Cancer

Exercise advised for lymphoedema after breast cancer

Women who suffer swelling following breast cancer treatment should be encouraged to exercise, say experts.

New National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance says exercise will not make the problem worse and could improve well-being.

One in five people treated for breast cancer will go on to develop lymphoedema in their arm, hand, fingers or chest.

It is a long-term condition that can lead to pain and loss of mobility.

The new NICE guidance, which is subject to consultation, says doctors and nurses should discuss with patients how exercise may improve their quality of life.

They should also stress that the current evidence shows “exercise does not prevent, cause or worsen lymphoedema”.

Clearing ‘confusion’
Many people with breast cancer go on to develop lymphoedema in their arm or chest following surgical or radiotherapy treatment.

It occurs when the body’s lymphatic system becomes damaged and is unable to drain fluid in the normal way.

Prof Mark Baker, director of the NICE centre for clinical practice, said: “For breast cancer patients, lymphoedema may occur as a result of treatment – such as surgery or radiotherapy – or cancer cells blocking the lymph system.

“Some people may be cautious of taking up exercise as they may think it could make their lymphoedema worse or bring it about in the first place.

“Our proposed new recommendations should clear up any confusion relating to the role that exercise can play for people with or at risk of this condition.”

Jackie Harris, clinical nurse specialist at Breast Cancer Care, said lymphoedema can severely restrict movement and impact lives.

“Lymphoedema can be controlled but will never go away and we know that regular exercise has many benefits for those living with or at risk of lymphoedema,” she said.

“Regular movement in everyday life or work can help keep joints supple and aids lymph drainage and extra exercises can also be useful if swelling restricts movement of the arm.”

Source; BBC news

Healthy ways to prevent cancer in teens!

CDC’s Division of Cancer Prevention and Control sponsored a supplemental issueExternal Web Site Icon of the Journal of Adolescent Health about ways to prevent cancer, with a focus on youth. The authors are experts from many different professions, showing the importance of working together to protect youth from cancer.

Youth go through many physical and social changes as they grow into adults. These changes create unique opportunities for cancer prevention. By addressing certain exposures and behaviors among today’s youth, we can reduce their chances of getting cancer in the future.

Examples include—

Promoting protective behaviors.

  • Completing the three-dose human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine series.
  • Eating healthy food.
  • Getting enough physical activity.

Reducing harmful exposures.

  • Avoiding sunbathing and indoor tanning bed use.
  • Quitting smoking and other tobacco use.
  • Limiting alcohol use.
  • Avoiding exposure to certain chemicals.
  • Limiting radiation dose during medical imaging procedures.

Source: CDC

Surgery May Be Best for Young Men With Prostate Cancer

Younger men who have been diagnosed with prostate cancer may do well to consider surgery over so-called “watchful waiting,” a new study shows.

The new research,in the New England Journal of Medicine, is unlikely to end the long-running debate in the medical community over if and when surgery to remove the prostate is needed — particularly since the men in the study were diagnosed before the sensitive prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test was widely implemented to detect prostate cancer in its early stages.

The findings are the latest to come out of a 23-year-long, ongoing study comparing radical prostatectomy versus watchful waiting in 695 men who had been diagnosed with localized prostate cancer.

Between 1989 and 1999, researchers randomly assigned these men to either receive prostatectomy or not. The study found that those younger than 65 who underwent surgery to remove their prostates had a 15.8 percent lower risk of dying from prostate cancer than patients who had not had surgery. They also had a 25.5 percent lower risk of dying from any cause, as well as a 15.8 percent lower risk of the disease having spreading to other organs.

“Our results suggest that surgery may be more beneficial to younger men,” said study author Jennifer Rider, assistant professor of epidemiology at the Harvard University School of Public Health. Rider added that the men under 65 who had their prostates removed were also less likely to need radiation or chemotherapy.

The trial, funded by the Swedish Cancer Society and the U.S. National Institutes of Health, is the first of its kind to entail such an extended follow-up.
Urologists not involved with the research said the findings were important, particularly at a time when many men have concerns about the side effects of going under the knife for prostate cancer.

“This study makes a world of a difference,” said Dr. David B. Samadi, chairman of urology at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.
Samadi added that in the years since the study began, the operations to remove the prostate have become more refined.

“Surgery has become much improved,” he said. “ We’ve come a long way.”
“The important finding is that the benefits of surgery have increased over the course of time,” said Dr. Philip Kantoff, director of genitourinary oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.

But Dr. Otis Brawley, chief medical officer for the American Cancer Society, said that the results should be interpreted with caution, particularly since the study dealt with men who were not diagnosed using a PSA test – currently the common early detection method used in the U.S.

“That is a very different population from men in the U.S., where PSA screening means most cancers are caught at a much earlier stage,” he said in a statement to ABC News. The concern is that using prostate-removing surgery to treat these very early cancers may not be the best option, as it could mean a drastic surgery to remove a prostate that would never have presented a life-threatening problem.

And Dr. Lee Green, professor of family medicine at the University of Michigan, said more research will be needed before men facing a prostate cancer diagnosis get definite answers to the questions they have.

“It doesn’t prove that radical prostatectomy is better than less radical procedures, and it doesn’t prove that surgery is better than chemotherapy,” Green said. “It just says that surgery is better than doing nothing.”

Source; abc news

More Body Fat Raises Ovarian Cancer Risk, Study Suggests

The more a woman weighs, the greater her risk of ovarian cancer, a new report suggests.

It adds to strong suspicions that weight is somehow linked to ovarian cancer, one of the deadliest cancers and one that kills 14,000 U.S. women every year. And it adds ovarian cancer to a list of cancers affected by obesity or body fat, including breast cancer, colon cancer, endometrial cancer, kidney cancer and pancreatic cancer.

There’s also a link with height, although it’s not as strong as the evidence showing that weight, especially body fat, raises the risk, the American Institute for Cancer Research reports.

A team at the AICR looked at 25 studies with data on 4 million women, 16,000 of whom developed ovarian cancer.

“Greater body fatness is a probable cause of ovarian cancer in women,” the report concludes.

“This is an important finding because it shows a way for women to reduce their chances of getting ovarian cancer,” said Dr. Elisa Bandera of the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, who helped write the study. “There is so much we don’t know about preventing ovarian cancer, but now we can tell women that keeping to a healthy weight can help protect against this deadly disease.”

Both the American Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute list obesity as a suspected cause of ovarian cancer.

But the AICR report suggests that a woman doesn’t have to be obese — with a BMI of 30 or greater — for the risk to start growing. Even overweight women have a higher risk, the data suggests, starting at a BMI of about 28, which is considered overweight but not quite obese. (There’s a BMI calculator here).

There are many reasons why fat may raise cancer risk. Fat cells secrete estrogen, a hormone that can help fuel cancer, and people who are overweight or obese have overall higher levels of inflammation, which can affect heart disease and cancer risk alike. Fat cells produce other hormones, such as leptin and growth factors, that may affect the out-of-control cell growth that underlies cancer.

It’s also possible that something else is driving both body growth and cancer — perhaps a genetic cause.

The AICR report looked for evidence of other causes of ovarian cancer but could not find enough evidence to implicate any specific foods such as eggs, milk, coffee, tea, meat, fats or vitamins.

Source: NBC news

Oh Baby: Giving Birth 10 Times May Reduce Mom’s Cancer Risk

Women who give birth to 10 or more children may have a reduced risk of cancer, a new study from Finland suggests. Researchers examined cancer risk in nearly 5,000 Finish women who gave birth at least 10 times before 2010.

Over a three-decade period, there were 656 cases of cancer in these women, about 200 fewer cases than would be expected based on cancer rates in the general Finnish population, the study found.

In fact, the rate of new cancer cases was 24 percent lower among women who delivered 10 or more babies compared to those in the general population, the researchers said.
This overall reduction in cancer risk came mainly from decreased rates of breast cancer and gynecological cancers, including ovarian and endometrial cancer (cancer of the uterus lining). For these cancers, the rate of new cancer cases was about 50 percent lower in women with 10 or more deliveries, compared to the general population.

The researchers aren’t sure whether the findings apply to women who have just one, two or three children, but plan to conduct another study to find out, said study researcher Dr. Juha Tapanainen, of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Helsinki University Central Hospital.
Pregnancy and cancer risk

In the study, women who had 10 or more babies were about five years younger when they gave birth to their first child, compared to average Finnish women. It’s known that becoming pregnant at a young age helps protect against breast cancer, Tapanainen said.
Women who give birth before age 20 have about half the risk of breast cancer as those who give birth for the first time after age 30, according to the National Institutes of Health. Some researchers hypothesize that this is because pregnancy speeds up the process of breast cell maturation, and that mature cells are more resistant to cancer, Tapanainen said. So, women who have children at younger ages develop mature, cancer-resistant breast cells sooner.

Previous studies have also found that giving birth to at least five children reduces the risk of breast cancer. This may be because pregnancy halts the menstrual cycle, so the breast cells of women who have many pregnancies are exposed to less estrogen, according to the American Cancer Society. (Exposure to estrogen is thought to increase the risk of breast cancer.)

The halting of ovulation, and the hormone changes that period in life causes, may also play a role in the reduced risk of ovarian and endometrial cancers.
Many women in the new study who had 10 or more children were members of the Laestadian movement, which is part of the Lutheran Church in Finland, the researchers said. Women in this group are similar to average Finnish women in terms of their lifestyle, but their religion prohibits the use of contraceptives.

Studies on the effect of hormonal contraceptives on cancer risk have been inconclusive, but some studies suggest that the contraceptives reduce the risk of ovarian and endometrial cancer. Thus, it’s possible that if Laestadian women in the study also took contraceptives, and still had multiple pregnancies, it would even further reduce their risk of these cancers, Tapanainen said.

Risks of many pregnancies

The study further linked having 10 babies with a reduced risk of basal cell skin cancer, and an increased risk of thyroid cancer. But the researchers don’t know the reason for this link.

Researchers noted that women who are able to have 10 or more children are likely healthier than women in the general population. But this factor alone is unlikely to explain the link between having 10 babies and the reduced risk of these cancers, Tapanainen said.

In general, the findings suggest that having more children doesn’t result in an increased occurrence of cancer, Tapanainen said. The protective effect is seen after five births, and is even greater with 10 births, Tapanainen said.
Despite the reduced risk of cancer, giving birth to five or more children does come with its own dangers, increasing the risk of pregnancy complications, such as premature birth and hemorrhaging after delivery.

Source: Yahoo news

Skin cancer may up risk of other cancers

People who have had common skin cancers may be at an increased risk of developing melanoma and 29 other cancer types, a new study has warned. Individuals who had nonmelanoma skin cancer (NMSC) were at increased risk for subsequently developing other cancer types, and this association was much higher for those under 25 years of age, researchers said.

NMSC is the most common type of skin cancer. It is relatively easy to treat if detected early, and rarely spreads to other organs, they said. “Our study shows that NMSC susceptibility is an important indicator of susceptibility to malignant tumours and that the risk is especially high among people who develop NMSC at a young age,” said Rodney Sinclair, professor of medicine at the University of Melbourne in Australia.

“The risk increases for a large group of seemingly unrelated cancers; however, the greatest risk relates to other cancers induced by sunlight, such as melanoma,” said Sinclair. Compared with people who did not have NMSC, those who did were 1.36 times more likely to subsequently develop any cancer, including melanoma and salivary gland, bone, and upper gastrointestinal cancers.

Survivors younger than 25 years of age, however, were 23 times more likely to develop any cancer other than NMSC. In particular, they were 94 and 93 times more likely to get melanoma and salivary gland cancer, respectively. “Our study identifies people who receive a diagnosis of NMSC at a young age as being at increased risk for cancer and, therefore, as a group who could benefit from screening for internal malignancy,” said Sinclair.

Researchers hypothesised that people who develop skin cancers later in life do so as a result of accumulated Sun exposure, while those who develop skin cancer at a younger age may do so as a result of an increased susceptibility to cancer in general. To investigate this, they stratified the risk ratios by age and discovered that young people with NMSC are more cancer-prone.

The researchers constructed two cohorts: one of 502,490 people with a history of NMSC, and a cohort of 8,787,513 people who served as controls. They followed up with the participants electronically for five to six years, and 67,148 from the NMSC cohort and 863,441 from the control group subsequently developed cancers.

They found that for those who had NMSC, the relative risk for developing cancers of the bladder, brain, breast, colon, liver, lung, pancreas, prostate, and stomach remained consistently elevated for the entire period of the study, and the risk for cancers of the brain, colon, and prostate increased with time.

The study was published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Bio-markers & Prevention.

Source: Indian Express

Young skin cancer survivors at higher risk of different cancers in the future

Young skin cancer survivors may not be completely in the clear, a recent study shows, with higher incidence of further cancers – including melanoma – developing in the future.

The findings of a newly-published large study mar successful remission of skin cancer survivors, as nonmelanoma survivors were found to be 1.36 times more likely to develop melanoma later in life. For patients under 25, the risk was boosted to 23 times more likely, but just 3.5 higher for survivors aged 25 to 44. The patients who developed nonmelanoma cancers prior to the of 25 bear the heaviest brunt, being 53 times more likely to develop bone cancer, a 26 times higher chance of developing blood cancers, and 20 times more likely to develop brain cancer. They are also faced with a higher risk of contracting any other type of cancer – around 14 times as likely – including breast, colon, liver, prostate, and stomach.

The study was completed by researchers at the University of Melbourne, Australia, and the University of Oxford, England. Observing 502,490 people who had previously had nonmelanoma cancers, as well as 8,787,513 people with no history of skin cancer, the study found that more than 13 percent of people in the first group went on to develop another cancer. In the second group, the number was around nine percent. However, researchers cautioned that the study considered both basal cell carcinomas (BCCs) and squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) together, without differentiating the two – thus unable to determine the precise chance of developing cancer in the future based on the type of cancer patients had in the past. “It might be that one type of NMSC [non-melanoma skin cancer] is more strongly associated with increased risks of subsequent primaries; however, only subtle differences have been noted in studies that do differentiate SCCs and BCCs,” the study read.

Nevertheless, the researchers recommended early screening as the best course of action. “Early detection of cancers through screening of asymptomatic people works best when screening can be targeted at those at greatest risk,” said study author Dr. Rodney Sinclair, M.B.B.S., M.D., the director of dermatology at the Epworth Hospital and professor of medicine at the University of Melbourne. “Our study identifies people who receive a diagnosis of NMSC [non-melanoma skin cancer] at a young age as being at increased risk for cancer and, therefore, as a group who could benefit from screening for internal malignancy.”

Source; Tech Times

Yoga can help improve well being of women with breast cancer

Yoga may improve the lives of breast cancer patients, a study has found.
Researchers say practising it can control stress and improve the wellbeing of women having radiation treatment.

Simple stretching exercises were able to lessen fatigue, the study showed.
But – when stretching was combined with the breathing, meditation and relaxation techniques used in yoga – breast cancer patients also felt healthier and more relaxed.
Lorenzo Cohen, a professor who led the research at the University of Texas, said that combining mind and body practices had ‘tremendous potential’.

The study, which was reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, split 191 women with breast cancer into three groups: yoga, simple stretching and neither.
Women who practised yoga had the steepest fall in their cortisol levels, suggesting yoga helped regulate the stress hormone.
Dr Cohen said: ‘Combining mind and body practices that are part of yoga clearly have tremendous potential to help patients manage the psycho-social and physical difficulties associated with treatment and life after cancer, beyond the benefits of simple stretching.’

To conduct the study, 191 women with breast cancer were split into three groups – yoga; simple stretching; or no instruction in yoga or stretching.
Participants in the yoga and stretching groups attended sessions specifically tailored to breast cancer patients for one-hour, three days a week throughout their six weeks of radiation treatment.

They were asked to report on their quality of life, including levels of fatigue and depression, their daily functioning and a measure assessing ability to find meaning in the illness experience.  Saliva samples were collected and electrocardiogram tests were also administered throughout and after the course of treatment.

Dr Cohen said the research shows that developing a yoga practice also helps patients after completing cancer treatment.
He added: ‘The transition from active therapy back to everyday life can be very stressful as patients no longer receive the same level of medical care and attention.
‘Teaching patients a mind-body technique like yoga as a coping skill can make the transition less difficult.’
Dr Cohen and his team are now conducting a clinical trial in women with breast cancer to further determine the mechanisms of yoga that lead to improvement in physical functioning, quality of life and biological outcomes during and after radiation treatment.

Source: daily mail

Why Is Pancreatic Cancer So Deadly?

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The pancreas secretes hormones and enzymes to digest our fats. One of those hormones is insulin, which prompts the body to use sugar in the blood rather than fat as energy. Its levels are low in diabetic patients, who suffer from abnormally high blood sugar.

Only one fifth of Americans diagnosed with pancreatic cancer survive for a full year, according to the American Cancer Society, and it is the fourth leading cause of cancer death in the country.

How does the disease develop without noticeable symptoms and then kill so quickly?

To find out, we called Allyson Ocean, an oncologist at New York–Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, who specializes in gastrointestinal cancers including pancreatic cancer. An edited transcript follows.

Why does pancreatic cancer kill so quickly?

Pancreatic cancer is typically diagnosed at a late stage because it doesn’t cause symptoms until it’s too late. Weight loss, abdominal pain, jaundice [a yellowing of the skin due to toxic buildup in the liver]—those are the most common symptoms. They usually start after the tumor is a significant size. By then, chances are, it has metastasized [that is, spread to other parts of the body].

Only about 10 to 15 percent of pancreatic cancers are diagnosed when they could be considered for surgery. And the prognosis is poor even in patients who do have surgery, because it comes back about 85 percent of the time. At best, 25 to 30 percent of patients are alive five years after surgery.

When doctors do pancreatic cancer surgery, they take out 95 percent of the pancreas, including the tumor, and then they leave a small remnant of the pancreas in there that serves [the insulin-producing] functions.

If a person can live without a fully functional pancreas, then what, ultimately, kills most pancreatic cancer patients?

When most patients die of pancreatic cancer, they die of liver failure from their liver being taken over by tumor.

What precludes doctors from performing surgery on late-stage patients?

We don’t do surgery if the tumor has already spread outside the pancreas, because there’s no survival benefit in removing the tumor. We also sometimes can’t do surgery [when the tumor] involves the great blood vessels, the superior mesenteric vein and superior mesenteric artery. Those are the main vessels that come off of the aorta, the main artery in our body. If the tumor is wrapped around those blood vessels, then we can’t take it out.

Why is this particular cancer so aggressive?
Because of the nature of the tumor cells. They escape the treatments, they hide out, and then they come back. And they grow again and they affect the liver and then they kill people.

What are the biggest risk factors for pancreatic cancer?
The biggest known risk factors are smoking and family history—it can be a hereditary disease. Then there are some other more obscure risk factors, such as defects in the anatomy of the pancreas, but that’s very rare.

What factors affect how early a person gets diagnosed?
Depending on where the cancer is diagnosed in the pancreas, it can affect how soon it’s diagnosed. For instance, if the cancer is in the head of the pancreas, which is close to the common bile duct, and it grows and it causes obstruction of the common bile duct, a patient can get jaundiced. And then they could [show symptoms] sooner than someone whose pancreatic cancer is in another part of the pancreas, like the tail. They would not present with jaundice, so we would not have a clue that there was necessarily anything wrong with them.

What are some of main symptoms as the cancer progresses?
Unexplained weight loss, abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting. Back pain is another one, because the pancreas is very posterior in the body. Back pain is also the most common complaint that patients go to an emergency room for, and most of the time it’s just muscle pain—it’s not pancreatic cancer.

What treatments are available if surgery isn’t an option?
Chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Sometimes we do both together. We are also using biologic agents now, meaning antibody therapy. There’s a drug called Tarceva, which is an antibody [or immune protein] against the growth factor that the tumor cell makes, and so it blocks that growth signal. It’s given in combination with [a chemotherapy called] Gemcitabine. In a large randomized clinical trial, [the combination of the two drugs] was shown to improve upon Gemcitabine alone.

Source: Scientific American

 

Microwaving tumors: New procedure knocks out kidney cancer without surgery

As a fight on cancer rages on, new record is creation it easier for doctors to mislay tumors though invasive surgery.

When Rory Kleinman, 42, sought medical courtesy for stomach issues in 2012, he had no suspicion that slight scans would exhibit a some-more critical problem.

“What happened was they were looking for something specific to do with my stomach, and by an MRI they afterwards saw something – a nodule on my liver – and so they had me do a successive MRI to check that,” Kleinman told FoxNews.com. “The nodule was fine, though in that second MRI they saw that there was a little mark that was on my kidney.”

That little mark on Kleinman’s kidney incited out to be a tumor.

“I only felt bombard shocked,” pronounced Kleinman. “I only never suspicion that we would have cancer during a immature age; if we was going to get it, we figured we would get it after in life.”

For many years, renal tumors compulsory prejudiced or sum dismissal of a kidney. Doctors would take a biopsy of a growth to see if it was cancer and afterwards confirm how many of a kidney to remove. But a new procession called x-ray ablation can be finished though surgery, and during a same time as a biopsy.

“Microwave ablation is a technique used to feverishness tumors,” Dr. Aaron Fischman, partner highbrow of radiology and medicine during Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City told FoxNews.com. “We’re means to indeed place a needle directly to a growth and kill it though indeed stealing it or creation an incision.”

Patients are put underneath unwavering sedation while a x-ray receiver is fed by a biopsy needle. After a square of a growth is private for testing, Fischman and his group use medical imaging to assistance place a tip of a receiver directly inside a tumor.

“The biggest advantage in my mind, and many of a patients will substantially tell you, that they don’t have to have surgery,” pronounced Fischman. “So we’re means to do this procession with no incision. We only put a needle directly into a kidney itself, and ablate it, so a liberation time is less, a snarl rate is theoretically reduction since a risk of draining is reduction though carrying a vital surgery.”

Microwave ablation is used to provide tumors in a liver, kidneys and lungs. Doctors during Mount Sinai have seen success rates of 90 to 95 percent in their patients who bear a procedure, Fischman said.

“Since this is a teenager procedure, a risks are minimal,” he said. “The many common thing that people can see is teenager draining or some pain during a site where a needle went in, and usually, this goes divided in a day or dual after a procedure.”

For Kleinman, a palliate of a procession has finished cancer a apart memory.

“Literally, we had a procession finished and a few days after we was behind during work – we unequivocally haven’t suspicion that many about it,” pronounced Kleinman. “I like that we don’t have to demeanour during a injure so that it reminds me that we had this procession done.”

Source: health medicine network