Cancer Cure

Must-know facts about prostate cancer

Prostate cancer is a form of cancer that develops in the prostate, a gland in the male reproductive system.

While most prostate cancers are slow growing, there are some that are aggressive and spread rapidly - causing a significant shortening of life expectancy in men affected by them. Owing to high prostate cancer numbers in India, this is considered one of the most common cancers in the country. Today we bring you some must-know facts about prostate cancer in a bid to create awareness about its early detection and control.

Causes behind prostate cancer
While the cause behind prostate cancer is unknown, the risk factors for prostate cancer include advancing age, genetics, hormonal influences, exposure to toxins, chemicals, and industrial products. The chances of developing prostate cancer increase with age. Cases of prostate cancer below the age of 40 are extremely rare; most cases observed are in men above the age of 80.

Signs and symptoms
In the early stages, prostate cancer often causes no symptoms for many years. These cancers frequently are first detected by an abnormality on a blood test. In more advanced cases, the cancer may enlarge and press on the urethra, as a result, diminishing the flow of urine and making it more difficult.

Prostate cancer diagnosis
An abnormality in one or both of the prostate cancer screening tests may lead to early detection. These screening tests are a Digital Rectal Examination and a blood test called the Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA). The only test that can fully confirm the diagnosis of prostate cancer is a biopsy, the removal of small pieces of the prostate for microscopic examination.

Treatment options
The treatment options for prostate cancer usually include surgery, radiation therapy, hormonal therapy, or combinations of some of these treatments. A cure for metastatic prostate cancer is, unfortunately, unattainable at the present time. The surgical treatment for prostate cancer is commonly referred to as a radical prostatectomy, which is the removal of the entire prostate gland.

Alternative medicine
Non-traditional treatments are herbs, dietary supplements, and acupuncture. The composition of herbal treatments is not standardized therefore the results vary, if at all there are any. Also, the way herbal treatments work and their long-term side effects usually are not known. Currently, there is no evidence to prove that these medications have any therapeutic benefit in prostate cancers that have become resistant to conventional treatments.

Prevention
No specific measures are known to prevent the development of prostate cancer. Preventing progression of the cancer can be done by getting an early diagnoses and then attempting to cure the disease through medication and surgery, if necessary. Early diagnoses can be made by screening men for prostate cancer with PSA and digital rectal examination. The purpose of the screening is to detect early, tiny, or even microscopic cancers that are confined to the prostate gland.

Source: Times Of India

Nature Can Fight Cancer Too

If you strolled by it in a field, you'd probably think the purple flower was a weed. Milk thistle has in fact been used for thousands of years in herbal remedies. If recent animal studies pan out, its treatment uses may be expanded to cancer.

A recent study involving mice found that silibinin, a major compound in milk thistle, stopped the spread of lung cancers. This is the first time the natural extract has shown to be beneficial in a carefully controlled study.

COX2 and iNOS are enzymes involved with the body's inflammation response to wounds, and they also help tumors grow. They are produced after the cells go through a complex signal chain.

STAT1 and STAT3 are proteins found along the signal chain that manage cell growth and lead to the production of the harmful COX2 and iNOS.

Targeting and stopping STAT1 and STAT3 messes up the chain that leads to COX2 and iNOS and ultimately the growth of lung tumors.

Alpna Tyagi, Ph.D investigator at the University of Colorado Cancer Center, explains that silibinin blocks the signals that lead to the expression of COX2 and iNOS.

For the study, Tyagi and colleagues compared the results of the milk thistle component to lung cancer drugs currently being investigated in clinical trials.

They found that silibinin not only blocked COX2 and iNOS, but also the movement of existing lung cancer cells.

Tyagi says the study demonstrated that STAT1 and STAT3 could be therapeutic targets for lung cancer treatment.

Further, he concludes that "naturally-derived products like silibinin may be as effective as today's best treatments."

This research is published in the journal Molecular Carcinogenesis.

Source: DailyRx

Skin Cancer Gene Discovered

A gene that helps protect the body from squamous cell cancer (SCC) - a common type of skin cancer has been identified by scientists.

It is an extraordinary breakthrough that could make available new cancer treatments and prevention to the public in five years, according to the team led by Professor Stephen Jane and Dr Charbel Darido of Monash University's Department of Medicine at the Alfred Hospital.

The Cancer Council estimates that two in three Australians will be diagnosed with skin cancer before the age of 70 with SCC being one of the most common forms.

Up until now, its genetic basis has not been well understood, with surgical treatments the only option.

Professor Jane said the team discovered that a gene with an important role in skin development in the foetus is missing in adult SCC tumour cells.

Although the researchers initially focused on skin cancer, they found that the protective gene is also lost in SCC that arises in other tissues, including head and neck cancers that are often associated with a very poor outcome for the patient.

"Virtually every SCC tumour we looked at had almost undetectable levels of this particular gene, so its absence is a very profound driver of these cancers," Professor Jane stated.

The Monash researchers showed that loss of this particular gene knocks out the signal to stop skin cells from growing. Without this stop signal, the cells keep increasing in number and eventually forms a cancer.

Identifying this driver of cancer in skin and other organs provides a clear direction for developing strategies for both prevention and treatment in the relatively near future.

"Our research indicates that drugs already in clinical trials for other cancers may actually be effective in treating SCC - they just need to be applied to skin or head and neck cancers," Professor Jane indicated.

The breakthrough discovery has been published in the leading international cancer journal, Cancer Cell.

Source:MedIndia

Kick the Habit With the American Cancer Society

Thursday, November 17 marks the American Cancer Society’s 36th annual Great American Smokeout. It’s a day to encourage smokers nationwide to quit or to make a plan to quit. And to make it easier for you, here are four tips to help you kick the habit for good!

4 Tips to help you Stop Smoking:

1. Pick a date to quit. Whether you choose the Great American Smokeout date as your quit day or another day, give yourself some sort of timeline to quit. A timeline holds you accountable. Set the date with a “quit clock” which has all kinds of cool tips and support at www.cancer.org/Smokeout

2. Pick a reason to quit. Is it your mom? Your dad? Your kids? If you need a health reason, we’ve got lots of them: check out the American Cancer Society What Causes Cancer section, where you can learn more about cigarette use and how it affects people. And if you need another reason to quit smoking, we’ve got a cigarette cost calculator that will tell you how much money you’re throwing away on cigarettes—a great motivator to quit! Whatever your reason, focus on how having healthy lungs will positively impact your life. Picture yourself not smoking and having more vitality and energy to do all the things you love!

3. Have a back-up plan ready. Cravings may come. But you can beat ‘em. The American Cancer Society has tools to help you through—like a crave button that helps you beat the urge to smoke when cravings hit and a memory game to distract you. Download it to your desktop at www.cancer.org/Smokeout. You can also try replacing your habit to smoke with another behavior like chewing sugar-free gum, or snacking on fruit, veggies or pretzels.

4. Replace the bad habit with a good one. Exercise can help. For tips on how to make exercise fun and be creative with your workout, visit: http:/eatrightgetactive.org/move/. Working out has been shown to help smokers kick the habit.

Source: India Country

Cancer can be fought and won

With new breakthroughs in medicine and early diagnosis, any type of cancer can be overcome, experts said on Wednesday at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) here.

"Many patients worry unnecessarily and they are carried away by cancer myths," said Atul sharma, assistant professor in the department of medical oncology.

He said nearly 80 per cent of cancer patients "think they are in the gallows of death".

"But with new breakthroughs in medical field and with early diagnosis, any type of cancer can be prevented," he added.

Sharma said that while some cancers were genetic, "this does not mean that one will definitely develop cancer because of their heredity".

Breast cancer and ovarian cancer can be passed down genetically.

"If a parent has these cancers, the cancer gene may be passed to their child. If a child inherits the gene it raises the likelihood of developing cancer, but this happens rarely," Sharma said.

According to AIIMS, India gets about nine lakh new cancer cases and four lakh deaths occur annually due to the disease. There are about 30 lakh cancer patients in India at any point of time.

Source: TOI

Quitting smoking is the best option : Lung cancer mostly diagnosed late

Cases of chronic lung disease and lung cancer are rapidly rising in India, remaining mostly undiagnosed until it is too late, experts say.

As Thursday marked World Lung Cancer Day, doctors say changing lifestyles, smoking and air pollution have alarmingly raised the number of lung problems.

"There is a huge increase in the number of lung cancer and other lung diseases cases," Harit Chaturvedi, chief consultant and director (Surgical Oncology) at Max hospital here, told us.

"Usually the peak age when lung cancer attacks is the 50s and 60s," he said, adding that cancer cases are seen in Indian patients a decade earlier than their western counterparts "for unknown reasons".

Along with cancer, rising equally rapidly are cases of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease that causes acute breathing problems, also related to smoking in most cases.

"Currently, India has close to 24 million COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) cases which are expected to increase by 34 percent to 32 million by 2020," said Vivek Nangia, additional director and head, pulmonology, Fortis Hospital, Vasant Kunj.

"The number of men with COPD is approximately 14.11 million, one and a half times more than the number of women in 2010 which was approximately 9.57 million," he says.

According to Nangia, smoking is the primary cause of COPD, also causing cancer in long term in many cases.

"Most COPD patients are ex or current smokers who experience morning cough and sputum, the intensity of which gradually increases over the years and the patient develops breathlessness," he says.

"It may pose serious limitations in daily activities of the sufferer. Frequent acute increase in symptoms may lead to repeated visits to doctors' clinic or hospital admissions," he adds.

The biggest issue however remains that lung problems are often ignored and go undiagnosed due to lack of information.

"Symptoms like cough, blood in sputum and irritation in throat often get ignored because these are common symptoms," says Chaturvedi.

"Generally, healthy people don't think about disease," he says.

The doctor adds that smokers in general, after the age of 40 years, should go for yearly X-rays to check the situation of their lungs.

"Quitting smoking is the best option but even reducing the frequency helps in a big way," he says.

Source: TOI