While Danchura and her husband slept, the cat jumped onto the bed and slowly walked across her body. As the cat stepped on one of her breasts, Danchura was struck by an strong shot of pain.

A lump was discovered.

“I sort of went, ‘Oh geez, there’s definitely something wrong there,’” she said.

The cat was considered a hero by finding a cancerous tumour in Judy Danchura’s breast She made a doctor’s appointment,then there were the tests and ultimately the diagnosis of cancer.

Due to the early detection of the malignant tumour, and since she was able to start treatment right away, Danchura’s possibility of survival is estimated at 95 per cent.

She is grateful to the cat, which she has now adopted.

“I don’t know what my chances of survival would have been without him,” she said. “I know I’d certainly be far worse off.”

Danchura named the cat Sumo but likes to refer to him as her “furry four-footed angel.”

“I sometimes feel overwhelmed because I feel humbled,” she said. “I can’t understand why this animal turned up for me.”

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.

Tamoxifen is given to most women diagnosed with breast cancer to prevent the cancer returning.

But not all women respond to the drug – experts estimate a third get no benefit.

The work in the journal Cancer Research suggests the problem is too much of a gene called FGFR1.

This discovery could lead to new treatments for these women as scientists “switch off” the action of FGFR1, enabling Tamoxifen to work.

The team of scientists in the Breakthrough Breast Cancer Research Centre at The Institute of Cancer Research have already shown this is possible in the lab.

They introduced a drug which “switched off” the action of FGFR1.

Once FGFR1 was stopped, hormone-based treatments like Tamoxifen could get back to work in destroying cancer cells, they found.

The researchers believe this could ultimately help thousands of women each year.

They say one in 10 breast cancer patients has too much of the FGFR1 gene.

Dr Nick Turner, who led the research, said: “Understanding how this gene can cause Tamoxifen resistance reveals a new drug target for treating breast cancers in patients who would otherwise have a poor outcome.

“There are a number of drugs in development that stop FGFR1 working, and clinical studies are investigating whether these drugs work against cancers with too many copies of this gene.

“The next step is to set up a clinical trial to see whether a drug that blocks the action of this gene can counteract hormone therapy resistance in breast cancer patients.

“If these trials confirm our lab work we could be on the verge of a potentially exciting new treatment for breast cancer.”

Dr Lesley Walker of Cancer Research UK, the charity which helped fund the work, said: “Cracking the problem of resistance to treatments such as Tamoxifen would be a major advance in treating breast cancer.”

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in the UK affecting more than 45,500 women each year.

Tamoxifen blocks the female sex hormone oestrogen that fuels the growth of some breast tumours.

Two soft drinks a week may double the risk of getting pancreatic cancer, according to a recent study.

The soda industry strongly disagreed with the study, calling it flawed and showing other research that did not find an association between soda drinking and pancreatic cancer.

”People who drank two or more soft drinks a week had an 87% increased risk – or nearly twice the risk – of pancreatic cancer compared to individuals consuming no soft drinks,” says study lead author Noel T. Mueller, MPH, a research associate at the Cancer Control Program at Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, D.C.

Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research has published the study.

Cancer of the pancreas was found in over 40,000 people in America in 2009, according to American Cancer Society estimates, and about 35,000 deaths from the disease were expected. The pancreas lies beneath the stomach and creates the hormone insulin to balance blood sugar. It also produces juices with enzymes in order to break down fats and proteins.

Video on pancreatic cancer

Prior studies showed mixed conclusions as to the connection of of soft drinks boosts the risk of pancreatic cancer.

Mueller and his associates studied 60,524 men and women enrolled in a Singapore Chinese Health Study, which began in the early 1990’s, for up to 14 years, to observe their diet and whether they got cancer.

They asked all participants about food intake, including sodas and juices. Mueller says the researchers didn’t ask specifically about diet soda consumption, but that most of the soda drunk was regular or sweetened.

In Singapore at that time, Mueller says, there was very little intake of diet soda.

“We followed the participants for 14 plus years, keeping track of different cancers,” he tells WebMD.

They found 140 cases of pancreatic cancer and looked back to see if there was an association with sodas or juices.

The researchers divided the consumption of sodas and juices into three categories: none, less than two servings a week, or two or more servings a week.

Those who drank two or more a week — the average number was five — had the 87% increased risk, Mueller tells WebMD.

No link was found between juices and pancreatic cancer risk.

Why is there an association with soft drinks? Mueller says they are not certain. “What we believe is the sugar in the soft drinks is increasing the insulin level in the body, which we think contributes to pancreatic cancer cell growth. That increase in insulin is what may be leading to the development of the cancer.”

His team adjusted for other risk factors, such as advancing age, smoking, diabetes, and body mass index. It is well known that the risk for pancreatic cancer rises with age.

Here are the 10 ways.

1. Moderate your alcohol consumption: drinking alcohol increases the risks of cancers of the pharynx, mouth, larynx, rectum, esophagus, colon, and liver. Women should limit themselves to one alcoholic beverage per day. Men should limit themselves to two.

2. Eat plenty of raw fruits and vegetables: The American Cancer Society recommendation is to eat five servings of fruits and vegetables daily since they are loaded with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and other substances that decrease the risk of cancer. Recent studies have shown that the connection between eating vegetables and fruits and lower risk of cancer risk isn’t as strong as once thought. However the majority of researchers still subscribe to the idea that a plant-based diet is one of the best ways to secure overall health.

3. Think about chemoprevention: Chemoprevention is using natural or synthetic compounds to reduce the cancer risk or recurrence. Tamoxifen, prescribed to prevent breast cancer in women, is the most famous chemoprevention agent. The downside: chemoprevention drugs may have serious side effects.

4. Decrease the amount of fat in your diet: Studies suggest that high-fat diets are linked to several types of cancer, including postmenopausal breast, colon, and lung cancer. High-fat diets are usually high in calories and increase the risk of obesity. More study is required to understand which types of fat should be avoided and what amount effects cancer risk.

5. Stay within your ideal weight zone: Being overweight will tend to increase the risk of postmenopausal breast cancer as well as cancers of the endometrium, colon, esophagus and kidney. There have been studies showing that obesity increases the risk of cancers of the prostate, liver, stomach, gallbladder, pancreas, ovary and cervix. Some studies estimate that excess weight is a factor in 15 to 20 percent of cancer-related deaths.

6. Get screening exams: Pap tests, mammograms, colonoscopies and other routine screenings obviously don’t prevent cancer. But screenings will detect cancers early, when treatment is more likely to be successful.

7. Exercise: Evidence increasingly suggests that people who exercise have lower risk of certain cancers than those who are sedentary. From 45 to 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity a day, on most days of the week, is considered optimal to decrease the risk of breast and colorectal cancers.

8. Limit radiation exposure: Ultraviolet (UV) radiation, from the sun, sunlamps or commercial tanning beds, is the primary cause of skin cancer.

9. Stop smoking or don’t start smoking: The risk of cancers caused by smoking is proportional with the length of time a person has smoked and the quantity of cigarettes smoked. Lung cancer, the leading cause of cancer death among Americans is caused by smoking. Quitting smoking decreases the risk of lung cancer and it is never too late to take action on this.

10. Guard yourself from infection: Infections caused by viruses are well known to be risk factors for a wide variety of cancers. Human papillomavirus (HPV), which is a sexually transmitted disease, is the most frequent cause of cervical cancer. Chronic hepatitis B and hepatitis C aggravate the risk of liver cancer. They are usually spread by contact with contaminated blood, contaminated needles or sex. Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the virus that leads to AIDS, additionally increase the risk of many cancers.

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.

As it turns out BBC News has reported the use of screening tests other than smears may prevent of more deaths caused by cervical cancer. This is so for women who are over 35.

Italian researchers headed by Dr. Guglielmo Ronco of the Turin Centre for Cancer Prevention studied data on over 90,000 women over three and a half years. The findings were that women who have been tested for the human papillomavirus (HPV) suffered less cancers than women who were tested using the more common smear technique.

Testing for HPV can pick up early pre-cancerous alterations to cervical cells, which means that the correct treatment can be started at an early stage. The director of information at the Cancer Research UK,, Dr. Leslie Walker state that “we might be able to spot the warning signs even earlier and it might, in future, mean that women go for screening less often.”

The good news according to the research is that HPV testing does not require the same amount of testing. Once every five years will do whereas smears need to be done once every three years.

Good for women under the age of 35

Unfortunately this type of testing is not the best one for all women. Since HPV testing is generally more sensitive, it also tends to find problems that, when discovered in younger women, often correct themselves over time and are truly better left untreated. Therefore, the testing is not best suited for women under the age of 35 in order to avoid being over-treated.

We encourage you to read more on this.

Doctor Speaks About Cervical Cancer Screenings

Dr. Bernadine Healy speaks about ACOG’s new recommendations for less frequent pap smears to detect cervical cancer in this video.

Finnish medical biotechnology group Biohit said Monday it had developed a capsule that could help prevent stomach and throat cancer by neutralising the cancer-causing compound acetaldehyde.

Acetaldehyde is produced from alcohol and sugar by microbes in the mouth. The gastric acid of a healthy stomach generally kills these microbes, but they can survive in an acid-free stomach and continue to produce acetaldehyde there.

“It is clear that acetaldehyde is a class one carcinogenic, or a cancer-causing factor of the worst kind, and it is clear that an acid-free stomach is a risk factor for stomach cancer,” Biohit chief executive Osmo Suovaniemi told AFP.

He said the capsule, developed by Biohit in collaboration with researchers from the University of Helsinki, neutralised acetaldehyde when taken with meals or alcohol and could, therefore, help prevent the development of cancer.

“How many cancer cases it may prevent in the future remains to be seen,” Suovaniemi said, adding it would take years to determine the capsule’s cancer-preventing impact.

Suovaniemi said the drug had received the approval of medical authorities after undergoing clinical testing.

Biohit aims to make the over-the-counter capsules available in Finnish pharmacies during the first half of this year and to start marketing them internationally during 2011 at the latest.

Biohit shares surged on the news and were up by 120 percent at 3.36 euros in late afternoon trading on the Helsinki stock exchange.

With acknowledgment to AFP.

Finding the right foods and nutrition supplements that help prevent cancer is a difficult aspect of research: often, when researchers think that they understand something, a newer study arrives that finds that the opposite is true.

Lung cancer was diagnosed 220,000 times last year and resulted in 160,000 fatalities. Researchers are searching for vitamins that help reduce cancer risk. Beta-carotene was once a contender as an anti-carcinogen. However in 2004, a major study found that in the case of smokers, beta-carotene supplements increased lung cancer risk.

With such reversals in their thinking, cancer researchers are careful to curb their enthusiasm over new studies that may offer hope in lung cancer prevention. However this week, there have been two new studies which have discovered very promising qualities to green tea and green vegetables.

Folic Acid and Phytochemicals

In one study which included over one thousand current or former smokers it was found that people whose diets had been high in folic acid, leafy-green vegetables and those currently taking multivitamins rich in phytochemicals (vitamins A, C, K, folate, carotenoids and lutein) showed lower levels of genetic changes causing lung cancer in smokers.

The second found that compared with Taiwanese smokers who drank at least one cup of green tea a day, smokers who did not drink green tea were almost thirteen times more likely to get lung cancer. Smokers who had genetic variations that put them at greater risk of developing lung cancer didn’t get quite as much protection from green tea as those who didn’t have those genetic variations. But they still benefited.

The polyphenols found in tea, and especially in green tea, have drawn lots of attention as potential cancer-blockers. This study was presented at a conference being held this week in Coronado, Calif., on lung cancer and its molecular origins. It’s sponsored by the American Assn. for Cancer Research.

The leafy-greens study, published in the journal Cancer Research, appeared online Tuesday. Officials of the National Cancer Institute, which funded the study, lauded the study as “well designed.” But in a statement, NCI’s biomarkers research group chief Sudhir Srivastava cautioned that more research would need to strengthen the evidence–even for leafy greens–before it could serve as the basis for dietary recommendations.

The Benefits of Leafy Greens for Lung Cancer