It's called triple-negative breast cancer and it manifests itself in the lack of expression of two cell surface proteins -- estrogen and progesterone receptors -- and also the protein HER2.

It's a disease that does not typically respond to treatment with standard chemotherapy drugs and therefore, diagnosis can come with a poor prognosis. But a new study out of Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center in Boston indicates this type of disease is sensitive to the drug cisplatin.

The study, appearing online in the April 19 Journal of Clinical Investigation and in the journal's May print issue, shows that triple-negative breast cancer expresses larger amounts of two proteins, delta-Np63 and TAp73. Delta-Np63 binds to TAp73 and prevents it from killing cancerous cells. Cisplatin does the trick, though, and releases TAp73 from delta-Np63. This causes the cells to die and offers hope for a sometimes hopeless disease.

Bladder cancer is diagnosed in 55,000 - 60,000 individuals annually in the United States. Patients whose cancer has spread to deeper tissues in the bladder and/or nearby lymph nodes may be treated with a radical cystectomy, the surgical removal of the bladder and nearby lymph nodes.

This approach may be able to cure the patient, however recurrences do occur. Researchers want to find out which patients may be more susceptible to a recurrence so that they can either monitor them more closely or treat them more aggressively to reduce the risk of recurrence.

An article was published in Lancet Oncology saying that markers may help predict the risk of cancer recurrences in patients who are treated with a radical cystectomy. Researchers from Texas and Canada conducted a clinical study to evaluate markers found in the the tissue samples taken after surgery. The markers tested included the expression of Bcl-2, caspase-3, P53, and survivin.

The study found that those patients that had an altered expression of Bcl-2, caspase-3, P533 and survivin were associated with over four times the risk of cancer recurrence. Also, the altered expression of all of these bio-markers was associated with nearly seven times the risk of death from cancer.

The researchers conclude that these findings support other studies that show these bio-markers can help predict who will remain cancer free. They look at this as moving forward towards more individualized treatments for the patients.

It did not say in the article whether using this test after the surgery would help them to determine if chemotherapy or radiation would be something that could reduce the risk of recurrence if the markers would show a high risk category of recurrence. I think this these studies are great but we need to be moving forward to get the patients to benefit from this vital information.

From houseplants to raised beds, to plant a seed, tend the soil, and watch a plant grow is one of the most inspiringly hopeful of activities. In hopefulness is found a kind of healing. According to the American Horticultural Therapy Association, horticulture therapy is defined as "a process utilizing plants and horticultural activities to improve social, educational, psychological and physical adjustment of persons thus improving their body, mind, and spirit." The American Cancer Society offers a list of some of horticulture therapy benefits one can expect from gardening that include:

• Feelings of hope.
• Stress reduction.
• Social interaction.
• Pain relief.
• Improved muscle tone, flexibility, and cardiopulmonary capability.
• Creativity and self-expression.
• Enhanced self-esteem and improved mood.
• Motor skill development.
  

As the New Year arrives, so do the gardening catalogs in the mail. Interested in receiving gardening catalogs but not certain where to start? Cyndi's Catalog of Garden Catalogs lists over 2,000 mail-order gardening catalogs for the home gardener.

Two of my favorite gardening websites and online catalogs are found at Seeds of Change and Seed Savers Exchange.

At Seeds of Change, you can find garden seeds, seed collections, cover crops, seedlings, fruit trees, garden tools, kitchen items, and a bookstore. All organic. In addition, Seeds of Change publishes a newsletter.

Seed Savers Exchange is a nonprofit organization that saves and shares heirloom seeds. According to Seed Savers Exchange, "Our organization is saving the world's diverse, but endangered, garden heritage for future generations by building a network of people committed to collecting, conserving and sharing heirloom seeds and plants, while educating people about the value of genetic and cultural diversity."

But, wherever you start, once you catch the gardening bug, you will understand why horticulture therapy is becoming an integrated part in healing programs adopted at some of the medical centers across the country.

A not-so-new tumor-cell biomarker has been newly unveiled by researchers. And it just might predict how well women will fare after they've been diagnosed with breast cancer and how to best treat each cancer.

When expression of the marker -- called p27 -- is low, especially among women with hormone-receptor-positive tumors, prognosis is typically poor.

P27 was first discovered more than a decade ago but has not been useful for prognostic purposes until now. Previous studies on the marker failed to deliver all patients the same treatment -- so researchers could never determine if outcomes were due to p27 or treatment. But a recent study -- published in the December 6 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute -- followed the same patients receiving the same treatment for newly diagnosed, hormone-receptor-positive, moderate-risk breast cancer.

The new study found women with tumors high in p27 expression had a five-year survival rate of 91 percent. Women with a low expression had a five-year survival rate of 85 percent.

No association was found between p27 expression and survival among women with hormone-receptor-negative tumors.

The next step in the study of this potentially important marker is to better define how women will benefit from this information.

A publication in the Journal of Clinical Oncology says that the expression of HER3 is associated with a significantly worse survival in patients with ovarian cancer. HER3 is a component of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). The EGFR pathway is a biologic pathway within cells that is involved in cell growth and replication.

Ovarian cancer is considered to be a deadly cancer because a majority of patients are not diagnosed until they reach the later stages. Once the cancer has metastasized it is much harder to treat. To allow treatment to be more individualized the researchers wanted to know if HER3 expression can detect a more aggressive cancer.

This information can lead to patients pursuing more aggressive treatments or participation in a clinical trial evaluating new therapeutic approaches.

Even though its always promising to find out new information, I would be much more excited to hear that there are better detection methods for ovarian cancer in the early stages. They might find a way to block the expression of HER3 but as in breast cancer with HER2 over expression and Herceptin it never seems to pan out to be the miracle cure we are hoping for.

Its better to nip that cancer in the bud!

Stuffing your emotions, or keeping it all inside, has led more than one person down the path to trouble. At some point, if you do not express your thoughts and feelings, especially the negative ones, you stay emotionally frozen in time. It's kind of like physically clubbing yourself over the head repeatedly day after day. Of course, we cannot go around randomly screaming at people or speaking before we give ourselves time to think. There are effective ways to open up and share that will lead you to better health and help you to maintain a good relationship with family members and friends at the same time. Journaling is good, as is talk therapy or belonging to a support group.

The point is, until expressed, you are stuck with whatever you are feeling. With the passage of time, you might not even be aware of the emotions you are carrying around inside affecting you and your health, as they tend to pile up and become obscured from view.

Adelaide University psycho-neuro-immunology researcher Vikki Knott understands the benefit of letting it all out emotionally, and that sharing and releasing distressful emotions can help a cancer survivor survive cancer longer. Knott will be conducting research in emotion-focused treatments to improve cancer survivorship by charting the physical changes to the immune system before and after talk therapy sessions.

According to Knott, "It's about the link between the mind and the body and how your mind state can affect the disease state in the body." The researchers will be examining three techniques -- journaling, meditation and hypnosis. Previous research has already proven that breast cancer survivors who belong to a support group tend to live longer than their more isolated and disconnected counterparts.