The three pharmaceutical giants announced a plan to create a not-for-profit company in Singapore that will help speed up research on new medicines to treat gastric and lung cancers, which have become prevalent in Asia.

the Asian Cancer Research Group

The company, which will be called the Asian Cancer Research Group, is one of the first examples of a collaboration among major drug companies to combine resources and expertise to rapidly increase the knowledge of a disease and the disease process.

Merck is headquartered in Readington, Pfizer in New York and Eli Lilly in Indianapolis.

Over the next two years, the three companies will work on creating an extensive pharmacogenomic cancer database. The database will consist of information taken from about 2,000 tissue samples from patients with lung and gastric cancer and will be made available to researchers around the world.

The data will be housed and shared with scientists at the Lilly Singapore Center, Eli Lilly’s drug research facility.

“Through its work and the subsequent sharing of information, the information, the Asian Cancer Research Group hopes to empower researchers, foster innovation and improve the prognosis and treatment of patients with cancer,’’ said Gary Gilliand, senior vice president and franchise head, oncology, Merck Research Laboratories.

Sage Bionetworks

The creation of the research group was inspired by the non-profit Seattle-based Sage Bionetworks, which was founded by Stephen Friend, who previously headed Merck’s cancer research efforts.

Texas voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment in 2007 establishing the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) and authorizing the state to issue $3 billion in bonds to fund groundbreaking cancer research and prevention programs and services in Texas. CPRIT’s goal is to expedite innovation and commercialization in the area of cancer research and to enhance access to evidence-based prevention programs and services throughout the state. CPRIT accepts applications and awards grants for a wide variety of cancer-related research and for the delivery of cancer prevention programs and services by public and private entities located in Texas. More information about CPRIT and the funded proposals is available at its website, www.cprit.state.tx.us.

Here is who got funding!

January 20, 2010 CPRIT Research Awards

High Impact/High Risk: Short term projects that are developmental or exploratory in nature targeting new avenues of cancer research that, if successful, will contribute to major new insights into the etiology, diagnosis, treatment, or prevention of cancers.

Total monies awarded: $ 2,596,950
Recipients:
Baylor College of Medicine
Baylor University
InGeneron, Inc.
Rice University
Texas A&M University
The University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center
The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas

Individual Investigator: Innovative research proposals directed by a single investigator addressing critically important questions that will significantly advance knowledge of the causes, preventions and/or treatment of cancer.

Total monies awarded: $ 56,311,597
Recipients:
Baylor College of Medicine
Rice University
Texas A&M University System Health Science Center
Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center
The Methodist Hospital Research Institute
The University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Dallas
The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center
The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas
Visualase, Inc.

Recruitment (First Time, Tenure Track, Rising Stars and Superstars) Awards tailored to the career stage of the targeted recruits for relocation to Texas.

Total monies awarded: $ 2,000,000
Recipients:
The University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio

Cancer Research Institute Activities

The funding announced today is part of $3 billion that will be invested in cancer research projects during the next 10 years.

The Austin-based organization awarded 66 projects funding, which were chosen from about 900 proposals. A team of 100 experts reviewed applications and chose projects that study causes and treatments for brain, breast, blood, cervical, colon, liver, lung, ovarian, and prostate cancer.

At the same time, the institute awarded the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio the second CPRIT Scholar in Cancer Research. The facility will use the donation to recruit new staff.

Texas voters passed a constitutional amendment that created the organization in 2007. The state garnered $3 billion in bonds for research that aims to expedite innovation and commercialization in cancer research.

The University of Texas was among the winners.

This may be a bit late for a look at cancer issues over the last decade but Sandy Hutchens Cancer Prevention will do so nonetheless. Here we focus on three famous lives that were struck down by cancer in late 2009.

Farrah Fawcett lost her struggle with cancer

Farrah Fawcett, 62, who became famous on television’s Charlie’s Angels, was diagnosed with cancer in 2006.

She died in a Los Angles hospital.

A spokesman said that Fawcett “passed to a better place and left the pain and confines of her bed behind”.

Fawcett’s fight against the cancer was the theme of an emotional documentary that was released shortly before her death.

Senator Edward Kennedy died of cancer

A life of public service.

Ted Kennedy was called the “liberal lion of the Senate” and he fought a year-long battle with cancer of the brain. “He left the scene of the accident and has gone to a better place.” said a friend and admirer.

Edward Kennedy’s 1969 Chappaquiddick Speech – Memories of Greatness

Remembering Patrick Swayze

The cowboy celebrity that cared.

Patrick Swayze who became famous with the movie “Dirty Dancing” and then with the movie “Ghost,” died at the age of 57 after a battle with pancreatic cancer.

“Patrick Swayze passed away peacefully today with family at his side after facing the challenges of his illness for the last 20 months,” said a statement released shortly after his death.

Pancreatic cancer is a particularly deadly form of cancer.

One time Boston Symphony Orchestra music director Seiji Ozawa has been diagnosed with esophageal cancer. The cancer has been caught at an early stage and so Ozawa, 74, will stop conducting for six months to get treatment.

“I will abide by the doctors’ advice,” Ozawa said at a press conference. “I will be back within six months.”

Ozawa led the BSO for 29 years — longer than any other conductor in the orchestra’s history – before leaving in 2002. Unlike current music director James Levine, whose time is largely taken up in rehearsals and music-related events, Ozawa was a figure often spotted at Red Sox games and other public events. Back in April of 2002, people lined up outside Symphony Hall to get into a free concert Ozawa conducted as a kind of farewell to the city.

”He is as much a pillar of the Boston community as any of the sports stars or Teddy Kennedy,” David Rossman, a law professor at Boston University, told me. ”I think even people who don’t like music find it fulfilling to be here and share in something like this.”

Ozawa serves now as chief conductor of the Vienna State Opera.

Esophageal Cancer Survivor-ABC News

(video)

The findings, published in the October 2009 issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers, and Prevention, highlight the need to develop specific health policies and interventions to address social disparities.

Although prior studies have focused on factors that contribute to disparities in specific cancers, the Mailman School researchers’ goal in this study was to understand why racial/ethnic disparities emerge in some cancers but not others. The study used data from more than 580,000 cancer cases in the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) registries to compare racial/ethnic differences in survival across a spectrum of cancers, classified according to their five-year relative survival rates as a measure of how amenable each cancer is to medical interventions. The authors hypothesized that racial/ethnic disparities increase as medical interventions improve overall survival because individuals with more socioeconomic resources are in a better position to exploit medical advances to protect their health.

The results found that, as compared with whites, substantial survival disparities existed in more treatable cancers in African-Americans, American Indians/Alaska Natives, Hispanics, and several subgroups of the Asian/Pacific Islander population.

The 30-year study, which covers cell phone use in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden from 1974 to 2003, found no link between mobile phones and brain cancer. However, the authors of the report conceded that more research is needed on the topic.

According to an abstract, the study showed a lack of a “trend change in [brain cancer] incidence from 1998 to 2003,” when cell phone use showed a marked increase in Scandinavia. That suggests that the induction period relating mobile phone use to brain tumors exceeds five to 10 years. The report concludes that “the increased risk in this population is either too small to be observed, the increased risk is restricted to subgroups of brain tumors or mobile phone users, or there is no increased risk.”

In August, an international group of electromagnetic field activists offered criticism of an Interphone study on handsets and cancer, a 13-country research effort funded in part by the telecom industry.

According to groups, including the EMR Policy Institute and the Radiation Research Trust, the Interphone study was systemically skewed because it was commissioned on behalf of wireless handset manufacturers.

The activists argued that the study ignored many types of brain tumors; excluded people who had died or were too ill to be interviewed as a consequence of their brain tumors; and excluded children and young adults potentially at higher risk than mature segments of the population.

Cell Phone and Brain Cancer

Neale had also been recuperating from injuries sustained after being hit by an automobile while driving his Vespa scooter in Toronto on Aug. 3, 2007.

His friends and musicians were totally shocked by the news, particularly since many of them thought that he was finished with the worst part of his illness and was in a recovery phase.

“That guy just exuded what it is to be a really cool, down to earth, just amazing individual,” Toronto hip-hop MC Kardinal Offishall told CP backstage at the SOCAN awards on Monday. “Wow. Canada really lost something special.”

Family members and some of his friends were at his side as he died.

“Through all these challenges, Haydain’s sense of humour and love of music were ever-present,” his wife Michaela said.

He consistently brightened the room with his singing and his dazzling smile. His playful presence and rich voice will be missed by us all. Jacksoul was to release “SOULmate,” on Dec. 1 with 10 new tracks.

The first single, “Lonesome Highway,” was co-produced and co-written by Neale, and touches on his recovery, supported by his wife, daughter Yasmin and numerous others. Former Treble Charger frontman Greg Nori considered Neale a close friend since the two men worked side by side in studio space at the Sony offices.

“This guy was an extremely, extremely generous person,” Nori said backstage at the SOCAN event. “(He) was always 120 per cent to me, as an individual, he really was. I always had a really great friendship with him and we had a great respect for each other.

“I never saw the guy get mad. He only had positive energy about him. That’s my recollection of him. Never, ever did I see any kind of jealousy out of him, or negativity.”

Kardinal Offishall, likewise, said Neale was a special human being.

“People who never had the chance to meet him were able to see that not just through his music, but just in how he carried himself, just the type of dude that he was,” said the rapper, who says he had checked in on Neale’s status by sending a text message to a mutual friend just days before his death.

Jacksoul’s previous hits include “Can’t Stop” and “Still Believe in Love.” Neale was known for his soulful, elastic croon, for a voice that was faithfully smooth but organic and expressive.

“Hopefully his music will live on,” said Hedley guitarist Dave Rosin. That’s all any artist can hope. … It’s a sad thing.”

Nori, meanwhile, praised Neale’s integrity, versatility and commitment to his artistic ideals.

“I think he was always tackling something that wasn’t the flavour of the moment,” Nori said. “I think it was always a struggle to him because it wasn’t flavour of the moment, and it didn’t sell as much.

“He always had the ability to go do that if he wanted to, but he stuck to his guns and stayed with what he knew was in his heart, and I commend him for that.”

An interment with a private family gathering will take place later this week.

It is interesting to note that the reason men leave a sick spouse is partially explained by their lesser ability to quickly adjust to becoming a caregiver and be the primary homemaker. Links were discovered between age and length of marriage and the probability of separation. Longer marriages seem to remain more stable however the older the woman, the more likely the partnership would end.

The study that Hutchens Cancer Prevention is reporting on was conducted with the Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah School of Medicine and Stanford University School of Medicine. For the study, patients were divided into three diagnostic groups: those with malignant primary tumors, those with solid tumors with no central nervous system involvement, and those with multiple sclerosis. Approximately one half were women.

Chamberlain said the study was begun since doctors noticed that in their neuro-oncology practices, divorce occurred almost exclusively when the wife was the patient, but in all cases the woman was more likely to end up alone. Researchers also looked at the quality of life among the patients who separated or divorced.

They found that these patients used more psychotropics for depression, took part in less clinical trials, had a greater frequency of hospitalizations, were less likely to continue their courses of radiation therapy and it was more common for them to not die in their own homes.

The findings will be published in the journal Cancer. Medical professionals should be sensitive to potential marital problems in couples afflicted by a serious medical illness, especially when the one diagnose is a woman.

“Early identification and psychosocial intervention might reduce the frequency of divorce and separation, and in turn improve quality of life and quality of care,” claimed the researchers.

Cancer and Marriage: Four Couples

While we know that there is no balm for the sense of helplessness that arises from learning a loved one has cancer, a national research study is focused on giving average Canadians occasion to aid in someone’s future grief. Personal health data from 300,000 Canadians over the next 30 years will give researchers a better understanding of risk factors for cancer.

“We know a bit about some of the causes of cancer, but we clearly don’t know all of them,” said Dr. Marilyn Borugian, scientist at the B.C. Cancer Agency. “People still walk into doctor’s offices everyday who don’t have the common risk factors and their illness can’t be explained.”

Borugian is the director of the province’s portion of the study, called the BC Generations Project.The project just launched its drive to enlist 40,000 B.C. residents between the ages of 40 and 69. Participants will complete a questionnaire about health and lifestyle, have various physical measurements taken, and provide blood and urine samples. “The purpose is to try and get at solutions around cancer prevention and early detection,” Borugian said.

The anonymous data will be tracked over 30 years and then compared against the provincial cancer registry. Information from those who develop cancer, diabetes and heart disease will be placed side by side with those who remain healthy. The result will hopefully be a clear reading on what was at play before the person got sick, potentially pointing to contributing factors or causes, Borugian said.

“If I take a blood sample from someone who’s already become ill, then (I’ve) confused the picture with things that might be the result of the stresses or weight loss or medications as a result of the illness,” she said.

Chris Dawkins, of Vancouver, gave his blood during the 90-minute process with two loved ones in mind: his father, who died of cancer, and his sister-in-law, a breast cancer survivor who persuaded him to join the study.

“I’m wishing something like this had happened years ago, so that we had that body of knowledge and those trends and that information that we could have relied on before now,” said the 64-year-old. “My father died in 1961 and there’s been a lot of (other) pain and heartbreak since then, and I was thinking that if a project like this had gotten off the ground several years ago, we would have been so much ahead of the game.”

Along with B.C., Alberta, Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada are participating in the cohort study, which is supported by $42 million from Canadian Partnership Against Cancer and regional funding.

While an assessment clinic is currently open in the city of Vancouver, another one will open in the following year in Victoria. A mobile assessment van will also tour small communities in the province. One advantage of the study is that the data collected is about how participants are living at present, as opposed to asking afflicted people to recall their habits from years past, Borougian said.