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Half of colorectal cancer cancers have already spread to the liver by the time of diagnosis. Many doctors tell patients that they are out of surgical options at that point and recommend chemotherapy.
However, doctors at Ohio State's James Cancer hospital disagree that surgery is never an option at that point. Doctors there, including Tanios Saab, say that if chemo or radiation can shrink the tumor, surgeons may be able to go surgically and get the rest out.
The liver is the only solid organ that can grow back once it is cut. Surgeons have found that they can remove as much as 80% of the liver and within a year, the liver will grow back.
A study from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill suggests that not everyone needs a genetic test prior to taking Camptosar (irinotecan).
Irinotecan, also known as Camptosar, is used as a second-line treatment for colorectal cancer. The FDA recommends screening for a gene that could make patients more susceptible to the harmful side effects of the drug, namely neutropenia, which is an abnormally low level of white blood cells.
The UNC researchers analyzed data from nine previous studies of irinotecan. They found that patients who received a medium or high dose had a greater risk of neutropenia if they had two copies of a specific variant of the gene UGTA1. At lower doses of the drug however, the risk was the same regardless of UGTA1 status.
The authors, led by Howard McLeod, Pharm.D., recommends that the FDA amend their guidelines to reflect this knowledge. Changing this guideline may help avoid unnecessary tests and expenses as well as quicken treatment waiting times.
White House press secretary Tony Snow says his resignation has nothing to do with cancer and everything to do with money. According to sources from the Bush administration, he will step down from his position. Snow, however, is not making an announcement at this time.
Snow did tell conservative talk-show host Hugh Hewitt that financial reasons prevent him from serving the remainder of the Bush administration.
"I'm not going to be able to go the distance, but that's primarily for financial reasons." Snow said. "I've told people when my money runs out, then I've got to go."
Are you a fan of eggplant, blueberries or red seedless grapes? If you, listen up -- these dark-colored fruits and vegetables, according to new research, may help protect you against colon cancer.
I'm of the mind that blueberries harness one of the best arsenals of natural cancer-fighting nutrition known to the planet, so it's good to see a new study reiterate this fact. Ever try fresh blueberries on top of 100% whole-grain waffles? Makes an excellent breakfast, while at the same time giving your body a shower of anti-cancer nutrition.
Evidence has shown in the past that anthocyanins (the dark color compounds in some fruits and veggies) can slow the growth of colon cancer cells by 50 to 80 percent. This just in -- they taste fantastic as well.
"Blessings arrive in unexpected packages -- in my case, cancer," writes White House Press Secretary Tony Snow in the July issue of Christianity Today.
Snow, who discovered in March that his colon cancer had recurred and spread to his liver, said his life-threatening setback is also life-affirming. It has strengthened his faith and brought clarity to his life.
"We don't know how the narrative of our lives will end, but we get to choose how to use the interval between now and the moment we meet our Creator," says the 51-year-old.
Colon cancer kills an estimated 600,000 people globally each year. according to the latest statistics. How are some of those future cancer deaths going to be prevented? In another arrow in the quiver regarding the importance of proper food and nutrition, a new survey says that diet plays a very strong role in the development of colon cancer.
Specifically, a "Western" diet that consists of fat read meat, processed foods and refined sugars is among (if not) the worst diet you can force upon the body. It continues to be no surprise, then, that cancer rates that loom larger every year are the resultant effect. Eve with genetic predisposition t cancer, the human body was not made for the junk a Western-type diet provides.
I like this quote by Jeffrey Meyerhardt of the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, Massachusetts: "It's not really increasing the amount of fruits and vegetables, but really trying to reduce the amount of red meat intake and fatty foods and sugary 'desserty' [sweet desserts] foods, that seems to be protective for colon cancer recurrences and survival."
In another study on the affects of diet on cancer, those colon cancer patients who indulged in diets containing meat, desserts, fat and refined grains were three times more likely to have a colon cancer recurrence than those who shifted their post-cancer diet away from these unhealthy items.
Surprised? Shouldn't be -- diet and cancer are so closely related that eating foods with tons of saturated fats and chemicals can take a genetic predisposition to cancer and speed it along.
What's important here is that after cancer treatment (hopefully, successful), one should change their diet to one full of healthy options instead of bad nutritional choices. It's all up to each individual patient.
Magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, may offer an alternative to conventional colonoscopy, according to a new study.
MRI does not require the insertion of a long tube in the rectum and with the use of a special technique called fecal tagging, patients do not have to undergo bowel cleansing as in conventional colonoscopy. An advantage of conventional colonoscopy over MRI is that polyps that are detected can be removed or biopsied during the procedure.
The study found that MRI can accurately detect polyps that have potential to become cancerous, but is not as good as detecting small polyps. According to the lead author on the study, Dr. Christiane A. Kuehle, MRI colonography was good at detecting polyps greater than 5 millimeters in diameter, but nearly always missed smaller polyps.
The researchers believe that conventional colonoscopy will remain the screening method of choice for colon cancer.
A new study suggests that choline, a nutrient found in red meat, poultry and dairy, may contribute to the development of intestinal polyps, which can lead to colon cancer. The study was led by Eunyoung Cho, an epidemiologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital.
The study was of more than 39,000 nurses, who all happened to be women. The women were originally free of colon cancer and then had at least one endoscopic examination performed. Polyps were found in more than 2,400 of the women. Women who ate the most choline were 1.45 times more likely to have polyps. Having more polyps does not necessarily mean more cancer and further studies will have to examine whether those who ate the most choline developed the most tumors, in addition to studying the effects of choline in men.
Cho cautions that this study is preliminary and that dietary changes should not be made as a result of it. According to Regina Ziegler of the NCI who wrote a commentary on the new study, current dietary advice to eat lots of fiber and fruits and vegetables "isn't likely to change even if choline turns out to be a possible villain." As for now, "people shouldn't run out and start either taking more choline or less choline," she said.
The Carolinas Cancer Education and Screening Projects (CARES) aims to improve colorectal cancer screening (CRC) among low-income women in subsidized housing in 11 cities in North and South Carolina, women who are traditionally underserved by cancer control efforts.
In a recent study published in Cancer, the CARES project conducted face-to-face interviews with women, focusing on CRC knowledge, beliefs, barriers to screening and screening behaviors.
At the beginning, only 49.3% of the participants who should have been screening per physician guidelines were screened for CRC. After the intervention, there was in increase in positive beliefs about CRC screening and intention to undergo screening, but the rate of screening did not increase significantly after the intervention.
The researchers suggests that such interventions may take more time.
The first step in finding a cure to cancer is finding out exactly what causes it. Scientists are making headway, at least a far as colon cancer is concerned, with new findings that show that colon cancer may be a disease of hormone deficiency.
The key here is GCC (guanylyl cyclase C), a protein receptor located on the intestines, which interacts with two hormones, guanylin and uroguanylin, to regulate growth of the organ. But it's thought that when colon cancer is in its early stages, these hormones are mostly absent, which gives way to the growth of tumors (for an more in-depth explanation, check out the full article here.) So then it's thought that if GCC can be stimulated, it would block tumors from growing.
This new approach to colon cancer is promising to scientists because, as clinical pharmacologist Scott Waldman, M.D., Ph.D., points out, 'it's a completely different way of thinking about the disease ... Not only does this give a new paradigm in how we think about the disease, but it gives us a new paradigm for treating the disease -- that is, by hormone replacement therapy.'
One thing that simply never ceases to leave from the media these days is the subject of coffee drinking. Is it good for you or bad? Studies abound on this issue, and the only real consensus is confusion it seems.
So, let's try another one: a recent piece of research from Japan concluded that consuming three or more cups of coffee a day may cut the risk of colon cancer in women by half. By half?
I wonder if the antioxidant level in coffee has anything to do with that if in fact there is validity to the study. It looked at information from more than 96,000 men and women aged between 40-69 over a period of up to 12 years, so I'm thinking the study has some validity (without looking deeper). The researchers did state that the mechanism in coffee that seemed to have a cancer prevention effect was unknown.
A British study could raise a ruckus for those who enjoy a glass of wine or a cold beer at the end of the day. After polling nearly 500,000 people in 10 different European countries, a group of researchers with the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) have come to the conclusion that two servings of alcohol per day actually increased the study group's bowel cancer rate by ten per cent. BY increasing that daily intake to 3 or 4 servings, the cancer rate increased to 25 per cent.
Some factors that came in to consideration with the study was the strength of the alcohol consumed. The stronger the drink, the more likely the drinker was to get cancer. Another factor was time. The participants were followed over a six year period, during which nearly 2,000 developed bowel cancer.
The researchers are quick to say that awareness of alcohol consumption is a key factor in the study. Daily alcohol consumption coupled with smoking is unhealthy. Large servings of alcohol are also a danger. for more information, click here.
Their main article follows Karen Pasqualetto, 35, as she perseveres through a complex maze of physicians and treatments in search of the best care for her stage IV colon cancer, which was diagnosed shortly after the birth of her first child.
The article addresses the uneven quality of cancer care in the U.S. and the difficulty that patients encounter as they attempt to navigate the system in the search for the best care. Healthcare disparities are also addressed, including gaps in access to top cancer care and early detection screenings.
One of the most disturbing parts of the article is a rundown of different cancers and how many patients do not receive the care that gives them the best chance at increasing survival. For example, for pancreatic cancer patients, 38 percent of patients who were eligible for surgery do not receive it. In another example, for breast cancer patients, 15 to 25 percent of women who should have radiation do not and 20 to 30 percent do not take anti-estrogen drugs.
As for Ms. Pasqualetto, she eventually received a liver and colon surgery to remove tumors and has now survived 12 months, far longer than the six month prognosis originally given to her by her first doctor. She credits this good fortune to both her determination and her access to excellent healthcare coverage.
Although much of the UK is undergoing bans on public smoking -- Scotland included -- the country still has the highest cancer rates in the entire United Kingdom.
New figures this week note that Scottish citizens have a 15% better chance from dying due to cancer-related causes.
Among Scottish men, the top three cancers included prostate, lung and colorectal. Among women, breast, lung and colorectal cancers were most prevalent.
When it comes to lung cancer, I have to wonder if the recent smoking ban will have any effect on future Scotland cancer-related deaths. We'll have to wait and see, I guess.
Half of colorectal cancer cancers have already spread to the liver by the time of diagnosis. Many doctors tell patients that they are out of surgical options at that point and recommend chemotherapy.
A 
White House press secretary Tony Snow says his resignation has nothing to do with cancer and everything to do with money. According to sources from the Bush administration, he will step down from his position. Snow, however, is not making an announcement at this time.
"Blessings arrive in unexpected packages -- in my case, cancer," writes White House Press Secretary Tony Snow in the July issue of Christianity Today.
Magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, may offer an alternative to conventional colonoscopy, according to a new 
A new 
The Carolinas Cancer Education and Screening Projects (CARES) aims to improve colorectal cancer screening (CRC) among low-income women in subsidized housing in 11 cities in North and South Carolina, women who are traditionally underserved by cancer control efforts.
The first step in finding a cure to cancer is finding out exactly what causes it. Scientists are making headway, at least a far as colon cancer is concerned, with new findings that show that colon cancer may be a disease of hormone deficiency. 
A British study could raise a ruckus for those who enjoy a glass of wine or a cold beer at the end of the day. After polling nearly 500,000 people in 10 different European countries, a group of researchers with the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) have come to the conclusion that two servings of alcohol per day actually increased the study group's 
The New York Times profiled cancer this past weekend in a feature entitled, 
