In today’s New York Times Health Section, RONI RABIN includes prostate cancer in a list of men’s health conditions that get less than a fair share of attention and research dollars compared with women’s health conditions:

“Cancer also strikes men disproportionately: one in three women at some point in life; one in two men. In part, that is a result of the fact that more men than women smoke, and possibly of occupational exposures.

But experts and advocates say that when it comes to government financing for the most common sex-specific reproductive cancers, breast cancer financing exceeds prostate cancer financing by more than 40 percent, with prostate cancer research receiving $394 million in 2005, and breast cancer receiving $710 million. The figures, for financing by the National Cancer Institute and Defense Department, were provided by the not-for-profit Prostate Cancer Foundation.
(full story…)

Protoxin, also called PRX302, is a drug being tested on men with localized recurrent prostate cancer in Phase I clinical trials in Texas and Vermont.

Patients considering this trial must have experienced recurrence after completing a full course of definitive external beam radiation or definitive brachytherapy (but not both) as primary therapy for diagnosed prostate cancer at least one year prior to enrollment

Our main news about Protoxin is here:
PSA-activated protoxin that kills prostate cancer: phase I clinical trial is underway
http://www.psa-rising.com/prostatecancer/protoxin1106.htm

A reader asked for a simpler, clearer explanation of what’s going on with this drug. Here’s what we know at the moment:

In Texas, one trial enrolled the first patients in May this year and is hoping to recruit 36 men with localized recurrent prostate cancer. Patients must have recurred after EBR or brachytherapy, have PSA level less than 20 ng/mL and PSA doubling time longer than 3 months. They must NOT be taking hormone drugs. Also, they must NOT have signs of metastatic disease including no bone metastases on bone scan, or any lymph node, lung, liver or soft tissue.
(full story…)

Phenoxodiol’s fast track status at FDA generates a lot on interest among men with advanced prostate cancer. But despite evidence that Phenoxodiol delays progression in hormone refractory prostate cancer, is the fast track to FDA approval petering out?
(full story…)

An Australian man has died after swallowing 10,000 times the daily dose of selenium, reports The Age online newspaper. The 75-year-old mistakenly “purchased sodium selenite powder used primarily as a supplement for livestock, swallowing 10 grams.”

The man’s case is reported was reported October 2 in the Medical Journal of Australia (”Accidental death from acute selenium poisoning“).

According to The Age, Australian doctors who treated the 75-year-old “have used his death to highlight the dangers of promoting complementary medicines without adequate instructions.” The doctors blame the internet.

Selenium for human consumption, as sold in pharmacies, health stores and supermarkets , typically comes in 200 microgram (µg) pills or capsules, which may be printed “200 mcg.”
(full story…)

FDA has approved a new colon and rectal cancer drug, Vectibix, and the manufacturer, Amgen has promised to cap the cost for patients who need the drug but cannot afford it.
(full story…)

Women who eat fatty fish, but not other fish, may cut their risk of kidney cancer by about half according to a Swedish study.

The same Swedish hospital studied men for a period of 30 years and found eating fatty fish could reduce prostate cancer risk by one third.
(full story…)

On September 19-20, 2006, nearly 4,000 American Cancer Society “Celebration Ambassadors” will gather in Washington, DC for Celebration on the Hill 2006—a unique event that will show our country’s lawmakers how the American Cancer Society is waging the fight against cancer in communities nationwide.

Welcome to Celebration on the Hill 2006!

Cancer survivors attend Celebration on the Hill
By Robyn Jackson

Cancer survivors from South Mississippi are in Washington, D.C., today and Wednesday for Celebration on the Hill, an event organized by the American Cancer Society to encourage Congress to make cancer funding a priority. Hattiesburg American.

Celebration on the Hill Forums (ACS) by topic and regional division

Preparations Made for Celebration on the Hill (Yahoo, Sept 14)

Don’t eat your packaged spinach! Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advises consumers not to eat bagged fresh spinach in view of a serious E. coli outbreak reported since Aug. 23 in more than twenty states starting with Connecticut, Idaho, Utah, Indiana, New Mexico, Michigan, Oregon, and Wisconsin, which reported the most cases and the one death. Reports of confirmed cases have spread rapidly.
(full story…)

News about Provenge vaccine … getting closer:

Provenge prostate cancer vaccine linked to longer survival for asymptomatic hormone refractory stage — UCSF study. June 28, 2006.

Dendreon Announces Publication of Pivotal Phase 3 Study Highlighting Survival Benefit and Safety Profile of PROVENGE in Men with Advanced Prostate Cancer June 29, 2006
Dendreon Announces FDA Grants Fast Track Status for Provenge

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 silibirin 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.
(full story…)

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.”
(full story…)

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
(full story…)

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.

(full story…)

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.
(full story…)

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

From ASCO, May 26 2006.

On Wednesday, Reps. Lois Capps (D-CA) and Tom Davis (R-VA) introduced HR 5465, the “Comprehensive Cancer Care Improvement Act of 2006,” to reform the Medicare system so it more appropriately pays for all of the services needed to provide patients with comprehensive cancer care.

HR 5465 would establish a new Medicare service for the development of:

1)a treatment plan at the beginning of primary therapy and communication of the plan to the patient, and

2)a cancer care summary and follow-up care plan at the end of primary therapy and communication of the plan to the patient.

These services are essential to providing the resources needed to assure quality care for patients, both during and after their term of active treatment for cancer.

The legislation, supported by the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship (NCCS), patient advocacy groups and many cancer centers also includes provisions to improve symptom management and palliative care for patients.

May 2006

The use of some antidepressants may reduce the risk of developing colorectal cancer, according to researchers reporting in The Lancet Oncology. The antidepressants, known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), may inhibit the growth of colorectal tumors, according to lead researcher Jean-Paul Collet, MD, from the Sir Mortimer B. Davis Jewish General Hospital in Montreal.

“Further investigation is needed, with more complete assessment of confounders, such as lifestyle factors, use of drugs and comorbidity, that might affect the occurrence of colorectal cancer,” Collet added in a press statement.

Full story at Hem/Onc Today
Sources:
* Xu W, Tamim H, Shapiro S, et al. Use of antidepressants and risk of colorectal cancer: a nested case-control study. Lancet Oncol. 2006;7:301-308.
* Sørensen HT. Selective serotonin-reuptake inhibitors and chemoprevention of colorectal cancer. Lancet Oncol. 2006;7:277-279.

12:35 May 15, ‘06 / 17 Iyar 5766

(IsraelNN.com) Colon cancer patients launched a hunger strike “to the death” outside the Knesset on Sunday, announcing that if the national government does not update the healthcare basket to include their drugs, they will continue their strike until their death, explaining they have nothing to lose.

Strikers explain that the healthcare system does not currently subsidize the drugs that can save their lives, and therefore, the pharmaceuticals are too expensive for them. They insist the government cannot turn their backs on so many citizens who can be helped, but lack the funds to purchase the drugs that offer them a cure.
Source:
Arutz Sheva - Israel National News