Sandy Hutchens Cancer Prevention

Biohit develops cancer fighting capsule

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.

British composer Andrew Lloyd Webber is urging men over 50 years-old to get regular tests for prostate cancer after he was successfully treated for the disease last year and given the all-clear.

Lloyd Webber, 61, said in a health diary published on his website that he noticed the first symptoms of his cancer last summer and underwent an operation to remove his prostate gland after a biopsy came back positive.

He was told the cancer had been caught early and the treatment was successful, but he then battled an underlying e-coli infection that had been there all along.

“If that infection had been found and cured, I could have been blissfully unaware that I had a cancerous tumor that was on the verge of breaking loose around the rest of my body. I could have thought that my frequent peeing was due to a weak bladder. I have been bloody lucky,” wrote Lloyd Webber.

“I say to every red-blooded male, if you do begin to have a problem down under, however embarrassing, go to your GP at once. Even if you don’t have any symptoms, if you are over 50 get regular PSA (prostate specific antigen) tests.”

Lloyd Webber, the composer behind hit musicals including “Jesus Christ Superstar,” “Cats” and “Starlight Express,” is staging a sequel to “The Phantom of the Opera” called “Love Never Dies” that is due to open in London in March this year.

He has also just kicked off a search for Dorothy to star in his West End production of “The Wizard of Oz” with his search to be the topic of a BBC television talent show.

Interview with Andrew Lloyd Webber

Cancer at the end of the last decade

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.