Alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), the most common omega-3 fatty acid in the Western diet, has no impact on prostate cancer, according to a large dietary study slated to appear in the August issue of Cancer Causes Control.

This study evaluated total intake of ALA from animal, fish, and plant sources in 29,592 men age 55-74 years in the screening arm of the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian (PLCO) Cancer Screening Trial. The men were followed for an average of 5.1 years.

An Early Stretch to Focus on Cancer
By VINCENT M. MALLOZZI
Major League Baseball will announce today that in its effort to raise awareness of prostate cancer, all traditional seventh-inning activities scheduled for Father’s Day will instead be done during the sixth inning, symbolizing the fact that one in every six American men will ultimately develop prostate cancer. . . .

Zoologist Dr Lawrence Williams, a research consultant with the Scientific Research Council of Jamaica, says he and colleagues in Germany have been able to produce an anti-cancer compound, dibenzyl trisulphide (DTS), from guinea hen weed (petiveria alliacea), which grows wild across Jamaica.

In an interview with the Jamaica Observer, Dr. Williams said he is ready to take his research to the next level – the use of the compound on mice induced with cancer and an investigation into the side effects, including DTS’s impact on the kidneys and the liver. The work is to cost an estimated US $150,000.

Identification of a novel retrovirus in prostate tumors of patients homozygous for the R462Q mutation in the HPC1 gene.
ASCO, 2006 Abstract No:304

E. Klein, A. Urisman, R. Molinaro, N. Fischer, S. Plummer, G. Casey, D. Ganem, J. DeRisi, R. Silverman

Introduction: Epidemiologic and genetic evidence suggest the possibility that prostate cancer may be an infectious disease.

HPC1 encodes for RNaseL, a unique antiviral protein activated by viral infection and interferon. Mutations and variants that impair function of RNase L, particularly the SNP R462Q, have been proposed as susceptibility factors for prostate cancer.

Given the role of this gene in viral defense, we explored the possibility that a viral infection might contribute to prostate cancer in men homozygous for R462Q.

Methods: We isolated total and polyA+ mRNA from peripheral zone tumors of 86 radical prostatectomy specimens. Corresponding randomly amplified cDNA was assayed for the presence of viral sequences by hybridization to a DNA microarray composed of oligonucleotides corresponding to more than 5,000 conserved sequences from all known viruses. Tissue localization studies were performed by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) and immunohistochemistry (IHC).

Results: The presence of novel retroviral sequences was revealed in 9 of 20 (45%) men homozygous for R462Q, compared to only 1 (1.5%) of 66 wild type and heterozygous men. Full-length viral genomes were cloned and sequenced from the tumor of 2 R462Q homozygotes. The isolated virus, tentatively named XMRV, is closely related to xenotropic murine leukemia viruses but its sequence is distinct from all known members of this group.

Comparison of gag and pol sequences from different tumor isolates suggested infection with the same virus in all cases, yet sequence variation was consistent with the infections being independently acquired.

FISH and IHC localized the virus to stromal cells adjacent to tumor foci, and in vitro experiments demonstrated a related LnCAP-derived isolate to be replication competent.

Conclusions: These data provide the first demonstration that xenotropic MuLV-related viruses can produce an authentic human infection, and strongly implicate RNase L activity in the prevention or clearance of infection in vivo.

These findings also suggest the possible relationship between exogenous infection and development of prostate cancer in genetically susceptible individuals.

02 June, 2006
Associated Press
Doctors Say Futile Cancer Treatment Rising
By MARILYNN MARCHIONE , 06.02.2006, 07:35 PM

Doctors are reporting a disturbing rise in the number of cancer patients getting chemo and other aggressive but futile treatment in the last days of their lives.

Critics of the practice say doctors should be concentrating instead on helping these patients die with dignity and in comfort, perhaps in a hospice.

Nearly 12 percent of cancer patients who died in 1999 received chemotherapy in the last two weeks of life, a large review of Medicare records revealed. That is up from nearly 10 percent in 1993, and the percentage probably is even higher today, researchers said.

“Patients don’t like to give up,” and neither do physicians, said Dr. Roy Herbst, a cancer specialist at the University of Texas’ M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston who had no role in the study.

Overly aggressive treatment gives false hope and puts people through grueling and costly ordeals when there is no chance of a cure, cancer specialists said.

“There is a time to stop,” said Dr. Craig Earle of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School. “It’s sometimes easier to just keep giving chemotherapy than to have a frank discussion about hospice and palliative care.”

Earle led the federally funded study and presented the findings Friday at a meeting in Atlanta of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. . . . .

However, another study presented at the cancer meeting on Friday showed the opposite problem: people not getting enough care.

A survey of nearly 700 primary care doctors in Wisconsin found that only 11 percent would refer a patient with advanced lung cancer to a cancer specialist and only 25 percent would refer a woman with advanced breast cancer.

“We also found a general lack of knowledge about the benefits of newer treatments” that can help such patients, said Dr. Timothy Wassenaar of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who reported on the study at the cancer meeting.

“That’s horrible,” Herbst said of the unwillingness to refer such patients. He noted that newer chemotherapy treatments have extended lung cancer survival from 20 percent at one year to nearly 50 percent now.

Full story:
Doctors Say Futile Cancer Treatment Rising — Forbes.com