Surgeons will normally remove the lymph nodes during surgery when a patient has Stage II or Stage III colon cancer. These stages refer to colon cancer that has penetrated the colon and entered the abdominal cavity. There may be spread of the cancer to local lymph nodes that need to be removed and biopsied.

An article published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute says that patients have improved survival when a greater number of lymph nodes are removed during surgery. Patients have anywhere from six to forty lymph nodes removed and evaluated. The question is -- What is the optimal number of lymph nodes to remove and evaluate?

A clinical study was conducted that involved nearly 62,000 patients. The researchers concluded that patients with Stage II or III colon cancer had significantly improved survival when more lymph nodes were removed.

The author of the study stated "These results support consideration of the number of lymph nodes evaluated as a measure of quality of colon care."

Patients with this disease have a decreased quality of life due to symptoms such as shortness of breath, cough, pain, fatigue, and the inability to eat. One of the scariest parts about this disease is that it can be resistant to most therapies, including surgery, chemotherapy and radiation.

A press release from Alfacell Corporation says that the addition of a drug called Onconase (ranpirnase) to Adriamycin improves survival over Adriamycin alone in patients that have operable mesothelioma. Onconase targets cancer cells while sparing healthy cells. It is taken into the cancerous cell where it kills the cell through various processes. Onconase is not yet proved by the FDA in the United States.

A clinical trial was conducted to evaluate the addition of Onconase to Adriamycin compared to Adriamycin alone. The trial included a total of 143 patients. At one year 47 percent of patients treated with Onconase/Adriamycin were alive compared to 36 percent of patients treated with Adriamycin alone.

The researchers feel that the drug improves outcomes when given with Adriamycin. This trial was a Phase IIIb trial which means it could be up for FDA approval in the near future.

The second article that I read was recently published in the Journal of Thoracic Oncology. According to the article treatment with Alimta (pemetrixed) with or without Platinol (cisplatin) provides benefit with malignant mesothelioma who have received prior treatment therapies.

This research was focused on recurrent mesothelioma. Optimal treatment strategies that will improve long-term outcomes for patients with recurrent mesothelioma continue to be evaluated. A Phase III trial was conducted to evaluate treatment including Alimta or Alimta/cisplatin. The trial included 187 patients.

Anticancer responses were achieved in 32.5 percent of patients treated with Alimta/cisplatin compared with 5.5 percent for patients treated with Alimta alone.

The researchers conclude that this is a challenging disease. I bring this information in hopes that anyone diagnosed with is disease can have some information to bring to their physicians to discuss further.

One in 18 men and women will be diagnosed with colorectal cancer during their lifetimes -- that translates into more than 150,000 people diagnosed and more than 52,000 colorectal cancer deaths each year, securing the disease as the second leading cause of cancer death in the United States.

Fortunately, mortality rates for this disease have been declining due to earlier screenings, awareness of symptoms, removal of polyps, and improved treatments through advances in research discoveries -- like today's genetic breakthroughs.

In a recent study, researchers identified a cell pathway critical in the development of colon cancer and also lung and stomach cancers.

STAT3 (signal transducer and activator of transcription 3) is the newest discovery and is a target regulated by PRPRT (receptor protein tyrosine phosphatase T), already identified to be mutated in these cancers.

"The role of protein tyrosine phosphatase in cancer is still an under-explored area," says Zhenghe John Wang, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Genetics at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and Case Comprehensive Cancer Center.

"Our study shows that receptor protein tyrosine phosphatase T regulates an important signaling pathway that is critical in cancer development. This identification will allow new approaches to pharmacological designs and facilitate alternative approaches for cancer treatment."

This study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS Online Edition Feb. 20-23, 2007), provides new hope for the development of drugs that will target this potentially deadly disease.

Kay Yow, head coach of the North Carolina State women's basketball team, returns to her job today following a two-month leave she took to fight cancer for a third time. Yow's first game back will be on Thursday against Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) rival Virginia.

Yow, 64, was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 1987. Two years ago the disease returned and was treated. And in November, Yow left her team after doctors determined her cancer had returned once again.

For the past two months, Yow has been receiving chemotherapy along with other new therapies. And while Yow's disease is not gone and her life-extending treatment will continue throughout the season, doctors say her health has improved. And she says she's ready to get back in the game.

Yow, who was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2001 and coached the U.S. women's team to a gold medal at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, has been a head coach for 32 seasons. Her assistant Stephanie Glance led the Wolfpack team (13-7, 2-3 ACC) in Yow's absence.

Melanoma patients that have a intermediate-thickness, 1.2mm - 3.5mm size tumor, should receive a lymph node dissection and sentinel biopsy at the same time the tumor is removed.

The results of a clinical trial showed that survival was significantly improved in patients that had the nodes removed at initial surgery than those that waited and had lymph node enlargement appear later. Melanoma tumors in the lymph nodes are important to find before they become clinically detectable. The lymph node staging process can help determine the treatment that is needed.

The clinical trial called Multicenter Selective Lymphadenectomy Trial (MSLT) reported the interim results to the New England Journal of Medicine. Patients were put into two groups for the clinical trial. The first group with intermediate-thickness melanoma was given a wide excision and sentinel node biopsy and the second group was given a wide excision and nodal observation. The group with the sentinel node biopsy ended up having smaller metastasis in the nodes than those that only were observed. It showed that those who waited for clinical enlargement of lymph nodes to have them removed and analyzed had further disease progression in the nodes and lesser survival rates.

Dr. Balch, from Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions in Baltimore, and Dr. Cascinelli, from the National Tumor Institute in Milan say that the results of the trial "convincingly show that sentinel node biopsy is a standard of care staging procedure and is justified in patients with melanoma with tumor thickness of 1.2 to 3.5 mm"

Thirty percent of patients that are diagnosed with liver metastasis spread from the colon have a ten year survival rate according to an article recently published in the Annals of Surgical Oncology. Thirty percent might not sound so great but having breast cancer and knowing that metastasis to the liver can have a grave diagnoses this lifts me up a bit.

According to the article published surgical removal of the site of cancer or multiple sites as well as surrounding healthy tissue of the liver can improve survival rates. The researchers concluded that long-term overall survival of nearly fifty percent at five years and thirty percent at ten years can be achieved with the use of surgery. The researchers stated that "an aggressive approach is justified".

Speak with your doctor about your options for surgery for metastatic liver disease. Treatment may depend on the size of the cancer, the number of places on the liver that have metastasis and the location of the cancer on the liver.

Medulloblastoma is a brain tumor that usually occurs in children between the ages of three and eight. It accounts for 20 percent of all brain tumors in children. Treatment for medulloblastoma can involve surgery, radiation therapy and chemotherapy.

In a study published in the Lancet Oncology, the treatment of risk-adapted radiation and a shortened course of high-dose chemotherapy may improve outcomes in children with high-risk tumors. Risk-adapted radiation means that the dose of the radiation was adapted to the risk status of the child. Children with a high risk medulloblastoma received a higher dose of radiation where children with an average risk medulloblastoma received a lower dose. Children with high risk medulloblastoma are defined as cancer that has spread within the brain or spinal cord.

The study included 134 children between the ages of three and twenty one. After five years the overall survival was 85 percent in children with average risk disease and 70 percent in children with high risk disease.

The researchers concluded from this study that risk-adapted radiation therapy and a shortened course of high-dose chemotherapy may improve outcomes in children with high risk medulloblastoma.

Long term survival for patients with advanced ovarian cancer can be achieved says an article published in the Journal of Surgical Oncology. The patients would need to undergo radical surgery and intraperitoneal chemotherapy.

So what does this mean? Intraperitoneal chemotherapy is when the patient gets chemotherapy delivered to the site of the cancer before being metabolized and broken down through our body's metabolic processes. Hyperthermic intraoperative chemotherapy (HIIC) is when the heating of tissues is added to aid in the uptake of chemotherapy into the tissues.

Researchers in Spain did a study that involved 19 patients who were recently diagnosed and 14 patients that had recurrent ovarian cancer. Patients underwent radical surgery and HIIC with the chemotherapy agent Taxol.

The researchers concluded that radical surgery followed by HIIC resulted in impressive survival among patients with advanced ovarian cancer.

Interferon is an agent that stimulates the immune cells to help fight cancer. In an article published in Bone Marrow Transplantation it said that the addition of interferon following an autologous stem cell transplant improves survival for children with recurrent Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Patients that have their Hodgkin's lymphoma return after initial treatment may undergo an autologous stem cell transplant. In an autologous stem cell transplant a patients own cells are collected prior to high-dose chemotherapy and then re-infused.

The researchers wanted to evaluate whether the addition of interferon to the stem cell transplant could improve outcomes. The trial included 13 children with recurrent Hodgkin's lymphoma who were treated with an autologous stem cell transplant. Ten of these patients then went on to receive the interferon.

Follow up at five years shows that nine of the ten patients treated with interferon are alive and cancer free. The researchers concluded that interferon provided significant anticancer activity following the transplant.

The addition of further chemotherapy added to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in patients with esophageal cancer can improve survival. When diagnosed with esophageal cancer the patient is usually given chemotherapy to shrink the tumor before surgery, it also may be accompanied by radiation. This gives a better chance that the tumor will be smaller and can be fully removed. It also is treating the body immediately with systematic therapy in case any cancer cells are circulating in the body.

The journal Cancer has published an article from researchers at MD Anderson Cancer Center regarding additional chemotherapy added to the neoadjuvant chemotherapy already given to patients who have locally advanced esophageal cancer.

The study included 130 patients with esophageal cancer who received neoadjuvant chemotherapy plus radiation therapy and their outcomes were compared to 117 patients who received the same treatment plus and additional course of chemotherapy (induction chemotherapy) prior to surgery.

At five years overall survival was 43 percent for those treated with the additional induction chemotherapy before surgery, compared to 28 percent for those not treated with induction chemotherapy.

The researchers concluded that the induction chemotherapy added to the neoadjuvant chemotherapy improved survival.

I have tried to exercise most of my adult life -- at times because I felt obligated to participate in what I knew was good for me and at times to justify eating my favorite foods while maintaining an appropriate weight and at times because I wanted to actually have a toned, healthy body.

At this exact time in my life, I exercise with all of these motivations in mind -- plus a few more. I like to sweat and know I am accomplishing a physical feat. I like the mental release I get when I push my body to perform. I like the time to myself, the loud music I hear on my MP3 player, and the results I see from a little bit of hard work. And lately -- as a result of a new weight training program -- I know I am benefiting my body more than ever before.

The following are just seven of the many gifts that come from weight training. Gifts that will make me a happier, healthier cancer survivor.

Noticeable physical results -- Mostly, walking and occasional jogging have been my methods of exercise. And I've seen results from this type of workout -- leaner legs, more defined calf muscles, and the knowledge that I am increasing my cardiovascular health, as confirmed by the technician who performed an ultrasound on my heart in preparation for my Herceptin treatment for breast cancer. He told me he could tell I exercised regularly because of my low resting heart rate. But until I started weight training a few months ago, I never witnessed quick results. Yet after a few weeks of resistance exercise -- lifting 20-pound weights for my arms, shoulders, back, and chest -- I could see definition and tone that clearly would not have resulted from my purely cardio workouts.

Improved strength and endurance -- Lunges and squats and jumping with resistance bands have strengthened my legs. Lifting weights has strengthened my arms -- and I can now lift heavier weights than when I first started my new routine. I can do more push-ups now too -- not girl push-ups on my knees but real push-ups -- than I ever could have imagined doing when I could barely lower my own body weight and would crash to the floor on my stomach. My strength has improved. My endurance has improved. I feel more powerful.

Increased energy -- Fatigue (or maybe it's laziness) sometimes prevents me from happily jumping up to begin exercising. But when I push myself and exert myself and get lost in my exercise routine, my energy returns -- and not just during my workout but for some time afterwards too. Some say energy increases from strength training because it contributes to loss of fat which means we have less to lug around each day.

Burning of more calories -- Weight training raises basal metabolism which causes more calorie burning over a 24-hour period of time. Calories even burn during sleep as a result of weight training.  For every additional pound of muscle you gain, your body burns 50 extra calories every day -- 50 more calories than the few hundred that might burn from aerobic exercise. Research shows that regular resistance training can increase your Basal Metabolic Rate by 15%. So for someone who burns 2000 calories per day, that's upwards of 300 extra calories burned every single day. 

Decreased onset of illness -- Weight training can reduce the risk of adult onset diabetes and the risk for developing colon cancer and can improve the functioning of the immune system and the efficiency of the heart. It decreases the risk of low-back injuries, decreases resting blood pressure, increases good cholesterol (HDL), and improves posture. The list goes on -- and so does healthy living if weight training becomes a way of life. As a young person already having experienced a life-threatening illness, this comforts me.

Prevention of osteoporosis -- My recent bone density test revealed that I am not at this moment at risk for developing osteoporosis. I don't want this to change. Strength training can help me maintain this status because it can significantly increase bone mineral density -- which is important because we naturally lose bone density as we age. Strength training helps protect against osteoporosis. And age should not be a deterrent. Individuals who begin training late in life -- at age 65, for example -- can restore bone loss.

Improved outlook on life -- As a result of toning and shaping my body, burning calories, enjoying greater strength and energy, and working toward a disease-free future, weight training gives me an improved outlook on life. And weight training has recently been reported to significantly improve the quality of life of women recently treated for breast cancer. A May 2006 study indicates six months of twice weekly exercise was enough to improve the overall physical and emotional condition of patients.

Twice weekly is my weight training goal. I will continue to walk and run -- and bike on occasion too -- but strength training will be my priority. Because health is a priority.