Treating patients with thalidomide in combination with chemotherapy for small cell lung cancer (SCLC) did not improve their survival but did increase their risk of blood clots, according to a new study published online July 16 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Siow Ming Lee, M.D., of the Department of Oncology, University Hospital in London, and colleagues randomly assigned 724 SCLC patients to take either a placebo or thalidomide. Used in treating some other cancers, thalidomide is an anti-angiogenic drug, i.e., it targets and suppresses the formation of new blood vessels that tumors need to survive and grow. In this randomized double-blind trial, patients received 100-200 milligrams daily for up to two years. The resea...

Surgically removing and evaluating an increasing number of lymph nodes does not appear to identify a greater number of patients with stage III colorectal cancer, according to a report in the July issue of Archives of Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. Colorectal cancer is the third most common type of cancer and the third leading cause of cancer-related death in the United States, according to background information in the article. More than 80 percent of newly diagnosed colorectal cancer patients will have locoregional disease (limited to a small region) and will be offered surgery that may cure their illness. The status of lymph nodes near the cancer has been recognized as the most powerful prognostic factor for recurrence and...

NEW YORK -- Investigators at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), along with collaborating teams at the Cleveland Clinic and the University of Michigan, have completed the first large- scale, multi-institutional study of prostate cancer death after standard treatment to remove the prostate since PSA screening has become widely used as a method to screen for the disease. In the study, published online in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, researchers found that in a group of 12,677 men who had radical prostatectomies between 1987 and 2005, the fifteen-year mortality rate that could be directly linked to prostate cancer was only 12 percent, even though many of the patients' cancers had aggressive features. Compa...

The American Academy of Dermatology (Academy) recently issued an updated position statement on vitamin D after an updated review of the increasing body of scientific literature on this vitamin and its importance for optimal health. The Academy continues to recommend that the public obtain vitamin D from nutritional sources and dietary supplements, and not from unprotected exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun or indoor tanning devices, as UV radiation is a known risk factor for the development of skin cancer. The Academy's position statement on vitamin D now also states that individuals who regularly and properly practice sun protection, such as the daily use of sunscreen on exposed skin or the wearing of sun protective...

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. -- Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian today announced promising data from a clinical study showing patient-specific cancer vaccines derived from patients' own cancer cells and immune cells were well tolerated and resulted in impressive long-term survival rates in patients with metastatic melanoma whose disease had been minimized by other therapies. The study entitled "Phase II Trial of Dendritic Cells Loaded with Antigens from Self-Renewing, Proliferating Autologous Tumor Cells as Patient-Specific Anti-Tumor Vaccines in Patients with Metastatic Melanoma," was published in the June 2009 issue of Cancer Biotherapy and Radiopharmaceuticals and was sponsored by Hoag Hospital Foundation. "There is c...

MINNEAPOLIS -- A new website launched today that helps patients who have been told they have a spot on their lung learn about options for the next step in their health care process - getting a diagnosis. The website www.spotonyourlung.com provides information in easy-to-understand terms and educates patients about options for diagnosis so they can discuss with their physician which option may be best for them. While there are several organizations and medical centers that provide support and information to patients on lung cancer, www.spotonyourlung.com speaks to the options available for diagnosis after learning you have a lung spot, which doesn't always mean a diagnosis of lung cancer. There is little information avai...

MAYWOOD, Ill. -- Lung cancer surgery prolongs survival without progression of the cancer, but does not dramatically improve overall survival, U.S. researchers found. Lead author Dr. Kathy Albain of Loyola University Health System's Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center and colleagues said patients who did appear to have a major benefit from surgery were those in whom a section of the lung was removed, rather than the entire lung. The study included patients with non-small cell cancer, which accounts for about 80 percent of all lung cancers. The patients had stage III cancer, in which the cancer had spread to lymph nodes in the center of the chest. This type of stage III cancer accounts for about 30 percent of all non-sma...

LONDON -- International cancer experts have moved tanning beds and ultraviolet radiation into the top cancer risk category, deeming both to be as deadly as arsenic and mustard gas. For years, scientists have described tanning beds and ultraviolet radiation as "probable carcinogens." A new analysis of about 20 studies concludes the risk of skin cancer jumps by 75 per cent when people start using tanning beds before age 30. Experts also found that all types of ultraviolet radiation caused worrying mutations in mice, proof the radiation is carcinogenic. Previously, only one type of ultraviolet radiation was thought to be lethal. The new classification means tanning beds and ultraviolet radiation are definite causes of cancer, alongsid...

NORWALK, Conn. -- The Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (MMRF) and Multiple Myeloma Research Consortium (MMRC) today announced the MMRC Multiple Myeloma Genomics Initiative has completed the sequencing of the first multiple myeloma whole genomes. This is the first time multiple myeloma whole genomes have been sequenced and will be used to identify key targets for new treatments. "Groundbreaking data from the MMRC Multiple Myeloma Genomics Initiative will play an important role in developing better treatment options for individuals who derive little benefit from existing therapies and may ultimately help provide multiple myeloma patients with the most appropriate treatment for his or her disease," Louise M. Perkins, P...

A new study that suggests that racial differences in biology could be a key reason black women are more likely to die of breast cancer than white women has reignited an intense debate among medical experts about the role of genetics versus factors such as poverty, diet and unequal access to quality health care. For nearly three decades, researchers have known about the disparity in death rates, but they have been puzzled over the reasons why. In Maryland, for example, the breast cancer death rate for black women is 15 percent higher than for white women, even though African-Americans have a lower incidence of the disease. State health officials, doctors and advocacy groups have long thought a combination of factors explained the disparit...