Can anyone really be surprised?  I remember Dr. Brawley talking to us young fellows about the hazards of prostate cancer screening as far back as 2003.  As I recall, he was even mad that there was a prostate cancer postage stamp! 

Acupuncture a Powerful Integrative Oncology Tool Integrative Oncology is the combination of “mainstream” care and evidenced-based complimentary therapies to control cancer-related pain and symptoms [source: Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center Integrative Medicine]. Complementary therapies while not given the attention that more traditional cancer therapies may receive are perhaps equally important while undergoing treatment for certain types of cancer including malignant mesothelioma.

Salt Lake City April 8 2009 -- Myriad Pharmaceuticals Inc. announced today that the FDA has approved an Investigational New Drug (IND) application to begin a Phase 1 clinical study with its Hsp90 inhibitor MPC-3100 for the treatment of cancer. The clinical development plan for MPC-3100 is designed to expedite the drug candidate through the clinical development path. The Phase 1 trial will assess the safety and pharmacokinetics profile of MPC-3100.

Researchers are calling for clinical trials of high-dose IV vitamin C in cancer treatment since the discovery that the supplement reduces cell proliferation in mice independent of an antioxidant effect. This goes against fifty years of theory dating all the way back to Linus Pauling. Turns out the vitamin turns off gene expression in genes critical to cell growth. Who new? This goes back to the T.S. Kuhn concept of science defined by its tools and techniques. When you had ways of measuring things by their oxidation activity you called them antioxidants.

Where is the thyroid gland and what is it’s function? The thyroid gland is shaped like a butterfly and sits just below the voice box and in front of the trachea (wind-pipe). It resides under thin muscle layers in the midline central neck just above the sternum and moves with swallowing as it is attached to the trachea. The thyroid gland is a central organ in the body that secretes thyroid hormones and as such regulates our body’s metabolism energy level and various other functions.

Digoxin shows early promise as a cancer treatment. JNCI is running a story based on PNAS paper (preclinical) showing some biological plausibility and animal results. There are also some retrospective human results suggesting benefit in breast cancer but there are no prospective studies which would come next. Sorry this is preclinical but this is a ubiquitous available medication that may be useful to us in the future.

Blood transfusion is the method of moving blood or blood-based products from one person into the circulatory system of another. A transfusion is the inoculation of a blood product by way of a needle inserted into a patient’s vein.

Bevacizumab is a useful medication in the treatment of colon cancer lung cancer and breast cancer. Thousands of patients per year receive the medicine which has been shown to improve survival and prevent progressive disease. Bevacizumab is a monoclonal antibody targeted against blood vessels that nourish malignant tumors. Though scientists have not figured out exactly how bevacizumab works clinical doctors have been using it for a number of years with good success. Important news about the cancer treatment bevacizumab hit the press last week. In a meta-analysis of data Dr.

Chemotherapy is commonly used anti-cancer medication. It usually administered through injection into a vein though oral forms of chemotherapy are becoming more prevalent.  There has been debate for more than a decade over whether vitamin C supplements are useful or harmful for cancer patients. Since vitamin C is an antioxidant some researchers are of the view that it helps cancer patients.  Improvement in survival however has never been demonstrated in controlled studies.  Medical oncologists are in general of the view that antioxidants decrease the effectiveness of chemotherapy.

Doctors are less likely to treat black women with radiation after surgical removal of early stage breast cancer than they are white women researchers stated which adds to evidence of racial disparity in cancer treatment in the US. 37 305 women 65 and older who were part of the study had undergone a procedure called a lumpectomy in which doctors removed just the tumor and spared the breast a procedure which is far less radical than the surgical removal of the entire breast a mastectomy.