Administering a new form of immunotherapy to children with neuroblastoma, a nervous system cancer, increased the percentage of those who were alive and free of disease progression after two years. The percentage rose from 46 percent for children receiving a standard therapy to 66 percent for children receiving immunotherapy plus standard therapy, according to the study in the Sept. 30, 2010, New England Journal of Medicine. The randomized phase III clinical trial was coordinated by the Children’s Oncology Group (COG), a national consortium of researchers supported by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the NIH.
Lifestyle Intervention Improves Risk Factors in Type 2 Diabetes
October 2, 2010 | by
An intensive lifestyle intervention program designed to achieve and maintain weight loss improves diabetes control and cardiovascular disease risk factors in overweight and obese individuals with type 2 diabetes, according to four-year results of the Look AHEAD study, funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The results are published in the Sept. 27, 2010, issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.
Cancer Research Blog Carnival #38 – Breast Cancer
October 1, 2010 | by
Welcome to the 38th edition of the Cancer Research Blog Carnival, the monthly blog carnival that discusses what’s new in cancer research. In recognition of October being Breast Cancer Awareness Month, this edition’s focus is on breast cancer.
There’s a revolution occurring on the Web: those “authoritative” articles written on traditional, static websites are being replaced with blogs, wikis and online social networks. In the sphere of health, medicine and information technology, this “real-time Web” consists of many who are professionals in the field; their posts are listed below.
In the digital age, these are the characteristics of new media: recent, relevant, reachable and reliable.
In the digital age, these are the characteristics of new media: recent, relevant, reachable and reliable.
Breast Cancer Awareness Month — also referred to as National Breast Cancer Awareness Month (NBCAM) — is an annual international health campaign organized by major breast cancer charities every October to increase awareness of the disease and raise funds for research into its cause, prevention and cure. The campaign also offers information and support to those affected by breast cancer.
In 2010, the American Cancer Society estimates that 207,090 women will be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer, approximately 54,010 women will be diagnosed with carcinoma in situ (CIS; the earliest non-invasive form of breast cancer), and approximately 39,840 women will die from breast cancer [1]. Indeed, breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in women, following lung cancer.
In 1975, a woman had a 1 in 11 chance of developing invasive breast cancer some time in her life — today, the chance is even greater at 1 in 8. Although the risk has increased, deaths due to breast cancer have been declining: from 1990 — 2006, death rates decreased by 3.2% per year among women younger than 50, and by 2.0% per year among women 50 and older [2]. This decline in breast cancer mortality has been attributed to improvements in breast cancer treatment and early detection [3].
Animal research has contributed significantly to advances in breast cancer treatment. Animal studies were essential for the development of two front-line drugs that shrink breast cancer tumors, Herceptin and Tamoxifen. Since their mechanisms of action are different, they are used to treat different types of tumors. The drug Tamoxifen blocks tumor growth by blocking the action of estrogen, a hormone involved in the growth of most breast cancers. Tamoxifen binds to the estrogen receptor and blocks estrogen from docking to it. The drug Herceptin binds to another growth-regulating receptor protein called HER2, blocking it’s action and shrinking the tumor. Indeed, there is great value in animal research for the development of treatments to fight breast cancer.
Let’s find out what’s happening this month with breast cancer research.
Animal Research: Animal Welfare vs. Animal Rights
September 22, 2010 | by
Essentially every major medical advance in the last century — from antibiotics to analgesics such as Tylenol or Motrin, from blood transfusions to organ transplantation, from vaccinations to chemotherapy, bypass surgery and joint replacement — is based on knowledge obtained through research with animals. In fact, almost 75% of all Nobel Prizes in Medicine awarded since 1901 were won for discoveries that required the use of animals [1].
Indeed, animal-based research has contributed to a significant improvement in the quality and length of human life. From cancer to heart disease and stroke to diabetes, society benefits from the use of laboratory animals in biomedical research [2]. Unfortunately, there is a worldwide movement that seeks to halt those advances and establish moral and legal equality between humans and animals, to eliminate the status of animals as property (meaning domestic pets and livestock for food), and to stop the use of animals in biomedical research.
The debate between those who support animal research and those that don’t often gets portrayed in such a way that it appears that one group cares about animals while the other group doesn’t. This isn’t the case at all — fundamentally, the issue is how to reduce the total suffering for both humans and animals.
