Are patients’ medical privacy concerns best served by the opt-out or the opt-in privacy systems? In British Medical Journal July 1, 2006 this is debated from a UK and a US perspective:

For and against:
Patients should have to opt out of national electronic care records

“. . . issues of consent and security are dividing health professionals, the public, and the national programme for information technology. Nigel Watson believes his experience of opting out shows it to be the most workable option, but John Halamka uses a US model to argue that opting in is the only way to ensure confidentiality.”
http://press.psprings.co.uk/bmj/july/ac39.pdf

BMJ.com this week

Rana P. Singh and team at U Colorado (Denver) have found that silibinin, the major active constituent of silymarin (Milk Thistle) , in mice inhibits lung tumor angiogenesis. They conclude that silibinin “merits investigation as a chemopreventive agent for suppressing lung cancer progression.”

Earlier work has shown that silibinin is helpful for liver toxicity, protects against kidney damage from chemotherapy, and inhibits prostate cancer growth in mice.

The effect of silibinin on prostate cancer cells is one of those stories where most of the research has been done over a number of years by one team, in this case led by Rana Singh at U Colorado. Would be nice to see confirmation from other labs. But silibinin is not going to be a money-tree. Milk Thistle is readily available in normal strengths.

Human trials of silibinin for the treatment of prostate cancer are underway at U. Colorado.

Suzanne Carver and Tricia of coastal Maine are going to walk 26.2 miles this September in The Boston Marathon® Jimmy Fund Walk to raise money for the Jimmy Fund and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Suzanne writes:

I am doing this marathon in honor of my friend Bill Dyer who is a very special light in this world. His journey with cancer has been nine plus years and counting and he is the living meaning of love and goodness and simply being in his presence reminds me of all that is pure and divine about the human spirit. Please give in honor of Bill and countless others like him. Give as though your loved one’s life depended on it.

You give the money and we’ll pound the pavement!! If I can walk 26.2 miles, surely you can miss a coffee or two for a few weeks, right?

Please visit Suzanne Carver’s Personal Fundraising Page to donate!!

Bill’s wife, Wendy, says they will be posting Bill’s picture on the site. “They are also going to have T-shirts made for the walk with Bill’s picture on the front,” Wendy said.

If you have followed Bill and Wendy’s story from afar since Bill was diagnosed in 1996 or have received Wendy’s help, encouragement, inspiration and support via the many prostate cancer mailing groups in which she takes an active role, this is your chance to give in Bill’s honor while donating to improve cancer care for all.

Obese men with prostate cancer are at higher risk for treatment failure after primary radiation therapy, according to a new study from M. D. Anderson.

Full story

“Extracts from PYGEUM AFRICANUM, SERENOA REPENS and CUCURBITA PEPO are used in the treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and prostate cancer (PCa).

The activity of the androgen receptor (AR) is known to control growth of the prostate. Here, we examined extracts of these plants for their antiandrogenic activity using an AR responsive reporter gene assay for drug discovery.

A selective dichloromethane extract from the stem barks of PYGEUM AFRICANUM revealed the highest antiandrogenic effect.

Bioactivity-directed fractionation of this extract led to the isolation of N-butylbenzenesulfonamide (NBBS) indicating that extracts of the stem bark of P. AFRICANUM harbour androgen antagonistic activity. This compound may provide a novel approach for the prevention and treatment of BPH and human PCa. ”
Reference: Planta Med. 2006 Jun 19
Extracts from Pygeum africanum and Other Ethnobotanical Species with Antiandrogenic Activity.
Schleich S, Papaioannou M, Baniahmad A, Matusch R.
Institut fur Pharmazeutische Chemie, Philipps-Universitat Marburg, Marburg, Germany.

“Vietnam bestows honor on herbal medicine for prostate cancer”
A Vietnamese medical research organization received the country’s highest honor for producing an herbal drug claimed as a therapy for prostate cancer.

The state-owned Research and Development Center also received the health ministry’s nod to use a catchy phrase on the herbal supplement’s bottles. The center has been allowed to print the legend “a quality product for community health” on Crila bottles.

Crila, for which it received a gold medal Saturday, is claimed to be the result of many years of research abroad by Dr Nguyen Thi Ngoc Tram, head of the center. The product is made from the leaves of a kind of trumpet Lily (Crinum latifolium).

Original report by Vo Khoi. Translated by Hoang Bao. Edited at PSA Rising.
Vietnam Latest News Thanh Hien Daily

Dutasteride Induces Apoptosis In Androgen Sensitive Prostate Cancer Cell Lines
Main Category: Urology / Nephrology News
Article Date: 25 Jun 2006 – 0:00am (PDT)

UroToday.com – Dr. McCrohan and research colleagues from University College Dublin report that the dual 5 a-reductase inhibitor dutasteride induces apoptosis in androgen sensitive, but not androgen insensitive prostate cancer (CaP) cell lines and primary cultures. Their work appears in the epub version of Cancer.
News story from Medical News Today

Abstract:
Cancer. 2006 Jun 15
Effects of the dual 5 alpha-reductase inhibitor dutasteride on apoptosis in primary cultures of prostate cancer epithelial cells and cell lines.

Canadian firefighter and prostate cancer warrior John Wagontall has cycled a long way since he set out from Victoria, BC in May of 2006 heading for St. John’s, NL (see John Wagontall’s Cycle Across Canada Click the link then look downpage).

A few days ago, June 20, John reached Sudbury Ontario.

Lethbridge firefighter and prostate cancer warrior cyclist John Wagontall (center) had worked up an appetite before he dropped into Sudbury’s number one fire station for spaghetti June 20.

Averaging 150 kilometers a day, Wagontall is cycling across the country from firehouse to firehouse, in a personal tour de force, to raise awareness for prostate cancer.

The 47-year-old spent part of the day on the road, cycling 196 kilometers from Thunder Bay to the Big Nickel, and spent the rest of it talking with people about his personal struggle with prostate cancer.

Diagnosed in 2004, Wagontall’s story does not come with a happy ending.

“I’m dying of prostrate cancer and it’s a needless death,” Wagontall said frankly. “My doctor’s tell me I won’t live to see 55.”

“Prostate cancer has a 95 percent cure rate, yet only three percent of men are being cured. Men need to know they have to be tested in order to catch it early on so they can be treated. In my case, the cancer has already spread to my bladder and lymph system.”

COX-2 inhibitors are a class of drugs that have been shown to have some anti-tumor activity against human prostate cancer, both in the lab and in tests on humans. German researchers wanted to find out if combining COX-2 inhibitors with radiation therapy causes more severe side effects than radiation alone. They conducted a Phase I trial to test this.

Liver cancer is likely caused by cycles of liver cell death and renewal, according to research at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine.

The research, to appear online the week of June 19 in advance of publication in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, underscores the importance of JNK1-mediated cell death and compensatory proliferation. The findings by Michael Karin, Ph.D., professor pharmacology in UCSD’s Laboratory of Gene Regulation and Signal Transduction, and colleagues strongly suggest that the control of tissue renewal through the IKK and JNK pathways plays a key role in liver cancer in mouse models.

The research team studied what precedes inflammation – liver cell damage caused by toxic chemicals, which sets in motion the inflammation process