much more precise than that of human hand and that is the main reason that operation witnessed success in the very first instance.

The robot also enhances the view of the anatomy with its 3D high-definition and what’s even more impressive is that two doctors can simultaneously carry out operations with the dual consoles. This also facilitates the training process, which wasn’t’ so easy in previous times. The urologist further made a claim that they are planning to upgrade the robot in the coming months so that their patients can benefit from the best technology available.

The patient is exhilarated at the success of the operation and also overjoyed over the fact that he could return home within a span of less than 24 hours after such a major life-threatening operation.

According to a study published in British Journal of Cancer, a form of therapy helpful in treating prostate cancer is found to be able to cure men without the need of surgery and with fewer adverse effects. Under this experiment, 172 men suffering from prostate cancer were treated with HIFU (High Intensity Focused Ultrasound) under general anesthesia in University College Hospital, London and Princess Grace Hospital, London. HIFU uses the sound waves for killing cancer cells.

The men who took part in the experiment were discharged from the hospital after 5 hours of the treatment on an average. Usually, prostate cancer is either treated through surgery or through radiotherapy, both of which are lengthy procedures. Surgery requires a patient to be admitted in the hospital while radiotherapy requires a patient to come to the hospital every day for about one month for treatment.

Out of the 172 men who were treated with HIFU, 159 were followed up for one year and it was found that 92% of them did not show any recurrence of the disease. Although this is not a comparative statement because people treated with traditional forms of prostate cancer treatment also have same percentage of recurrence among patients. Out of these 159 men who were followed up, less than 1% had incontinence, around 30-40% had impotence but no one had any kind of bowel problems.

If we follow patients who are treated with surgery or radiotherapy, we will find that 5-20% will have incontinence and 50% will have impotence. Radiotherapy may also cause some side effects like diarrhea, bleeding and pain in 5-20% of treated patients. A spokesperson from the division of surgical and interventional science of UCL said that this therapy of treating prostate cancer can be used extensively in future because it has fewer adverse effects. But yet, it is not known if it is more useful and effective than surgery and radiotherapy. Further studies are needed to be carried out, which will involve treatment of larger number of men and following up for a longer period. In this way, they will be able to compare the effectiveness of the treatment in the long run.

HIFU or High Intensity Focused Ultrasound makes use of high frequency waves of sound for heating up small tissues to 80-90 ºC temperature. This therapy can be used to treat the entire prostate or only the cancer affected areas. The chief clinician of Cancer Research UK also said that further studies are needed to be made to prove the effectiveness of HIFU therapy. If it is found that this method causes fewer side effects in the patients as compared to other methods of treatment, then that will be very good news. HIFU does not pass through air and solid bone so it can only treat a limited type of cancer including prostate cancer, primary and secondary liver cancer, kidney cancer, bladder cancer and pancreatic cancer.

prostate cancer

A new drug was discovered that proved to be very effective in stimulating the body’s own immune system to fight prostate cancer in cases when the tumor was wide spread beyond the possibility of surgical intervention and became resistant to hormonal treatment or chemotherapy. The new drug is MDX-010, an antibody which builds on the action of the hormone.

In an experimental treatment on two prostate cancer patients where the patient’s tumor have spread beyond the prostate gland, MDX-010 (also know as Ipilimumab drug) was administrated. The experimental therapy used MDX-010 as standardized hormone treatment together with radiation therapy. As a result, the patient’s specific prostate antigen shrank lower enough to be surgically removed. After a few weeks from the treatment the tumor could not be seen with Magnetic Resonance Imaging.

The real surprise came when urologist and surgeon, Dr Kwon and Dr Michael Blute decide to operate their patients. They were shocked to learn that the results were far beyond what they had expected. In a statement, Dr Michael Blute said that he had difficulty trying to locate the cancer because the tumors had shrunk so dramatically. He added that he had never he had never seen anything like this in his whole career. After one and a half year, both patients are cancer free and no longer need any therapy.

In order to find out the efficiency of the treatment, more studies had been conducted. It seems that the immune system can be influenced by blocking a complex set of interactions so that it can provoke a regression of the cancer cells, causing the tumor to shrink significantly, so that surgical intervention became possible. The immune system plays a role in detecting and eliminating altered cells by generating T-cells that destroy foreign objects. Some cancer cells can dial down the strength of the response of the immune system and allow tumor to grow. The mechanism of down regulation of the immune system involves the molecule CTLA-4, which appears on the surface of the T-cells as a normal regulatory mechanism that is supposed to protect the human body from immune system overreaction. MDX-010, also known as Ipilimumab, is a human antibody against human CTL-4, the molecule on T cells that suppresses the immune response.

More studies are made to investigate the potential of MDX-010 in regulating the immune system help suppress tumor growth in other types of cancer. Other research is made to determine the possibility of increasing the effect of the treatments when Ipilimumab is used in combination with other types of chemicals.

Great news to all those who had been working hard to find the cure for neuroblastoma, as scientist have uncovered the first link between the lethal disease and a kind of genetic disorder called as CNV or copy number variation. This genetic defect is qualified by some extra bits or missing DNA. This discovery came into picture when a group of scientists in Paris were involved in a study on neuroblastoma, the most dangerous paediatric disorder that affects the nervous system and that is responsible for 15% of cancer deaths in children. Researchers under the leadership of John Maris of the Children’s Hospital, Philadelphia have discovered that the genetic defect, Copy Number Variation or CNV on chromosome 1 is a serious contender in development of this disease that mainly affects infants.

The study also stated that this absence stretch of DNA normally occurs within a group of genes involved in the growth of our central nervous system. This absence stretch thus affects amount of genes (with missing DNA) that are produced within the normal cells and the cancerous cells. Speaking in a phone interview, Maris states that, this result was indeed a new area of study and they never suspected that this family of genes with missing DNA would play a vital role in neuroblatoma. It is also worth mentioning here that, in a research published last year, Maris and others isolated a gene called ALK which can by itself cause a rare hereditary disease. Even last month, the scientists have uncovered another gene known as BARD1 that raises the child’s susceptibility to some extent.

This new study that is published in Nature, a British journal, has proved significant not only because it adds another feather to the neuroblastoma’s puzzle hat but also it has opened a new path that shows even genetic material can become risky cancer agents. Though it has been widely suspected that Copy Number Variations could lead to tumors but the path to prove this has been really tough.

With the help of powerful computers, Maris compares the DNAs of health persons and those suffering from cancer to conduct a genome-wide association study. With this technique, hundreds of links between cancer and DNA were uncovers but none showed the relationship between the deadly disease and CNV. But this study reveals a strong hypothesis showing the effect of these CNVs on paediatric cancer said Maris speaking to a telephonic interview. He also added that these results will also prove vital to find the association of these CNVs with other types of cancers as well. This study makes it clear that there is no strict definition of what is hereditary when it comes to any disease including cancer.

The study also states that only few conditions like the Mendelian diseases are caused by the mutations in a single gene. Most other disorders are caused by a complex of chain of genes and also environmental conditions that are mostly difficult to trace out. Explaining this fact, Maris stated only 1 or 2 % of neuroblastoma runs in the families while the rest occur only by chance. This genome-wide association study is now proving that it is not the chance but the genetic susceptibility with the right inheriting risk factors from both mom and dad that is causing the disease.

According to researchers, it has been recently found that polyphenon E, a polyphenol that is present in green tea, plays a significant role in slowing down the development of prostate cancer. In fact, polyphenon E significantly reduces cancer progression’s bio-markers, which include Hepatocyte Growth Factor (HGF), Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) and Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA). This has been well-supported by the latest edition of the Cancer Prevention Research. As a result of this new discovery, researchers concluded that polyphenon E is crucial for the treatment as well as prevention of prostate cancer and thus consuming green tea can be very beneficial for the purpose.

Some of the previous studies stated that green tea is related to reduce incidents of prostate cancer and the polyphenols present in it is being regarded as a useful cancer therapy source. But this fact is still inconclusive. In the year 2008, FDA said that because people usually consume green tea in very small quantities, the evidences about benefits of green tea are uncertain. After this statement from the FDA, researchers started conducting a single arm, open label phase II trial for determining the effect of active compounds present in green tea on the serum bio-markers of prostate cancer patients, if consumed in small quantities. The biomarkers involved are prostate specific antigen or PSA, hepatocyte growth factor or HGF and vascular endothelial growth factor or VEGF.

During the experiment, 26 prostate cancer patients age between 41 to 68 years underwent radical prostatectomy. The patients were asked to take four capsules of Polyphenon E daily until the date of their surgery arrived. Researchers said that 4 capsules are almost equivalent to 12 cups green tea. As a result, researchers found significant decrease in the levels of serum for all the 3 biomarkers. It was noted that 10 out of 25 patients received more than 25% decrease in their HGF levels and 6 out of 25 patients received more than 25% reduction in their levels of VEGF.

Researcher explained that ECCG which is a major catechin in polyphenon E that present in green tea is able to rapidly block the production of HGF. EGCG is also responsible for blocking VEGF production that plays a crucial role in cancer associated fibro-blasts. It was also found that time on medicines, race and age did not significant effects on changes in the serum bio-markers.

It is stated in some studies that, if taken in high doses, EGCG may even adversely affect the functioning of the liver, but according to this study, all the markers of dysfunction of liver have significantly decreased, especially total protein, alkaline phosphatase, amylase, albumin and aspartate aminotransferase. This proved that the doses used in the study are safe said Dr. Cardelli.

Since the result was obtained with concentrated active ingredients, Dr Cardelli also raised the question whether this can be translated into drinking 12 cup of green daily. Although the data from the study support the role of green in prostate cancer treatment and prevention, the effects of long-term administration, different doses and mixing with other medicines still need to be seen.