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The following are extracts of recent cancer-related news items from local daily newspapers.
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Panel urges pain relief for kids –(Times of India Online-07/09/2001)

Infants usually cry when they get circumcised. Children often wince when they get shots. Some young cancer patients dread giving blood samples. Children feel pain as much as adults, and doctors should do more to relieve their pain from injuries, illnesses and medical procedures, the American Academy of Paediatrics and the American Pain Society declared.

``Children are needlessly suffering,'' said Dr Michael Ashburn, APS president and director of pain programmes at the University of Utah. ``Poorly treated pain following a procedure can lead to prolonged healing and make children at a higher risk for adverse side affects.''

Doctors need to re-evaluate their routines to better anticipate and assess pain in children, create a soothing environment in their offices and involve parents in preventive measures, the statement said. It also recommended that pediatricians press for child-specific research in pain management and urge the Food and Drug Administration to evaluate pain relievers for children.

Even during minor procedures such as getting a shot, most children do not have the same ability as adults to calm themselves when they feel pain, Ashburn said. ``If you wait until you start poking the child with needles, it's too late,'' he said.

While there is extensive literature describing how to evaluate and treat acute pain in children, doctors have not done as much as they should to prevent or relieve that discomfort for several reasons, including a misconception that youngsters don't feel pain as adults do, the statement says. Other factors cited include doctors' lack of training to evaluate pain in children, fears about side effects of pain medication, and the belief among some health care workers that pain builds character. The two groups began working on the statement in 1995, after health care professionals realised children's pain was undertreated and after new techniques to assess pain were developed, said Dr Joseph Hagan, a Vermont pediatrician and chairman of the AAP committee that wrote the statement.

Pain in children with long-term illnesses can cause stress that weakens their immune systems, resulting in a slower recovery, said June Dahl, a professor at the University of Wisconsin Medical School and a pain specialist. But when a youngster has cancer, for example, the focus often is on keeping the child alive, she said. ``The pain gets lost in the shuffle,'' Dahl said.

A child who needs blood drawn weekly, for example, would feel less pain if a cream were used to numb the skin and if the youngster were reassured by parents and doctor during the procedure, Ashburn said.

Doctors are treating pain more frequently than they were about 30 years ago, said Dr Joseph Zanga, chairman of pediatrics at Ronald McDonald Children's Hospital of Loyola, which is part of Loyola Medical Centre in Maywood, Illinois. He said children who were cut with a piece of glass in the 1970s might have been given a shot of an anesthetic before stitches. Today, doctors have more options, such as thinner needles that hurt less, lollipops that release anesthetics when sucked and glue that can be used instead of stitches.

``By simply telling a child, `We're not going to have to sew that. We're going to glue it back together,' you can see the fear melt off their faces,'' Zanga said. Also, he said most paediatricians' offices and hospitals are now decorated with images such as clowns to entertain and distract children in pain. Still, Zanga also said paediatricians have been hampered because the FDA has not approved potent pain relievers for youngsters. ``That's a terrible indictment in this country for the treatment of pain in children,'' he said.

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Patient expectations may influence recovery-(Times of India Online-05/09/2001)

Optimism may be good for your health, according to a review of scientific studies on the topic. Patients who had positive expectations about their recuperation usually had a good recovery, researchers report. "There is scientific evidence that when patients have positive thoughts and expect to recover well, they usually do," said study author Dr. Donald C. Cole of the Institute for Work and Health in Ontario, Canada. "(This) suggests that physicians should ask their patients about their expectations of recovery," he added.

Cole and his colleagues reviewed 16 studies published between 1966 and 1998 that addressed the relationship between patient expectations and recovery. The investigators report their findings in a recent issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal. Results from 15 of the 16 studies showed that when patients had positive expectations about their recovery, they tended to have a better recovery, even when psychological and social factors were taken into consideration. The effect was small in four of the studies, medium in five studies, and large in six studies. The remaining study was experimental rather than observational, the report indicates.

The largest effects tended to be found in studies of medical conditions, such as obesity, while smaller effects were more common in studies of psychological conditions such as social phobia. Reasons for the relationship between patient expectations and outcome may be that patients' expectations triggered a physical response or that their expectations conditioned them psychologically to ignore certain symptoms, the authors speculate. Or it may be that the patients' expectations motivated them to achieve better recovery results, they suggest.

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Human cloning may be easier: Study –(Times of India Online-15/08/2001)

It may be safer to clone humans than sheep, new research contends, because people don't have a genetic defect implicated in producing oversized offspring. However, cloning experts cautioned that the finding does not mean cloning would necessarily be easier in humans. Scientists don't know all the factors that determine whether cloning succeeds or fails, or how important each factor is. The gene, insulin-like growth factor II receptor (IGF2R), is a suspect in some of the problems in cloned animals, but it is not the only one, said Ian Wilmut, a professor at the Roslin Institute, the home of Dolly the sheep, the first mammal to be cloned from an adult. "I hope this will not be used to give encouragement to those who wish to clone humans," Wilmut said from his lab in Edinburgh, Scotland.

The research, by scientists at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C., involved the working of the IGF2R gene, which suppresses tumors and regulates fetal growth. "There are going to be other things that potentially go awry. You're not home free, assuming that you wanted to do this (cloning), but you're getting closer," said Randy Jirtle, one of the Duke researchers.

Jirtle, a radiation oncologist, and Keith Killian, a molecular evolutionist, found that humans, other primates and their closest relatives have two activated copies of the gene. People get one functional copy from each parent. However, sheep, pigs, mice and nearly all non-primate mammals receive only one working copy of the gene. The other copy, from the father, is intact, but permanently switched off. That is caused by a phenomenon known as gene imprinting, where the gene carries chemical markings that turn off its function.

With one copy of the gene knocked out, the animals are more prone to developing cancer and, if cloned, to suffer from complications like overly large offspring, underdeveloped lungs and enlarged hearts, the scientists said. "You hear over and over that we've cloned sheep, mice, cows, pigs and they've all had this problem of large offspring syndrome and therefore you will have these problems in humans. This shows that you don't necessarily have these problems," Jirtle said.

Wilmut, who was not involved in the research, said the interpretation that human cloning would be easier because of this particular genetic advantage, is flawed. Failure of placental development is very frequent in cloned livestock, and this probably reflects errors in the working of other genes specifically involved in making the blood vessel network of the placenta, Wilmut said. Also, oversized cow fetuses are apparently the result of overactivity in the IGF2 gene itself, not underactivity of the receptor, he said.
"It seems that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing and the authors have allowed themselves to over-interpret their interesting findings," Wilmut said.

Lee Silver, a molecular biologist at Princeton University, added that the IGF2R gene is just one of many genes that get silenced in animals and could potentially cause problems in cloning. Until scientists discover whether those other genes are switched on or off in humans and how important a role they play in the overall success of cloning, it will remain unclear whether cloning will be safer in humans than in other animals. Killian said the findings also could revive several potential drugs that were discarded after being tested in mice and other animals. "Clinical development of hundreds of potential disease-treating drugs have been abandoned after rodent studies have shown them to be potential carcinogens — studies that might have had a different outcome if rodents possessed two functional copies of the tumor suppressing gene, Killian said.

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Wine drinkers healthier, wealthier: Study –(Times of India Online-13/08/2001)

A daily glass of red wine has been shown to help stave off heart disease and even cancer, but a Danish study said the grape's salutary effects may be due to imbibers' sense of well-being. The study of nearly 700 Danish adults aged 29 to 34 drew comparisons between wine drinkers and beer and liquor consumers and found the former had generally healthier habits and psyches, and were less likely to abuse alcohol.

Wine drinkers also tended to have a higher socioeconomic status and score higher on intelligence tests than beer or liquor drinkers, which the study speculated had ramifications for physical health.

Previous studies have shown that light to moderate red wine consumption relieves stress and improves blood circulation, both deterrents to heart disease, and is linked to good self-perceived health. Ingredients in red wine are also believed to lower the risk of several health problems, including stroke, upper digestive tract cancer, lung cancer and hip fracture. Overall mortality rates among wine drinkers are lower than for those who drink beer or alcohol, or for those who abstain, according to previous research.

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Burning incense may cause cancer-(Times of India Online-02/08/2001)

Burning incense could cause cancer according to a scientific study conducted by researchers from Taiwan, who found high levels of carcinogens in the smoke of incense burned in Buddhist temples.

"We truly hope that incense burning brings only spiritual comfort, without any physical discomfort, but there is a potential cancer risk," Ta Chang Lin, who led the study, says in the report. "We just cannot say how serious" the risk is, he adds in the study, which appears in the latest edition of New Scientist magazine.

The team from Taiwan's Cheng Kung university analysed smoke from a Taipei temple and found that it contained high levels of chemical compounds blamed for causing lung cancer and that levels of pollutants were higher than would normally be expected at a city road junction.

Comparing air samples from the temple with those from the traffic intersection, the researchers found the temple air to contain high concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). The highly carcinogenic compounds are given off when certain substances, including tobacco, are burned. Air analysis revealed levels of PAHs inside the temple to be 19 times higher than in normal outside air, and slightly above the concentration found at a traffic intersection. In particular, researchers found levels of benzopyrene - a particularly carcinogenic compound - to be 45 times higher than in a household with cigarette smokers and 118 times above houses with no source of combustion, such as a cooker.

"During some major ceremonies, hundreds or even more than a thousand sticks are burnt at the same time. Sometimes the visibility is so low you can't see clearly across the room. We are concerned for the health of workers or keepers in the temples," the report's authors said.

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Armstrong: From near death to glory-(Times of India Online-29/07/2001)

If you had a friend who had cancer, what would you suggest he do? If Lance Armstrong had this friend, he would have a simple formula. Take your medicine and ride a few bicycle races. Not your ordinary run-of-the-mill bike races. More like 4,000 km. variety with a few mountains added to the daily diet. Add to that a 250 km. World Championship and repeat the performance at least three years in a row. In the craze for everyone's favourite sport a superhuman is not being given his due. It is time to set this right.

A few years ago Lance Armstrong, an American cyclist, was showing promise. In a country where the average world-vision borders within national boundaries and sports myopia is baseball and basketball-centric, `Lance WHO?' was the refrain. The Colossus was beyond their ken.

Enter the villain of the piece -- The Big C. Lance was diagnosed with testicular cancer. In the under thirties it is invariably rampant and virulent. The disease spread to the chest and the brain. It took on the ominous form of a dozen or so golf-ball sized lumps. Chemotherapy and surgery reduced the cyclist to a physical shadow of himself. Great cyclists, present and past, came visiting. Some of the best took it upon themselves to attend to the ailing patient in a final show of camaraderie.

True champions are made of sterner stuff. They can bat on any pitch and bowl a deadly delivery on crafted surfaces ... all weather is fair weather to them. What distinguishes the best from the rest is the ability to take on every eventuality. And win. Lance beat the odds. He also beat the rest. Moreover he did it in style.

The Tour de France is not a tour. It is a cycle race. The anomaly lies in the French word for circuit. The race goes around the country. About 4,000 kms. in three weeks, a couple of `rest' days included. That is close to 200 kms. every racing day, at average speeds of around 40 kms. per hour. Definitely not for the faint hearted nor the weak kneed. The mountains at 1,500 metres do not contribute to a pleasant day's outing. For Lance, it was just what the doctors ordered.

That brought on the Continental journos, that peculiar breed whose sole purpose in life is to create a story where none exists. If a man wracked by cancer can ride the Tour, and win it, annihilating the European demi-gods ... well, there has to be something fishy. One, with an especially gifted imagination suggested that the drugs taken to fight the C-curse must have some performance enhancing stuff. God forbid, a sick man winning the Tour, and an American at that! Fortunately, he stopped short of recommending the disease as a solution.

By the time you read this, Lance will be spending his last few hours in bed before taking to the French roads one last time en route to Gay Paree. Yet another saga in the never-ending story of man's victory over just about everything fate and nature throws at him will be written. A third consecutive victory will place him in the elite group of six others and just two short of Spaniard Miguel Indurain's record five consecutive victories. God give him the strength. He deserves it.

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Bush supports ban on human cloning –(Times of India Online-31/07/2001)

President George W Bush supports a ban on human cloning, as proposed by a group of Republican lawmakers, the White House said. "The administration supports a ban on the cloning of human beings by somatic cell nuclear transfer," said a statement of administration policy. Somatic cell nuclear transfer is the technique used to create Dolly the sheep, the first cloned mammal, in 1997.

The statement said the administration does approve of the development of cell and tissue-based therapies based on research involving the use of nuclear transfer or other cloning techniques to produce molecules, DNA, cells other than human embryos, tissues, organs, plants or animals. "To date, these scientific methods have enabled researchers to develop innovative drugs to treat research, such as breast cancer, or aid in treatment techniques for injury, such as cloning skin cells for skin grafts," it said.

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Rules broaden use of medical marijuana in Canada-(Times of India Online-31/07/2001)

Canadians suffering from terminal illnesses and chronic conditions such as arthritis can legally grow and smoke marijuana, or designate someone else to grow it for them, under new regulations. The new rules are part of the first system in the world that includes a government-approved and paid-for supply of marijuana, now being grown in a former mine in northern Manitoba.

The new rules permit drug possession for the terminally ill with a prognosis of death within one year; those with symptoms associated with specific serious medical conditions; and those with other medical conditions who have statements from two doctors saying conventional treatments have not worked. Eligible patients include those with severe arthritis, cancer, HIV/AIDS and multiple sclerosis.

More than 500 new applications are pending, and more are expected, according to the federal health ministry. The Canadian Medical Association, which represents tens of thousands of doctors, opposes the new regulations because they make physicians responsible for prescribing a substance that lacks significant clinical research on its effects. Without the cooperation of doctors, patients cannot get medical marijuana exemptions.

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Experts studying proteins and cancer –(Times of India Online-23/07/2001)

Researchers for the first time will conduct studies directly linking cancer patients with the new science of proteomics, a study of all the proteins in living cells. Federal officials announced that the Food and Drug Administration and the National Cancer Institute are establishing a joint research lab designed to develop cancer therapies and diagnosis systems based on the study of proteins.

The effort, called the Clinical Proteomics Programm, ``holds the potential to revolutionise cancer detection and care,'' said Tommy G Thompson, the secretary of Health and Human Services, the parent department of both FDA and NCI. ``With this expanded collaboration, the FDA and NCI are employing powerful new technologies they developed jointly."

The new program will be funded at $1.1 million a year for three years, the agencies announced. Experts say proteomics offers the hope of identifying, on a molecular scale, the proteins produced in a cell that may relate to cancer, its diagnosis and its treatment.

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Drug Destroys Only Oxygen-Starved Cells Within Tumors –(Cancer Info-19/07/2001)

University of Ulster cancer research scientists in the UK have developed a revolutionary tumor-busting drug that destroys tumor cells that other anti-cancer treatments can't reach. The new drug -- called AQ4N -- has just gone into clinical trials in England. The drug works by destroying only the oxygen-starved (hypoxic) cells that exist within tumors. These cells are difficult to destroy by conventional treatment methods -- yet form up to 30% of any tumor. And the higher the percentage of hypoxic cells in a tumor, the worse the prognosis for the patient.

AQ4N is the result of ten years of work by Dr. Stephanie McKeown of the University of Ulster's Radiation Science Research team, based at the Jordanstown campus. "Laboratory tests indicate that AQ4N is likely to be effective against hypoxic cells in any solid tumor," said Dr. McKeown. "We are confident that AQ4N will enhance the effectiveness of contemporary anti-cancer treatments, as it can reach and destroy hypoxic tumor cells that are resistant to radiation and existing chemotherapy techniques." And there is a double advantage: according to Dr. McKeown, the oxygen-starved cells targeted by AQ4N are also prime suspects in the development of more malignant and aggressive cancers -- including secondary cancers. "When oxygen-rich cancer cells are killed using radiotherapy or conventional chemotherapy, the previously dormant hypoxic cells may then cause regrowth of the tumor into a more malignant, aggressive and treatment-resistant tumor. That's why it's so important to kill off hypoxic cancer cells, and why we're so excited about the potential of AQ4N," she said.

AQ4N was originally designed by Professor Laurence Patterson of the University of London (previously based at De Montfort University, Leicester). Development and implementation of the new drug was carried out by the Bioreductive Development group (part of the Radiation Science Research Unit led by Prof. David Hirst) at the University of Ulster, Jordanstown. Dr. McKeown's R&D effort was primarily funded by the Ulster Cancer Foundation and has recently received a funding commitment from the UK Cancer Research Campaign. Clinical trials are now under way, organized by the Cancer Research Campaign and funded by BTG plc (British Technology Group). The initial trials are being carried out by Prof. Will Steward, (Leicester Royal Infirmary) and Dr. Dennis Talbot (Imperial Cancer Research Fund's unit at Churchill Hospital, Oxford).

AQ4N is fundamentally different from other standard chemotherapy agents since it is administered as the non-toxic prodrug (AQ4N) and only becomes toxic when reduced in hypoxic cells. This allows specific targeting of tumor tissue since hypoxic cells are rarely found in normal tissue. Indeed, they are only found in tumors, due to the poorly formed chaotic vessels, which develop inadequately in the tumor to meet the needs of the fast growing tumor cells. This specific difference provides an opportunity to target a therapy directly to tumors while sparing normal tissues.

The presence of a significant proportion of hypoxic cells in a wide range of human tumors has only recently been confirmed with the development of sensitive oxygen electrodes. The importance of tumor hypoxia is twofold. First, it is known to protect cells from the cytotoxic effects of standard chemotherapy drugs (hypoxic cells are dormant (i.e., non-cycling) and therefore are less susceptible to cytotoxic agents. Also, oxygen significantly enhances the cytotoxic effects of radiation. Secondly, it has recently been shown that increasing levels of hypoxia can predict for poor prognosis and may also be instrumental in selecting cells within the tumor that are stress-resistant and of a more malignant phenotype.

Dr. McKeown's group has shown that the inclusion of AQ4N in a range of treatment regimens, both radiation and standard chemotherapy, enhances the anti-tumor effect of these agents. Standard therapies primarily target better-oxygenated cells, leaving the hypoxic cells to repopulate the tumor; for complete tumor control, it may be essential to kill this more malignant subpopulation.

The current Phase I clinical trial is being funded by British Technology Group and organized by the Cancer Research Campaign. It is being carried out by Prof. Will Steward, University of Leicester, at the Leicester Royal Infirmary, and Dr. Dennis Talbot at the Churchill Hospital Oxford. It is designed to evaluate the toxicity of the drug and its efficacy with palliative radiotherapy for head and neck tumors. It is hoped to start a second trial in the near future of AQ4N in combination with a standard cytotoxic agent.

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Bush ally supports stem cells –(Times of India Online-20/07/2001)

The Senate's only physician, who also is a close ally of President Bush, added new momentum to the drive for federally financed medical research with embryonic stem cells. Senator Bill Frist, said he opposed abortion but felt compelled to support research that could save lives. The senator who has often transformed the president's views into Senate proposals also proposed several limits to the new funding. Namely, he'd limit the number of sets of cultured stem cells to come from a single embryo. Frist offered a compromise that he said would allow stem cell research to progress ``in a manner respectful of both the moral significance of human embryos and the potential of stem cell research to improve health.''

Bush, also an abortion opponent, is considering whether to allow federal funds to pay for research on stem cells taken from human embryos.

Stem cells are master cells that can generate body tissue. Scientists believe the cures for many diseases could be unlocked from research using stem cells. Abortion opponents say harvesting the stem cells requires the death of an embryo, which many regard as human life. A federal health research report said scientists should be free to pursue all avenues of research, including that involving human embryos. Supporters also embraced the 200-plus-page report from the National Institutes of Health, though it did not specifically call for federal funding. Opponents favour research using ``adult'' stem cells, which are taken from mature organs and then manipulated in the lab. The federal researchers said embryonic stem cells can develop into all types of cells and tissue, a flexibility that may be lacking in adult stem cells.

"I strongly believe that we have measured the question carefully, and that it is time to move on," said Senator Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, whose Senate panel oversees federal health spending and held the hearing where the report and Frist's opinion were made public. He added he will push for legislation allowing the stem cell funding if Bush doesn't approve it. "The NIH report is clear on this important point: Embryonic and adult stem cells are different and both present immense research opportunities for potential therapies."

Scientists believe they can learn to direct the development of embryonic stem cells to grow mature cells or tissues that could be used to treat disease. Some estimate that stem cells could benefit more than 100 million patients with such disorders as Alzheimer's disease, cancer, Parkinson's disease, diabetes and spinal cord injuries.

Most of Frist's points are consistent with the NIH guidelines. He would also ban cloning of embryos for research. House lawmakers plan to take up that issue. Some research scientists have rejected certain restrictions, especially the limits on stem cell lines.There currently are approximately one dozen embryonic stem cell lines. But researchers say it will take experiments with scores, perhaps hundreds, of embryonic stem cell lines for scientists to be confident that basic biological discoveries are universal and not characteristics that are unique to the limited number of cell lines.

Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle said Frist's statement ``carries great weight and has a great deal of respect'' because of his medical expertise. A key abortion opponent, Senator Orrin Hatch, also supported federal funding for stem cell research. But he added that he is troubled that some companies would create embryos in order to conduct this research.

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Candidates debate stem cells-(Times of India Online-18/07/2001)

Virginia's two candidates for governor expressed alarm that researchers had created human embryos in the lab solely to harvest their stem cells. News that the embryos had been created by the private Jones Institute for Reproductive Medicine in Norfolk, sparked national debate. Scientists had previously been known to derive stem cells only from excess embryos donated from infertility treatments.

``I was troubled at the idea of creating stem cells,'' Democrat Mark Warner said. ``I have asked for a briefing on it, but we need to hear this issue out before we rush to judgment.'' Warner, who has a daughter with diabetes, said stem cell research offers enormous potential for cures for such diseases.

Republican Mark Earley, while not condemning all stem cell research, attacked the use of embryos. ``You ought to be more than troubled, Mark, if there is a place in Virginia that on its own basically without public discussion begins to create human embryos for the sole purpose of experimentation and destruction,'' Earley said it was possible to research the lifesaving possibilities of stem cells by using the bone marrow of adults.

Interest in embryonic stem cells centres on their ability to generate other tissues of the body. Doctors hope using stem cells could possibly cure diseases such as diabetes, Alzheimer's and cancer.

Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore has called for an ethics investigation into the research. President Bush has said he will soon decide whether to allow taxpayer dollars to be used for embryonic stem cell research. He is under pressure from patient groups that favour the research and opponents who feel the work is inherently unethical.

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Malaysia withdraws soy sauces on cancer fear-(Times of India Online-13/07/2001)

Malaysia has ordered soy sauce and seasoning products from several countries off food shelves for fear they cause cancer, a health official said. Twenty-two soy sauce and seasoning products from China, Taiwan, Thailand, Hong Kong and Singapore were found to have excessive levels of 3-MCPD, a cancer-causing chemical, and were withdrawn from supermarkets, local newspapers said.

A Malaysian health official confirmed remarks by Malaysian Health Minister Chua Jui Meng, who said banned products did not comply with the 20 parts per billion level set by the European Union for food products. "Any food product found contravening this will be seized and destroyed immediately," Chua said in the New Straits Times daily.

The British Food Standards Agency warned last month that several brands of Chinese soy sauce contained 3-MCPD, which could cause cancer if taken daily.

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Lab harvests human stem cells-(Times of India Online-12/07/2001)

Virginia scientists have become the first researchers to create human embryos in the lab for the sole purpose of harvesting their stem cells. Until now, scientists had derived stem cells only from excess embryos donated from infertility treatments. In this case, the scientists approached donors and informed them that their eggs and sperm would be used to develop embryos for stem-cell research. The work, conducted by researchers at the Jones Institute for Reproductive Medicine in Norfolk, drew criticism from religious conservatives opposed to embryo research.

"I think this is a cautionary tale against starting down the slope," Richard Doerflinger of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops told The Washington Post in Wednesday's edition.

"It's still killing a human being," Mary Petchel, president of the Tidewater chapter of the Virginia Society for Human Life, told The Virginian Pilot of Norfolk, Va.

Scientists who conducted the work said several review panels had assessed the ethical implications and concluded that the approach was at least as ethical as using spare frozen embryos.

The group extracted eggs from 12 women, who signed consent documents and were paid $1,500 to $2,000 each, according to William Gibbons, a reproductive endocrinologist who was not involved in the work. Of the 162 eggs collected and inseminated by donor sperm, 50 embryos were successfully created. The researchers destroyed 40 of those to get the stem cells that resided inside. The work was done with private funds. The results appear in the July issue of the journal Fertility and Sterility, published Wednesday. The study began in 1997 and concluded last July.

Interest in embryonic stem cells centers around their ability to generate other tissues of the body. Doctors hope using stem cells could possibly cure diseases as Alzheimer's, diabetes, cancer, Parkinson's, and spinal cord injuries.

President Bush has said he will soon decide whether to allow taxpayer dollars to be used for research on embryonic stem cells. He is under pressure from patient groups that favour the research and opponents who feel the work is inherently unethical.

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Stem cell cloning flawed: Study-(Times of India Online-07/07/2001)

Experiments show that genes used in cloning often fail to work properly, causing serious abnormalities in mice, a finding that confirms the belief of many researchers that the method used to clone Dolly the sheep should not be used on humans. In a study appearing on Friday in the journal Science, researchers said even the use of embryonic stem cells in cloning did not assure the creation of normal mice. The study comes as the Bush administration considers whether to allow federal funds for non-cloning embryonic stem cell research.

"This study confirms the suspicions of many of us that cloning of humans would be really dangerous," said Rudolf Jaenisch, senior author of the study and a researcher at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

David Humpherys, first author of the study, said that many of the mice cloned in the experiment appeared to be normal, including having normal genes, but there was evidence that during embryonic and fetal development the genes did not work properly.

"It is quite likely that just the animals that are most nearly normal make it to birth (in cloning), but our study shows that doesn't mean they are completely normal," said Humpherys. "There may be changes in gene expression that could affect them later in life." In cloned humans, Jaenisch said the gene expression flaws could affect personality, intelligence and other human attributes.

Humpherys said there was no evidence that the genes in the cloned animals were altered, but that the way in which the genes made proteins was flawed and unstable. In effect, the researchers found that even though the biological blueprint was intact in the cloned animals, the way that the blueprint was read and interpreted was flawed. This could result in abnormal tissues and organs, they said. Humpherys and Jaenisch said that a number of scientists doing cloning experiments with mice, pigs, sheep and cattle have reported that even apparently normal animals develop disorders later in life. Jaenisch said that extreme obesity has developed in many cloned animals, including Dolly, the first mammal cloned from an adult cell.

Dr. David A Prentice, an Indiana State University professor of life sciences, said the MIT-Whitehead study shows the hazards of the current cloning technology. "Development is a finely orchestrated ballet of cells forming tissues and organs at the right place and time," said Prentice. "It takes only one going awry at the wrong time and place to have a seriously flawed individual."

In the study, the researchers made the mouse clones using embryonic stem cells, the primordial cells known to be able to form virtually any tissue in the body. The DNA from the cells was removed and inserted into a mouse egg that had been stripped of its DNA. The resulting embryos were then implanted in mother mice and allowed to grow to birth.

The researchers monitored the expression, or action, of genes that play a role in embryo and fetal development. They found that the genes, even from nearly identical stem cells, worked differently. In fact, said Humpherys, stem cells are unstable in gene expression even in the laboratory dish.

This instability raises the possibility that using stem cells to treat health disorders may not work as well as some scientists have suggested, said Dr. Joann A. Boughman, vice president of the American Society of Human Genetics.

"When we grow (embryonic stem) cells for a curative situation, we will need to precisely control the process," she said. "This paper shows that we've got a very long way to go to fully understand this whole process."

Some researchers have suggested that embryonic stem cells could be cloned from a patient and used to grow cells that could be used to restore that patient's ailing heart or liver or other organs.

Jaenisch said that it is unlikely that genetic instability would block the curative use of embryonic stem cells. He said in developing cells for therapeutic use, researchers would harvest and inject into patients only those cells that are normal.

During cloning, he said, no such selection is possible because an embryo must use the DNA provided and cannot select only that which is perfect.

Regulations that would permit federal funding of embryonic stem cell research has been delayed by President Bush who ordered a review of the whole issue. Some in Congress oppose embryonic stem cell research because obtaining the cells involves the death of a human embryo. Many scientists, however, believe that embryonic stem cell research could relieve suffering for millions of patients with a variety of disorders.

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Eat curry to beat cancer: CSIRO-(Times of India Online-07/07/2001)

If one goes by the number of Indian restaurants in each and every sizable Australian suburb, the antipodeans have a great liking for spicy curries. The love affair is likely to grow even more with a finding made by an Australian research institute to the effect that spices and herbs, like curry leaves, go a long way towards keeping deadly diseases like cancer at bay.

Nutrition scientists of CSIRO, Australia's largest scientific and industrial research organisation, have found that herbs and spices not only taste good but are also good for health. "Across the world, some varieties of herbs and spices have been investigated in relation to cancer and heart disease risk, improving memory and alleviating nausea," research nutritionist Lynne Cobiac said in a media report.

Traditional Asian cuisine has long been appreciated in this country for both taste and the variety that it offers. Now scientists have also added a health perspective to these cuisines.

"French emperor Charlemagne, in the eighth century, is quoted as saying 'a herb is a friend of the physician and the praise of cooks' while ancient civilisations in India and China were also aware of many of their culinary and medicinal properties," CSIRO scientist Cobiac said.

Though ancient medicine in India and other older civilisations had identified the medicinal and nutritional values of spices and herbs thousands of years back, skeptical Western experts have been a bit slow in extending their acknowledgment. But it's obvious that the world's vast majority has been waiting for any such approval as, according to CSIRO figures, 80 per cent of the global population continues to depend upon centuries old medicinal systems for their health requirements.

"Recent research from CSIRO Health Sciences and Nutrition in Adelaide has proved the anti-oxidant properties of curry leaves, while work is continuing to assess scientifically the antioxidant properties of ginger," Cobiac further said in the media release. "Researchers are working to ascertain how much of each herb and spice we need to consume to gain their beneficial effect, but some quantities are already known," she said.

Besides curry leaves and ginger, the scientists have also mentioned garlic as a good insurance against cholesterol if consumed daily. Garlic, CSIRO media release says, can thus help in fighting heart disease in a very positive manner. Garlic, often detested for its smell, has also garnered appreciation from Australian scientists for its anti-carcinogenic properties.

Another ingredient used extensively in Asian cooking, Gingko biloba, is also under the CSIRO microscope, as it is said to be helpful in improving memory and cognitive function.

With the identification of the medicinal properties of some of the herbs and spices intrinsic to Asian cuisines, now CSIRO scientists are trying to identify the active beneficial components and find the best way to optimise their effects. But there is still a gray area as far as this process is concerned as the scientists are not sure whether a component, if separated, would retain its potency or not.

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Panel to track Appalachian health –(Times of India Online-08/07/2001)

A database will be created to track details on health care and mortality in the Appalachian Mountains, where cancer, heart disease and infant mortality rates have been infamously high. The Appalachian Regional Commission began asking universities last week to bid on the job of compiling the data on what behaviours might be worsening residents' health, their accessibility to health care providers and insurance and any relevant socio-economic factors.

``We've never done anything this encompassing,'' said Duane DeBruyne, a commission spokesman in Washington. ``There have been some spotty, state-based examinations of health care disparities, but this is our first top-to-bottom review.''

Health care has long been a concern for Appalachia's 22.2 million residents in the 199,000-square-mile region that stretches from Mississippi to New York. White Appalachian women have a higher rate of cervical cancer than women elsewhere in the country, while white Appalachian men suffer more from lung cancer, according to documents the commission made available to research institutions. The commission also plans to study the financial conditions of the region's hospitals and clinics and identify which facilities are struggling. Policy makers would have access to the database when deciding on health care spending, research and education. The target date for completing the study is September 2002

``If a substantial number of states all recognise there is a problem common to them all, they would have more national political clout if they came together and said, 'This is something that needs to be addressed,''' said Roger Hagler, consultant for the North Carolina Office of Rural Health.

The federally funded commission was created in 1965 after a study sponsored by the Kennedy administration found that, in addition to the region's crushing poverty, death from infectious disease was 33 percent higher in Appalachia than in the rest of the nation. The study also found the region had 30 percent fewer doctors per 100,000 residents than elsewhere, and infant mortality rates were twice as high in some Appalachian counties than in other parts of the United States. Last year, a study by a consortium at the University of Virginia found that adults ages 35 to 64 in the western toe of Virginia die 30 per cent faster than the same population statewide. The study also found that people in the mountains are 50 per cent more likely to die of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, 26 per cent more likely to die of heart disease, 53 per cent more likely to die of pneumonia or flu, and 60 per cent more likely to commit suicide.

``There's a consensus that the regional picture might be a more dramatic picture than the picture of any individual state,'' Hagler said.

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Questions, answers about stem cells-(Times of India Online-06/07/2001)

Many scientists believe that stem cells hold the promise of dramatic new treatments for disease, offering hope to millions of patients. But some groups oppose using stem cells taken from embryos because this results in the death of the embryo. Instead, they favour research limited to stem cells taken from mature tissue. US President Bush has ordered federal funding of embryonic stem cell research delayed while the policy is reviewed. A decision by the administration is expected later this month.

Here are questions and answers on this issue:

Q: What are stem cells?

A: Stem cells are the fundamental building blocks for all the tissues in the body. They can develop into bone, brain, muscle, skin and all the other organs.

Q: What kinds of stem cells are there?

A: There are three types totipotent, pluripotent and multipotent, each representing a different stage in development.

Q: What are totipotent stem cells?

A: Totipotent stem cells form when a fertilised egg first divides. Totipotent stem cells can develop into a complete individual.

Q: What are pluripotent stem cells?

A: After a few days, totipotent stem cells form a blastocyst, a ball of cells. The inner layer contains pluripotent stem cells which are capable of developing into any tissue in the body. Pluripotent stem cells, however, cannot become a complete individual. Pluripotent stem cells are also called embryonic stem cells.

Q: What are multipotent stem cells?

A: Multipotent stem cells are found in mature tissue and are formed by the body to replace worn out cells in tissues and organs. Stem cells from the bone marrow, for instance, form the various kinds of blood cells. Neural stem cells can form nerve and brain cells. Multipotent stem cells are sometimes called somatic or adult stem cells.

Q: How are stem cells useful in medicine?

A: Researchers believe that stem cells have great promise in the treatment of many illnesses from brain disease to diabetes to heart failure. Experts believe they can learn to direct the development of stem cells into various types of new cells that can rejuvenate or even replace ailing organs. For instance, some believe it may be possible to grow insulin-producing cells to cure some forms of diabetes, or nerve cells to restore function for patients paralysed by spinal injury.

Q: Which type of stem cell is best?

A: That is unknown. Some researchers believe embryonic stem cells are best because they are the most versatile. Also, embryonic stem cells can grow vigorously, forming colonies that will expand virtually forever. But research has shown that adult stem cells also are capable of forming many different types of cells. For instance, some mouse experiments have shown that neural stem cells from the brain can be coaxed into growing muscle, liver and heart cells. Adult stem cells, though, are more difficult to grow and do not survive in the lab as long as embryonic stem cells. Many researchers believe that both embryonic and adult stem cells should be studied because it is unclear now which will ultimately be the most useful in medicine.

Q: Why is embryonic stem cell research controversial?

A: An embryo is killed when the pluripotent stem cells are extracted. Many people are ethically opposed to killing human embryos for any purpose. A 1995 law specifically forbids federal funding of research in which a human embryo would be destroyed, injured or placed at risk.

Q: Does that mean federal money cannot be used for embryonic stem cell research?

A: Not necessarily. In 1999, the National Institutes of Health established regulations that would permit federal funding provided the embryonic stem cells were harvested by privately funded laboratories. Federal money would be used to study the stem cells, but not to harm the embryos from which cells were taken.

Q: Have any embryonic stem cell studies been funded by the federal government?

A: No. Two research projects have been proposed, but NIH consideration has been halted on orders of President Bush who asked that the 1999 regulations be reviewed.

Q: Who opposes embryonic stem cell research?

A: Some members of Congress have proposed legislation that would forbid federal funding of such research on moral grounds. Some anti-abortion groups oppose the research because extracting the stem cells requires the death of a human embryo. Pope John Paul II has said injury or death of a human embryo ``is not morally acceptable'' even though it may advance research that would cure or treat disease.

Q: Who favours federal funding for embryonic stem cell research?

A: The majority of research organisations in the US Eighty Nobel Prize winners have signed a petition endorsing the research. Scores of scientific societies have announced their support. Many members of Congress also support the research, citing potential benefits for millions of patients.

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Cannabis good on nausea, poor on pain –(Times of India Online-06/07/2001)

Cannabis is better than conventional drugs at combating nausea among cancer patients but less effective at easing acute pain, and in any case is prone to side effects. Two studies assessed nearly 40 medical trials involving cannabis, with the goal of getting an overview of the drug's potential role in the hospital. More than 1,300 chemotherapy patients were enlisted in 30 trials in which they were given cannabis tablets or injections to fight nausea and vomiting.

In every trial, the cannabis was found to be more effective than conventional anti-sickness drugs. However, the cannabis also had more side effects, ranging from beneficial (euphoria) to harmful (depressions and hallucinations). Even if it were only taken for a short while, this problem is likely to limit its clinical use, the study said.

In separate research, more than 200 patients, most of them cancer sufferers or people in post-operative care, took part in nine trials to see cannabis' effectiveness for treating acute or chronic (long-term) pain. In eight of these nine trials, the cannabis was no better than codeine, and also had more side effects. The cannabis was likewise administered by tablets or intra-muscular injections, rather than by smoking.

"Cannabinoids are no more effective than codeine in controlling pain and have depressant effects on the central nervous system that limit their use," the study said. "Their widespread introduction into clinical practice for pain management is therefore undesirable. In acute post-operative pain, they should not be used," it added bluntly.

The first study was conducted by a team led by Martin Tramer of the department of anaesthesiology at Geneva University Hospital; the second was led by Fiona Campbell of the Pain Management Centre at Queen's Medical Centre, in Nottingham, England. The work is published in the weekly British Medical Journal.

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Non-smoked nicotine aids blood flow-(Times of India Online-30/06/2001)

Nicotine given to animals in water or by injections stimulate the growth of blood vessels. The finding surprised researchers and could have implications for some medical treatments and the long-term use of nicotine patches. ``This was totally a shock to us. We expected just the opposite,'' Dr John P Cooke, director of vascular medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine, said in a telephone interview.

Encouraging the growth of blood vessels can be good or bad depending on circumstances, said Cooke, whose findings were reported in Friday's issue of the journal Nature Medicine. It's beneficial in cases where a patient has circulation problems, he explained. But the process, called angiogenesis, can also result in encouraging the growth of tumours, which need blood vessels to grow, and plaque which can clog larger blood vessels, he said.

``Cardiologists are very enamoured now of angiogenic therapy to treat poor blood flow to the heart, to treat poor blood flow to the legs,'' Cooke said.

But he cautioned that in this type of treatment it will be important to deliver the agents that encourage vessel growth directly to the place where needed. ``If they are given systemically it can have unwanted consequences,'' he said. But he was quick to add that people should still use nicotine patches to stop smoking, just not for long periods.

``That is a very good therapy, nicotine patches, but they should be used as directed for a short term. Some people make the mistake of using them for a long term and that could have consequences,'' he said. ``But it's so important to stop smoking.''

Directions with the patches generally call for their use for a limited period of time. "Our labelling is very clear that this is for a 10 week period and use beyond 10 weeks is not recommended," said Ken Strahs, a vice president at GlaxoSmithKline, which makes Nicoderm CQ, one of the best known brands. ``We think that this study just emphasises the need for smokers to quit smoking as soon as they possibly can.''

Dr. Rakesh Jain of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School agreed that it is vital to stop smoking and the patches can be useful. ``There is no reason to panic,'' he said. ``To quit smoking, that's the best thing.'' Jain, who was not part of Cooke's team, said the results help confirm earlier studies, but more research needs to be done to better understand the effect of nicotine.

It's hard for many doctors to accept that non-smoked nicotine promotes blood-vessel growth because they are used to thinking of nicotine in connection with tobacco smoke, Cooke explained. Smoking can damage the circulation, but the effect is complicated because there are some 4,000 chemicals included in smoke. Cooke said his researchers were surprised at finding the increased blood flow in mice after the nicotine was either injected into muscle or supplied in water. But they were able to confirm the results in cell cultures as well as in the mice. He said many people are surprised that artery-clogging plaques need blood, because the plaque seems inanimate. But he likened it to a coral reef, which also looks inanimate but is full of living cells.

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Never before seen look deep inside cancerous tumours-(Cancer info-30/06/2001)

A powerful new high resolution, three-dimensional imaging tool is providing researchers with never-before-seen views of what goes on deep within a living tumor. Scientists at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) are using multiphoton laser scanning microscopy to visualize individual cells, where they can monitor gene expression, therapy effectiveness and tumor cells’ interactions with normal cells.

The work published in this week’s Nature Medicine demonstrates that the technique could be adapted to measure a wide range of physiological parameters. Since the researchers use a living mouse model, they can perform a variety of experiments and take numerous measurements over time. "We can figure out what’s going on under the surface of the tumor without disturbing the tumor itself," says principal investigator Rakesh Jain, PhD, of the MGH Department of Radiation Oncology.

Current imaging techniques do not have the same combination of depth or resolution. "This new technology gives us the ability to look deep inside the tissues of living animals," says lead author Edward Brown, PhD, also of the MGH Department of Radiation Oncology. The MGH scientists first looked at gene expression at the tumor site, focusing on the angiogenesis-promoting gene, VEGF.

Cancer cells can coax nearby normal cells to produce VEGF in order to recruit nourishing blood vessels to the tumor. By imaging individual cells in and around the tumor, the MGH team could see exactly which cells turned on the gene. They could also visualize blood vessels deep within a cancerous mass, and they hope this information will offer clues to the mechanism of tumor angiogenesis. "There’s a dance between the cancer cells and the host cells. We’ll now be able to see how that occurs," says Jain.

The scientists were also able to use their technique to track individual cell populations within a tumor. Some cancer cells develop a hardiness that allows them to survive in areas of very low oxygen. The MGH team could visualize these cells as they migrated to the center of the tumor mass, far away from oxygen-rich blood vessels. Since cancer therapies are generally administered through the blood stream, these cells might also be inaccessible to conventional treatments.

Jain says that innovative strategies may need to be devised to target these cells. The microscopic technique was also used by Jain and his team to monitor the delivery of cancer treatments. They saw that therapies tend to flow out of a blood vessel and into nearby tissues, but only at certain blood vessel locations. The scientists could see that there are regions of a tumor that may never be exposed to a drug that’s given systemically. This has important implications for developing strategies to target the whole tumor.

"In the future, this technology will apply to a lot of exciting areas," says Brown. "There’s three-dimensional resolution, a great depth of penetration, and you can look at individual cells." Brown and his colleagues are now focusing on understanding the detailed mechanisms behind their in-depth observations.

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New South Wales to consider legalising marijuana-(Times of India Online-30/06/2001)

Australia's largest state is to consider legalising marijuana for patients suffering from cancer and other grave diseases, officials said on Sunday. New South Wales state Premier Bob Carr's office said if approved the medicinal use of marijuana would be tightly controlled and limited to specific situations. Carr has said he has a moral obligation to consider legalising the use of marijuana to relieve the pain of seriously ill people.

The National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC) estimates about 19,000 New South Wales residents each year would benefit from the medical use of marijuana. South Australia, the Australian Capital Territory, and the Northern Territory are the only states and territories in Australia where patients can use marijuana without fear of criminal prosecution.

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Low calorie diet 'could halt cancer'-(Cancer Info-29/06/2001)

Eating a low calorie diet could help affect the ability of cancer cells to reproduce within the body. Scientists in Israel developed a mathematical model to show how fast-growing cancer cells need more calories to survive than healthy ones. However, so far there have been no clinical trials to show whether this works in humans and dieticians are urging people with cancer not to starve themselves in a bid to beat their tumours.

Obesity and eating an unhealthy diet are thought to raise the risk of developing cancer. Scientists studied whether limiting the amount of food eaten to only what is necessary could have a direct effect on the cancer cells. They simulated how cell populations grow when they have to compete for a limited supply of energy and found that normal cells multiply more slowly, but that fast-growing abnormal cells such as those often found in some cancers died off. The cells needed a disproportionate amount of energy to reproduce at such high rates. This suggested that eating be minimal, but adequate amounts of food could help starve tumours.

However it is necessary to test the thesis in clinical trials. Tests have been done on rats with prostate cancer and found that the rats on a reduced-calorie diet had smaller tumours than the rats who ate everything they wanted showing that diet restriction will inhibit the growth of the tumour. But the model applied only to cancers in which tumours replicate faster than normal cells and that this was not always the case.

Epidemiological evidence shows that people in countries with lower intake of calories have a lower incidence of certain cancers, such as bowel and breast, than in countries with high calorific intake. Obesity has also been identified as a risk factor for many cancers, so the results of this theoretical mathematical study seem to fit with established evidence. This reinforces the balanced diet/healthy body weight message health professionals have been urging for years.

Although the study showed some interesting research, people should not start cutting back their food intake until the work had been proved in clinical trials. This is an interesting study in the test tube, but it would be very hard to transfer into the body because of the particular way the body works.

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Blood cells 'deliver cancer drugs'-(Cancer Info-29/06/2001)

A patient's own blood cells could be used to carry drugs around the body to destroy cancer. Scientists have found that a quick blast of ultrasound can then turn the red blood cells, impregnated with toxic drugs, into cancer killers. The drug can be released exactly where it is needed by focusing the ultrasound on the diseased tissue to make the blood cells burst open. This would allow anti-cancer agents to be targeted specifically at the tumour sites while sparing the healthy cells.

In the past using the red blood cells to deliver drugs or enzymes had met with limited success. The technique exploits an effect that found that an electric field can "sensitise" red blood cells so that they burst open when exposed to ultrasound. Now the company is developing an automated device that accepts around 20 millilitres of a patient's red cells. The blood is then sensitised to ultrasound and loaded with a drug. Two or three hours later doctors take the treated blood, re-inject it, then release the drug by exposing the diseased tissue to ultrasound.

Depending on how long the ultrasound pulse is applied the drug could be released in bursts or all at once. The technique has been tested in mice and pigs without any adverse effects. Instead of using drugs, the red cells were loaded with proteins that were tagged with fluorescent labels, allowing the researchers to check that the cells released the drugs in to the right places.

Pigs were chosen because they have similar blood cells and circulatory system to humans. It is hoped that it will eventually be possible to use the system to treat cancer and cardiovascular diseases by loading the blood cells with agents such as antibodies, gene treatments and designer proteins.

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Scientists show health-giving secrets of honey –(Cancer Info-25/06/2001)

Researchers have identified a host of health-giving chemicals that fight heart disease and cancer in honey. Researchers extracted antioxidant compounds from seven varieties of honey made from different floral sources. Antioxidants mop up dangerous free radical molecules that can damage cells and DNA. The properties of the seven honey varieties were analysed using a test called the Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC) assay. Oxygen-free radicals, created as a waste product of natural metabolism, are among the most destructive. Antioxidants identified in honey included phenolic compounds, ascorbic acid and the enzymes glucose oxidase, catalase and peroxidase. The antioxidant power of honey appeared chiefly due to their phenolic composition. Dark-coloured honey had the highest ORAC value, showing it was especially good at removing free radicals.

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Gene Activation Protein May Lead To Cancer Therapies-(Cancer Info-25/06/2001)

Researchers have identified the single protein that initiates the gene-activation process in yeast when it marks the start of a gene and allows the transcription process to begin. An important step toward a better understanding of the gene-activation process, the discovery also promises potential applications in the effort to combat diseases such as cancer and leukemia, since a comparable protein exists in humans.

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Families Demand Access to Experimental Drugs-(Cancer Info-22/06/2001)

Cancer patients and the families of people who succumbed to the disease pleaded with lawmakers to help make experimental drugs more readily available to desperate, terminally ill patients. Lawmakers heard emotional testimony from several witnesses who said that drug companies thwarted their attempts to obtain experimental drugs for loved ones. The witnesses were trying to gain access to promising cancer drugs that are yet to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

"It was like a lifeboat there but we couldn't get to it," said Frank Burroughs, an Arlington, Virginia man whose 21-year-old daughter Abigail died 2 weeks ago from neck and lung cancer. Burroughs and his daughter tried to get experimental drugs from two companies, AstraZeneca and ImClone Systems, but were turned away, he said in a hearing on Capitol Hill.

FDA allows terminally ill patients to get investigational new drugs under "compassionate use" rules it has had since 1987. But whether or not to offer compassionate use drugs is solely the company's decision. Some companies have large programs, while others have small programs or none at all. Most drug makers do not have a company-wide policy, but instead make decisions on compassionate use on a case-by-case basis. Companies that prohibit or strictly limit distribution of promising experimental drugs may do so to avoid investing in a yet-to-be approved drug with an uncertain sales future. Manufacturers also worry that desperate patients seeking the drugs may not fit the narrowly defined criteria the FDA requires for approval trials. Drug makers run a risk of skewing the results of their clinical trials if the drug is not effective or if it causes an adverse side effect in a compassionate use patient.

Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.) said that Congress should encourage compassionate use by making sure that such data do not affect the results of ongoing experiments. ``We ought to look at walling off the clinical trials from compassionate use,'' said Burton, who chairs the House Committee on Government Reform.

ImClone President Samuel D. Waksal, said that his company was deluged with over 10,000 requests for its experimental cancer drug C225 after positive data about the drug came out last year. The company granted compassionate use drugs to 30 patients. "For us, the critical issue hasn't been money or the risk of contaminating the company's ongoing trials, but the ability to make enough of the drug."

But several witnesses complained that they were unable to find accurate or consistent information about compassionate use drugs from pharmaceutical makers. They complained that in some cases they made pleas for drugs or information but received no response. "Three of my wife's letters were ignored," said Fred Santino, whose wife recently died of cancer. She had tried to obtain C225 from ImClone but was eventually turned down.

Waksal acknowledged that his company was 'young and inexperienced' when the 10,000 requests for compassionate use of C255 came in. The drug is currently on FDA's fast-track approval list and could be on the market early next year. He said that the company should have communicated more effectively so that terminally ill patients could have avoided the stress of waiting for an experimental drug that the company could not manufacture.

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Soy sauce cancer warning –(Cancer Info-22/06/2001)

Brands of soy sauce and other soy products have been removed from more than 150 supermarkets throughout the country. The supermarket companies say they have withdrawn the products voluntarily in response to the survey released by the Britain's Food Standards Agency found that almost one in four bottles contained potentially cancer-causing chemicals. The survey listed soy sauces and soy products the agency says have unacceptably high levels of cancer causing chemicals.

The Director General of Health issued a statement warning that the survey in the United Kingdom had found that 22% samples of soy sauce tested contained high levels of the chemical 3-MCPD. The advice is to avoid eating soy sauce and associated products, such as oyster flavoured sauce and marinades that include soy sauce, until the Health Ministry has concluded its investigation. The Ministry of Health say it should know within the week if any of the affected products have been imported here.

The chemical at the centre of the claims, 3-MCPD, has been proven to lead to cancer in animals but there is no need to panic. Small amounts of use over time, according to the British food safety people, there should be no problem. People who have prolonged use of large amounts of soy sauce could have been at risk. We don't even know if there is any human risk but we know it causes cancer in animals. 3-MCPD is a by-product of soy sauce processing but only some brands contain it and the ministry has yet to identify them. The British survey was conducted last year and found of the 100 products surveyed 22 samples gave cause for concern. At present there is no set limit for the chemical in New Zealand foods. The affected products were imported into the United Kingdom from Thailand, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

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Study ranks preventive measures-(Times of India Online-24/06/2001)

Childhood vaccinations and anti-smoking counselling for adults are the most effective preventive medicine, says a new study that ranks medical services based on how many lives they save and how much they cost. The findings also suggest that some of the best preventive measures such as colon cancer screening and warning teenagers about drugs are reaching surprisingly few Americans.

The study examined 30 examples of preventive medicine, giving each a 1-to-5 rating in two categories cost-effectiveness and how well it prevents disease or injury.

Vaccinating children for diseases like polio and hepatitis was the only measure with a perfect 10. Anti-smoking counselling for adults and eye exams for the elderly were close behind, ranked extremely effective, with combined scores of 9 each. The next most effective measures were getting the anti-smoking and anti-drug messages to youngsters. But those measures were also found to reach less than half of their target audience.

Two measures were given the lowest possible scores for both disease prevention and cost-effectiveness rubella screening for women of childbearing age and tetanus shots for the whole population. Cholesterol screening, counselling on a balanced diet and regular mammograms for women age 50 to 69 ranked in the middle.

Medical effectiveness was measured by calculating the deaths or injuries that could be delayed or avoided if the preventive service reached its entire target population.

Cost-effectiveness was measured as the cost of a preventive service divided by its medical effectiveness.

In a commentary published in the journal, a physician with the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan warned that doctors make decisions based on how specific methods help specific patients not how they compare to other preventive methods.

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Scientists propose a protein as anti-tumour drug-(Times of India Online-21/06/2001)

Scientists have proposed inclusion of bovine seminal ribonuclease, a protein which has specific biological action, among the possible anti-tumour drugs as it has been found effective in killing proliferating cells by inducing apoptosis or self death. In a bid to provide evidence for self death of proliferating cells after treatment with bovine seminal ribonuclease (bs-rnase), which is known to exert specific anti-tumor activities, scientists treated dividing and non-dividing lymphocytes, a kind of white blood cells, with the protein. The team said that bs-rnase induced programmed cell death in lymphocytes which have been stimulated by phytohemagglutin (pha), a substance which causes agglutination and multiplication of cells.

The scientists collected blood samples from health donors and separated lymphocytes from them. Some lymphocytes samples were induced to proliferate by treating them with pha. Pha-stimulated and unstimulated lymphocytes were treated with bs-rnase for 24 hours, 48 hours and 72 hours and after that cells were analysed for various characteristics. Pha-stimulated lymphocytes underwent a massive proliferation which was inhibited by the addition of bs-rnase to the culture medium, the scientists said. After 24-hour bs-rnase treatment, pha-stimulated cell cultures showed a 29.5 per cent decrease in proliferation rate compared with untreated cells, the report said. The proliferation reduction was 36.2 per cent and 62.1 per cent at 48 hours and 72 hours of treatment respectively.

However, bs-rnase did not affect undividing lymphocytes, since their number remained constant, the scientists said adding the results clearly indicated that only pha-stimulated lymphocytes were sensitive to the toxic effects of the protein. Thus, non-malignant cells are resistant to effects of this protein. Analysis of the cell ultra structure showed that cell toxicity was accompanied by cell shrinkage, cell fragmentation and disorganisation of cell parts.

Proposing inclusion of bs-rnase among the possible anti- tumour drugs, especially for those kind of tumors which are resistant to the currently employed chemotherapeutic agents, the team said it remained to be explained why bs-rnase affected only proliferating cells. However, possible effects of the protein on normal proliferating cells like blood making cells must be considered, the team members warned.

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Cancer-stricken boy leaves $50,000 to actress-(Times of India Online-19/06/2001)

A 13-year-old Singapore boy who died of cancer has bequeathed $50,000 to Chinese actress Vicki Zhao Wei for use in charity projects. The actress stars in the Mandarin television series My Fair Princess, which is popular in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore.

Press reports said the boy died last month of cancer. In his will he left his savings totalling S$90,000 in the care of Zhao for use in charity projects of her choice. The boy and his family have remained unidentified.

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Docs not candid with patients: Study-(Times of India Online-20/06/2001)

When dying patients ask their doctors "How long do I have?" they are likely to get an overly optimistic answer or none at all, according to a study. Less than 40 per cent of doctors surveyed for a study said they would give a candid survival estimate to terminally ill cancer patients. The doctors said they would give either no estimate or one that is different from what they believed was correct.

The physician's primary obligation to their patients is to do no harm, but the very well-intentioned protection of patients can be damaging when a patient wants information, and not giving a frank disclosure can hinder that, the study said. Researchers conducted telephone interviews with 258 Chicago-area doctors who referred 326 cancer patients to hospice care in 1996. Just 37 per cent said they would give their best guess to a patient who asked how long he or she had to live. In 23 per cent of the cases, doctors said they would not give patients any estimate, even if specifically asked. In 40 per cent of the cases, physicians said they would knowingly give an inaccurate estimate with three-fourths of them saying they would paint a more positive picture than they really believed.

The researchers did not ask why the doctors would take such an approach. But they speculated that the doctors were trying to spare their patients the anguish or were afraid that bad news could make their condition worse. Still, the researchers said honesty is better in helping terminally ill people realise it is time to get their finances in order, make decisions about their care and contact family and friends.

Although nearly everyone agrees that frank, open and honest communication between a patient and his doctor is optimal, on this one absolutely critical issue it remains very much the exception the study said. As a consequence, two out of three patients may have to make important medical and personal decisions based on missing or unreliable information.

However, doctors felt that coming up with a prognosis is an inexact science and that the study should not lead to the assumption that physicians are withholding information. Patients can pressure doctors into providing a time frame even when it is not clear-cut.

When doctors use numbers, they usually make them up. Even when they say they have no crystal ball, they have seen people live six months but miracles happen and other people have lived for much longer, the patient is probably hearing just hear the number.

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Cancer drug made from bark –(Cancer Info-18/06/2001)

There is truth to the fact that natural remedies do actually help and work. Scientists yesterday reported dramatic new success in tests of an experimental anti-cancer drug, combretastatin, made from the bark of an African tree. In a blending of African folk wisdom with the most advanced techniques of western medical science, researchers have combined the drug with radioactive antibodies to wipe out human tumours artificially created in mice.

A paper in the journal Cancer Research reported that five out of six mice were "completely cured", with no sign of a recurrence of cancer after nine months. The results from the trial in mice are very exciting because a cure was actually seen, which is very unusual. The results chime with other studies suggesting that a mix of frontier technologies and older anti-cancer measures stands a better chance of beating the disease than any single "miracle cure".

Combretastatin was discovered a decade ago by Bob Pettit, of Arizona State University, after he found that South African tribes were using bark from the bush willow. Some were using it as medicine. The drug extracted from the bark has a way of attacking the blood vessels that grow with tumours, while leaving normal blood vessels alone.

Combretastatin by itself cannot destroy an entire tumour. Nor can radioactive antibodies. But the two together seem to have a devastating effect on tumours.

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Ayurveda looks to metals for ancient cures-(Times of India-15/06/2001)

The Vaidya Chandra Prakash Cancer Research Foundation in Dehradun appears, at first sight, like yet another nondescript hospital practising traditional medicine. But for the 10 or 12 patients who suffer from various kinds of cancer and arrive at the centre every day, it offers a ray of hope with its metal-based drugs that have cured several dozen people afflicted by the killer disease in the last 16 years. The drugs, says Vaidya Balendu Prakash who runs the centre set in sprawling farm lands at the foothills of the Himalayas are not a wonder invention but a discovery based on one of the eight clinical specialities known as "Rasa Shastra" or metal therapy. "Metals have a very important role to play in the prevention and cure of cancer," Prakash told Reuters. "But when we say metals we are not talking of their metallic form but the ionised form which can be absorbed by the human body."

Metal therapy, according to Ayurvedic texts which are thousands of years old, is based on the premise that human body tissues contain different metals in various degrees. Any imbalance in the content of these metals, caused by natural or self-inflicted methods such as substance abuse, disturbs the body and triggers ailments. The patients can be treated with metal-based drugs that replace the balance. Metal therapy rests on the belief that all ailments can be treated with metal-based drugs if they are diagnosed correctly and in time. All metals including gold, silver, mercury, arsenic, iron, copper, lead, tin and zinc and their alloys and some wastes are used to make the drugs.

"The same metal can be mixed with different herbs and processed to treat different diseases," Dr R M Anand, an assistant director at state-run Central Council for Research in Ayurveda and Siddha (CCRAS), told Reuters. He said metals are first purified in herbal decoctions, oxidised, subjected to heat and crushed several hundred times till they are converted into a non-metallic, non-toxic form that can be absorbed by the body. The drugs are either in the form of tablets or powders.

Prakash says his cancer drugs take two to three years to be manufactured, cost about Rs 80 for a day's dosage and have to be administered to the patient for at least a year. Chemotherapy and radiation treatment under the modern Allopathy system of medicine in the country, on the other hand, costs a few hundred thousand rupees and is out of the reach of a large section of the one billion population. The drugs made at the Dehradun centre, named after Prakash's Ayurved doctor father, have been used to treat various forms of the disease including cancer of the pancreas, bladder, colon and non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. Prakash, who is the Ayurvedic physician to the Indian president, says it is his silver-based drug that has proved most successful in treating cases of Acute Promyelocytic Leukaemia (APML), a serious type of blood cancer with a success rate of nearly 100 per cent.

Sceptics, mostly doctors practising the Allopathy system of medicine in India and abroad, have questioned Prakash's treatment and express fears about the drugs as they also use poisonous metals such as mercury and arsenic. A year-long study of the treatment conducted by a panel appointed by the federal Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, which included Allopathic doctors was however convinced of the effectiveness of Prakash's formulation for APML.

Dr D K Mishra, another assistant director at the CCRAS and a member of the panel, said the panel suggested the formulation of a standard method for the manufacture of the drug and treatment of the cancer.

Prakash says his discovery of the cancer drugs is in some ways similar to the invention of the first flying machine by the Wright brothers. "They didn't build the jumbo jet. They just showed that a machine could fly," said Prakash. "It is for the medical community to do extensive studies and build on what I have discovered."

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Vitamin C produces gene-damaging compounds, test-tube study in Science reports-(Yahoo News-15/06/2001)

Vitamin C, known to be a DNA-protecting "antioxidant," is a switch hitter, also capable of inducing the production of DNA-damaging compounds, suggests a study in the 15 June issue of the international journal, Science. Mutations caused by these compounds have been found in a variety of tumors.

Such mutations can be repaired, however, and the study cautioned that it shouldn't be interpreted as a claim that vitamin C causes cancer. Nor does it question the wisdom of eating a balanced diet rich in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.

The findings, which come from test-tube experiments (in vitro), may help explain why vitamin C has thus far shown little effectiveness at preventing cancer in clinical trials. It's possible that vitamin C isn't working in cancer prevention studies because it's causing as much damage as it's preventing, but that's really speculation at this point.

Some scientists have long recommended dietary supplements of vitamin C, particularly for treating and preventing cancer. But the supplements' effectiveness has been hotly debated, with critics saying they either have no effect or that they may be harmful. The logic being used was that fruits, vegetables, etc. contain vitamin C; these foods prevent cancer; thus vitamin C prevents cancer. The new message is that it's the total diet that's important, not just one antioxidant in isolation.

Vitamin C is known to do beneficial work in the body, including acting as an antioxidant that "disarms" free radicals. These highly reactive ions are produced by the breakdown of oxygen, which occurs constantly in cells. In addition to damaging DNA directly, free radicals can also act indirectly. They begin by converting linoleic acid, the major polyunsaturated fatty acid in sunflower, grape, and safflower cooking oils, as well as the major polyunsaturated fatty acid in human plasma, into another compound called a lipid hydroperoxide. When certain metal ions are present to act as catalysts, the lipid hydroperoxides degrade further, into DNA-damaging agents called "genotoxins." These compounds react with DNA, switching one base for another in mutations that have been found in human tumors.

Scientists, have suspected that vitamin C might also be capable of making lipid hydroperoxides degrade into genotoxins, in place of the transition metal ions. To investigate, the authors added vitamin C to solutions of lipid hydroperoxides in the lab. They used concentrations comparable to those found in the human body, assuming a person would take 200 milligrams a day. The vitamin was more than twice as efficient as transition metal ions at inducing the formation of genotoxins, including a particularly potent variety. The researchers' next step is to see whether vitamin C produces significant amounts of genotoxins in intact cells, and whether they generate cancer-causing mutations.

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Quest goes on for all-round platinum cancer drug –(Cancer Info-13/06/2001)

Precious metal platinum has long adorned the wealthy as jewellery, but its unique chemical properties also make it key for cancer treatment and scientists are working on a new class of drugs that may fight more cancers than ever before. Scientists have been experimenting with the medicinal properties of metal compounds for centuries but it was only in the early 1970s that researcher Barnett Rosenberg discovered that a simple platinum-based compound prevented bacteria from dividing normally.

He wondered whether the compound had a similar effect on cancer cells and subsequent tests showed it was indeed biologically active -- until this time, inorganic compounds had never been employed successfully as anti-cancer agents. There are two main platinum-based anti-cancer drugs -- cisplatin and carboplatin -- which are seen as the most effective curative treatments for many cancers, but are particularly effective for treating solid tumours such as testicular and ovarian cancers.
Both are used in chemotherapy in the form of a clear fluid given as an intravenous drip to slow or halt the growth of cancer cells by binding to DNA and interfering with its repair mechanism, thereby leading to cell death. But they have major side-effects, including the destruction of normal body cells, kidney damage and serious damage to bone marrow and some cancers quickly develop resistance to them and this is what scientists are trying to improve. Efforts are going on to try to find more user-friendly versions that are still as active against the tumours of the type of cancer that these drugs are used against. Also, cisplatin and carboplatin are not equally effective against all types of cancer. Efforts are on to find new versions which have a broader activity in some of the more common cancers like breast cancer and lung cancer.

Cancer caused 12 percent of the 52 million deaths worldwide in 1997 and was the third leading killer after infectious and parasitic diseases and coronary and heart diseases, according to the World Health Organisation. Only a third of all cancer cases can be cured with early detection and effective treatment.

Lung cancer was the leading cause of deaths from the disease, killing 1.1 million people in 1997, while breast cancer caused 385,000 deaths. Tens of thousands of women worldwide are affected by ovarian cancer with its high mortality rate, and in the UK it affects more than 6,000 women a year, with 4,800 deaths. Testicular cancer is relatively rare, with around 1,400 new cases every year in the UK, and is now curable in over 90 percent of cases thanks to platinum-based therapy.

The question baffling the scientists is why the platinum-based drugs are so effective and totally cure certain kinds of cancers and not others. They actually stop some cancers and for example, to cure testicular cancer just a couple of courses of therapy over a few months is enough.

In fact, there is a platinum-based anti-cancer drug currently in phase III clinical trials sponsored by pharmaceuticals company AstraZeneca, called ZD0473 -- being tested by Canadian company AnorMED which researches and licences metal-based therapeutic products. ZD0473 has shown no nerve or kidney toxicity, and there is evidence of anti-tumour activity. Research is also under way to find more user-friendly ways to administer the drugs, as tablets or capsules rather than as a drip, so that they can be given on an outpatient basis.

Work is also continuing on other metals for anti-cancer drugs. The use of titanium complexes is at the clinical trials stage for breast and gastro-intestinal cancers, but liver damage is proving a major side effect. Gold complexes are also shown to have anti-cancer properties, but are too toxic for clinical use.

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Genzyme Licenses Patent Rights from BruCells for Method of Fusing Dendritic and Tumor Cells –(Cancer Info-06/06/2001)

Dendritic/tumor cell fusion has been used to create a patient-specific cancer vaccine. The technology combines a patients dendritic cells - powerful immune stimulators - with their inactivated tumor cells using a chemical fusion or an electrofusion procedure. The fused cells are injected back into the patient in order to stimulate an immune response against the patient’s cancer.

Cell fusion technology eliminates the need to identify the appropriate specific antigens needed to create a tumor vaccine because it incorporates the entire menu of antigens found on the original tumor to provide the target for the immune system. Once administered, a cancer vaccine stimulates the immune system to seek out and destroy cancer cells that display the antigens included in the vaccine. Antigens, protein fragments that are present in cancer cells, function as markers to direct an immune response to those cells. Because cancer vaccines elicit a systemic immune response, they have the potential to destroy cancer wherever it is found in the body.

In the second half of 2001, Genzyme Molecular Oncology expects to initiate two additional cancer vaccine trials - one in melanoma and one in kidney cancer - using an electrofusion process. Safety and efficacy data from these five trials will allow Genzyme Molecular Oncology to compare each of the two fusion processes in multiple cancer indications, and will help guide further clinical development of the fusion vaccines.

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Cancer rates declining: Experts-(Times of India Online-07/06/2001

Death rates and cases declined for prostate, lung and colon cancers in the 1990s, but more breast cancer was detected, apparently as a result of more aggressive screening among older women, a study reveals. Using data combined from government and private sources, researchers report in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute that overall death rates for all types of cancer declined in the United States by about 1.1 per cent per year from 1992 to 1998. Trends in the incidence of cancer varied by gender and race, according to the study published on Wednesday.

The big four killer cancers breast, prostate, lung and colorectal accounted for 52.7 percent of the 1998 cancer deaths in the United States, the study found. These diseases also accounted for 55.9 per cent of all new cancers.

Death rates for eight of the top 10 cancers were all level or declining. The exceptions were the death rates for female lung cancer and for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, both of which increased.

Prostate cancer rates have fallen dramatically, by about a third over six years, while overall rates for lung and colorectal cancers either decreased slightly or stabilised.

The study compares the rate of cancer incidence and death in the United States from 1992 to 1998 with similar statistics from earlier years. It is the result of combined data and analysis from the National Cancer Institute, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Cancer Society and the registries association.

The study found that overall cancer incidences declined only for men, while women experienced increases, driven by breast and lung cancers.

Female breast cancer rates have jumped by about 40 percent since 1973, when the incidence was 82.6 per 100,000. In 1998, the rate was 118.1. The average overall annual increase was 1.2 percent per year for the six years ending in 1998.

The breast cancer increase appears to be driven by an increase in screening by the age group at highest risk, which helps to pick up more tumors. Most of the increase in breast cancer incidence was among women age 50 to 74, the age group at highest risk. Increased screening, principally through mammography, eventually will result in fewer breast cancer deaths as cancers are detected earlier. The study found that breast cancer death rates declined by 2.4 per cent annually during the period.

Cancers of the lung, thought to be caused primarily by cigarette smoking, continue to be the most lethal of the cancers, accounting for 28.5 per cent of all cancer deaths. The study found that lung cancer incidence among women is declining, but death from the disease among women is up slightly. New cases of the disease declined between 1992 and 1998 by 2.7 per cent per year among men and by 0.2 per cent per year among women. Lung cancer death rates among men declined by 1.9 per cent per year but rose by 0.8 per cent per year among women.

Lung cancer death is still increasing among women, but it is slowing down. In the 1970s and '80s, the death rate among women was increasing by more than 6 per cent a year. The death rate among women appears to be following the pattern seen earlier among men, where the death rate started dropping as older smokers died and fewer young people started smoking.

Colorectal cancer rates across the population dropped by 0.7 per cent a year from 1992 to 1998, with a 1.3 per cent per year decline among white men and 1.1 per cent among black men. The decline was 0.4 per cent per year for white women, 0.3 per cent for black women. Death rates from colorectal cancer dropped dramatically for white men, by 2.3 per cent per year, but less so for black men, 0.9 per cent per year. Among white females, the colorectal cancer death rate dropped by 1.9 per cent per year. For black females it was down by 0.6 per cent per year from 1992 to 1998.

Death from melanoma, which accounted for 1.4 per cent of all cancer deaths, increased by 1 per cent per year among white males, while remaining stable among white females from 1992 to 1998. New cases increased by 2.7 per cent per year among white men and 2.9 per cent among white females. Melanoma is a skin cancer linked to excessive sun exposure.

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Landmark cancer screening for test tube embryos-(Times of India Online-05/06/2001)

Couples having test tube babies can screen embryos for cancer by using landmark techniques developed in Australia. The new procedure will allow couples using In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) to have embryos tested for cancer genes before implanting them in the uterus. The tests - which are yet to be approved by health authorities - will screen embryos for cancers of the breast, ovaries, bowel, brain, bone and soft tissue, and ensures cancerous genes are removed from the family line so that children don't inherit these cancers that have been in families for generations.

The procedure is an extension of Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) - where a single cell biopsy from a three-day-old embryo is tested for abnormalities- which is already used to detect chromosome disorders such as Down Syndrome and cystic fibrosis. The new tests would only be offered to couples who have a family history of cancer.

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Scientists differentiate cancers-(Times of India Online-01/06/2001)

Scientists have found a way to differentiate between several similar childhood cancers, using gene technology and computers that are taught to think like humans. The findings could improve treatment of the cancers by quickly telling which is which and, in the long run, may show new ways to attack the diseases.

The researchers concentrated on small, round blue cell tumours of childhood, a group of four types of cancer that appear similar, but which require different treatments. Those tumours include neuroblastoma, rhabdomyosarcoma, non-Hodgkin lymphoma and the Eweing family of tumours. These cancers are difficult to distinguish; no single diagnostic test is available.

The first step in the new system involves microarrays, which are about the size of a microscope slide and contain specific fragments of specially chosen DNA, the genetic building block. A tissue sample is spread on a microarray. An active gene sends out a chemical signal called RNA, which carries a particular sequence of building blocks that tell what gene it came from. From the tissue sample, each RNA string then attaches to a DNA segment on the microarray that's designed to attract it. By detecting how many strings end up at each site on the chip, instruments can tell how active the corresponding gene had been in the tumour. Lots of strings mean a very active gene. No strings at a particular site means the corresponding gene had been turned off.

This information is then fed into a computer program called an artificial neural network, which has learned which gene segments are most active for differing types of cancer and allows it to make a classification. Once the neural network had learned to classify the types of cancer, it was tested in 88 different experiments and essentially categorised them all correctly.

This procedure is likely to actually be tested in a clinical setting in the near future. In addition, the process allows scientists to learn the gene profiles of the various types of cancer. These profiles, or fingerprints or signatures represent the profile of gene expression for a given cancer, giving lists of genes for possible new therapeutic targets. A benefit of such analysis is the information that could eventually lead to the design of more specific drugs for various tumours.

However, scientists are still a long way from translating the clues provided by DNA microarrays into diagnostic tools as they are currently too expensive for routine clinical use. The current cost of the tests can range from $200 to $500, but the team has worked out the minimum number of genes that need to be tested to differentiate between these four cancers and concluded that testing for 96 genes was enough to tell the cancers apart. A test for that small a number would be much less costly.

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Plants harnessed for cancer fight-(Cancer Info-23/05/2001)

The molecule that helps plants grow could be used in cancer fight. A hormone used by plants to control their growth could become the new weapon in the fight against cancer. Cancer Research Campaign scientists in the UK found that the molecule - Indole Acetic Acid (IAA) - has powerful anti-cancer properties. And its use could mean cancer sufferers having fewer side effects than with conventional chemotherapy.

IAA is normally used by plants to bend their shoots towards the light and helps cuttings to grow roots. But scientists say a drug based on the molecule, which should be ready for human trials in a few years, also looks to be effective against all tumour types. They have also found that the hormone can be activated by light. This means that doctors can eradicate accessible tumours by using a dye and then shining a light on it. In lab tests, this method has already been shown to eradicate 99.9% of cancer cells and will ensure that surgeons remove as much as possible of cancerous tumours.

Synthetic drugs based on the plant hormone could save lives. The team has created synthetic versions of IAA and is looking at ways of making them attack cancer tumours while leaving the rest of the body's tissues unscathed. This could mean an end to side-effects such as hair loss following chemotherapy. This work could also open up opportunities for other researchers, who may be able to exploit the research to develop further ways of targeting tumours.

Scientists knew that IAA, which is a member of the auxin family of plant hormones, could in certain circumstances create fragments that produce toxic by-products with the potential to treat disease. Scientists had previously studied it in the 1950's as a possible treatment for diabetes, but this is the first time it has been targeted towards cancer.

The researchers believe another plant molecule - derived from horseradish - could be the trigger to turn IAA to fighting cancer. Horseradish peroxidase has been found to break IAA into smaller fragments, which react in the body to produce powerful toxins. The scientists hope to target the horseradish molecule to directly attack the tumour cells.

It has long been the ambition of cancer researchers to develop drugs that directly target the tumour, and thanks to these amazing plant hormones and some chemistry, we're now a step closer to that ideal. It's fascinating that for all the sophisticated technology our scientists are employing, both the active molecules in this study were provided by nature.

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Study shows flaws in health sites-(Times of India Online-24/05/2001)

Consumer-oriented health information on the Internet is often difficult to access, hard to understand and incomplete, according to a doctors' analysis of 25 websites. The RAND research institution analysis involved a panel of 34 physicians who evaluated English- and Spanish-language sites from July to December last year.

The panel looked at four common medical conditions breast cancer, childhood asthma, depression and obesity and how well the Web sites covered topics the doctors believed consumers should know. About 25 per cent of the topics were not covered at all by the English-language sites and 53 per cent were not covered by the Spanish-language sites.

For example, less than half of the Spanish-language materials explained that mastectomy and lumpectomy plus radiation are equivalent treatments for early breast cancer. Only a few of the sites in either language indicated that a patient with a persistent breast mass and negative mammogram usually needs further evaluation.

Overall, the accuracy of the information was generally good. Seemingly contradictory information within a single site was common among English sites. RAND's Dr. Gretchen Berland, who led the study, said the apparent contradictions often involved presenting the same information in different ways rather than blatant errors.

At least a 10th-grade reading level was required to understand material on all the English sites and half were written at the college level. A ninth-grade level was needed for most of the Spanish sites.

The analysis, published in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association, noted that surveys have shown that nearly 100 million Americans use the Internet to find health information and 70 per cent of them say what they find influences their treatment decisions. "If people are relying on the Internet to make treatment decisions, including whether to seek care, deficiencies in information could negatively influence consumer decisions," the researchers said.

The study shows the need for patients to discuss health information they find online with their doctors. The University of Pennsylvania Cancer Centre's Oncolink (www.oncolink.com) performed better than average for breast cancer. None of the evaluating physicians had any ties to health websites nor owned stock in any e-health company.

The researchers said the Internet has the potential to be a powerful source of health information, and they said their findings could help website operators make improvements.

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Cancer will be beaten in 21st century: Researchers-(Times of India Online-18/05/2001)

After years of setbacks and failure, cancer researchers are predicting with increasing confidence that the disease will be vanquished this century thanks to spectacular scientific breakthroughs. Recent progress in molecular biology and the unraveling of the human genome have opened up to researchers hitherto undreamed of prospects of finding a cure for cancer, according to a number of specialists at the American Society for Clinical Oncology's annual conference here.

US oncologist Brian Druker, who heads the Oregon Cancer Institute, is optimistic that cancer will simply be relegated to bottom of pile of fatal illnesses in 21st century. "21st century will see identification of all molecular pathogenic events in all cancers," was Druker's prediction. "We are going to be able not only to devise drugs to target those dysfunctions but also to devise drugs to prevent cancer from occurring."

Druker is the developer of a promising new oral treatment for patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), a rare life-threatening cancer. The new drug is imatinib mesylate, or STI-571, marketed under the brand names Gleevec or Glivec.

Through use of the miracle drug so far, 90 per cent of patients who have CML - discovered in 1845, but until now treated with little success - have gone into remission. The molecular designer drug offers a new strategy to fight cancer: By targeting for treatment the abnormal proteins that cause the formation of cancerous cells, so as to save the healthy cells.

Now, with decryption of human genome allowing analysis of a person's genome via DNA chips for tailor-made treatments, and proteomics - science of proteins - developing at a pace, campaign against cancer is expected to accelerate further. "We are not only going to say Ms Smith has breast cancer but we are going to be able to say here are the four genes that are abnormal in Ms Smith," said John Mendelsohn, of the Anderson Cancer Centre in Texas.

"We hope to predict individual vulnerability and be able to design targeted treatments," said Michael Bishop, co-winner of 1989 Nobel physiology/medicine prize for his discovery of oncogenes. "Prevention should be our ultimate objective."

Scientific progress to date makes 50 per cent of cancers curable. But, as Jean-Yves Pierga, a breast cancer specialist at Curie Institute, Paris observes, "unfortunately, cancer will still kill many people in the coming years."

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New targeted drugs give hope in cancer battle-(Cancer Info-16/05/2001)

A new generation of cancer medicines that hunt for precise targets is exciting oncologists, who expressed hope this week the drugs will radically change the battle against a leading killer. For decades, physicians have relied on chemotherapy drugs that launch a broad attack and poison malignant and healthy cells, causing serious side effects and ultimately failing in many cases. Now, using knowledge gained from decades of research into the complex workings of cancer cells, scientists are reporting progress with medicines that zero in on molecules involved in making cancer grow.

"These agents focus on a single molecule, and they will have profound effects on the prognosis of cancer," Dr. Larry Norton, president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, said in an interview. Results of clinical trials with the drugs, most still experimental, highlighted the society's annual meeting.

The first approved targeted therapy was Genentech Inc.'s (DNA) breast cancer drug Herceptin, which hit the market in 1998. Initial findings show other drugs are having success against some of the toughest cancers.

Novartis's once-a-day pill Gleevec was approved last week in record speed to treat chronic myeloid leukemia, or CML, a cancer that is curable only with a dangerous and unpleasant bone-marrow transplant. In CML, Gleevec blocks the function of protein that causes the disease. Researchers reported at the meeting that Gleevec also shrank rare digestive tumors called gastrointestinal stromal tumors, or GISTs, by targeting a cancer-causing gene. GISTs do not respond to chemotherapy and usually kill within a year. Another product generating interest was ImClone Systems Inc.'s (IMCL) experimental drug IMC-C225. The drug works by blocking a substance called epidermal growth factor from attaching to a receptor on the surface of cancer cells. It thus stops a chain reaction that allows cells to multiply. Researchers envision that rather than killing cancer outright, they can prescribe the new type of medicines for patients to take over a lifetime to keep the disease in check.

Drug maker AstraZeneca Plc is developing Iressa, a drug that also targets the epidermal growth factor receptor and has reduced tumors in lung cancer, the leading U.S. cancer killer.

OSI Pharmaceuticals Inc. also is developing a targeted therapy called Tarceva with Genentech and Roche Holding Ltd. The medicines, because they spare most healthy cells, appear gentler than chemotherapy. The most common side effect so far for IMC-C225 and Iressa is an acne-like skin rash. Their safety is still being investigated. In GIST patients, Gleevec can cause potentially dangerous internal bleeding. Also, targeted therapies may need to be combined with chemotherapy at times so patients still would experience the hair loss, nausea and other side effects from that treatment. And the medicines are so new scientists do not yet know whether cancer will resist them as it does chemotherapy. But oncologists are hoping for the day when they understand tumors so well they can aim a variety of drugs at one to disable different molecular mechanisms that allow it to grow.

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US court rules against marijuana use-(Times of India Online-16/05/2001)

The Supreme Court ruled 8-0 on Monday that there is no exception in federal law for people to use marijuana to ease their pain from cancer, AIDS or other illnesses. Patients could still use marijuana for medical reasons in states that allow it, legal experts said. But it would be more difficult to obtain the drug because the Supreme Court said distribution violates federal law.

Angel McClary, 35, of Oakland, said she would not stop using the drug to help her cope with an inoperable brain tumour and a seizure disorder. "I am not going to let my children watch me die. If that is wrong so be it," she told a news conference.

Writing for the court, Justice Clarence Thomas said a 1970 federal law "reflects a determination that marijuana has no medical benefits worthy of an exception." The only exemption is for government-funded research projects that involve some 200 people. Thomas said the controlled substances statute "includes no exception at all for any medical use of marijuana" except for the research, even though the law does so for other drugs. The court was "unwilling to view this omission as an accident," Thomas wrote.

Justice John Paul Stevens, though joining in the overall ruling, said in a concurring opinion with two colleagues that the decision went too far. It should have left open the possibility that an individual could raise a medical necessity defense, especially a patient "for whom there is no alternative means of avoiding starvation or extraordinary suffering," Stevens said. He also said the ruling could lead to friction between the federal government and states that have passed medical marijuana laws.

The decision reversed a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that medical necessity can be a legal defense in marijuana cases. The federal government triggered the case in 1998, seeking an injunction against the Oakland Cannabis Buyers Cooperative and five other marijuana distributors. Gerald Uelmen, a Santa Clara University law professor who represented the cooperative, said, "The effect only reaches manufacturers and distributors. But it does put at risk patients who grow their own because that is manufacture under federal law."

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Cancer Pill-(Times of India-15/05/2001)

Taking a weekly pill may stop half of all cancers before they start by mopping up the compounds that make tumours form. Oltripraz, one such drug that activates our body’s natural defence mechanisms, is being tested by Johns Hopkins University. It was found to stimulate the body to make an enzyme called glutathione S-tranferase (GST), which neutralizes carcinogens such as benzene by preventing them from damaging DNA.

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New cancer drugs disappointing-(Times of India Online-15/05/2001)

Much-anticipated new drugs intended to stop cancer by cutting off its blood supply show only slight benefit in early testing on terminally ill patients, although experts say the medicines still may prove useful. Whatever their eventual role, however, new data suggest the drugs will not be the kind of across-the-board cancer cure that some had predicted.

None of the drugs prompted the kind of dramatic tumor shrinkage or disappearance that doctors look for even in the first stages of human testing, which are largely intended to see if medicines are safe. Although the drugs had little effect overall, there were hints they might sometimes slow or even stop some tumor growth, at least temporarily.

Reports on three of the drugs, all discovered in the lab of Dr. Judah Folkman, were presented at a meeting in San Francisco of the American Society for Clinical Oncology. Folkman, a surgeon at Boston's Children's Hospital, pioneered the field called angiogenesis, which involves trying to starve tumors with chemicals that stop them from building new blood vessels.

Many angiogenesis drugs are being tested, but the two highest-profile candidates are endostatin and angiostatin, discovered in Folkman's lab by Dr. Michael O'Reilly. A frenzy erupted over them in 1998 when an optimistically worded article in The New York Times quoted scientists predicting the drugs would soon provide a cancer cure.

The latest data suggest this is unlikely. Doctors updated preliminary findings on endostatin research that were first released in November. Sunday's presentations were the first on human testing of angiostatin and Panzem, another blood vessel blocker discovered by Folkman's team.

"The data are encouraging but not yet definitive," O'Reilly said. "There is enough information to suggest that angiogenesis inhibitors will be used in the clinic. It's just a question of which ones."

Dr. Edwardo deMoraes of Thomas Jefferson University reported on testing of angiostatin on 19 patients with advanced colon, breast, ovarian and head and neck cancer. Their tumors did not shrink, although in three the cancer stopped growing for six months.

Dr. Kathy Miller of Indiana University said 24 women with advanced breast cancer have taken Panzem, which is derived from estrogen, the female hormone. Some had extremely fast growing cancer, which in a few cases has slowed or stopped, even though it has not gone away.

"This has been very encouraging," said Miller. "Stable disease with a nontoxic therapy is a good deal."

Dr. Roy Herbst tested endostatin at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, as did researchers at the University of Wisconsin and the Dana-Farber Cancer Center in Boston. At each center, doctors saw one or two patients who seemed to be helped by the drug temporarily, even though their cancers eventually continued to grow.

Doctors said that in some patients, the drug seems to halt cancer in some parts of the body while having little effect elsewhere. Overall, however, scans shows that the flow of blood to the patients' tumors decreases.

The next step will be to test these drugs in people with less advanced disease and to combine them with chemotherapy and radiation, as well as perhaps other medicines that block blood vessel growth. Some speculate that long-term use will hold cancer in check without curing it.

Dr. Larry Norton of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Center said many have wondered whether it will do any good to cut off new blood vessels to tumors that already have a blood supply. "In many ways, it was miraculous that there was any biological effect at all," he said.

Among other reports at the meeting:

Gleevec, a drug approved last week for a rare form of leukemia, also shows promise against an unusual digestive cancer called gastrointestinal stromal tumors, or GIST. In a study of 148 patients, half of the patients went into remission, and 90 percent benefited at least somewhat. The drug is also being tested in lung, prostate and brain cancer.

In a small study at Stanford University, researchers found it may be possible to treat advanced colon cancer with a vaccine made from patients' own cells. They altered cells called dendritic cells so they carry a protein found on cancer cells. Injected back into the body, they triggered a powerful immune system attack on the cancer.

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Chemotherapy used unjustifiably at times: Study-(Times of India online-14/05/2001)

About one third of patients with late stage cancerous tumors derive no benefit from chemotherapy treatments, a US study published here indicated. "While use of the chemotherapy in responsive cancers is understandable and may shrink the tumor and offer palliation, providing chemotherapy to patients with unresponsive cancers is hard to justify," said the study's lead author Ezekiel Emanuel, an oncologist and bioethicist at the National Institutes of Health.

The researchers studied nearly 8,000 cancer-related deaths in Massachusetts and discovered that responsive and unresponsive cancers were treated with virtually identical chemotherapy regimens, suggesting an "overuse" of the difficult and exhausting treatment.

The reasons justifying the use of chemotherapy even for non responsive cancers were not quantifiable, the researchers admitted. But that fact did not mitigate their calls for "reconsideration of the use of chemotherapy at the end of life by the oncology community."

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How safe are herbal products?-(Times of India Online-28/04/01)

Herbal medicines and cosmetic products never had it this good with the Asian and western markets lapping up everything that is 'green'. But the jury is still out on how safe and effective these products are.

Consumers, misled into believing that a 'natural' product is safe, are lured into buying an array of herbal remedies that promise 'improved immunity' or 'slow aging'. Experts note not many of these vague claims are backed by scientific evidence. Not all herbal remedies are safe and some can be downright dangerous says the recently published report of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

On the 'risky supplements' list of FDA are popular herbs Ephedra, Chaparral, Comfrey, Dhea, Pennyroyal, Sassafrass and Dieter's teas containing senna, aloe, rhubarb root, buckthorn, cascara and castor oil. Chamomile, a herb of the Daisy Family often taken as a tea and believed to aid digestion, triggers allergic reactions in some people. Those people who are allergic to other daisies including ragweed, asters or chrysanthemums need to be careful.

Another popular herb St John's Wort (Hypericum Perforatum) has found use for over a thousand years in treatment of kidney and lung disorders, anxiety, depression and sleep disorders. An analysis of 23 clinical studies concluded that the herb's extracts may provide some benefit in people suffering from depression but the reviewers cautioned at the same time that further studies were needed and data on the most effective dosage and long-term safety was required. Recent studies show that St John's Wort can reduce blood levels, and therefore the effectiveness, of other medications taken at the same time.

Herbal products are neither food nor drugs and in many cases they are loosely regulated or even unregulated. Many countries lack quality controls for herbal products and dietary supplements and products can be marketed with no proof of their effectiveness and safety. When using herbal products, consumers need to take care to judge products on the data available and the quality of that data.

Many people assume that natural products are safe. Yet these products contain active ingredients that have similar effects to drugs and medicines and similar levels of care need to be taken when consuming them.

As with other forms of self-medication, herbal remedies may hide a serious underlying medical condition. Depression can be caused by a number of serious illnesses including heart disease and thyroid disorders. So, before being bewitched by the berbal preparations galore on supermarket shelves, seek the advice of your medical practitioners and always notify your doctor of the supplements you take.

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Coke Light: No threat to humans-(Times of India Online-19/04/2001)

Officials on Wednesday denied that a new diet drink sold by a US beverage giant posed a health risk even though it uses a sweetener reportedly banned in the United States for more than three decades.

The South China Morning Post reported that an artificial sweetener, Sodium Cyclamate, had been used in Coca-Cola's new drink ''Coke Light'' to replace Diet Cokes. It alleged the sweetener had been outlawed in the United States for more than 30 years after being linked to cancer in animals. The Post said a study in 1969 was interpreted as showing it was a cancer-causing agent and the substance was banned by the US Food and Drug Administration, despite questions being raised about the validity of the original research findings.

A spokeswoman for Swire Coca-Cola Hong Kong, said that the artificial sweetener is approved for use in foods in Hong Kong and other countries and that the food additive had no harmful effects nor is it cancer-causing. Its safety was assessed by international authorities in 1999 who concluded cyclamate posed no harmful effects to humans. Various countries and regions including Australia, Britain, China, the European Union, New Zealand, Thailand and Taiwan allowed the use of cyclamate as a food additive.

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Placentas said to offer stem cells-(Times of India Online-13/04/2001)

A biotech company said that it has developed technology for extracting large quantities of stem cells from placentas, offering a rich new source of tissue that could be used to treat a variety of diseases. Stem cells are immature cells that can be coaxed in the laboratory into maturing into specific types of tissue, such as bone, cartilage and muscle. Scientists believe stem cells may be used someday to repair injuries and treat diseases.

The new method could prove to be a superior source of these cells.

Currently, stem cells used in medical research are taken from bone marrow, the umbilical cords of newborn babies, aborted fetuses or discarded test-tube embryos. But umbilical cords contain only a small number of stem cells. Taking stem cells from bone marrow requires a painful needle extraction, and the donor must be very closely matched to the recipient to prevent rejection. The use of embryos and fetal tissue is extremely controversial. The ability to harvest large quantities of stem cells from a noncontroversial source can have a significant effect, propelling the pace of research forward and reducing costs.

The placenta, an organ containing many blood vessels, connects the umbilical cord of a fetus with the uterine wall, allowing nutrients to pass from mother to baby. Normally it is discarded after birth. Scientists said they have developed technology to remove all the blood from the placenta, then essentially keep the placenta on life-support by placing it in nutrients under special conditions for up to a few days. They can then extract stem cells from the tissue in quantities roughly 10 times what could be taken from an umbilical cord.

In addition, scientists believe that placental stem cells can develop into a wider variety of tissue than stem cells from umbilical cords or bone marrow. Placental stem cells are also unlikely to be rejected by the recipient's immune system. So far, they have been able to coax those stem cells to multiply and develop into nerve, blood, skin and muscle cells. Now they are trying to make bone and cartilage.

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Study: Fat may be stem cells source-(Times of India Online-12/04/2001)

A team of scientists says it has grown everything from human muscle to bone from stem cells taken from fat a breakthrough that could eliminate the controversial use of fetal cells in the quest to mend damaged, missing or dead tissue. Researchers isolated the stem cells, immature cells that can be coaxed into maturing into specific types of tissue from ordinary fat removed by liposuction. They then grew the cells into bone, cartilage, muscle and fat.

Stem cells have been taken previously from bone marrow, brain tissue and aborted fetuses and frozen embryos a practice opposed by many anti-abortion groups. The use of fat as a source could end such controversy. Researchers predict the first practical use of laboratory-engineered tissue could come within five years.

Eventually, scientists hope to use a patient's own fat to supply the tissue required to treat disease or repair injuries. One day doctors will be able to remove diseased tissue or organs, harvest stem cells and replace the lost tissues on the same day during the same operation. There is potential for regenerating a lot of different tissues, perhaps some day solid organs, glands, nerves or brain tissue.

It is too soon to say how the quality of stem cells from fat will compare to those from embryonic cells. However, the fact that fat cells are so abundant could make them a ready source of material for a biotech industry interested in engineering new human tissues. The study adds to the growing evidence that adult stem cells can be as easily manipulated as embryonic cells.

The discovery comes at a time when President Bush has signalled he may block federal funding for studies that use embryonic or fetal cells. He wants scientists to focus on adult stem cells, which until now have been more difficult to harvest.

There are drawbacks to harvesting stem cells from a patient's own body. In severely ill patients who need large amounts of tissue replaced, doctors may not be able to grow sufficient stem cells quickly enough. And in any disorders caused by genetic defect, the genetic error could be present in the cultured stem cells, making them inappropriate for transplantation. Still, scientists look to stem cell research and its promise as a potential cure for Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, cancer, Parkinson's disease, heart disease and spinal cord injuries.

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Researchers developing stealth anti-cancer drugs-(Times of India Onluine-07/04/2001)

Researchers are working on a new drug delivery system to treat cancer tumours, a magic bullet-an anti-cancer drug that could bypass normal healthy tissue and target tumour cells. Another goal is to create a treatment that will overcome the problems that cancer patients face with drug resistance.

To do this the researchers encapsulated an anti-cancer drug in polymer micelles-very tiny spheres that have a hollow core surrounded by a shell. The shell helps keep the contents of the core from being recognised by the body's immune system. The drug delivery system is very stable and can travel in the bloodstream without breaking down very quickly.

Since tumours have voracious appetites in order to maintain their accelerated growth, they require a substantial amount of nutrients. This means that they are constantly growing new blood vessels to bring in more blood to fuel their growth. The blood vessels of tumours are different from normal blood vessels in the body and are much more permeable, allowing the little capsules to gain entry into the tumour cell. It was found that the anti-cancer drugs are able to collect in the cancer tumour cells. This fact may also help limit the amount of exposure of healthy tissue to the anti-cancer drug, which may reduce side effects to the drugs.

Once the drug is inside the tumour, the scientists plan to use ultrasound (high-frequency sound waves) to help the anti-cancer drug break free from the container and kill the tumour cells.

In cell cultures, the researchers have used the technique to successfully deliver the anti-cancer drug into cancer cells that are naturally resistant to existing chemotherapy drugs.

So far, the team has only begun testing the technique in rats, but if these tests go according to plan, the researchers are looking forward to human trials in about 3 years.

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Cancers linked to fat, inactivity-(Times of India Onluine-07/04/2001)

Up to one-third of cancers of the colon, breast, kidney and digestive tract are attributable to too much weight gain and too little exercise, the World Health Organisation's cancer agency. Putting on weight, even if you're in the normal range, increases your risk. The most important thing is not to gain weight, however much you already weigh.

Half the adults in Europe and 61 per cent of American adults are overweight, and the epidemic is spreading around the globe as Western lifestyles infiltrate new areas, experts say. Despite the link between cancer and weight gain noted by the WHO panel, the evidence is not as strong for intentional weight loss.

There's no evidence that weight loss reduces the risk of cancer, but that doesn't mean it doesn't. Nobody has been able to track it because people haven't maintained their weight loss long enough to see if it makes a difference in cancer risk. In a preliminary report, the WHO panel said that despite the lack of direct evidence, hormonal changes produced by weight loss seem likely to reduce risks of some cancers, and that research suggests weight loss even late in life would cut the risks of breast and uterine cancer.

Obesity is normally defined by the body mass index, or BMI, calculated by dividing weight in kilograms by height in meters squared. An index of between 18.5 and 25 is considered healthy, while those with a score between 25 and 29 are classed as overweight and those whose BMI is higher than that are considered obese.

Avoiding weight gain was found to protect against colon, kidney, uterine, digestive tract and post-menopausal breast cancers. Exercise helps prevent breast and colon cancer, the panel concluded. Besides cancer, being too fat increases the danger of developing heart disease and diabetes and of dying early.

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Screensaver helps fight against cancer-(Times of India Online-04/04/2001)

A project was launched that could allow millions of personal computer users to help scientists find a cure for cancer. The joint venture partners - Oxford University and US technology company United Devices - and project sponsor Intel, say it will speed up research into new cancer drugs. The research aims to exploit unused power from PCs to process information on molecules and send it back to a central server.

Studies quoted by the university estimate that on average office workers use as little as 20 percent of the power available on their PCs. Oxford University hopes to screen 250 million molecules by this technique, known as peer-to-peer (P2P) networking. If they succeed, it will be the world's largest ever computational project.

Researchers estimate one million people will participate in the program at least once, making it possible to complete the screening of the 250 million molecules in a year.

Computer users who participate in the project will receive an initial package of 100 molecules over the internet, along with a software application called THINK and models of target proteins known to be involved in causing cancer. It is estimated that the new method could bring forward cancer research by two years.

If a drug could be found that inhibits the development of blood vessels it would be a breakthrough, especially in the treatment of secondary cancers which are unresponsive to radiotherapy.

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Research finds other cancers linked to AIDS-(Times of India Online-04/04/2001)

Hodgkin's disease and possibly two other types of cancer should be considered AIDS-defining diseases in HIV-positive patients. The study examined more than 300,000 AIDS patients and their rates of several types of malignancies other than cancers already linked to the immune-suppressing disease.

AIDS patients were more than 11 times more likely to have Hodgkin's disease than people without AIDS, three times more likely to have lip cancer and about twice as likely to have a form of testicular cancer. Increased incidences of other malignancies, including lung and penis cancers, were attributed to lifestyle factors such as smoking and venereal disease rather than to AIDS.

In determining whether HIV-positive patients have developed full-blown AIDS, doctors consider whether they also have cancers known to occur when the AIDS virus has vigorously suppressed the body's disease-fighting immune system. The cancers already considered AIDS-defining diseases are cervical cancer, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and a form of skin cancer known as Kaposi's sarcoma. Hodgkin's and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma are both cancers of the lymph glands, but they affect different cells.

While the lip cancer-AIDS link wasn't as strong in the study, an association makes sense since other research has found an increased lip-cancer risk in patients without AIDS whose immune systems are suppressed, such as transplant recipients. The findings were suggestive but not definitive for a cancer of the testis called testicular seminoma, and previous research on the suspected link is sparse.

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New technology may aid cancer diagnosis-(Times of India Online-03/04/2001)

Researchers say they have developed a new cell imaging technology that may help in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. The technique, called imaging mass spectrometry, produces digital computer images showing the location of different proteins in tissues.

Researchers say that the technology could improve cancer surgery by pinpointing the exact location of tissue producing high levels of thymosin beta-4, the protein believed to cause tumors to grow.

This information is being used to determine what new proteins are present in tumor cells and what normal proteins disappear and what proteins does the tumor need to grow. This information may eventually lead to new ways to stop the cancer from growing. Researchers also say they may be able to develop a drug to block the protein once they better understand the function and location of proteins in specific tissue. This offers a chemical means of imaging to make a comparison between normal and disease states.

Traditional mass spectrometry can generate a spectrum of all the proteins found in tissue, based on their molecular weight or mass. But it has been hard to determine the location and possible function of individual proteins in tissue. Imaging mass spectrometry aims to solve that problem. Using a laser and high-speed electronics and computers, the researchers modified standard spectrometers so they could generate digital pictures, showing the distribution of proteins within cells and tissues.

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Alternative medicine used worldwide for cancer-(Times Of India Online-31/03/2001)

Cancer patients from Mumbai to Boston are looking beyond mainstream medicine to treat their disease, and their doctors feel ill-prepared to cope. The study analyses questionnaire responses from 80 members of the International Union Against Cancer (UICC), representing 33 countries. The majority of the survey respondents were cancer specialists. The UICC, a nonprofit nongovernmental organisation, conducted the study.

Most survey respondents said that alternative medicine represented a problem in their country, and many did not feel adequately informed about alternative remedies. In conducting the survey, the investigators sought a global view of complementary and alternative medicine, and also attempted to distinguish between the two. While many past studies have lumped complementary and alternative medicine together, they are actually different.

Complementary therapies, such as massage or relaxation methods, are used adjunctively along with mainstream care for symptom management and to enhance quality of life, alternative therapies are active biologically, often invasive, and typically promoted as cancer treatment to be used instead of mainstream therapy. Complementary therapies can be helpful, but alternative medicine, because it can create direct physiologic interference or indirect harm by keeping patients from receiving timely care, presents serious problems to both the oncologist and the patient.

Many alternative treatments are used only in particular countries or geographic areas, the report indicates. Kamateros spring water, for instance, is used in Greece, while mistletoe is used to fight cancer throughout central Europe. Studies have shown that mistletoe can cause redness and itching and does not lead to increased survival. The treatments reported most often included dietary therapies, shark products, vitamin therapies, and botanicals.

Patients in some parts of the world may choose alternative therapies because they don't have access to mainstream medicine. To address the problems revealed in the study, better education to stress the importance of seeking early medical attention and the value of documented cancer therapies, availability of useful therapies to all individuals, and understanding on the part of health professionals and policy makers that patients need to play a meaningful role in their own care will be important.

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Court considers medical marijuana-(Times Of India Online-30/03/2001)

The US Supreme Court took a first look at prescription pot, hearing arguments on an issue that has pitted the federal government against cancer, AIDS and other patients who sometimes regard marijuana as a wonder drug. As far as the federal government is concerned, marijuana is illegal and should remain so. Federal enforcement efforts have led to confrontations and arrests in California and other Western states. The issue for an openly skeptical Supreme Court is whether a patient's need for marijuana trumps a 1970 federal law that classifies it as an illegal substance with no known medical value.

President Bush supports federal prohibitions on marijuana, but also respects states' rights to pass voter initiatives, as was the case in California. Lawyers for the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative want to make what they call a ``medical necessity'' defense in federal court, and argue that federal judges and juries have the power to decide if the drug is warranted. Several justices seemed to think that approach was a stretch at best. The court's ruling is expected by the end of June.

Advocates of medical marijuana say the drug can ease side effects from chemotherapy, save nauseated AIDS patients from wasting away or even allow multiple sclerosis sufferers to rise from a wheelchair and walk.

There is no definitive science that the drug works, or works better than conventional, legal alternatives. Nonetheless, nine states have laws allowing the legal use of marijuana to treat a host of ailments.

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Pregnancy soon after chemotherapy may be riskier-(Times of India Online)

Women who become pregnant soon after taking a chemotherapy drug may be at higher risk for miscarriage or fetal malformations. The finding could have implications for cancer patients who undergo egg retrieval and in vitro fertilisation (IVF) during a break in treatment. The research conducted on mice suggests that eggs collected from women within 6 to 12 months of treatment could be particularly vulnerable to malformations.

The chemotherapy drug cyclophosphamide is known to increase the risk of fetal malformations and miscarriages, and at higher doses it may cause premature menopause and infertility. However, the outcome in cancer patients who have gotten pregnant have been reassuring, although in some cases, women became pregnant a long time after treatment stopped.

Women with cancer can have their eggs retrieved, fertilised and the resulting embryos frozen before treatment in case their fertility is damaged. But because this takes time and may lead to a delay in cancer treatment, some women undergo egg retrieval and embryo freezing during a break in treatment or when patients go into remission. For example, they may undergo the procedure following initial non-sterilising chemotherapy and before a bone marrow transplant.

Eggs retrieved at these points have suffered very recent exposure to chemotherapy and may therefore have been at growth stages rather than the dormant primordial stage. This is a new situation and it has become essential to determine if there are greater risks associated with eggs exposed to chemotherapy during or immediately before growth stages.

In the study, the researchers looked at pregnancy outcomes in mice 1 and 4 weeks after treatment with cyclophosphamide. Human eggs take from 6 to 12 months to go from the dormant stage to a pre-ovulatory stage, which corresponds to about 3 weeks in mice.

The researchers found fewer pregnancies in mice whose eggs were at a mature stage when they received chemotherapy. The miscarriage rate was increased and the malformation rate was 10 times that seen in untreated mice. The malformation rate declined over time and was similar to that seen in untreated mice if the pregnancies occurred 12 weeks or more after treatment. More research is needed to know whether the same applies in humans.

If it does, it will become vital to define a 'safety period' between treatment stopping and egg retrieval. Until we know more, it would seem advisable to monitor the pregnancy outcome of all cancer patients who undergo IVF and embryo cryopreservation after chemotherapy, and possibly to screen fetuses and babies for chromosomal aberrations and birth defects.

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Amgen's Cancer-Cell Discovery Opens New Treatment Possibilities-(Cancer Info-28/03/2001)

Scientists have figured out the precise three-dimensional structure of a spot where cancer cells receive growth instructions, a discovery that may speed the development of exquisitely precise new treatments.

One of the forces that make cancer grow rampantly is a substance called insulin-like growth factor, or IGF. Without this hormone, many cancers will shut down and die. Researchers have long understood the importance of IGF but so far have been unable to exploit this knowledge to make new cancer drugs. One possible strategy is to block the spot that lets IGF get into cells. This structure, called a receptor, is similar to another one that serves as the entry point for insulin. Although normal cells can survive without IGF, they still need insulin. The difficulty is making a drug that gums up the IGF receptor but not the insulin receptor.

Researchers announced that they have deciphered the 3-D crystal structure of the IGF receptor, which allows scientists to know exactly what the receptor looks like down to the last atom. Researchers already know the structure of the insulin receptor, so now they can compare the two and look for parts that are unique to the IGF receptor. This will greatly accelerate the drug discovery process.

Many types of cancer, especially prostate tumors, are fueled by IGF. Blocking it might be combined with standard chemotherapy as a cancer treatment. The approach might also be used on patients with precancerous prostate abnormalities to keep them from turning into cancer. Development is still early, however, and it is unclear whether IGF blockers being developed will actually work this way.

The goal of this and other research is to develop drugs that are precisely designed to address abnormalities present in each individual's tumor. Such drugs might work with far fewer side effects than standard chemotherapy, which broadly attacks all rapidly growing cells in the body.

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Child cancer survivors at risk later-(Times of India Online)

Survivors of childhood cancer face six times the usual risk of getting entirely new cancers in early adulthood almost certainly because of the chemotherapy and radiation treatments that cured them, a large study found. Doctors' ability to cure childhood malignancy has been one of the clearest successes of the war on cancer. About 1 in every 1,000 Americans in their 20s is a cancer survivor.

Several earlier reports have shown a surprisingly high cancer risk as young patients grow older, but the latest study, involving more than 13,000 survivors, gives the most comprehensive assessment yet of this unexpected downside of a medical victory.

When doctors began regularly curing childhood leukemia in the mid-1970s, they gave little thought to the possibility of distant ill effects. But because of the newly recognized risks, doctors now routinely try to use the least damaging treatment that will still cure the disease.

Research shows that while new cancer especially breast cancer occurs more often than expected in these patients, it still is rare. And the benefits of having cancer cured in childhood far outweigh any later risk. Overall, the cancer survivors have a 3 percent risk of developing an entirely new cancer over the next 20 years. This is about six times greater than would be expected among people this age.

The researchers based their findings on a follow-up of 13,581 children and adolescents from 25 hospitals in the United States and Canada who had survived at least five years after treatment for leukemia and other forms of cancer. Their average age is now in the late 20s.

In all, 298 of the patients got new cancers. They were diagnosed an average of 12 years after their first malignancy. The most common new tumor was breast cancer, followed by thyroid and brain cancer. Chemotherapy appears to increase the risk of new leukemia, while radiation boosts the risk of breast and other so-called solid tumors. These two main forms of treatment also probably work in combination to trigger cancer, probably by damaging patients' genes.

Breast cancer was 16 times more common than expected and often occurred when women reached their late 20s and 30s. The researchers recommended that girls who got radiation to their chests have a mammogram by age 25. Bone cancer was 19 times more common than usual and thyroid 11 times more common among the cancer survivors. The highest extra cancer risk was seen in children who were treated for Hodgkin's disease. They had an almost 8 percent chance of new cancer during 20 years of follow-up. The risk was lowest among longtime survivors of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

The same underlying genetic defect that triggered the patient's original cancer might have caused some of the new tumors. But the researchers believe chemotherapy and radiation were largely to blame.

Doctors say they try to minimize exposure to toxic treatments as much as possible, especially radiation. This has largely been abandoned as a treatment for Hodgkin's disease and some leukemias. Now, about one-quarter of young cancer patients get radiation, compared with half 15 years ago. Still, he said, doctors must treat aggressively enough to cure patients on the first attempt, because the disease rarely can be eliminated once it returns in these patients.

Between 8,000 and 10,000 new cases of childhood cancer are diagnosed in the United States each year. About 70 per cent are cured.

Childhood cancer survivors may face a variety of other health problems, including learning problems, epilepsy and permanent hair loss. The latest findings will certainly spur new research efforts. They show the important of new treatments that are less invasive.

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Six reasons to get more calcium-(Times of India Online)

Three servings a day does more than build strong bones. Research shows that calcium can combat cancer, weight gain and more. You've read it a hundred times: Get plenty of calcium to ward off bone-thinning osteoporosis later in life. Unfortunately, if you're like most women, you drink milk sporadically (if at all) and take supplements only when you remember to. Which means you probably don't come close to consuming the recommended 1,000 mg of calcium per day (1,200 to 1,500 mg if you're pregnant or nursing). And a stronger, healthier skeleton isn't all you're missing out on. Research shows that this mighty miner can help ease PMS pains, lower blood pressure, even fight cancer.

Here are six reasons to boost your calcium intake - and some simple suggestions for working more of it into your diet every day.

1.Combat colon cancer

Here's a surprise: Although we tend to think of colon cancer as a men's disease, it is actually one of the three most common types of cancer among women. A recent study shows that a diet rich in calcium may help prevent the disease. Without adequate calcium, experts believe, bile and fatty acids - natural byproducts of digestion - can irritate the colon, causing a constant state of cell repair. Calcium binds with these insidious acids, preventing them from doing their damage.

2.Prevent PMS

With more calcium in your diet, you may suffer less from the mood swings, headaches, irritability and anxiety associated with PMS. A major study recently showed that a daily dose of 1,200 mg of calcium can reduce those annoying signs by as much as 50 per cent.

3.Head off high blood pressure

High blood pressure can lead to heart disease, the leading cause of death for both men and women in the United States. It's also a formidable threat if it develops during pregnancy, a condition called (CQ) preeclampsia. Calcium from dairy products, however, in combination with a balanced, low-fat diet, may help keep blood pressure in check.

4.Avoid kidney stones

If you've ever had a kidney stone, you know those minute collections of minerals that form in the kidneys can cause excruciating pain when they pass through the urinary tract and out of the body. Most kidney stones are made from calcium and oxalate, a salt-like substance found in such foods as beets, spinach, rhubarb and nuts. Your body also makes its own steady oxalate supply. Normally, calcium and oxalate remain dissolved and are excreted in the urine. But stones can form when calcium and oxalate become too concentrated in the urine, forming crystals - not unlike sugar settling to the bottom of your coffee cup.

A 12-year Harvard University study involving more than 90,000 women, however, found that those with the highest dietary calcium intake had the lowest risk of kidney stones. Researchers believe that calcium binds with oxalate during digestion and is excreted from the body rather than getting absorbed, preventing stones from forming.

A caveat: The same study also showed that taking calcium supplements without food may actually, in some cases, increase the likelihood that kidney stones will form.

5.Fight breast cancer

Ample calcium may also help reduce your risk of breast cancer, especially if you're a milk drinker. A Finnish study involving more than 4,600 women concluded that those who drank roughly three 8-ounce glasses of milk a day had a lower risk of breast cancer than those who didn't drink as much. Researchers suspect that calcium, as well as other components in milk, such as conjugated linoleic acid, may have potent breast-cancer-fighting properties.

6.Curb weight gain

Research suggests that a calcium-rich diet - especially one that includes dairy sources - not only helps young women keep weight in check but may reduce overall levels of body fat. A small study of 18- to 31-year-old women recently found that those who consumed no more than 1,900 calories but at least 780 mg of calcium a day either had no increase in weight or actually dropped pounds over a two-year period. Women with calcium-poor diets, on the other hand, gained weight on the same calorie intake.

Researchers suspect that calcium depresses certain hormones, which consequently improves the body's ability to break down fat in cells and slow fat production.

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From vaccine research to commonsense, the anti-cancer battle is being fought on many fronts-Excerpts from a conference on "Molecular Targets in Cancer Cells" organised by the Siro Research Foundation, the Geneva based Union Internationale Contre le Cancer and the Institute of Immunology in Germany (Times of India-19/02/2001)

Dr. Stevan Narod, Women’s College Hospital, Canada, specializes in preventive aspects: Today while discussing the causes of cancer, we give more importance to infection and genes and less to environment and occupation. But what is true now may not be so tomorrow. Stomach cancer is on the decline probably because of better refrigeration and preservation of food, but we have seen a worldwide increase in lung cancer and a distinct rise in rare cancers such as testicular. There are also regional differences. In Lahore, for example, gall bladder cancer is very common.

At the moment, we treat all tumours more or less the same, understanding differences will help us treat the person, not just the disease.

Dr. Enrico Mihich, Director, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, US specializes in therapeutics: Cancer no longer means certain death and in US we treat almost 50% of the cases successfully. Modern cancer treatment started in the 50s when new drugs allowed us to prolong life in the treatment of human cancer, but the problem is that it is not selective and drugs affect normal tissues as well as the tumour.

In the 70s and 80s we started learning about molecular mechanism controlling cancer and we are finally beginning to understand key differences between cancer and normal cells. This helps develop drugs which will hit only the tumour and reduces their toxicity.

Dr. Harold zur Hausen, President, German Cancer Research Centre, was the first to pinpoint the role of viruses in cervical cancer: The part played by viruses in cancer was first understood in 1964. Today we know that infections are responsible for up to 20% of all cancers, including bladder and liver cancers.

In cervical cancer, the papilloma virus is present in almost 100% of the cases. A vaccine combining 4-5 most frequent types would reduce the incidence by almost 80%.

Dr. Cornelius Melief, University Medical Centre, The Netherlands, specializes in Immunotherapy: Recently there have been attempts to mobilize the body’s natural defences to fight cancer. Sometimes, the immune system fails to recognise the danger signals because the tumour masquerades as normal tissue. We are working on therapeautic vaccines. If the cancer does not elicit a response, artificial inducements will be used to make the immune system react. While it may not work with all cancers and all people, it is a big area of hope.

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National Cancer Institute finds tomato sauce to have very high anti-cancer properties.-(Cancer Info-10/12/2000)

Spaghetti sauce and ketchup can be good for you, says a study confirming that eating lots of tomatoes can lower the risk of some kinds of cancer. The study found there are now enough data to show convincingly "that high consumers of tomatoes and tomato products are at substantially decreased risk of numerous cancers, although probably not all cancers.

The study analyzed 72 studies that had examined the link between various cancers and the consumption of tomatoes and tomato-based products. Some of the studies also examined the blood levels of lycopene, a compound principally found in tomatoes that powerfully protects cells from oxidants that have been linked to cancer.

Fifty-seven of the 72 studies linked tomato intake with a reduced risk of cancer. In 35 of these studies the connection was strong enough to be "statistically significant," while in another 15 the link was inconclusive or only "slight." The data are most compelling for cancers of the prostate gland, lung and stomach. The findings also suggest links between tomatoes and lower levels of several other cancers, including pancreatic, colorectal, esophageal, oral, breast and cervical cancers.

The individual studies examined included tomatoes in many forms, including raw, ketchup, spaghetti sauce, tomato paste, soup and salsa. Benefits were found from all those forms, and cooking and processing tomatoes did not diminish the effect. However, many processed foods containing tomatoes also contain fats and sugars that are not healthful when eaten in excess. Or they can be eaten as part of meals that contain high-fat items, such as some types of cheese.

Most of the studies examined the dietary differences between people with cancer and those without. In many cases, the primary difference was the consumption of tomatoes or tomato products. Some studies merely measured "high" consumption versus none, while other researchers measured the actual tomatoes consumed.

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Inventions: Easier Cancer Therapy-(Time-04/12/2000)

Noone knows when a cure for cancer will be found, but treatments are getting progressively less invasive and more focused. One such is PRS400, a radiation therapy designed to spare as much healthy tissue as possible. After tumour removal, the device is placed in the cavity to concentrate radiation on the affected tissue. Patients do not require additional radiation or chemotherapy. The technology is currently being used for a range of cancers-brain, spine, skin, colorectal, breast and vaginal at medical institutions in the US, Europe and Japan.

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Inventions: Cancer Free Calling -(Time-04/12/2000)

Studies on the potential dangers of cellular-phone radiation remain inconclusive, but Wave-sorb, a thumbnail size piece of carbon cloth that cost about 8 dollars could make them moot. Tests show that Wave-sorb soaks up nearly 99% of microwave radiation-and doesn't interfere with performance.

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Therapy for Cancer-(Times of India-22/11/2000)

Iscador preparations are cited as being useful for treatment of cancer. For details contact far okhmaster@indiatimes.com.

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Cancer trials on the web-(Cancer info-15/11/2000)

Information about clinical trials of new cancer treatments is to be made available directly to the public for the first time. The information will be contained on a website launched by the Cancer Research Campaign (CRC). The CancerHelp UK website is designed to give people with cancer more power to make choices about their own treatment.

Patients will be able to check whether they are eligible for a particular trial, print off the details and then discuss with their doctor whether they could be put on it. Trials are important because they can give patients the chance of receiving the latest cutting edge treatment for a particular disease.

For example, one underway in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Bristol, Newcastle and Ayr in Scotland, features the drug Taxotere, made by Aventis Pharma. Currently being used to treat women with breast and lung cancer, the drug is now being tested on prostate cancer patients.

Professor Gordon McVie, CRC director general said information on trials was already readily available in the US and patients demand to be put on trials because it ensures they get the very best available treatment, but in the UK patients have not been given first hand information about trials up till now and the majority of people don't know that they are a good thing.

Another major feature of the site is useful questions which patients can ask their doctors when faced with a diagnosis of cancer. These include questions like: what experience has the specialist got in treating my sort of cancer; what if I don¹t agree with what’s being proposed; is this my only option? People are often so staggered by a cancer diagnosis that any of the questions they wanted to ask go out the window. The site will give them pointers on issues they might like to raise so that it can be another way of empowering them.

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Bacterial protein offers hope for cancer vaccines-(Cancer Info-07/09/2000)

A non-toxic form of a bacterial protein known as Shiga B-subunit together with tumor associated molecules can stimulate the immune system of mice to attack cancer cells without the need for secondary compounds known as adjuvants and offers hope for the development of improved cancer vaccines.

The non-toxic B-subunit of Shiga toxin binds to specific receptors found on dendritic cells in vivo and in vitro, acting as a specific carrier molecule for tumor associated antigens. The combination of the B-subunit and tumor associated antigens causes dendritic cells to activate tumor killing white blood cells.

Dendritic cells are one of the first respondants of the immune system which, if stimulated to recognize tumor-associated molecules known as antigens, can activate white blood cells such as T Lymphocytes to recognize and kill tumor cells.

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Cell Architecture-(Times Of India-23/08/2000)

A newly discovered protein named paladin is being explored for its influence in a range of biological processes including the spread of cancer, wound healing, brain development and the implantation of the embryo. It appears to play a key part in the architecture of cells, determining their shape and allowing them to move. Palladin belongs to a group of proteins that seems to provide molecular glue between cells. A heavier form is present in tumour cells that spread beyond their starting point, but what it does there remains to be discovered.

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Reinventing Life-(Times of India-23/08/2000)

Britain set off a global wave of concern 3 years ago about the possibilities of human cloning by creating Dolly, the sheep cloned from the cells of an adult ewe. Britain has once again entered the cloning controversy by giving its nod to cloning human embryos. The approval is specifically confined to allowing use of the technique for research only and not for reproductive purposes. The aim is to harvest stem cells from the early stage embryo to treat diseases like Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, cancer and diabetes.

The move will give a boost to therapeutic medicine opening new channels of treatment, giving rise to new techniques of organ and tissue replacement.

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Cloning humans for research-(Times of India-14/08/2000)

The British government is set to give its cautious go-ahead this week to the cloning of human embryos for therapeutic research. Allowing cloning of human embryo cells for research would accord with the opinion of many scientists who believe it will pave the way to new cures for many illnesses. Other groups and religious organisations say cloning for experimentation breaks the sanctity of human life.

At the heart of the matter is the removal of pre-programmed cells called stem cells from embryos less than 14 days old. Such cells are capable of developing into any kind of tissue, including nerves, muscle, organs and bone. It may become possible to direct stem cells to become selected types of replacement tissues and could be used to treat a host of diseases which are at present incurable. Embryos cloned from a patient’s own cells would solve the serious problem of transplant tissue rejection.

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Is raw food the secret to staying young?-(Times of India-14/08/2000)

If you really want to eat healthily, disconnect your oven. The latest trend among the dedicatedly health conscious is to eat raw food because the theory goes, this is the natural way we were designed to eat.

Few people have the dedication and self–discipline to stick to a totally raw food diet full time, so it may be better to mix some cooked foods with raw foods at the same meal. Also, in some circumstances, cooking may actually be better as certain compounds such as caretenoids (found in orangey-yellow vegetables) and lycopene (a powerful antioxidant with anticancer properties found in tomatoes) are made more accessible through cooking.

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Proton-delivery technology gains FDA approval-(Cancer Info-12/08/2000)

Optivus Technology Inc. has received FDA clearance of its Conforma 3000 technology for delivering protons in medical applications. The treatment is a highly effective cancer disease control with long-term survival, with minimal side effects, a unique benefit of protons as compared to surgery and other forms of radiation. The application provides an opportunity to expand the potential of protons and deliver new, viable options for patients facing cancer.

Proton treatment protocols underway at Loma Linda University Medical Center (LLUMC) have recently jumped from under 10 to nearly 40, including prostate, lung and pediatric cancer. The centre has dispensed more than 100,000 patient treatment sessions with a clean safety record and 98.5 percent facility uptime.

Unlike traditional radiation treatment, protons are very specific to their target, normal tissue is spared, side effects are reduced and the tumor receives higher radiation. Protons deliver homogeneous radiation to irregular three-dimensional volumes such as those seen in various cancers and brain tumors.

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Tears may signal cancer-(Times of India-08/08/2000)

Tears may indicate if people have or are likely to develop certain types of cancer. Researchers found that tears of patients with certain forms of cancer or a family history of cancer contain a marker protein, termed LG. This protein is found in breast and prostate cancer where a hormone is involved in causing or maintaining the cancer.

Tears are a filtrate of the blood which pass through a lachrymal gland underneath the eyelid before entering the eye. The researchers are now finalizing clinical trials on 50 cancer patients to determine if the marker could be used as a diagnostic test for cancer or reveal a disposition to the disease.

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New Mitosis Checkpoint Gene Linked To Cancer-(Cancer Info-31/07/2000)

In health, most cells undergo a carefully orchestrated cell division process in order to replicate. At the heart of this process is mitosis, in which a cell's nucleus duplicates its genetic material and divides. Precisely controlled mitosis is vital to survival, and rigorous checkpoint mechanisms are in place to ensure that each step in the process is properly executed before the cell moves on to the next step. Although not well proven, it is generally believed that many human cancers stem from checkpoint defects in mitosis. A new gene called chfr that establishes a previously unknown checkpoint in mitosis has been identified.

This gene was disrupted in 50 percent of the cancer cell lines studied, much higher than the rates for other known checkpoint genes. It must be emphasised that studies of tumors from patients will be needed to confirm that mutant chfr is as common in primary cancer cells as it is in laboratory cancer cell lines. If the findings are confirmed, however, clinical applications immediately suggest themselves, as do new avenues for drug development.

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Champs Inspiring a Whole Nation-(MidDay Sports-26/07/2000)

Last Sunday witnessed two great American sportsmen, who are inspiring a whole nation to toil, strive, never give up-climb the pinnacles of glory.

Cancer survivor Lance Armstrong successfully defended his Tour de France title in the grueling 3 week, 2151 mile cycle race. Armstrong was given only a 40% chance to live in 1996 after testicular cancer spread to his brain and lungs. He had one testicle removed and underwent brain therapy and chemotherapy. He won the energy sapping race by 6 minutes and 2 seconds. He is inspiring renewed hope of survival, spreading the message of not giving up no matter what among the estimated 200,000 new American cancer victims.

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Cancer? Blame it on heredity-(TOI-15/07/2000)

The most common forms of cancer can be attributed to heredity to a much higher degree than previously thought, but environmental factors remain the predominant cause of cancer. A study of 90,000 sets of twins in Denmark, Sweden and Finland showed that 42% of all prostate cancers, 35% of all colon cancers and 27% of all breast cancers can be attributed to heredity factors. Several unknown hereditary factors are also connected to lung and stomach cancers.

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Cell death protein structure discovered-(Cancer Info-10/07/2000)

Scientists at The Salk Institute have deciphered the three-dimensional structure of a protein known as survivin, which aptly gives cancer cells their ability to survive. The research suggests that drugs could be developed to block its activity, causing cells to apoptose. It is believed that elucidating the three-dimensional shape may allow scientists to design molecules in the laboratory that can stick to survivin and knock out its activity.

High levels of survivin are found in the developing embryo and in many common human cancers, including lung, colon, pancreas, prostate, and breast cancer. This finding makes it a novel target for cancer therapy. Survivin's structure, determined by X-ray crystallography is reported in the July issue of Nature Structural Biology.

It seems that two copies of the protein must come together for survivin to function and the structure shows just such an interaction. Thus the region of contact between the two copies of the protein might be an attractive target for the development of small molecules that could disrupt this interaction and thereby prevent tumor survival by allowing cell death to proceed

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New Way to Spot Pre-Cancer Cells-(Nature-06/07/2000)

Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology have a potential breakthrough with their newly discovered method of detecting precancerous cells. Researchers say the noninvasive technique -- light-scattering spectroscopy -- is more effective than traditional biopsy for detecting cancers that start in the lining of the internal surfaces of organs. These cancers, which account for over 85 percent of all cancers, are often preceded by difficult-to-detect dysplasia -- precancerous changes in the cells.

Specifically, the new optical probe technique zeroes in on changes in the cell nucleus, considered the most important indicator of cancer. Examples of cancers that could be detected earlier with the new technique are cervical, bladder, and esophageal cancer. By shining white light onto the tissue and spectrally analyzing the refracted light through a prism a clinician is able to see whether the reflected color arrangements indicate pre-cancerous cells.

It is a potentially important technique since it doesn't require tissue removal, and it provides objective information, not qualitative information.

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Scientists will be able to pinpoint causes of cancer- (Asian Age-27/06/2000)

Cancer is one of the world’s biggest killers but British scientists believe the completion of the working draft of the human genome will have a profound impact on the battle against the disease. The much-anticipated mapping of 97% of the genes in humans that was announced on 26^th June, will allow scientists to pinpoint the causes and best treatment of cancer.

Cancer is the preeminent disease of DNA. Over a lifetime, cells in the adult body acquire changes in their DNA sequence due to exposure to chemicals, viruses and radiation. Most of these changes don’t make any difference in the cells, but when the right set of changes occur in the correct subset of genes, cancer develops. By comparing normal DNA with DNA in cancerous cells he hopes to pinpoint the starting point of cancers and to devise new drug treatments directed specifically at abnormal genes.

Within 20-30 years the treatment of cancer will be transformed on the basis of this important discovery.

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Apple a day keeps tumours at bay-(Times of India-23/06/2000)

New research shows that eating an unpeeled apple every day is far more effective than gulping a vitamin C pill to combat the breakdown of cells and also boosts protection against cancer. A hundred grammes of fresh apples provides as much antioxidant activity as 1500 milligrammes of vitamin C, which is championed by fitness fanatics as an antioxidant which combats destructive activity of molecules like free radicals.

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Between the Lines (Time-19/06/2000)

Too many headlines about cancer "cures" are overblown and must be carefully evaluated. Keep in mind that headlines are a good way to see what’s new in cancer care, but read carefully before getting too excited about a new therapy. Look for hints of how far along the drug is: for example how many people are taking it. You might find that it’s not quite ready for prime time.

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80 pc of cancer patients try alternative therapy-(Cancer Info-12/06/2000)

More than 80 percent of cancer sufferers examined in a new study have tried complimentary and alternative medicine (CAM), according to a report published on Friday in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Of the 453 outpatients whose cases were examined at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Centre, almost all of them had heard of CAM, while 83 percent had used at least one therapy, according to the report.

Eighty percent used a spiritual practice as an alternative treatment, while 63 percent sought alternative cures for their cancer using vitamins and herbs. Remedies included dosage with melatonin, bovine cartilege, shark and mistletoe, and numerous other folk remedies.

Physical exercise, tried by 60 percent of the cancer sufferers questioned, included yoga, tai chi, chiropractic manipulation and massage. Most of the patients among the 69 percent who had tried one alternative treatment (excluding spiritual practices or psychotherapy/support groups) had undergone chemotherapy. Most of this group was well-educated and female.

None of the patients dropped the medical treatment recommended by their practitioner, although 77 percent hoped the complimentary and alternative medicine they had chosen would improve their life quality.

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Two More Potential Cancer Fighting Proteins Found-(Cancer Info-26/05/2000)

Two more angiogenesis inhibitors with the potential to treat cancer have been discovered by Beth Israel Deaconess researchers. Called "tumstatin" and "arresten," the two small proteins with the power to halt new blood vessel growth were found in the walls of human blood vessels, nested within larger proteins with unrelated functions.

It was discovered that when the blood vessel wall is broken down in preparation for new capillary formation, many degraded fragments of blood vessel wall proteins are liberated. Some of these fragments seem to counteract the effects of angiogenesis propagators released by tumor cells. Tumstatin and arresten appear to target different receptors on endothelial cells, the wayward cells lining blood vessel walls that tumors recruit to build the new blood supply they need to grow and metastasize. The discoveries and tumor studies in mice are reported in the April 13 Journal of Biological Chemistry Papers in Press for tumstatin

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Purdue "Stealth Compounds" Attack Cancer Cells-(Cancer Info-18/05/00)

Imagine ordering a part to repair your car, and having the new part delivered in pieces you must first assemble. A similar situation often occurs in treating cancer, because the components needed to put the brakes on the cells' abnormal growth can be readily delivered through the cell membrane only in pieces that then must be assembled by the cell. Scientists at Purdue University have developed a method for getting these compounds, called nucleotides, into tumor cells -- already assembled.

The method may lead to the development of new, more powerful treatments that have fewer side effects and are less likely to produce drug resistance in patients being treated for cancer and certain viruses such as HIV. Potentially this system will work for all types of cancer, and it may prove useful in treating cancers that have been resistant to other treatments, such as pancreatic cancer.

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New Cancer Report Removes Saccharin, Adds Alcohol-(Cancer Info-17/05/00)

The latest U.S. government report on what causes cancer, removed saccharin from the list of suspected carcinogens, but added 14 substances, including second-hand tobacco smoke and alcohol, as known causes. It also added sunshine and sunlamps, silica dust and the breast-cancer drug tamoxifen -- although the report noted that while cancer drugs may increase the incidence of other cancers, the benefits often outweigh the risks.

The National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), which issued the bi-annual report, said it removed saccharin as a potential cancer-causing agent because tests that showed it caused tumors in rats did not apply to humans. It had been listed since 1981. He also said humans had used saccharin for decades without increasing rates of cancer. Saccharin, sold since 1900, is the oldest sugar substitute on the market. But the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) tried to ban it in 1977 when it was found to cause cancer in rats.

Second-hand smoke topped the upgraded list. The report cited reports that showed second-hand smoke can cause lung cancer, as well as studies showing that nonsmoking wives and co-workers of smokers have higher rates of lung cancer.

Tobacco smoke was also listed as a known cause. Separate chemicals identified in tobacco smoke were already listed as carcinogens in the report. The new listing came after 1996 revisions in the review process. Smokeless tobacco, including chewing tobacco and snuff, were listed, as well as consumption of alcohol, too much sun and the use of tanning beds or sun lamps. Chewing tobacco and snuff can cause cancer wherever they contact the mouth or nose.

Alcohol has long been associated with cancers of the mouth, pharynx, larynx, and esophagus, and there may be a link with liver and breast cancer.

Other substances listed included:

-- Crystalline silica dust small enough to breathe, a byproduct of mining
-- Strong inorganic acid mists containing sulfuric acid, produced in the manufacture of alcohol, lead batteries, phosphate fertilizers, soap and detergents, synthetic ethanol, and in pickling and other acid treatments of metals
-- Dyes metabolized to benzidine
-- 1,3-Butadiene, used to make synthetic rubber
-- Cadmium, used in batteries, coating and plating, plastic and synthetic products and alloy
-- Ethylene oxide, used to make other chemicals and to sterilize medical devices
-- Tamoxifen

There has been concern expressed that the listing of tamoxifen could raise concerns among patients regarding its use for cancer treatment or prevention, but it pointed out that benefits can outweigh the risks. Tamoxifen, made under the name Nolvadex by AstraZeneca, can increase the risk of ovarian cancer. But ovarian cancer is so rare that doctors say the higher risk is small. Tamoxifen is the first drug to be shown to prevent breast cancer in some women at high risk.

Substances added to the ``reasonably anticipated to be human carcinogens'' list include diesel exhaust particulates, isoprene -- one of the components of rubber which is also naturally emitted by plants -- chloroprene, phenolphthalein -- used in some laxatives -- tetrafluoroethylene and trichloroethylene.

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US Cancer Rates Keep Dropping-(Cancer Info-17/05/00)

The overall rates of incidence of cancer as well as death from the disease declined between 1990 and 1997 in the US, according to a joint report by scientists from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the American Cancer Society, the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries (NAACCR), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Dr. Brenda K. Edwards of NCI in Bethesda, Maryland, and colleagues describe their study in the May 15th issue of the journal Cancer. The investigators analyzed cancer data between 1973 and 1997 from the NCI, NAACCR and CDC.

The majority of the top 10 cancer sites showed declines from 1990 to 1997. However, increases were seen for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in women and for melanoma of the skin in both sexes. For women, the overall incidence rate did not change appreciably. Men showed declines in the incidence of cancer of the lung, prostate, colon/rectum, urinary bladder, oral cavity/pharynx and leukemia.

Among the 10 leading mortality sites, rates declined for the majority of sites. However, increases were observed for lung cancer in women and for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in both sexes.

Men showed declines in all sites combined, lung, colon/rectum, prostate, pancreas, stomach and brain. Women experienced declines in all sites combined, colon/rectum, breast, leukemia, stomach and ovaries.

The researchers report that the four leading cancer incidence and mortality sites consisted of lung, prostate, female breast and colon/rectum. These four cancers accounted for more than 50% of the cancer deaths in the US.

Except for the site of female breast, blacks had higher rates of incidence than other races for all of these sites. Blacks also had higher mortality rates from these cancers.

Although whites had lower incidence and mortality rates of cancer than blacks for many sites, the investigators note that whites had higher rates than Hispanics, Asian and Pacific Islanders and American Indians/Alaska Natives.

Even though colorectal cancer rates declined overall, the researchers acknowledge that screening rates for this cancer were low. Although screening rates appear to be increasing, only 38% of people, aged 50 years or older, reported ever having undergone screening procedures such as sigmoidoscopy in 1998. Only 33% had undergone another screening test (fecal occult blood testing) in the 2 years prior.

Encouraging people to get screened for colorectal cancer could help further reduce the rate of this cancer, the authors suggest

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Ginkgo may protect brain against stroke damage-(Cancer Info-02/05/00)*

Ginkgo, a daily supplement commonly used for memory enhancement, reduces the extent of brain damage caused by stroke induced in mice. A new approach inspired by cancer and dementia research, is to try to limit the damage caused by destructive molecules called free radicals that follows a stroke. Antioxidants in ginkgo, compounds that counteract free radicals, make ginkgo an obvious candidate.

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Antioxidants May Help Make Radiation-Based Immune Treatment Safer, More Potent -(Cancer Info-26/04/2000)*

Familiar antioxidant vitamins may be able to alleviate the toxic side effects of a targeted form of radiation treatment for cancer, according to a new study. More research is necessary, the authors said, before the vitamins can be tested in clinical trials.

Vitamins A, C and E were given together to mice receiving the treatment, called radioimmunotherapy, which was coupled with a bone marrow transplant. The vitamins increased the maximum dose of therapy that the mice could tolerate while minimizing weight loss and the depletion of blood cells.

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Cama Hospital to start cobalt unit for free cancer treatment-(Bombay Times-26/04/00)*

Come August 15, the state government run Cama and Albless Hospital for women and children will begin free cancer treatment using an expensive Cobalt unit. It will be the first government run hospital to have a Cobalt unit and the third in the city after Tata Memorial Cancer Hospital and the BMC run Nair Hospital.

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Saliva, urine tests for cancer developed in US- (Times of India-19/04/2000)*

US medical researchers have said that some cancers could be detected, years before the onset of symptoms, by testing a patient’s saliva or urine for mutated DNA particles. Scientists at Johns Hopkins University who developed the chemical testing method as part of a small pilot study also said that their discovery could be mass-marketed as a test kit for cancer in 3-5 years.

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Universal Cancer Vaccine Under Development at UCSD-(Cancer Info- 07/04/2000)*

Researchers from UCSD School of Medicine and Cancer Center, La Jolla, CA, report in the April 4 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that a vaccine made from a portion of the telomerase molecule can stimulate killer T cells to attack tumor cells. The group, led by Maurizio Zanetti, professor of medicine at UCSD, in collaboration with the Institut Pasteur in Paris, has shown that this prototype vaccine activates killer T cells both in vitro and in vivo assays.

Zanetti and coworkers also tested whether CTL produced against one type of cancer would recognize and destroy other types as well, since telomerase is over-expressed in the majority of all human cancers. They added CTL produced in the prostate cancer cell samples to other human cancer cells-breast, colon, lung, and melanoma-and found that the killer cells targeted the hTRT peptides in these cells as well and destroyed them.

Because telomerase is essential to normal cell division, Zanetti looked at the effect of the vaccine on normal human stem cells, which reproduce and therefore have higher levels of telomerase than other tissues. No adverse activity was detected. They also suggested that since telomerase levels in normal cells is low, there is little danger that this approach would cause an autoimmune reaction, with the body attacking its own normal cells. However, they acknowledge that this and other potential problems require further study.

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What Should Children Be Told About Their Cancer-(Cancer Info- 07/04/2000)*

A parent's protective instincts may lead him or her to withhold information from a child with life-threatening illnesses such as cancer. But what happens when the secret affects the ability to treat the patient?

Disclosure and informed consent can raise many ethical issues when it comes to children and adolescents. A failure to educate a child about his or her condition can promote confusion, since the child will always have some of the facts and will have to piece together the big picture from pinhole perspectives. Also, because of his illness, the child may be treated differently by people around him or her without fully understanding why or what their behavior means.

Children also may feel that they need to keep the secret that is being kept from them, because, except in rare case, they probably have a pretty good idea that they are severely ill. This can lead to a situation in which the children try to hold their fears at bay in order to protect their parents, said Bayer.

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Ointment to protect hair from chemotherapy-(Times of India-07/04/00)*

An ointment under development appears to prevent chemotherapy from making hair fall out, a distressing side effect of cancer treatment. The clear gel has been tested only on lab rats, but developers said its effects are dramatic. Glaxo Wellcome hopes to test the ointment, code-named GW8510 on people, though it could not predict when that will happen.

Patients would rub the gel into their hair before getting chemotherapy and then wash it off a few hours afterwards. It is not absorbed into the blood stream and as far as can be told from rat experiments, it is safe and carries no side effects.

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Cancer vaccine in the making-(Times of India-05/04/00)*

Scientists searching for a way to vaccinate cancer patients against their own tumours have said they may have found a target-an enzyme that tumours produce to make themselves immortal. A second team of scientists said they, too had made progress towards a cancer vaccine by injecting patients with signaling chemicals to rev up their immune defences. The studies add to a growing body of research aimed at finding ways to help the body fight off cancer by itself.

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Shark Cartilage. Another bite-(Cancer Info-05/04/00)*

Another bite may have been taken out of the theory that shark cartilage offers a protective benefit against cancer. Researchers presented findings today at the American Association of Cancer Research conference in San Francisco that sharks get cancer, a finding that contradicts the idea popularized by the book Sharks Don't Get Cancer, first published in 1993 and revised in 1996, which promoted shark cartilage as a dietary supplement.

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Chemotherapy can dull mental ability-(Times of India-31/03/00)*

Standard doses of chemotherapy can lead to permanent mental impairment for some patients, new research has revealed. Cognitive problems associated with the cancer treatment are subtle, particularly in memory and concentration and many patients report difficulties while undergoing the actual treatment. The data showed the need for more study into why the mental impairment happens and the possible hormonal influences. One cause may be that toxic chemotherapy agents cross the blood-brain barrier more than previously thought, but this must be verified by more research. "This is the kind of study that triggers more questions than it answers in some sense."

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Doctors advise against Vitamin C with cancer therapy-(Times of India-29/03/00)*

Taking high doses of Vitamin C while undergoing traditional cancer therapy may interfere with radiation or chemotherapy treatments and in a perverse way, possible protect the very cancer cells the treatments are designed to destroy. Vitamin C has long been taken by both healthy people and those that are ill, in the hope that its antioxidant properties will work to destroy harmful substances in the body known as free radicals. The common oxidation process that results in these free radicals may play a part in causing cancer. Latest research shows cancer cells transport a version of Vitamin C through cellular channels normally used to admit the energy source glucose. Cancer cells are also known to have more glucose transport channels than normal cells.

Prudent advice to cancer patients is to have very good eating habits. Alternative therapies that may not have been adequately studied may in fact be harmful.

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Cancer cure one step closer –(Times of India-28/03/00)*

Despite much research, cancer remains incurable in most cases. However, a team of scientists at the Scripps Research Institute in California believe antibiotics could form the basis of a new approach to treating tumours. They studied two fused proteins that are part of the tumour-creation process, and discovered a way of attaching substances to the killer DNA, effectively stopping it from reproducing. Although research continues, the most likely candidates look to be the aminoglycoside group of antibiotics, which could be used to create a new breed of cancer-killing medication.

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Mutations not the only gene defect that leads to cancer-(Cancer Info-21/03/00)

New research shows that gene mutations are not the only kinds of defects involved in the transformation of a healthy cell into a malignant one. Scientists say that this may mean the nature of cancer is even more complicated than once thought. Another kind of defect, one that turns off genes without changing their DNA, is also at work, and probably to a much greater degree than ever suspected. The findings, published recently in the journal Nature Genetics, strongly suggest that an unknown number of genes - over and above those affected by mutations - are involved in the cancer process.

This type of gene defect involves a process known as DNA methylation. Normally, healthy cells use DNA methylation during development and throughout life to turn off genes that are not needed. In cancer cells, aberrant DNA methylation turns off genes that would normally prevent inappropriate cell division. In other words, it shuts down one of the body's best mechanisms that prevents a cell from becoming cancerous. The researchers found that up to 10 percent of the genes in some tumors types were inactivated by methylation.

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Saliva, urine tests may detect cancer – (Cancer Info-16/03/00)

Testing urine, saliva and other bodily fluids for certain genetic mutations may prove a simple and non-invasive way to detect head, neck, lung and other cancers. A study published in Friday's issue of Science magazine found that the 20 bodily fluids tested had a 100 percent sensitivity to the 60 tumors that were examined. While broad clinical studies in patients with each type of tumor still are needed, David Sidransky, lead author of the study, predicted that in a few years, cancer tests using bodily fluids could be part of early cancer screening during routine physical exams.

"We still need better technology to process the test results, and we need to test larger populations, but I think that if these tests are cheap enough, say less than $200, people at risk will want them," Sidransky told United Press International. Sidransky also is professor of otolaryngology and oncology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore.

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Revolutionise your health with ‘Green Juice’ - (Bombay Times -15/03/00)

Most of us don’t want to think about our health until we are struck by disease. It is important to know that the human body has a wonderful immune system. If you can take care of it you can open doors which will change your life forever. Our modern lifestyles are getting us off the right track. Abuses from fast foods to quick fixes and alcohol abuse to a polluted environment and high tech stress clogs the body with toxins which can lead to degenerative diseases such as cancer, diabetes, heart disease, asthma, arthritis, etc. A little bit of fine tuning can help you step out of this disease ridden society and help you to maintain a high level of wellness. Revolutionise your life with wheat grass juice.

Wheat grass juice contains many vital nutrients that provide us a cornucopia of benefits. For one, it contains chlorophyll, also known as ‘green blood’ because it is similar in structure to hemoglobin. It contains magnesium and is essential for about 30 enzymes in our bodies. The vital health giving powers of wheat grass juice help fight a host of medical conditions.

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Traditional healers find natural drugs – (Cancer Info-19/02/00)

An experimental anti-fungal drug that could help AIDS patients was discovered after Western scientists listened to traditional healers in Africa about the curative powers of a certain tree. While hundreds of thousands of plants exist and screening each for medicinal value can be like looking for a needle in a haystack, researchers said Saturday that by paying careful attention to traditional healers in developing countries that haystack can be cut down to a manageable size.

At the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Md., Gordon Cragg, chief of natural products branch of the developmental therapeutics program, said that despite the long shot nature of mass screening, it does have some positive results. The best-known example, he said, is anti-cancer drug, paclitaxel (Taxol), which was found after looking through 35,000 samples of plant extracts. He said the average rate of return using mass screening, is to find one useful drug in 20,000 samples.

However, Cragg said that the NCI program has also found some promising anti-cancer drugs from marine life and other naturally occurring substances. Currently under investigation by researcher centers in New York and California are epothilones -- anti-cancer agents that are derived from a slimy mold discovered in Braunsweig, Germany.

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Website of the week-(Bombay Times-15/02/2000)*

Many a time, an illness can prove to be a very lonely experience. Sure, concerned family members mill around. In the case of a hospital, the number of people bending over a patient goes up. But in ones suffering there is a feeling of loneliness, despondency,. Recognising this, the Cancer Patients Aid Association site (www.cpaaindia.org) seeks to tell victims they are not alone. It offers insights on the disease and how to cope with it. There are sections on counseling for patients and their families, links to local and international cancer care institutions, even a section on insurance (which has found buyers on the net.)

CPAA’s website was covered as Website of the Week by Vivek Kamath under his column, Breakfast at Kamath’s.

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Cutting copper halts tumor growth – (TOI-08/02/00)

Using a compound to reduce the level of copper in cancer patients’ bodies may help treat a number of different cancers, including those of the breast, lung, skin and colon, according to researchers at the University of Michigan. By using a drug, tetrathiomolybdate, (TM), that reduces copper levels in the blood they have been able to stop tumour growth in a small group patients with advanced cancer for whom standard therapy has failed. The procedure is based on a new approach to cancer treatment called anti-angiogenesis, which attempts to prevent tumours from growing the blood vessels they need to thrive, effectively starving them.

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Prevention is key to curbing cancer – (TOI-07/02/00)

Behavioural changes, vaccines and screening for early detection are the best hopes of curbing the cancer epidemic expected to escalate in the coming decades. Cancer kills six million people worldwide every year. Smoking is a contributory factor in up to 31% of these cases. Diet is linked to many types of cancer and alcohol is thought to be involved in about 5% of the cases.

Early detection for common cancers such as breast, cervical, colon and prostate cancers also have an important part to play along with vaccines for viruses associated with the disease.

Nearly 200 cancer experts as well as government officials, patients and advocacy groups attended the summit, which ended with the signing of the Charter of Paris Against Cancer. The 10-point plan aims to insure patient rights, improve access to clinical trials and increase funding for research.

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Researchers Discover new Vein of Cancer-fighting Agents-(Journal of Biological Chemistry-07/01/00)

Researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center have discovered a potent new substance that thwarts tumor growth by blocking the formation and growth of new blood vessels. The naturally occurring protein is named "canstatin" for its potential cancer-halting abilities. Canstatin inhibits new blood vessel growth, suppresses renal, prostate tumor growth in mice.

In a mouse model of human prostate cancer, canstatin was as effective at less than half the dose as the well-known angiogenic inhibitor endostatin in halting the growth of tumors. In mice models of renal cancer, canstatin stopped the growth or slightly shrank tumors to as much as one-fourth the size of tumors in mice treated with a placebo.

This is the first in a series of new angiogenic inhibitors discovered in the blood vessel wall by BIDMC researcher Raghu Kalluri and his colleagues. In addition to its preliminary promise as a cancer-fighting agent, canstatin is also relatively easy to produce in quantities that will be necessary for human clinical trials, which may begin in one or two years after further preclinical testing.

During the process of angiogenesis, endothelial cells that line inside of the blood vessel divide, move through the surrounding vessel walls, and form tubes that will become new capillaries. Other experiments by Kalluri and his colleagues show that canstatin can also inhibit the migration and tube formation of endothelial cells. The results suggest that the inhibitor may work at more than one step in the angiogenesis process.

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Scientists-We can beat Cancer-(Cancer Research Campaign-04/01/00)

Scientists today predicted that cancer could be controlled within 50 years. The optimistic outlook revealed by the Cancer Research Campaign (CRC) says chances of beating the disease have never been greater.

Despite a rise in the number of people developing cancer, CRC director general Professor Gordon McVie is so confident he predicted research charities like his would eventually become defunct. He said: "We are on the eve of a genetic revolution which will see a leap in the cure rates for cancer and a whole range of new, effective treatments. Cancer may not be cured by 2050, but it will be beaten and the disease will be as readily controlled as diabetes is today.''

The cancer charity aims to manage the disease by increasing public awareness and stripping away the fear, which prevents people seeking medical advice when symptoms first appear.

Only 20 years ago nearly all children with cancer and women with breast cancer died, but today survival rates for both are 65 per cent. Men with testicular cancer, who faced almost certain death, now have a 97 per cent survival chance. Genetic body maps will enable doctors to detect who is prone to cancer and take preventative measures.

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Cells that Fight Cancer Can turn on the Brain- (Annals of Neurology-03/01/00)

Killer cells called into action by the immune system to fight breast and ovarian cancer can find their way into the nervous system and attack the body's own brain cells, according to a report in December's Annals of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Neurological Association. This finding points the way to a treatment for these relatively rare neurological symptoms, say the authors, but it may also provide a way to tweak the immune system to help fight other cancers, and it may even open new avenues of research into neurological diseases such as multiple sclerosis.

The immediate consequences of the study concern treatment for a condition called paraneoplastic cerebellar degeneration (PCD), which can accompany breast, ovarian, lung, and several other types of cancer. As cells in the cerebellum are destroyed, PCD patients experience problems with balance, speech, and movement.

"The syndrome . . . is a devastating one, producing a cerebellar deficit whose severity is seen in few other conditions," writes John Greenlee, MD, a neurologist at the University of Utah, in an editorial in the same issue of the journal. There is no treatment that can reverse or slow the progression of the disorder.

The present study was inspired by evidence that the body has unexpected ways of fighting tumors. That such "tumor immunity" exists has, by its very nature, been difficult to prove.

"Tumor immunity is inherently difficult to detect and study, because people in whom it is working efficiently would be healthy and would not go to see their doctors. Such an immune response could be rare, or it could occur in nearly all people all of the time," said Robert B. Darnell, MD, PhD, a neurologist at Rockefeller University in New York, and senior author of the report.

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The Best Sports of 1999 – (Time-20/12/99)

Lance Armstrong came back from chemotherapy for testicular cancer not just to stay alive but to win France’s and the world’s toughest cycle race. An even bigger prize was the son the American and his wife Kristin produced with his sperm saved pre-surgery.

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The Best People of 1999 – (Time-20/12/99)

Simply living through an eight-month Antarctic winter would be a feat in itself. When Dr. Jerri Nielsen, 47, the sole physician at a South Pole research station discovered a lump in her breast in June, she embarked on an even more poignant ordeal. After doing a biopsy on herself, she proceeded to treat the cancer on her own, receiving advice by email, until the temperature rose high enough (to –53C) to permit a plane to land for a few minutes to pick her up.

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Nature can heal cancer- (Bombay Times-18/12/99)

Cancer is not a primary disease but gradually becomes the last stage in the destruction of the immune system. However, cancer need not mean the end of life. The author recommends Naturopathy, which is guided by Hippocrates' dictum, "Let your food be your medicine and your medicine your food." The article gives advice on diet and treatments that can help prevent or control cancer.

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Medical revolution is under way on the net (TOI-17/12/99)

The singer Carnie Wilson was not alone during her gastrointestinal bypass operation. As well as half a dozen doctors and nurses, there were 52,000 people watching the two-hour procedure live on the net. Cybersurgery is the latest health craze on the net and its promoters are predicting eventual audiences of more than a million.

Other health sites are already offering virtual check-ups, heart monitoring and cancer risk assessments.

The net is spearheading a technological revolution in the delivery of health care and a survey by the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh shows health surfers, including doctors, to be the biggest measurable group of net users.

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Yoga speeds up and improves healing (TOI-17/12/99)

When Norman Cousins wrote his path-breaking bestseller on the power of mind in healing the body as he set to cure himself of a crippling disease, practitioners of modern medicine were not convinced. Not any more. Several leading doctors believe that yoga helps heal better and faster.

In particular, the role of the pineal and pituitary gland, both situated in the brain, is highly emphasized during meditation. Modern medical science has only lately realized the importance of the pineal gland. Some of its properties are now well documented and the substances secreted by the gland are being produced synthetically and prescribed as a drug. The use of this gland in the progression of cancers is also being researched.

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Two drug combination (Reuters Health- 17/11/99)

A two-drug combination that pushes cancer cells to commit suicide can completely kill human tumours in laboratory experiments. Used in the proper sequence, Taxol and beta-lapachone, "may represent a new therapy against human cancers" Dr. Chiang J. Li of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston , Massachusetts said in a hospital statement.

The findings were published in the November 9th issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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No cancer risk from test-tube fertilization (Medivision-November, 99)

Women who undrgo test-tube fertilization programmes are no more likely to develop breast or ovarian cancer than any other women, an Australian research group said after a 20-year study. The findings are largely reassuring for the large numbers of women who have been in IVF programmes in Australia.

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It's Stockholm Calling. Oslo Too (Time- 25/10/99)

German born Guenter Blobel of Rockefeller University won this year's Nobel Prize in Medicine for deciphering the secret "zip codes" proteins use to find their way around all living cells. The discovery may help lead to treatments for Alzheimer's disease, cancer and other diseases.

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Tobacco can help stop hair loss from cancer drug (TOI-21/10/99)

Doxorubicin, one of the drugs used for chemotherapeutic treatment in cancer, results in hair loss in between 95-98% of the patients. The only way to tackle the problem is to neutralize the drug at a local level on the scalp. Scientists at Planet Biotechnology, a California based company, have modified the DNA of tobacco plants so that they have the gene that encodes for the antibody which can neutralize the drug. The company plans to grow and produce enough of the antibody to start human clinical trials.

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When the cancer gene runs wild, it hits immunity : study - (Reuters-26/9/99)

A gene known to be involved in some cases of cancer causes trouble when it loses control of the immune system, and may have more powerful effects than previously believed, researchers said. When the gene, PTEN mutates, it fails to control important immune system cells which start to proliferate said researchers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre in New York.

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From the sick bed to medal podium-(TOI-30/8/99)

Gold medallist Gail Devers and bronze-medallist Ludmila Enquist scripted a fairytale story at the World Track and Field Championships in Spain. 32-year-old Devers overcame life-threatening Graves’ disease to win the 100-metre hurdles title for the third time.

Ludmila Enquist’s performance capped a most remarkable and inspirational story. The Russian born 35-year-old Swede was diagnosed with breast cancer in March. She had her right beast removed on April 21 and returned to competition July 30, winning a race in Stockholm. She continued to train through four chemotherapy sessions. She underwent the fifth of her six treatments three days after the competition.

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Elixir for the new millennium-(Sunday Review-8/8/99)

Mother’s milk, say researchers, can make a cancer cell crack up under a microscope.

Milk contains alpha-lactalbumin which has been known for its role in producing lactose, milk sugar. Under special conditions the molecule can change shape to become a new protein, Human Alpha-lactalbumin Made Lethal to Tumour cells (HAMLET). It has the ability to enter the cancer cell and kill it in two ways. It can attack the nucleus and cause the cell’s DNA to snip itself to pieces. Alternately, it causes the cell’s mitochondria to secrete cytochrome-c, which in turn causes the otherwise dormant enzyme, caspace to destroy cell proteins.

HAMLET has been tested on mice and found to be effective on all kinds of cancer cells, the next step is testing on human volunteers. The research shows promise for the development of the first non-toxic anti-cancer drug.

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US team discovers new way to combat cancer-(TOI-7/8/99)

United State researchers have said they have found a new mechanism that explains not only how the body repairs damages done by the sun but might explain why some people are more prone to cancer.

"You get DNA damage almost every time you go out. This can be translated over to mutations. If you can get rid of the cells containing the DNA damage, you get rid of the cancer," said Laurie Owen-Schaub of the M.D. Anderson Cancer Centre at the University of Texas in Houston.

The body has many known mechanisms for fixing damaged DNA in cells or killing damaged cells so they don’t start the out-of-control growth that leads to tumours. A gene called p53 causes damaged cells to die. It controls another gene, called fas. Yet another gene fas ligand is also critical. Fas acts as a lock and fasl acts as the key to cell destruction, if you lose the key, you can’t undergo cell death. When the defense mechanism fails or is inactivated, sunlight exposure induces the genetic alterations that then persist, eventually resulting in skin cancer.

In the next step the study will look at human skin cancer patients to see if they have a faulty fasl gene or lack fasl to screen people to predict their relative risk of skin cancer as well as other types of cancer.

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Cancer study reveals link with traffic fumes-(TOI-6/8/99)

Traffic pollution has been directly linked to lung cancer for the first time in a landmark study that will increase pressure to reduce the number of cars.

Researchers in Sweden studying the effect of exhaust fumes on 3500 men in Stockholm found that those living in areas with the heaviest traffic pollution over a number of years had a higher risk of lung cancer.

The group exposed to heavy traffic fumes for the whole of the 30-year period covered by the study had a 40% higher chance of developing lung cancer. Those who lived in areas of heavy traffic for only 10 years were shown to be 20 per cent more likely to develop the illness. The effect was the same for the smokers and non-smokers and for people from different economic circumstances. Those in areas with light traffic pollution did not show an increased risk of lung cancer.

The study also found out that professional drivers such as bus, taxi and lorry drivers have an increased risk of lung cancer, which kills more worldwide than any other form of the disease.

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Medical Cyclotron to treat cancer site-(Medivision, August 1999)

A hi-tech medical cyclotron for spot-specific treatment of cancer without destroying any of the neighbouring healthy cells has been developed by Calcutta based scientists at the regional Radiation Medicine Centre of the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics (SINP). The Rs 42 crore joint venture between Department of Atomic Energy’s premier institutes, the SINP andVariable Energy Cyclotron Centre with a Belgium company Ion Beam Applications will produce radio isotopes for use in cancer hospitals across the country.

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Hot Air Balloons Make Cancer Surgery Easier-(TOI 28/7/99)

Cameron Balloons, the Bristol company that built the Breitling Orbiter3, the first hot air balloon to fly non-stop around the world, is working with surgeons to develop a tiny balloon that can be used to remove tumours from the body safely. The bags have been designed to collect tissue without the need for major open surgery.

Keyhole surgery is carried out through a small porthole cut in the patient at a convenient place. A hollow tube is put through the porthole and the surgeon passes tools down it which are then manipulated from outside. A tiny camera is placed inside the body cavity to monitor progress.

The problem arises when the tissue needs to be removed. The hole is often too small and there are worries about infection and fears that the tumour may re-seed when in contact with tissue as it is withdrawn. The solution was to package the excised tumour before it is removed.

The material Cameron Balloons came up with from its range of balloon fabrics was a woven nylon with a plastic coating. Not only is it extremely tough, it is also very light and flexible. Fabric designers then developed a bag small enough to be pulled back with the unwanted tissue inside.

The benefit of recovering material with the ‘Lapsac tissue retrieval system’ is that patients are spared open surgery and spend a shorter time in hospital and the diseased tissue can be removed without coming in contact with healthy tissue. The bag has been used in abdominal surgery and colon surgery and other applications are planned.

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Cure for Cancer-(Mid-Day 28/6/99)

The world’s first cancer-preventing drug recently won approval: Astra Zeneca’s tamoxifen. Several other promising drugs are in human testing. As more move down the pipeline, questions arise on whether the new drugs are worth the risk of side effects in decade long use.

The US National Cancer Institutes chief of prevention Peter Greenwald says a "daily pill for all" could happen in 15-20 years.

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