Men and women affected by cancer look for information about the disease in very different ways, a study of internet postings about prostate cancer and breast cancer patients and partners suggests.

While men seek medical-scientific and practical advice, women look for emotional support. Men concerned about prostate cancer were interested in cancer tests, symptoms, the latest treatments and side effects. Women concerned about breast cancer sought emotional and social support. They were eager to share their personal experience and the impact of their cancer on family and relationships.

RICHMOND, Va., April 12 /PRNewswire/ — Selenium levels may predict the
risk of a man’s prostate cancer, and now a simple, reliable selenium
test is available.

The first selenium test that predicts prostate cancer risk, SeleniumHealth(TM), is now available exclusively from Bostwick Laboratories, Inc., an international diagnostic pathology laboratory. A man simply trims one or more toenails and submits the clippings for selenium content. SeleniumHealth(TM) is provided by Bostwick Laboratories, Inc. under license from the Gerald P. Murphy Cancer Foundation.

Press release at: Bostwick Labs

Israeli drug maker Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. said on Wednesday the Food and Drug Administration has granted final approval for the company’s generic treatment for patients with prostate cancer, and it will begin shipping the product immediately.

The drug, called Mitoxantrone Hydrochloride injection USP, is used in combination with corticosteroids as initial treatment for patients in pain from advanced hormone-refractory prostate cancer. It can also be used in combination with other products for the initial therapy for acute nonlymphocytic leukemia in adults.

The Teva drug is the equivalent of Novantrone injection from Swiss biotech Serono SA.

Sources:
Teva

Associated Press at

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3240117,00.html

April 12, 2006 — Novacea, Inc. today announced the initiation of ASCENT-2, its pivotal Phase 3 clinical study evaluating the combination of the Company’s novel oral anti-cancer agent, DN-101, and Taxotere® (docetaxel) in men with prostate cancer for whom hormonal therapy is no longer working, also known as androgen-independent prostate cancer (AIPC).

This randomized, controlled, multi-national study is seeking to enroll approximately 900 patients at over 125 medical centers in the United States, Europe, and Canada.
Full story:

http://www.psa-rising.com/wiredbird/novacea_0406.html

Prostate cancer linked to high cholesterol and to gallstones

April 12, 2006. Researchers from Italy have found what they believe to be the first direct link between high cholesterol levels and prostate cancer.

A possible association has been suggested before but evidence has been limited. This new study, published on-line (Wednesday 12 April) in Annals of Oncology, shows a statistically significant direct relationship between the two conditions.

Full story:
http://psa-rising.com/med/prevention/cholesterol06.html

More cancer screening could reduce deaths: report
Tue, 11 Apr 2006
CBC News

Some of the 70,400 Canadians expected to die from cancer this year could survive if screening programs were expanded and improved, according to a new report released Tuesday.

The Canadian Cancer Society estimates 153,100 new cases of cancer will be diagnosed in Canada in 2006, and more than half that number of people will die.

It says the numbers would be lower if there were more screening programs for cervical, breast and colorectal cancer.

For colorectal cancer, screening can help prevent malignancies from developing. Pre-cancerous polyps can be detected during a simple fecal occult blood test and snipped off during a colonoscopy. The test is recommended every two years for those over 50.

An estimated 20,000 Canadians will be diagnosed with colorectal cancer this year, and 8,500 will die from it.

“If they had [the test] every two years, we could reduce the death rates from colorectal cancer by 17 per cent and that’s based on strong scientific evidence,” said Heather Logan, the cancer society’s director of cancer control policy.
Full story at CBC News

The Canadian Cancer Society is urging municipalities across New Brunswick to ban the use of pesticides on residential and public property.
Apr 12 2006 CBC News

The Canadian Cancer Society says evidence linking pesticides with cancer is growing, and it simply doesn’t make sense to use a substance that could cause cancer to make a lawn look pretty.

Lynn Ann Duffley speaks for the Canadian Cancer Society in New Brunswick and says a ban is especially important to protect children. “We do know that children are very susceptible to the toxins within pesticides. And we know that repeated exposures to pesticides can increase the incidence of brain cancer, leukemia, non-hodgkins lymphoma.”

CropLife Canada is a trade association that represents pesticide companies, and its executive director Peter MacLeod rejects the cancer society’s argument. “I think that their explanation is very simplistic and misleading.”

MacLeod says no pesticide used in Canada is known to cause cancer, and he believes towns and cities should steer clear of regulation. “We just feel that municipalities by and large do not have the scientific capacity to make that choice, whether a product should be used or not. We should leave that to Health Canada.”

Seventy-three municipalities across Canada have already banned pesticide use, but only three of those are in New Brunswick – Shediac, Caraquet and Sackville. St. Andrews is holding a public hearing on the matter on April 24.

Reported April 10, 2006
By Julie Marks, Ivanhoe Health Correspondent

PARIS (Ivanhoe Newswire) — Researchers at the 21st Annual Congress of the European Association of Urology in Paris report exciting findings on the use of magnetic nanoparticles for patients with prostate cancer.

Scientists know thermotherapy using biocompatible magnetic nanoparticles inhibits prostate cancer growth in mice. Now, however, researchers are using the novel therapy in humans with the disease.

The new therapy is one of the first applications of nanotechnology in medicine and involves the heating of nanoparticles in a magnetic field. With the technique, it is possible to heat up almost every region of the body within very small ranges.

Investigators in Germany used the therapy on nine patients with locally recurrent prostate cancer. The patients had six weekly thermotherapy sessions that lasted 60 minutes each. Treatments were delivered using the first AC magnetic field applicator for use in humans.

Study results show the nanoparticles were retained in the prostate for several months. No toxic side effects were observed. Seven of the nine patients experienced a moderate decline in PSA levels.

“Interstitial heating using magnetic nanoparticles was feasible in patients with previously irradiated and locally recurrent prostate cancer,” study authors say. “Further optimism will focus on intraprostatic nanoparticle distribution and patient tolerance at higher magnetic field strengths. In the future, this treatment modality may be suitable for combination with irradiation in patients with localized prostate cancer.”

This article was reported by Ivanhoe.com, who offers Medical Alerts by e-mail every day of the week. To subscribe, go to: http://www.ivanhoe.com/newsalert/.

SOURCE: The 21st Annual Congress of the European Association of Urology in Paris, April 5-8, 2006

Epigenomics, a molecular diagnostics company developing tests based on DNA
methylation, is developing a test for the methylation of a single gene, PITX2, that can predict recurrence of prostate cancer after radical surgery. This new test is not yet available but it looks worth watching out for. The same company is developing a blood test for early detection of colon cancer. The company presented study results this week at 97th AACR Annual Meeting in Washington D.C., USA. Full stories:

Clinical Study Proves Prognostic Power of Epigenomics’ Biomarker in Prostate Cancer

Epigenomics Presents Data Confirming Screening for Methylated DNA in Blood as Key to Early Colorectal Cancer Detection

Mon Apr 3, 12:53 AM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A compound formed when meat is charred at high temperatures — as in barbecue — encourages the growth of prostate cancer in rats, researchers reported on Sunday.

Their study, presented at a meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research, may help explain the link between eating meat and a higher risk of prostate cancer.
It also fits in with other studies suggesting that cooking meat until it chars might cause cancer.

The compound, called PhIP, is formed when meat is cooked at very high temperatures, Dr. Angelo De Marzo and colleagues at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore reported.

It appears to both initiate and promote the growth of prostate cancer in rats, they said.

“We stumbled across a new potential interaction between ingestion of cooked meat in the diet and cancer in the rat,” De Marzo said in a statement.

“For humans, the biggest problem is that it’s extremely difficult to tell how much PhIP you’ve ingested, since different amounts are formed depending on cooking conditions.”

For the study, Yatsutomo Nakai and other members of De Marzo’s team mixed PhIP into food given to rats for up to eight weeks, then studied the animals’ prostates, intestines and spleens. They found genetic mutations in all the organs after four weeks.

Source: Reuters: Barbecue meats linked with prostate cancer – Yahoo! News