Tag Archives: western

Cancer experience presents time for lifestyle changes in both survivors and family members

“A window of opportunity exists during the post-treatment transition period for oncology clinicians to reach out to patients and their caregivers who want to have a healthy start on life after cancer,” said Susan Mazanec, PhD, RN, AOCN, assistant professor at Case Western Reserve’s Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing. Mazanec, also a nurse scientist at University Hospitals Case Medical Center’s Seidman Cancer Center, was lead investigator of the study, “Health Behaviors in Family Members of Patients Completing Cancer Treatment,” recently reported in Oncology Nursing Forum. Mazanec and colleagues surveyed and interviewed 50 patients diagnosed with breast, colorectal, head and neck, lung or prostate cancers and 38 caregivers within three week of a patient’s last treatment. The questions were designed to gauge family members’ intention, perceived benefit and confidence about eating a healthy diet, physical activity and smoking cessation…

Lung cancer now leading cause of cancer death in females in developed countries

The finding is reported in Global Cancer Statistics, appearing in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, and a consumer-friendly companion publication, Global Cancer Facts & Figures 3rd Edition, both released on World Cancer Day. The reports rely on the worldwide estimates of cancer incidence and mortality produced by the IARC for 2012 in their GLOBOCAN series…

Shape of things to come in platelet mimicry

For the first time, the researchers have been able to integratively mimic the shape, size, flexibility and surface chemistry of real blood platelets on albumin-based particle platforms. The researchers believe these four design factors together are important in inducing clots to form faster selectively at vascular injury sites while preventing harmful clots from forming indiscriminately elsewhere in the body…

Step towards blood test for many cancer types

This is the first time that cancer-specific blood markers have been comprehensively reviewed and identified for further clinical development. This study, by the UK Early Cancer Detection Consortium, funded by Cancer Research UK, has analysed 19,000 scientific papers and found more than 800 biomarkers. The aim of this research is to develop a screening test from a single blood sample for multiple cancer types. All cancers produce markers in the blood, so it could be feasible to develop a general screening test for many different forms of the disease. …

Adenocarcinoma: UK tops global league table for gullet cancer in men

Rates of SCC have remained fairly stable or have even fallen over the past few years, but those of adenocarcinoma have risen, particularly in high income countries. In 2012, esophageal cancer was the eighth most common cancer worldwide. The researchers used data from Cancer Incidence in Five Continents volume 10 to calculate age, sex, and country specific proportions of the two types of esophageal cancer. These figures were then applied to IARC global data on the number of new esophageal cancer cases in 2012 (GLOBOCAN 2012), and age-standardised rates calculated. …

Obesity accelerates aging of the liver, researchers find using novel biological aging clock

Although it had long been suspected that obesity ages a person faster, it hadn’t been possible to prove the theory, said study first author Steve Horvath, a professor of human genetics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and a professor of biostatistics at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. …

Precursor of multiple myeloma more common in blacks than whites

The findings, which appear in the journal Leukemia, are from the first nationwide study to look at the precursor of multiple myeloma in blacks, whites, and Hispanics and could point the way toward tailored screening and preventive strategies for different racial groups. The study also uncovered different rates of the condition in different parts of the country, suggesting an environmental component to the racial disparities. “We have known for a long time that there is a marked racial disparity in multiple myeloma, but the big question has been why that disparity exists,” says the study’s senior author, Vincent Rajkumar, M.D., a hematologist/oncologist at Mayo Clinic…