Cancer Options Newsletter Dr Patrick Kingsley Brilliant Blogs Annual Cancer Care Conference Cancer Drugs: Better, cheaper Monthly recipe The Cancer IFA Service Glass of oestrogen anyone? July 2012 www.canceroptions.co.uk Working with charities Regular cancer news, follow us on Share your views and ideas on Cancer Opons Blog hp://canceropons.lefora.com The July newsleer is here. For those of you paying aenon yes we missed June, the month ran away with us but we are working on lots of new projects which we are hoping to bring you news on later in the year. Thanks as always to our great contributors and lots of interesng stuff to bring you over the coming months.
Transcript
Cancer Options Newsletter
Dr Patrick
Kingsley
Brilliant Blogs
Annual Cancer
Care Conference
Cancer Drugs:
Better, cheaper
Monthly recipe
The Cancer IFA
Service
Glass of
oestrogen
anyone?
July 2012
www.canceroptions.co.uk
Working with
charities
Regular cancer
news, follow us on
Share your views and ideas on Cancer Options Blog
http://canceroptions.lefora.com
The July newsletter is here. For those of you paying attention yes we
missed June, the month ran away with us but we are working on
lots of new projects which we are hoping to bring you news on later
in the year.
Thanks as always to our great contributors and lots of interesting
New Breast Cancer Drug Halts Tumour Growth Better Than Standard Therapy
A new cancer treatment that links chemotherapy with an agent that homes in on specific breast cancer cells was sig-nificantly better than the current drug regimen at keeping patients' advanced tumours from progressing, according to results from a Phase III clinical trial led by Kimberly Black-well, M.D., of the Duke Cancer Institute.
Participants with invasive breast cancer who took the inves-tigational drug, called trastuzumab emtansine, or T-DM1, also had fewer and less harsh side effects than study participants who received a standard treatment. The findings were reported June 3 at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting in Chicago
"This drug is significantly better than the current approved combination in keeping the cancer under control," said Blackwell, director of the Breast Cancer Clinical Program at Duke and principal
investigator of the international study. "This is a drug that brings us another step closer to treating cancer without the side effects of chemotherapy. It's going to be a good option for patients faced with HER-2 positive
tumours." Nearly 1,000 people with advanced breast cancer were enrolled during the three-year study. All the partici-pants had a form of aggressive breast cancer distinguished by elevated levels of a protein known as human epidermal growth factor receptor 2, or HER-2. The protein promotes the growth of cancer cells, and plays a role in about 20 percent of invasive breast cancers. Linking the antibody trastuzumab directly with chemotherapy, the conjugate works like a sort of smart bomb, homing in on the HER-2 targets in the tumour cells and delivering the added payload of chemotherapy. Blackwell and colleagues report that the median amount of time people on T-DM1 had no cancer growth was 9.6 months, compared to a median 6.4 months for people receiving the current standard drug regimen of capecitabine and lapatinib. After two years, 65.4 percent of the T-DM1 patients were alive, compared to 47.5 percent of participants on standard treatment. The difference, while a notable trend, failed to meet a statistical benchmark set by its predetermined study design. A later analysis of overall survival is planned. The new drug also caused fewer side effects. Blackwell said trastuzumab emtansine caused liver injury and a drop in blood platelets in some study participants, but most did not suffer the hair loss, rashes, nausea and diarrhea common to traditional chemotherapies. "This is a more targeted way of delivering chemotherapy to HER-2 overexpressed cells," Blackwell said. "It de-livers the drug directly to the cancer cells, while avoiding cells that don't really need to receive chemotherapy, which keeps patients from getting sick."
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Brilliant Blogs......
These are the 22 varied things I put in my “toolbox” to help me take control over my cancer diagnosis in August 2010 (some weren’t in existence at the time eg some of the books but I’ve added them in anyway ) I’m not saying this works for everyone, so far it has for me with my particular disease (and personality!) but I am often asked to advise friend’s friends etc that I thought I would put it down for all to read. PLEASE do your own research, these are just my personal findings and do not in anyway constitute a medi-cal opinion or otherwise.
1.First of all BREATHE (seriously, do it now , observe your breath – it means you’re still alive – hurrah! 2. Beg, borrow, steal, buy, download “Anti-cancer, A new way of life” by Dr David Servan-Schrieber – if you read my bio you’ll see this book was a wonderful turning point for me, enabling me to take control back over my body. 3. If you live in UK call (or get someone else to as Idid – I didn’t want to speak about my cancer to strangers on the phone at that early stage) Penny Brohn Cancer Care and find out when their invaluable courses and retreats are being held – they are free to attend and will help you put into practise self-help techniques such as meditation, visualisation, food, discussion groups (in Australia there is The Gawler Foundation) 4. BREATHE – oh yes, you’re still here! 5. Accept all the help that is offered to you and your family, DON’T be too proud. 6. Buy “The Cancer Journey” it’s a fantastic staring point as its apt title suggests, it wasn’t out when I was di-agnosed but on my journey I have met one of the co-authors, fellow cancer-thriver, Polly Noble – You will not regret buying this book if you or someone you know has cancer. 7. Check out the Gerson Therapy – that’s all I’m saying! 8. Contact or look at the website for Yes to Life (UK) they can help you navigate all things integrative
9. Contact Patricia Peat at Cancer Options (UK based but can Skype consult anywhere in the world!) I found out about her a year after my diagnosis and she has been invaluable in suggesting treatments to integrate with my orthodox ones and is also my “independent advisor” on all things cancer – she also does a good line in emailed jokes if I’m feeling low! (Anyone who laughs at my jokes gets my vote, Patricia)
10. EFT – Emotional Freedom Technique (sometimes referred to as “Tapping”) is a great no-nonsense way of sorting yourself out with emotional issues and also physical ones. Best done with a qualified practition-er either face to face or on Skype, but is also something you can do for yourself in between ses-sions. Www.thetappingtreatment.com
11. Find a good Naturopath www.naturopathy.org.uk
12. Breathe – yes again (find out more about breathing (!) athttp://www.thewellnesswarrior.com.au/2012/02/how-to-breathe-to-your-advantage/
13. If you are having Chemotherapy there are ways of nurturing your body alongside it – especially good whole food, I had to spend some time in hospital and friends and family bought in fresh vegetable juices, homemade soups, Aloe Vera juice everyday (note ice cream, crisps, coke and chips ARE NOT nurturing food.)
13. Exercise – even if it’s 5 minutes walk in the fresh air then build up whilst having treatment, I now do body nurturing and strengthening exercise with Pilates,yoga and Walking 14. Join Twitter and Facebook it’s a great way of finding out what others are doing (you don’t have to spill your innermost thoughts out – its perfectly okay to just watch and listen) A good start on twitter might be to follow: @verityslife (yup that’s me!) @jessainscough
Some “likes” on Facebook could be: Cancer Compass, Food Matters, Juicemaster, Life over Cancer, Positively Positive, Verity’s Anti-cancer lifestyle, Anti-cancer, A new way of life
15. Get a juicer (for people with cancer I highly recommend a “masticating juicer” not a centrifugal one) and use it for green vegetable juices – to fund the purchase of my masticating juicer I sold a load of books
through Amazon that I had accumulated from my career as an interior designer
16. Invest in a kindle or other e-reader – they are great for reading in bed or having on a hospital bed ta-
ble in front of you when you’re tired
17. Friends and family who want to help you research treatments etc on the internet- make sure they know your exact cancer & status eg mine is metastatic breast cancer in bones that is HER2+, ER+ and PR+ 18. When you have appointments with your oncologist don’t worry how many people you take with you – I once had three others apart from my husband with me. We found that whilst David and I are so intent on asking the questions sometimes we forget the whole answer and so take a friend or family member along to take notes – or record the appointment – my oncologist does for his notes. 19. Get “Zest for Life” by Conner Middelmann-Whitney a great anti-cancer cookbook 20. When you get upset or depressed or feel sorry for yourself don’t stress about it – as Kris Carr says it happens to the best of us just don’t let it go on for any longer than three days at a time – I found how its amazing when I remember this the feeling goes so much quicker! 21. Acupuncture – Traditional Chinese Acupuncture helps with overall body balance, can also help with hot flushes and pain management. 22. Oncology massage – this must be done by a therapist who is versed on the particular needs of some-one with cancer, it’s a time to be with yourself and I wouldn’t be without my sessions. I found my thera-pist via my Pilates & Yoga Instructor.
……..TREAD YOUR OWN PATH, IT’S A CONTINUOUS JOURNEY AND BREATHE
READ MORE FROM VERITY’S BLOG ON http://www.verityslifestyle.com/
Healthy Habits Can Prevent Disease Five new studies provide evidence to support simple steps we can take to prevent illness and improve our overall health. In the June issue of The American Journal of Medi-cine, researchers report on fish consumption to reduce the risk of colon cancer; the effectiveness of hypnotherapy and acupuncture for smoking cessation; regular teeth cleaning to improve cardiovascular health; the effectiveness of primary care physicians in weight loss programs; and the use of low-dose aspirin to reduce cancer risk. Scientists from Xi'an, China, have reviewed the literature and find that eating fresh fish regularly reduces the risk of colorectal cancer by 12%. They evaluated 41 studies on fish consumption and colorectal cancer risk published between 1990 and 2011 and tracked cancer diagnoses. The protective effect of fish consumption is more prominent in rectal cancer than in colon cancer. The risk reduction for rectal cancer was as much as 21%, whereas the reduction for colon cancer was 4%. Mark J. Eisenberg, MD, MPH, of McGill University, in Montreal, Quebec, and colleagues report that the use of unconventional smoking cessation aids, including acupuncture and hypnotherapy, results in substantial in-creases of smoking cessation. A meta-analysis of 14 trials found that smokers who underwent hypnotherapy were 4.55 times more likely, and those who underwent acupuncture were 3.53 times more likely, to abstain from smoking than those who did not. Aversive smoking may also help smokers quit; however, there were no recent trials investigating this intervention. A study by William C. Haas, MD, of East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, and colleagues finds that physi-cians in primary care practices can be as effective as weight loss clinics in helping the moderately obese lose weight. Patients received behavioral modification sessions and a diet plan partially or fully supplemented by meal replacements at either a primary care clinic or a weight loss center. Primary care clinics were as effec-tive as weight loss centers at reducing weight, and better at reducing body fat. Regardless of location, partici-pants completing 12 weeks of treatment lost an average of 11.1% of their body weight. Participants who se-lected full meal replacement had better results. Low-dose aspirin, a common strategy for preventing cardiovascular disease, can also reduce nonvascular deaths, including cancer deaths. A meta-analysis of 23 randomized studies by Edward J. Mills, PhD, MSc, of the University of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, and colleagues offers conclusive evidence that low-dose aspirin offers cancer preventive effects, and showed significant treatment effects after approximately four years of follow up.
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Cancer Options Newsletter
Cannabinoid Shown Effective as Adjuvant Analgesic for Cancer Pain
An investigational cannabinoid therapy helped provide effective analgesia when used as an adjuvant medication for cancer patients with pain that responded poorly to opioids, according to results of a multicentre trial reported in The Journal of Pain, published by the American Pain Society. While opioid therapy is the mainstay treatment for cancer pain in patients with advanced disease, a substantial minority experience pain that cannot be adequately controlled at safe and tolerable dos-es. The most common treatment approach is co-administration of another analgesic. Cannabinoids are being analysed as potential adjuvant analgesics. In this randomized multicentre study, nabiximols, a cannabinoid delivered as an oral mucosal spray, was studied to obtain information about the dose response for analgesia and safety in a population with pain not adequately controlled with an opioid. Patients were eligible to participate in the study if they had active cancer and chronic pain that was moderate to severe despite taking opioids.
The study timeline was a five to 14 day baseline period, five weeks titration and treatment, and a post-study visit after two weeks. Every day, patients responded to questions to rate their pain, gauge their sleep quality, and determine how many sprays of the nabiximols they were taking. Results of the study showed that nabiximols has analgesic effi-cacy when used as an add-on therapy for cancer patients with pain not controlled by an opioid alone. In the low-dose nabiximols group, there was a 25 percent im-provement in pain compared with baseline. However, there was no analgesic effect in the high-dose group and the high dose was not well tolerated. Just 66 percent of subjects in that group finished the study. The authors concluded that nabiximols in a tolerable dose range may offer analgesic benefits to very ill cancer patients with refractory pain.
Cancer Drugs: Better, Cheaper
Cancer drug development is known to be too slow, costly and fraught with failure. Now the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is issuing recommendations for breast cancer trials that would substantially accelerate patient ac-cess to new medications while lowering the time and cost of drug development. The new regulatory guidelines are based in part on ground-breaking, national breast cancer research led by UCSF. The FDA "draft guidance,'' issued last week, is aimed at helping medical researchers gain swifter approval for promising drugs in the early stages of development for breast cancer. The guidance represents the federal agen-cy's "current thinking on this topic,'' according to the draft. The guidelines are discussed in the current issue of The New England Journal of Medicine. The FDA's new approach is based on a trial design being tested in a clinical study known as I-SPY 2, launched by UCSF in conjunction with a private-public partnership that includes the FDA, the National Institutes of Health, pharmaceutical companies and academic medical centres. I-SPY 2 combines personalized medicine with a novel investigational design to identify women at high risk of early breast cancer recurrence. It is underway at 19 major cancer research centres around the country. "Better options for patients with high-risk breast cancer are urgently needed,'' said Janet Woodcock, MD, director of the Centre for Drug Evaluation and Research at the FDA. "The FDA guidance explains how a promising drug identified in trials such as I-SPY 2 could be evaluated for FDA approval, so patients could have rapid access if the drug proved better than current treatments.'' Traditionally, patients with early-stage breast cancer must wait years to receive new cancer drugs, which are gen-erally tested first in patients with later stage metastatic disease and approved for use in more curable, early stage cancer only after additional clinical trials.
It can take more than a decade to bring a new cancer drug to the market and cost more than $1 billion.
The need for new regulatory approaches was discussed in a December 2011 commentary in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) co-authored by Woodcock and Laura Esserman, MD, MBA, director of the Carol Franc Buck Breast Care Centre at the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Centre. "The major losers in this inefficient approach are the patients who would benefit from new treatments,'' wrote Esserman and Woodcock in their JAMA article. But combining novel trial designs with new approaches for accelerated approval would hasten the pace through the research pipeline to bring medications to patients at far lower costs, the authors wrote.
In I-SPY 2, a patient's cancerous tumours are left in place for approximately six months, rather than being immediately removed surgically.
Several new agents are tested in combination with standard chemotherapy in an effort to improve the chance of the tumour shrinking and completely disappearing -- before surgery -- in women with high risk breast cancer. The trial is designed to learn which patients will have the most benefit from new targeted therapies, which will help to speed access under the FDA's new guidelines. I-SPY 2 can test new treatments in half the traditional time, and with significantly fewer participants which will dramatically lower costs. "We are truly excited to see that the FDA is supportive of trials like I-SPY 2,'' said Esserman, the co-principal inves-tigator of I-SPY 2. "This really moves us much closer to getting the right drugs to the right patients at a time when they can be cured.''
Conner Middleman Whitney’s Recipe of the Month
Chocolate-beet cake
The French love dark, gooey chocolate cake, often called fon-dant (melting) or moelleux (moist) to reflect its buttery-sugary richness. Here, I use beets for moisture and sweet-ness, and flour is replaced with almonds, making this cake gluten-free (it’s my standard kids’ birthday-party cake as my daughter has a friend with celiac disease).
For a YouTube video of me making this cake, click http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=Zc0C2R5Uc1I&list=UUQEBDeWSZ4EvrC-
5oz/150g dark chocolate (at least 70% cocoa solids), plus 3 squares (1oz/30 g) of the same choco-late for covering
4 tbsp olive oil or butter (or 2 tbsp of each) 9oz/250g unseasoned beets, cubed (precooked and vacuum-packed) 4 eggs 4 tbsp acacia honey 1 tbsp pure cocoa 1 tsp natural vanilla extract 1 tsp baking powder 1 pinch salt 4.5oz/1½ cups/125g ground almonds 2oz/60g dried tart cherries (optional) 2 tbsp grated coconut, roasted almond slivers or chopped hazelnuts to garnish
Preheat oven to 350°F/180°C. Line the bottom of a 9-inch/23-cm round cake tin with greaseproof paper and grease the sides. To melt the chocolate, break into small pieces and place in a glass or metal bowl with the oil or butter, which-ever using. Boil about 1 pint/500ml of water and pour carefully into a larger bowl. Set smaller bowl on the hot water and stir chocolate as it melts until chocolate and oil/butter have blended into a smooth, velvety liquid. Once fully melted, remove chocolate bowl and set aside. In a blender, combine beets, eggs, honey, cocoa, vanilla extract, baking powder and salt and whizz until thick and creamy (about 3 minutes). Add almonds and blend to combine. Add chocolate-oil mixture to the batter in the blender and blend to combine. Add cherries (if using) but do not blend – just stir in with a spoon. Pour into prepared cake tin and bake in preheated oven for 35-40 minutes. To test for doneness, a skewer in-serted into the middle of the cake should come out clean. Remove from oven and place the three squares of chocolate on top of the hot cake; leave to soften and spread over the surface with the back of a teaspoon. Sprinkle with grated coconut, toasted almond slivers or chopped toasted hazelnuts.
World’s Oldest Antibiotic Also Shows Promise as an Anti-Cancer Therapy
Colloidal silver is a powerful healer, despite irrational FDA opposition to it. Silver has been used medicinally throughout the ages, with great success. And now some very promising re-search is being done on silver as a cancer treatment. Patients have previously been treated with chemothera-py drugs containing another metal, platinum. In a head-to-head comparison against a leading platinum-based chemo drug, cisplatin, a silver-based drug was found to be just as effective—and far less toxic to normal cells than platinum. Dr. Charlotte Willans, the lead researcher, calls the research an important step in the quest for effective, non-toxic cancer treatments. In the 1800s and early 1900s, colloidal silver compounds were widely used to fight infections and is still popu-larly used today to treat water, purify air, and is used in medical dressings prevent infection in burn victims. Very importantly in today’s world, germs cannot develop a resistance to silver. Despite the long history of successful silver usage, including its current use in wound dressings and burn salves, the FDA’s official position is that silver is “not safe or effective for treating any disease or condition.” A 1996 FDA rule declared all over-the-counter silver products to be unsafe and “misbranded.” The government and other skeptics often claim that colloidal silver can cause argyria—a condition in which the skin turns bluish gray. However, argyria has only been found to occur in response to prolonged exposure to or ingestion of silver compounds, especially silversalts, which are not present in true colloidal silver but are found in cheap imitations. This was demonstrated rather dramatically in 2008 by Paul Karason, the fellow whom the news media dubbed the “Blue Man.” Although the news media continually reported that he was taking colloidal silver, in-terviews with Mr. Karason indicated that was apparently making his own silver compounds at home and end-ed up making silver chloride—a silver salt—which he both consumed in excessive quantities and regularly smeared on his skin before using tanning beds! Silver salt compounds are great for making photographic pa-per—but not for taking internally or applying to the skin. A study published earlier this year demonstrated that bacteria are now mutating to evade vaccines for child-hood pneumonia and meningitis. So we not only have antibiotic-resistant superbugs, we have vaccine-resistant ones as well. This is just the latest indication that the “miracle drugs” and vaccines of the mid-to-late 1900s are not standing the test of time. Contrast this with colloidal silver, which has been used as a bactericide for over a millennium—and has never produced silver-resistant bacteria! The recent research into silver as an anti-cancer agent is exactly the kind of research that today’s medical experts should be exploring—and would be, but for FDA opposition. Why is the FDA so stubbornly opposed? Presumably because the agency does not like competition for its ap-proved patented drugs which are derived from natural sources. People dying from resistant bugs does not seem to move the FDA—they’re only interested in new patented drugs that might quell the superbugs, even though such drugs are not being produced much, and even when they are, they often prove to be too toxic to use.
Cancer's Next Magic Bullet May Be Magic Shotgun Rather than seeking to find magic bullets -- chemicals that specifically attack one gene or protein in-volved in one particular part of a disease process -- the new approach looks to find "magic shotguns" by sifting through the known universe of chemicals to find the few special molecules that broadly disrupt the whole diseases process. "We've always been looking for magic bullets," said Kevan Shokat, PhD, a Howard Hughes Medical Insti-tute Investigator and chair of the Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology at UCSF. "This is a magic shotgun -- it doesn't inhibit one target but a set of targets -- and that gives us a much, much better ability to stop the cancer without causing as many side effects." Expanding the Targets to Lower a Drug's Toxicity Drug design is basically all about disruption. In any disease, there are numerous molecular interactions and other processes that take place within specific tissues, and in the broadest sense, most drugs are simply chemicals that interfere with the proteins and genes involved in those processes. The better a drug disrupts key parts of a disease process, the more effective it is. The toxicity of a drug, on the other hand, refers to how it also disrupts other parts of the body's system. Drugs always fall short of perfection in this sense, and all pharmaceuticals have some level of toxicity due to unwanted interactions the drugs have with other molecules in the body. Scientists use something called the therapeutic index (the ratio of effective dose to toxic dose) as a way of defining how severe the side effects of a given drug would be. Many of the safest drugs on the market have therapeutic indexes that are 20 or higher -- meaning that you would have to take 20 times the pre-scribed dose to suffer severe side effects. Many cancer drugs, on the other hand, have a therapeutic index of 1. In other words, the amount of the drug you need to take to treat the cancer is the exact amount that causes severe side effects. The prob-lem, said Shokat, comes down to the fact that cancer drug targets are so similar to normal human pro-teins that the drugs have widespread effects felt far outside the tumour. While suffering the side effects of drugs is a reality that many people with cancer bravely face, finding ways of minimizing this toxicity is a big goal pharmaceutical companies would like to solve. Shokat and his colleagues believe the shotgun approach is one way to do this. The dogma that the best drugs are the most selective could be wrong, he said, and for cancer a magic shotgun may be more effective than a magic bullet. Looking at fruit flies, they found a way to screen com-pounds to find the few that best disrupt an entire net-work of interacting genes and proteins. Rather than judging a compound according to how well it inhibits a specific target, they judged as best the compounds that inhibited not only that specific target but disrupt-ed other parts of the network while not interacting with other genes and proteins that would cause toxic side effects. Described in the June 7, 2012 issue of the jour-nal Nature, www.FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Cancer Options Newsletter
Tales from the Heart
Tales from the heart is a blog from Jo Bryant, who was told
in February of this year that there was nothing more that
conventional medicine can do to help her. Jo was diag-
nosed with a rare cardiac sarcoma the previous year and
has under gone both open heart surgery and chemothera-
py. Jo is now trying various treatments to try and help her
beat the cancer and to prove the doctors wrong with there
prognosis. Team JB has been growing strong and has re-
cruited a whole host of celebrity support to help raise
awareness for Sarcoma (including Prince Harry and Gary Barlow). Take a look at her blog to
read about the different treatments that Jo is trying.
http://myacheybreakyheart.tumblr.com/archive
http://www.sarcoma.org.uk/
Help Jo with her fundraising by following the link to her just giving page.
Oliver Gillie BSc PhD is a scientist and writer. He is former medical corre-spondent of The Sunday Times and former health editor of The Independ-ent. He has won 17 awards for his scientific and medical writing in nation-al newspapers. Most recently he was elected health champion of the year by the Medical Journalists’ Association for his campaign to inform the public and professionals about vitamin D insufficiency disease.
Vitamin D has long been thought to have a role in prevention of cancer but scientific proof has taken a long time in coming. Now we have it, at least for prostate cancer.
Early prostate cancer tumours are much less likely to progress when pa-tients take vitamin D, a team of doctors and scientists at the Medical Uni-versity of South Carolina have found. All the patients were on a “watch and wait” regime. Repeat biopsy showed a decrease in the number of positive cores in more than half of pa-tients taking 4000 IU of vitamin D a day. In historical controls almost all patients showed an increase in the number of positive cores.
The investigators conclude that optimization of vitamin D should be an important part of a “watch and wait” regime for prostate cancer. But in some 30 to 40% of patients tumours did not respond to vitamin D. Investi-gators thought that these patients might benefit from early definitive treatment.
While this trial, published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, provides evidence only for prostate cancer there are many observational studies now linking low vitamin D levels with an increased risk of cancer and studies showing that higher levels of vitamin D are linked to longer life. These suggest that it is wise for all cancer patients to optimize vitamin D levels.
The only suitable vitamin D prescription product available in the UK is a German licenced product called Dekristol 20,000 IU which can be taken as one or two tablets per week. Alternatively The Vitamin D Compa-ny produce a microtablet that is tasteless and can be swallowed very easily, crunched or just left in the mouth to disperse in the saliva. I set this company up earlier this year because of the difficulty of getting suitable dosages of vitamin D in the UK (for more information visit www.vitDco.com or phone +44(0)7761379939).
I have been campaigning to tell people about the benefits of vitamin D for some eight years with peer-reviewed scientific articles which I am glad to send to anyone who emails me
But remember the sun is free and so enjoy it. Wear shorts, short skirt without tights, off the shoulder vests, and take off your shirt whenever you can. So long as you do not burn there is no risk of skin cancer. If you are not used to the sun a few minutes may be all you can tolerate to begin with. Sun cream stops the skin from making vitamin D and so do not put it on until you have had as much sun as you can tolerate comforta-bly and safely.
£30bn bill to purify water system after toxic impact of
contraceptive pill
Drug firms oppose an EU call for controls on potent chemicals that have been blamed for the gender mutation of freshwater fish Britain faces a £30bn bill to clean up rivers, streams and drinking watersupplies contaminated by synthetic hor-mones from contraceptive pills. Drastic reductions in these chemicals, which have been linked to collapses in fish populations, are proposed in the latest European Union water framework directive. But the plan, which would involve upgrading the sewage network and significantly increasing household water bills, is controversial. Water and pharmaceutical companies dispute the science involved and argue the costs are prohibitive. By contrast, many environmental researchers say the proposal is sound. Ethinyl estradiol (EE2), the main active ingredient of contraceptive pills, can trigger a condition known as intersex in freshwater fish, which has caused significant drops in populations in many species – although no links have yet been made with human health. "That does not mean we will not find impacts in future," said toxicologist Profes-sor Richard Owen of Exeter University. "But do we want to wait until we see effects in humans, as we did with thalidomide and BSE, or do we act before harm is done?"
More than 2.5 million women take birth control pills in the UK. Their EE2 content is excreted and washed into sewage systems and rivers. Even at very low concentrations, this chemical has harmful effects on fish. Males suffer reduced sperm production, with severe effects on populations. In one recent trial, in a Canadian lake, re-searchers added EE2 until levels in the water reached five parts per trillion (ppt), a minute concentration. Yet fish populations suffered severe problems with one species, the fathead minnow, collapsing completely.
In Britain, research by Jobling found that at 50 sites 80% had noticeable levels of EE2 in their water. The closer a downstream sampling point was to a sewage works, the higher the level of EE2 tended to be. Similar levels are found elsewhere in Europe.
To reduce dangers posed by these concentrations, the EU proposed in January that it would set a level of 0.035ppt for ethinyl estradiol in water in Europe. Achieving that target will not be easy, as Owen and Jobling point out in a recent issue of Nature. They calculate that, for a town of about 250,000 people, it would cost about £6m to install a system that uses granular activated carbon to cut EE2 levels, with a further £600,000 being need-ed to operate the system each year. To upgrade the 1,400 sewage waterworks in England and Wales would cost a total of more than £30bn, they add. "The question we have to ask ourselves is straightforward," said Owen, a former head of environment and health at the UK Environment Agency.
"Are we willing to pay up or would we rather settle for environmental damage associated with flexible fertility?"
A final decision on introducing the EU's plans to cut EE2 levels will be taken in November by the European parlia-ment. Water and pharmaceutical companies have already begun to lobby to block the plan and it is expected other parties will become involved. "There is a danger that the battle will take place behind closed doors," said Jobling. "The public need to be told what the issues are and make its voice heard. It may be happy to pay the ex-tra cost and so avoid the risk of ill-health in the future.
"Nor is it necessary that the public should pick up the tab, added Owen. "The pharmaceutical industry makes bil-lions out of the drugs and treatments it sells. If these pollute the environment, what is wrong with making them pay to have it cleaned up?"
However, the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry rejected the idea and disputed the scientific
basis of the EU plans. "Feminisation in fish populations has been observed in a number of field surveys, but a
detrimental impact on the level of those populations has not been established," said a spokesman. "It would be
premature to require such intensive upgrading of waste water treatment."
An official at Water UK, the trade body for the water industry, also attacked the plan and criticised the Europe-
an commission for focusing on "end of pipe treatments" rather than tackling the issue of what enters the waste
water stream.
Estradiol is the predominant estrogen during reproductive years both in terms of absolute serum levels as well as in terms of estrogenic activity.
In England breast cancer had the highest incidence rate in females (124 cases per 100,000 females) and for prostate cancer had the highest incidence rate for males (103 cases per
100,000 males)
We rank 11th highest country in the world for incidence of breast cancer!
And they say it would be premature to require upgrading???? - yes lets not rush into this, its all probably a very big coincedance, glass of oestrogen water anyone, cheers!!
www.FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Natural Alternative to Sunscreen
A specially adapted extract from 'Imperfectly Natural Woman - getting life right the natural way' Janey lee
Grace Crown House books
Sunscreen...The natural alternative - keep out or cover up....
I think the sun has become such an ‘emotive’ topic in recent years. Everywhere you turn we are being
told to wear protective moisturisers with sun factor 15 all through the winter months, mothers who send
their children to school or on any kind of organised outing without a tube of sunblock are seen as pari-
ahs and yet sunbeds have never been more popular and tanning centres are popping up everywhere of-
fering us quick tan sessions or spray on fake tans. Enough already - if you're serious about natural anti-
ageing, there is a natural alternative to sunscreen.
There’s no doubt most of us like a suntanned look, somehow that bronzed beach babe looks healthier
than that pale and interesting figure huddled in the shade. You know what I think – its time to go back to
basics again. Let s go back in time to when the sun was not ‘the enemy’ Heliotherapy was the order of
the day and the sun was ‘worshipped’ for its healing properties and the incredible beneficial effects of
vitamin D – essential for our immune system and increasing our oxygen levels and for a feeling of well-
being not to mention strong teeth and bones. Some exposure to the sun even unprotected is good for us
as you’ll find documented in Richard Hobdays book ‘The Healing Power of the sun’
Now before you swing from the rafters with disgust and try and suggest that I am wholly irresponsible
telling mad dogs and Englishmen to go back out into the midday sun, lets remember that time has
moved on and we have a different environment now – literally. None of us know for certain now the real
state of the ozone layer but we do know that even in April or May an unexpected heatwave can result in
some very burnt and sore skin.
It’s the word ‘burn’ added to sun that changes everything, if your skin is naturally dark you probably
find you can be out and about in even quite strong sunshine and you aren’t affected. Paler skins like
mine though have to be extremely careful. I’m also covered in moles so I realise I’m prime target for
malignant melanoma. I wouldn’t for one minute be so daft as to suggest that anyone should go and lie
flat out to ‘sunbathe’ for hours at a time unprotected in hot sunshine for the sake of a ‘tan’, but by the
same token I don’t buy into this idea that its all alright if we slap on lots of high factor sunscreen and
reapply often.
Sunscreens can claim to block over 90 per cent of the sun’s harmful rays, the synthetic chemical type
absorb UV rays (allegedly) and the ‘barrier’ type disperse the sun’s rays.
So what should we do ? Well keep moving – be active – not static. Wherever possible if you know your
skin is likely to burn cover up.
Lets start with the kids, I’ve no idea why its so hard in this country to buy long sleeved lightweight tops
for kids, it seems to be either T shirts with short sleeves or sweat shirt style tops with long sleeves that
are too heavy for a warm summers day but if you know you’re headed for the beach get into ‘protective
clothing’ I'm a big fan of ethical fabrics and Bamboo is fantastically sun protective,
Cancer Options Newsletter
New Role for P53 Genetic Mutation -- Initiation of Prostate Cancer
A team of UC Davis investigators has found that a genetic mutation may play an important role in the develop-ment of prostate cancer. The mutation of the so-called p53 (or Tp53) gene was previously implicated in late disease progression, but until now has never been shown to act as an initiating factor. The findings may open new avenues for diagnosing and treating the disease. The investigators developed a mouse model genetically engineered to have a mutation in the "tumour sup-pressor" gene, p53, specifically in the cells of the prostate gland. These mice were significantly more likely to develop prostate cancer than control mice without the mutation, and provided the first indication that the p53 mutation could be involved in the initiation of prostate cancer. They also note that the mutation of p53 in the prostate differs from loss or "knock-out" of the gene, which suggests that the mechanism is more compli-cated than simply a "loss of tumour suppression" and appears to involve an actively oncogenic function of the mutant gene. The p53 gene encodes for a protein that normally acts as a tumour suppressor, preventing the replication of cells that have suffered DNA damage. Mutation of the gene, which can occur through chemicals, radiation or viruses, causes cells to undergo uncontrolled cell division. The p53 mutation has been implicated in the initia-tion of other malignancies, including breast, lung and esophageal cancers. Other studies have associated p53 mutation with disease progression in prostate cancer, but this is the first to find that it can have a role in the early initiation of prostate cancer, as well. Genetic mutations can initiate cancers in a variety of ways. Those include promotion of uncontrolled cell growth and loss of the gene's normal cell growth-suppressor functions. Exactly how the p53 mutation pro-motes the initiation and progression of prostate cancer remains to be clarified and is a focus of current re-search by the UC Davis team. They also are trying to gain an understanding of how the p53 mutation affects the effectiveness of standard treatments for prostate cancer, such as radiation and hormone therapy. Another application of the discovery could be the development of a new diagnostic test for prostate cancer based on the presence of the p53 mutation as a biomarker. The study was published online in the journal Disease Models & Mechanisms and will appear in the November 2012 print edition in an article titled, "Initiation of prostate cancer in mice by Tp53R270H: Evidence for an al-ternate molecular progression."
Ahead of The Game
There is already available in the CAM world blood testing assessment of P53 Gene and Protein function. A very useful
marker for evaluating success of CAM programmes and for designing specific programmes for using natural compounds
to initiate the bodies first line defence against transforming cells. If you would like more details or to discuss if they may
be appropriate and helpful to you please call me.
Patricia
Cancer Options Newsletter
Breast Cancer Risk Can Be Lowered by Avoiding Unnecessary Medical Imaging
A report issued by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) last December re-viewed all the available scientific data compiled to date about poten-tial environmental risks of breast cancer -- factors such as pesticides, beauty products, household chemicals, and the plastics used to make water bottles. Commissioned by the breast cancer foundation Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the IOM report concluded that there was not enough data to confirm or rule out that exposure to most of these factors caused breast cancer. However, the report did identify two factors that defi-nitely increased risk: post-menopausal hormone replacement therapy and radiation exposure from medical imaging. Now, a special article in the journal Archives of Internal Medi-cine details the findings of the IOM report as they relate to medical imaging and what women can do to minimize their risk of breast can-cer. "The single thing that the IOM highlighted that a woman can do to lower her risk of breast cancer is to avoid unnecessary medical imag-ing," said Rebecca Smith-Bindman, MD, a professor of radiology and biomedical imaging, epidemiology and biostatistics at UCSF, who wrote the article, and who contributed to the IOM report. What a Woman Should Know to Ask Her Doctor While CT scans and other forms of medical imaging have revolutionized medicine and can be life-saving, said Smith-Bindman, women need to engage their doctors in the decision-making process and insist on the neces-sity and safety of all radiological scans they undergo. "They should understand the risks and benefits and ask their doctor to explain the risks and benefits," said Smith-Bindman. She suggested that patients ask their doctors questions like: Is this scan absolutely necessary? Is it necessary to do it now? Are there other, alternative tests? How can I be sure the test will be done in the safest way possible? Will having the scan information change the management of my disease? Can I wait until after seeing a specialist before getting the scan?
www.FreeDigitalPhotos.net
New Therapy Extends Life for Prostate Cancer Patients
Prostate cancer patients with advanced tumours that have spread to bone have a poor chance of surviving. Patients with the disease may now live longer with a new line of radioi-sotope therapy, say researchers at the Society of Nuclear Medicine's 2012 Annual Meeting. The skeletal system is the number one metastatic site in patients with prostate cancer. Bone metastases occur when the primary cancer is transmitted through the blood and develops in the bone. This is a phase III study for the radioisotope therapy Radium-223 chloride, or Ra-223, which seeks out bone metastases with very potent alpha particles that are deadly to tumours. The powerful drug has a short range of penetration of alpha particles, sparing nearby healthy tissues and essential bone marrow. It is initially being studied for the treatment of castration-resistant prostate cancer, a late-stage form of cancer that is typically character-ized by extensive skeletal metastases that are resistant to treatment. "This is a pivotal study of a new treatment that potentially offers a better standard of care for patients with advanced prostate cancer," says Val Lewington, professor of clinical thera-peutic nuclear medicine at King's College and Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital in London, United Kingdom. "Radium-223 offers a completely new approach to the treatment of bone metastases. It systemically treats multiple sites of disease simultaneously and is usually very well tolerated. Serious side effects are unusual, and the risk of bone marrow suppression is low even in patients who have been heavily pretreated with chemotherapy." Men with castration-resistant prostate cancer generally live three to five years after diagno-sis. This double-blind and randomized study was able to show that of the 921 patients treated with either Ra-223 or a placebo, patients who received the drug lived an average of three months longer. Therapy was administered in six injections at four-week intervals. In addition to prolonged survival, those treated with Ra-223 also experienced delayed onset of complications due to bone metastases. Therapy monitoring is made possible with molecular imaging techniques called scintigraphy and positron emission tomography, which provide information about biological processes, including those involved in cancerous tumours. An expanded access program is already underway in the United States and a similar pro-gram is expected to open in Europe in 2012. Further clinical trials are also being considered.
Cancer Options Newsletter
I
Improving outcomes for cancer patients
Early detection and diagnosis, access and treatment
www.cancercarecongress.com 26th – 27th September 2012, London
25% Discount for all Cancer Options associates – Call Jason on 020 7728 5897 quoting VIP-CS-25 and save up to £274.75 per person
Managing the twin demands of quality improvement and efficiency savings in such a high profile area of
health is a huge challenge. Almost a year after Improving outcomes: a strategy for cancer was published; the
annual report highlights the challenges of achieving the outcomes that the strategy set out to deliver. The re-
port has highlighted the following priorities for the year ahead:
Delivering improved cancer survival rates
Improving the quality of life for cancer survivors
Improving the patient experience
It is everyone’s responsibility to make the focus on outcomes a reality to reduce mortality, tackle inequalities
and improve quality of life for all those affected by cancer. Does your organisation have the tools in place to
deliver high quality, cost-effective cancer care?
Brought to you by the Health Service Journal and Nursing Times, the Cancer Care Congress will provide you
with a comprehensive overview on what the health reforms mean for the provision and commissioning of
cancer care services. Key topics to be addressed include:
The impact of the NHS reforms on the cancer agenda
Maintaining momentum in early diagnosis and detection
Proton Beam Therapy: what will the national service look like?
The Cancer Drugs Fund: where are we now?
Improving access to cancer treatments
Successful GP engagement programmes – what works?
QIPP – identifying and delivering efficiency savings in cancer care
