Screening Can Save Few Ovarian Cancer Patients' Lives

In a recent research it has been stated that the best available screening tests reduces ovarian cancer death in a low frequency rate and saves few lives. The findings of the research also suggested that apart from screening tests, prevention and advanced treatment would significantly lower the number of women who die from ovarian cancer.

Screening Program for Ovarian Cancer

No screening program for ovarian cancer has been proven to save lives, mainly because the disease is uncommon and tends to grow and spread without causing symptoms. Laura Havrilesky, MD, MHSc, of the Duke University Medical Center in Durham, led a team that recently designed a computer-based model of the progression of ovarian cancer from early to late stages. The model, which takes into account the fact that certain ovarian cancers are slow growing while others grow more quickly, can test the effectiveness of screening strategies for reducing the number of deaths from ovarian cancer.

The researchers discovered that annual screening for ovarian cancer is likely to result in only a modest reduction in mortality from the disease. "If we assume ovarian cancers grow and spread at different rates, the best screening strategy available will only reduce the number of women dying from this cancer by 11 percent. This is partially because the slower growing cancers are more likely to be caught by a screening test," said Dr.Havrilesky.

The findings support the commonly held clinical impression that many early stage ovarian cancers are destined to remain in the early stages for some time, while advanced stage cancers have likely spread rapidly.

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Posted in: Screening - Few - Ovarian Cancer Patients' - Lives

Triple Negative Breast Cancer Could be Tackled by Three-drug Combination

A combination of three drugs that could treat triple negative breast cancer has been tested by scientists at the John Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center.Women with such cancers lack all three hormone receptors - estrogen , progesterone and human epidermal growth factor 2 (HER2) and currently, treatments for triple negative breast cancers are limited to surgery, chemotherapy and radiation, which provide some improvements but overall poor prognoses.

Treat Triple Negative Breast Cancer

In the new study, Johns Hopkins scientists began with a drug called Entinostat, which blocks an enzyme that unfolds DNA, providing regulatory molecules access to genes within and also reactivates a gene called retinoic acid receptor-beta (RAR-B). Thereafter, they added a drug called All Trans Retinoic Acid (ATRA), related to Vitamin A, which binds a protein made by the reactivated RAR-B gene.

Together, the ATRA drug and RAR-B gene act as a brake on cancer cell growth. The scientists completed the drug cocktail with conventional chemotherapy using either low doses of doxorubicin or paclitaxel.The scientists noted that using these drugs individually have some impact on the tumour but the combined impact tips the scale in favor of killing more cells.

Tests on laboratory-cultured cells showed that the triple combo therapy halted the growth of multiple triple negative breast cancer cell lines more effectively than any one of the treatments alone.

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Prescription Drugs Abuse on the Rise Among Americans: Study

Drugs Abuse on the Rise Among Americans

The number of Americans who used illegal drugs or abused prescription medications rose last year to reach its highest level since 2002, a survey released Thursday showed. Nearly 22 million Americans aged 12 and older used illegal drugs in 2009, a rise of nine percent from 2008, the survey conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) found.Some seven million Americans older than 12 took prescription drugs for non-medical reasons.

The bulk of the abuse of prescription medications involved painkillers, which some 5.3 million Americans used off-label last year -- a rise of 20 percent from 2002. Among teens, the rate of nonmedical prescription painkiller use rose 17 percent year on year, with most youngsters saying they got the meds from friends, family or an unsecured medicine cabinet. The rise in the use of illegal drugs was driven in large part by an increase in the use of marijuana, which 77 percent of the survey respondents said they had used in the past month.

Among teens, marijuana use rose nine percent in 2009, partly because "discussions of legalization, so-called medical marijuana and a proliferation of pro-drug messages" have left America's youth "misinformed about a drug whose potency has tripled in the past 20 years," SAMHSA said. Sixty percent more Americans used methamphetamine in 2009 versus 2008, and three-quarters of a million used ecstasy in 2009, the highest number of users since 2002.

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Enzyme Responsible For Brain Tumors Discovered

Brain Tumors

Tom Wurdinger, a Dutch researcher who is connected to Harvard (Boston) and the VUmc Cancer Center in Amsterdam, has discovered the enzyme playing a very important role in the return of malign brain tumor after surgery and radiation. By making this enzyme inactive, the cancer cell can become disorganized and blow itself up. "Potentially an effective supplementary treatment method has been discovered for this very aggressive and practically always deadly type of cancer. Proof of the importance and potential of the Dutch life sciences & health sector," says Willem de Laat, managing director of the Life Sciences & Health Innovation Program.

The most common and aggressive type of brain tumor is glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). The standard treatment for GBM is generally surgery, followed by a combination of radiation and chemotherapy, causing the DNA of the remaining cancer cells to be damaged. The DNA of the cancer cell determines what the cell should do, for example, double in size causing the tumor to grow. Since the cancer cells have the capacity of repairing the damaged DNA, for now the treatment is only partially effective, and eventually the tumor will always keep growing.

Killer dismantled

"We have discovered a certain type of enzyme that is responsible for the repair of the broken DNA in the brain tumor cell," says the 31 year old Tom Wurdinger, co-director of the Neuro-oncology Research Group (NRG) of the VUmc."If this specific enzyme is slowed down by a chemical substance, that is, a potential remedy, we have discovered that we can confuse the cancer cell. It can't find its way and will split up without repairing the damaged DNA. In this way the cell basically blows itself up."

Life sciences and health according to the American model

De Laat, who lived and worked in America for several years, points out the positive development in the way in which the research organizations and medical centres are now organizing themselves by specializing and physically concentrating close by to each other. Wurdinger also confirms that this would never have been possible for him if his laboratory was not just a bridge away from the clinic. "In the VUmc, medical specialists and researchers are able to work so closely together because we are physically very close. A bridge was literally built across the Boelelaan in Amsterdam, between my workplace and the hospital. The neurosurgeons provide me with cancer cells that were removed from somebody's head an hour earlier. This is invaluable to me."

De Laat also points out the fact that the University Medical Centres understand more and more that pre-clinical research is very important. "Now they are organized in specialised national work groups which contribute to very short lines of communication. With breakthrough researches like this one and the collaboration between national work groups, the Cancer Centre at VUMC puts the Dutch life sciences & health sector on the map," says Willem de Laat.

Zero percent chance of survival

At present, the healing percentage of the most aggressive brain tumor, GBM, is basically zero percent. Treatments are palliative: they aim at stretching a patient's life and controlling and reducing symptoms as much as possible.

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Next Generation Antibiotics Under Development In Israel

Next generation antibiotics in order to take on the drug-resistant superbugs.Dr. Micha Fridman of Tel Aviv University’s Department of Chemistry says the key is in the bacteria itself.

Israeli researchers are trying to develop the next generation antibiotics in order to take on the drug-resistant superbugs.Dr. Micha Fridman of Tel Aviv University’s Department of Chemistry says the key is in the bacteria itself. “We took the mechanism of bacterial resistance and used this mechanism itself to generate antibiotics,” explains Dr. Fridman. 

“It’s thanks to these bacteria that we can develop a better medication.” Conducted in collaboration with Prof. Sylvie Garneau-Tsodikova from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, Dr. Fridman’s research was highlighted recently in the journal ChemBioChem. According to Dr. Fridman, certain bacterial strains include enzymes which help the bacteria to inactivate antibiotics. When the enzymes meet with these antibiotics, they chemically alter the drug, making the antibiotic ineffective and unable to recognize its target.
 

Turning this powerful mechanism against the bacteria itself, the team isolated the antibiotic-inactivating enzymes from the bacteria, then integrated them into the drugs. With this alteration, the modified antibiotics proved to be effective against typically resistant bacterial strains.
At the heart of this development, says Dr. Fridman, was the chemical modification of the parent drug. Once the researchers identified how the bacteria incapacitated the antibiotics, they were able to create a drug that could block bacterial resistance while maintaining the integrity of the antibiotic.

According to the Center for Disease Control, each year 90,000 people in the U.S. die of drug-resistant “superbugs” ¯ bacteria like Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), a deadly form of staph infection resistant to normal antibiotics.Although hospital patients are particularly susceptible as a result of open wounds and weakened immune systems, the bacteria can infect anyone. But the new antibiotics will be a vast improvement on today’s drugs, says Dr. Fridman. When fully developed, they could be used to treat infections that are now considered difficult if not impossible to treat with current antibiotics.Dr. Fridman says that, while the new antibiotics are a few years away from the marketplace, the ability to beat bacterial resistance will be invaluable for the future of health care.

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Heart Problems Triggered Off by 'Distressed' Personality

Heart patients with the 'distressed' personality type are more prone to a higher risk of further heart problems

Heart patients with the 'distressed' personality type are more prone to a higher risk of further heart problems, discovered a new study. The findings are based on an analysis of previous reports involving more than 6,000 patients.The personality classification system that identified "Type A" decades ago more recently defined Type D as a personality marked by chronic negative emotions, pessimism and social inhibition.

Researchers noted a three-fold increase for Type D heart patients in risk of future cardiovascular issues such as peripheral artery disease, angioplasty or bypass procedures, heart failure, heart transplantation, heart attack or death. "Type D patients tend to experience increased levels of anxiety, irritation and depressed mood across situations and time, while not sharing these emotions with others because of fear of disapproval," said Viola Spek, Ph.D., senior author of the study and a researcher at Tiburg University in the Netherlands.

"We found that Type D personality predicts mortality and morbidity in these patients, independent of traditional medical risk factors." Researchers analyzed 49 studies of Type D personality and future heart health or psychological health. A Type D profile was also linked to a three-fold increase in long-term risk of psychological conditions including clinical depression, anxiety or poor mental health.

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New test gives one-hour TB diagnosis

New Test Which Can Diagnose Tuberculosis In One Hour

Scientists have developed a new test which can diagnose tuberculosis in one hour, potentially helping to curb the spread of the disease, a British health agency said in a study Wednesday.The "ultra-rapid" test is far quicker than traditional methods, which can take up to eight weeks and mean that patients, who are often from transient populations, move on untreated, said the Health Protection Agency (HPA).

"We?re excited to have developed this new test because it means we can potentially diagnose someone at a TB clinic within an hour and start them immediately on the treatment they need," said Cath Arnold of the HPA, who led the study."This new test could really have an impact where it is most needed."The new, highly sensitive test works by identifying a single molecule of DNA in the TB bacterium.Current tests involve taking mucus from sufferers and growing a bacterial culture in the laboratory, which can take weeks."It will be a lot more effective," HPA spokeswoman Emma Gilgunn-Jones told AFP.

"Up to 75 percent of people with TB are transient and it is difficult if they are not treated straightaway because they can move on and infect people."But it could be at least two years before the test appears on the market as it must now undergo extensive clinical trials which are starting in Britain soon, she added.The agency's findings are due to be presented at a conference at the University of Warwick in central England on Wednesday.The announcement comes less than two weeks after US researchers said they had developed a new test also using genetic markers that could diagnose drug-resistant TB in two hours.

Tuberculosis killed an estimated 1.8 million people worldwide in 2008, according to the World Health Organisation, with the disease spreading fastest in South East Asia.Drug-resistant TB is becoming a serious threat to global health, especially as only a small proportion of cases are diagnosed, the WHO warned. Almost half the drug-resistant cases were estimated to have occurred in China and India.

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Researchers Report That Lung Cancer Culprit Could Offer Target For Therapy

lung cancer

A tiny molecule that spurs the progression of non-small-cell lung cancer could become a player in fighting the disease, say researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center, who published a study on how the molecule behaves in mice in the Sept. 14 issue of Cancer Cell.

Scientists have known that the molecule microRNA-21, or miR-21, is present in overabundant quantities in human tumors, including non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Until now, however, it was unclear whether miR-21 contributed to the development of lung cancer, or whether it was simply an indicator of the presence of the disease.

To find out, lead study author Dr. Mark Hatley, an instructor of pediatric hematology/oncology, and UT Southwestern colleagues used mice that had been altered specifically to harbor non-small-cell lung cancer. In some of these mice, they genetically engineered the animals to produce too much miR-21. In another group, they deleted the miR-21 gene altogether, which eliminated the molecule in the rodents.

In animals with cancer, the results showed that too much miR-21, or overexpression, promotes the formation, growth and survival of new tumors by turning off certain genes that normally allow cancer cells to die. In fact, at 18 weeks of age, the study group with overexpressed miR-21 had significantly more tumors than their lung-cancer-carrying littermates with normal levels of miR-21. Healthy rodents engineered to overexpress miR-21 did not develop cancer.

"These results indicate that overexpression of miR-21 alone is not enough to initiate tumors in a healthy animal. Instead, it appears that miR-21 enhances the growth and survival of existing lung cancer," said Dr. Hatley, a Pediatric Scientist Development Program Fellow sponsored by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Dr. Eric Olson, chairman of molecular biology at UT Southwestern and the study's senior author, said the experiments also show that deleting miR-21 sensitizes the animals' cancer cells to a certain kind of chemotherapy, suggesting that inhibiting miR-21 in lung-cancer patients could be of therapeutic value.

"Methods currently exist to pharmacologically manipulate molecules like miR-21," said Dr. Olson, who directs the Nancy B. and Jake L. Hamon Center for Basic Research in Cancer and the Nearburg Family Center for Basic and Clinical Research in Pediatric Oncology. "More research will be needed before we know whether this is applicable to humans, but it's possible that a drug designed to inhibit miR-21 could help keep cancer at bay."

MiR-21 is a type of molecule called a microRNA. These small snippets of RNA - the chemical cousin of DNA - normally help coordinate and regulate the production of specific proteins in cells. When MIRNAs go awry, however, diseases such as cancer can result.

Notes:

Other UT Southwestern researchers involved with the study were David Patrick, graduate student; Matthew Garcia, research technician; Dr. James Richardson, professor of pathology, molecular biology and plastic surgery; Dr. Rhonda Bassel-Duby, professor of molecular biology; and Dr. Eva Van Rooj, adjunct instructor in molecular biology. The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Robert A. Welch Foundation, the Leducq Foundation and the American Heart Association.

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Posted in: Researchers Report That Lung Cancer Culprit Could Offer Target For Therapy

New drug-resistant superbugs found in 3 states

Serious public health risks due to a lack of new antibiotics at a time of rising antibiotic-resistant …

BOSTON – An infectious-disease nightmare is unfolding: 

Bacteria that have been made resistant to nearly all antibiotics by an alarming new gene have sickened people in three states and are popping up all over the world, health officials reported Monday.The U.S. cases and two others in Canada all involve people who had recently received medical care in India, where the problem is widespread. A British medical journal revealed the risk last month in an article describing dozens of cases in Britain> in people who had gone to India for medical procedures.

How many deaths the gene may have caused is unknown; there is no central tracking of such cases. So far, the gene has mostly been found in bacteria that cause gut or urinary infections.Scientists have long feared this — a very adaptable gene that hitches onto many types of common germs and confers broad drug resistance,creating dangerous "superbugs."

"It's a great concern," because drug resistance has been rising and few new antibiotics are in development, said Dr. M. Lindsay Grayson, director of infectious diseases at the University of Melbourne in Australia. "It's just a matter of time" until the gene spreads more widely person-to-person, he said.Grayson heads an American Society Microbiology conference in Boston, which was buzzing with reports of the gene, called NDM-1 and named for New Delhi.

The U.S. cases occurred this year in people from California, Massachusetts and Illinois, said Brandi Limbago, a lab chief at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Three types of bacteria were involved, and three different mechanisms let the gene become part of them."We want physicians to look for it," especially in patients who have traveled recently to India or Pakistan, she said.

What can people do?

Don't add to the drug resistance problem, experts say. Don't pressure your doctors for antibiotics if they say they aren't needed, use the ones you are given properly, and try to avoid infections by washing your hands.The gene is carried by bacteria that can spread hand-to-mouth, which makes good hygiene very important.It's also why health officials are so concerned about where the threat is coming from, said Dr. Patrice Nordmann, a microbiology professor at South-Paris Medical School. India is an overpopulated country that overuses antibiotics and has widespread diarrheal disease and many people without clean water.

"The ingredients are there" for widespread transmission, he said. "It's going to spread by plane all over the world."The U.S. patients were not related. The California woman needed hospital care after being in a car accident in India. The Illinois man had pre-existing medical problems and a urinary catheter, and is thought to have contracted an infection with the gene while traveling in India. The case from Massachusetts involved a woman from India who had surgery and chemotherapy for cancer there and then traveled to the U.S.

Lab tests showed their germs were not killed by the types of drugs normally used to treat drug-resistant infections, including "the last-resort class of antibiotics that physicians go to," Limbago said.She did not know how the three patients were treated, but all survived.Doctors have tried treating some of these cases with combinations of antibiotics, hoping that will be more effective than individual ones are. Some have resorted to using polymyxins — antibiotics used in the 1950s and '60s that were unpopular because they can harm the kidneys.

The two Canadian cases were treated with a combination of antibiotics, said Dr. Johann Pitout of the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada. One case was in Alberta, the other in British Columbia.Both patients had medical emergencies while traveling in India. They developed urinary infections that were discovered to have the resistance gene once they returned home to Canada, Pitout said.The CDC advises any hospitals that find such cases to put the patient in medical isolation, check the patient's close contacts for possible infection, and look for more infections in the hospital.Any case "should raise an alarm," Limbago said.

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Study: Whites with muscular dystrophy live up to 12 years longer than blacks

Whites with muscular dystrophy

Whites with muscular dystrophy live up to 12 years longer than their African American counterparts, according to a study published Monday in Neurology.Although medical advancements a period of 20 years increased the life span of patients with the debilitating muscle disease, those improvements haven’t been equal among different groups.White women with muscular dystrophy had a median death age of 63, versus 51 for African American women. For men, their median age at death was 33, versus 23 for African American males.

Muscular dystrophy is a group of inherited muscle diseases in which the muscle fibers are unusually susceptible to damage and progressively weaken. The condition can lead to early death due to respiratory or heart failure.Men tend to die younger, because the vast majority of patients who die have Duchenne muscular dystrophy - a particular type of the disorder that rarely affects female.

Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and University of Pennsylvania set out to identify trends in muscular dystrophy between 1985 to 2005 and analyzed 18,315 death certificates associated with the disease in the United States.Over this study period, both groups saw improvements in lifespan because of better lung care and other therapies, said one of the study authors, Dr. Richard Finkel.

"For white males overall, there was a 22-year increase in the age at death for whites (from about 22 to 44 years) while for blacks the increase was only about 6.6 years," said Finkel, clinical professor of Neurology at University of Pennsylvania school of medicine and director of the Neuromuscular Program at the Children's Hospital Philadelphia. "So both groups improved but not to the same extent."This racial disparity could be due to sociocultural barriers, genetic factors or other factors, but it’s impossible to pinpoint the reasons based on death certificates, Finkel said.

“There’s no way we can get beneath the surface and find out whether there are socio-economic factors that play a role,” Finkel said.  “Are there genetic factors in blacks versus whites that may play a role?  Are there other factors in blacks that compound the problem?  This study tried to take that into account- but that’s not the entire answer.”

Another finding was that cardiomyopathy, which is weakening of the heart muscle or a change in heart muscle structure, was more often reported in black men (20.9 percent) than white men (11.8 percent).The authors cautioned in the study that “this dataset did not include information about quality of life, so increases in age at death do not necessarily equate with improvements in quality of life.”

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Posted in: Whites with muscular dystrophy