Tarceva (erlotinib) and Iressa (gefitnib) are both agents targeted against the EGFR pathway. This pathway is involved in cell growth and replication and when mutated or altered, excessive replication of cells can occur. These agents reduce the uncontrolled replication and growth of cancer cells by blocking mutated EGFR pathways.

According to an article published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, the targeted agent Tarceva may provide anticancer responses for patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who stop responding to Iressa. These drugs are not associated with the side effects of chemotherapy, providing an effective alternative for patients who are not eligible for standard therapy.

A study was done to evaluate the effectiveness of Tarceva among patients who stopped responding to Iressa. The researchers concluded that -- Patients with NSCLC who demonstrate disease control with Iressa and do not have EGFR mutations appear to have benefit from treatment with Tarceva once their cancer progresses following their treatment with Iressa. Patients with recurrent NSCLC may wish to speak with their physician regarding their individual risks and benefits of treatment with Tarceva.

Prescription weight-loss drug Xenical hit drugstore shelves on Friday with a new name -- Alli (pronounced: "Al-eye") and with a new non-prescription strength. The newly-named drug is to be more effective with less unpleasureable side effects. Still, there's a problem surrounding this drug, regardless of its name. It's thought to cause colon cancer.

The nonprofit group Public Citizen says Alli, made by GlaxoSmithKline, has been shown in mice studies to cause pre-cancerous lesions in the colon. Since there are no long-term studies on humans, this group believes the FDA should not have approved the drug for non-prescription use. It's not clear whether or not the pre-cancerous spots will lead to colon cancer but the mere suggestion that it might is enough, says a Public Citizen spokesperson.

"What we do know is that these lesions occur much more frequently in people who do get colon cancer," he said. "Why do we recommend that everyone get a colonscopy at the age of 50? Because you pick up on these polyps when you do one. And, even though not all of the polyps are pre-cancerous, no (doctor) does a colonscopy without removing every single polyp that is found. And you do this because you know if you don't, it greatly increases the chances of getting cancer."

Keeping cancer and other diseases like diabetes, heart disease, obesity and more might be as simple as the choice we make in keeping toxins out of our bodies and stress out of our minds. Think about all of the money poured into medicines, which are chemicals, that only treat certain symptoms. And most of the time create other side effects that we have to take more medicines for that in turn create more side effects, and on and on. You see where I am going.

What if only a part of the millions and millions of dollars poured into research on medicines, was put to use in educating the public on the right choices of foods and nutrition to put into our bodies to keep them healthy and to learn how to relax and quit putting so many demands on ourselves. What if more funding went into organic farming instead of mass, quick produced, with fertilizers and steroids for faster turn around on the products. Personally I have had so many chemicals blasted into my body from chemo and radiation, and medicines for this and medicines for that, I am about to think that all of that is only hurting my body more. Are we brain washed to believe that we have to have a pill for everything?

My community does not have a health food store that sells fresh organic produce or meats. And the local grocery stores carry very limited amounts of those items. I did take it upon myself to talk to one of the produce managers who did start ordering some other variety of organic vegetables which I thought was nice. And it seemed to catch on with some other customers too. Maybe the trend in that store will be to start ordering more organic products.

I will be posting a series of blogs on personal research that I am doing and trying out, just because I am sick and tired, literally, of fighting cancer that reoccurs and using medicines that are ripping my body apart leaving my immune system even more at risk for infection and disease.

But the one thing that I want to emphasize in this blog right now, is to STOP EATING processed and canned foods. It may be quicker to heat up a can of food or something already processed and pre-made for us, but it is not healthier. Eating fresh organic vegetables and home made prepared foods without chemical preservatives and other additives is the way to go to start getting some of those toxins out of our bodies. If you can't find fresh in something, because seasons play a big part in our fresh vegetable selections, purchase frozen. Also purchase dried beans or other dried items and cook them instead of buying canned ones. They are healthier than canned. Eating raw vegetables or slightly steamed vegetables is more healthy because the vitamins and nutrients do not cook out of the food.

Newer versions of oral contraceptives -- with lower levels of estrogen and progestin -- reduce the risk of ovarian cancer more than older concoctions of birth control pills

Researchers at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu, whose work is published in the Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology, say birth control pills have long decreased the risk of ovarian cancer. But over the years, doses of hormones in these pills have been decreased to reduce side effects -- and this seems to have an even stronger protective effect against the disease.

Studies show for women who had used any oral contraceptive a 50 percent reduction in risk of developing ovarian cancer compared to women who had never taken the pills. This risk was reduced by 38 percent
for women who took high estrogen and high progestin pills and by 81 percent for those taking pills with low levels of these hormones.

"Up to 42 percent of ovarian cancers might have been avoided if all women used some form of combined oral contraceptive pills," say researchers.

"An estimated 73 percent of ovarian cancers might have been avoided if all women used oral contraceptive pill formulation of low estrogen and low progestin."

Findings from an international study suggest that women with a waist size of more than 34 inches are more likely to develop cancer of the womb than women who boast slimmer waistlines.

The study, funded in part by the British charity Cancer Research UK, sized up 223,000 women worldwide and determined that women with a waistline less than 31 inches have half the risk of developing womb cancer than their heavier counterparts.

There has been a significant rise in cases of womb cancer in Britain. And the link between the disease and weight gain is most prevalent among postmenopausal women who have never used hormone replacement therapy or the birth control pill.

According to the National Sizing Survey conducted in 2004, the average British woman now has a 34-inch waist. This is more than six inches bigger than the average size of a woman in the 1950s, says Dr. Lesley Walker of Cancer Research UK.

"Women are larger than they were when they existed on a wartime diet and were generally more active and this is having serious consequences," Walker says.

More than 6,000 women in the UK are diagnosed with womb cancer each year. The disease kills about 1,000 annually.

If the experimental breast cancer drug Tykerb continues to prove successful in study participants, it could be headed for FDA approval.

Tykerb, now in international study, showed in early studies to be even more effective and to have fewer side effects than similar breast cancer drug Herceptin. Both drugs are part of a cluster of targeted therapies that attack cancer cells while sparing healthy cells. Designed for use on women whose breast cancer is HER2 positive -- meaning it contains too much of an aggressive protein -- Tykerb may be a wonder drug, with the capability of effectively keeping breast cancer at bay.

Dr. Paul Goss of MA General Hospital says, "We're seeing Tykerb, which is a pill, which is easier to take, has a broader attack and gets inside cells. It's like an electrical circuit that's turned on, and Tykerb can pull the lever, the circuit breaker, and switch it off."

A study that appears in the December issue of Science reports that a chemical compound called mifepristone present in the abortion pill may prevent breast tumors from developing. The compound has been found to prevent the growth of breast tumors caused by the mutant gene responsible for breast and ovarian cancers.

Mifepristone showed to prohibit progesterone, a hormone involved with the female reproductive cycle. Women who are diagnosed with BRCA 1 mutation often have their breasts or ovaries removed to reduce the risk of developing cancer.

Eva Lee, lead author of the study and professor of developmental cell biology and biological chemistry, says "We found that progesterone plays a role in the development of breast cancer by encouraging the proliferation of mammary cells that carry a breast cancer gene. Mifepristone can block that response. We're excited about this discovery and hope it leads to new options for women with a high risk for developing breast cancer".

BRCA 1 is widely studied by cancer geneticists because a mutated version of this gene significantly raises the possibility of breast or ovarian cancers. By age 70, more than 50 percent of women with the mutated gene with develop breast or ovarian cancer. The researchers studied mice with the BRCA 1 mutation. The mice that were treated with mifepristone, an anti-progesterone compound did not develop breast cancer by the time they reached one year of age. All of the untreated mice developed tumors by eight months of age.

The researchers found that progesterone encourages the development of cancer when the mutated BRCA 1 gene is present because it speeds up the division of cancer cells. Mifepristone was found to block a binding process that is necessary for progesterone to cause the cell division. The researchers feel that anti-progesterone therapy could provide women with an increased risk for breast cancer with more treatment options in the future.

The breast cancer drug Tykerb may be one of the future wonder drugs available for women left with limited options for treating advanced-stage disease.

Tykerb, manufactured by British-based GlaxoSmithKline PLC, is currently an experimental drug that delays growth of tumors nearly twice as long as standard chemotherapy in patients who no longer respond to Herceptin -- a targeted drug that significantly decreases chances of recurrence for women with HER2 positive breast cancer. Herceptin blocks the swift growth of an aggressive protein on the cell's surface while Tykerb does its work on the inside of the cell. Herceptin is given intravenously. Tykerb is given in pill form.

Two previous posts -- one in April and one in June -- relfect the progress of Tykerb as reported in the media. With each new report, Tykerb seems to gain momentum and promise. And this past week, new reports revealed new promise as Glaxo began seeking regulatory approval of the Tykerb pill in Europe.

Glaxo has filed an application with the Food and Drug Administration for approval of this drug and is preparing to market the drug for the treatment of advanced breast cancer in women. Glaxo hopes to launch Tykerb -- also known as lapatinib ditosylate -- next year.

I didn't know what was coming when I plopped myself down in the waiting room of an Ear, Nose, and Throat clinic yesterday -- which is a good thing. Had I known what doctors would do to me, I may have run the other way. I may have learned to live with the pain I was experiencing each time I swallowed food. But I waited patiently, aware that doctors would "scope" my esophagus, mildly certain the procedure could be uncomfortable, completely unprepared for the full "scope" experience.

I swallowed a pill on Friday night -- not even a whole pill, just a half of one pill -- and it hurt when it went down my throat. I've had the feeling before, a sensation like the pill got stuck, but the discomfort has always gone away within a few hours. This time, it lasted. It hurt to swallow saliva. It hurt to swallow food. It just hurt. So after three days, I took myself to the clinic -- with the subtle worry that cancer was settling in my esophagus.

I know rationally that every ache and pain I experience is not cancer. But I've had cancer. And so I constantly battle a nagging fear lodged deep in my head that reminds me cancer is always a possibility, that cancer is often a shocking outcome of a routine little test for a simple little health concern.

I do not have cancer. I do not have cancer of the throat, voice box, esophagus, or stomach. That's the good news. The scope revealed -- via a tiny camera that traveled through my body -- nothing but healthy tissue. That makes me happy. The test did not make me happy.

I now know the scope is a long, thin tube that enters the body through one nostril. Ouch. It travels into the throat. Ouch. The patient swallows when it reaches the throat to assist in maneuvering it down further. Ouch. The scope then makes its way past the voice box, though the esophagus, and into the stomach. Ouch. Ouch. Ouch. The travels are all displayed on a monitor, and I actually got a glimpse of these body parts -- during the split second when I was able to control my gagging, loosen my grip on the arms of the exam chair, and open my clinched eyes. So I saw for myself that everything looks healthy -- just before the tube was pulled right back through all these parts, leaving me with a very sore throat.

Now that I am home and have talked with a few people, I hear that some patients are unconscious for this procedure. They are completely unaware of the horrors of the scope. I got a few sprays to numb my nose and throat and drank a thick cocktail of lidocaine -- but I did not get the luxury of unconsciousness. And in the end that is okay. I got to see what was happening. I got to hear the doctor's revelation that nothing major is wrong. I got to witness the wonder of medical technology. I got to prove to myself that I can handle a little discomfort in exchange for a clean bill of health. And I got to learn that I have a bit of acid reflux. And now I have to squash that nagging fear that reminds me of the literature out there suggesting a link between acid reflux and cancer.

I feel fortunate to have received every cancer drug I needed to fight my breast cancer -- Adriamycin, Cytoxan, Herceptin, and every nausea pill, pain capsule, and anti-anxiety formula on the market. I got exactly what doctors thought I needed -- without worry about availability or funding or politics. I am lucky. Some in the UK are not so lucky.

Two targeted therapies for bowel cancer will not be used in Britain's state-run health system, according to NICE -- the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence. NICE, the country's financial watchdog, determined the high cost of the medicines meant their use was not compatible with the best use of resources. Patients are angry because these same two drugs -- Avastin and Erbitux -- are used widely in the United States and in much of Europe. And while neither drug offers a cure for bowel cancer, both treatments have been shown in clinical trials to extend life expectancy by four or five months in some patients.

Based on doses given during the trials, it is estimated that the average cost of treating one patient with Avastin would be around 16,800 pounds and with Erbitux -- about 11,700 pounds. Apparently, this is too much. But according to Hilary Whittaker of the charity Beating Bowel Cancer, the decision to deprive patients of this medication is a scandal. I agree. And for these patients, I am sad.

ABC News Good Morning America Kate Snow interviewed Los Angeles dermatologist Dr. Jessica Wu about a new herbal supplement being introduced on the American market this summer that is reported to protect the skin from sun damage that can lead to skin cancer.

Heliocare, a tropical fern extract used in Europe for decades to treat the skin conditions of psoriasis and eczema, comes in pill form and is taken daily.

Dr. Wu warns you cannot skip the sunscreen when spending time in the sun because the herbal supplement will not prevent sunburn.

"It gets into your blood stream and works from the inside out, as opposed to sunscreen which works from the outside in," explained Dr. Wu. "So this pill mops up the damage that gets past the sunscreen you might be wearing. It also repairs damage that is done to your skin that leads to skin cancer."

Heliocare is not recommended for pregnant women, nursing mothers, or children. Heliocare is expensive -- a bottle of 60 pills costs $60 dollars. I don't know why, but I was surprised when I watched this news story on ABC News. If something as simple as a fern extract can reverse sun damage to skin and reduce the risk of skin cancer -- and has been on the European market for decades -- why haven't we heard about it here in the US before now? I am not promoting this product -- I am just telling you what I saw on the news. ABC News.

You can watch the video of the news interview here.

In November 2004, my husband I and decided to try to have a third child. But instead of getting pregnant, I got breast cancer. And with the aggressive treatment I would receive -- surgery, dose-dense chemotherapy, radiation, and Herceptin therapy -- becoming pregnant was not an option. Birth control became my only option -- an option that has many limits for premenopausal women surviving breast cancer.

When Montel Williams testified before the Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee in favor of medical marijuana for chronically ill patients, he referred to himself as a poster child for pot. Williams, who hosts a television talk show, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis almost a decade ago.

MS can cause debilitating pain. For those who might be unaware, let me share with you that Williams does not exaggerate. My sister-in-law suffered from MS all of her adult life, before losing her life to MS at the age of 40, and I will tell you first-hand, there is suffering. When I think of all the life that MS stole from her, and all that she endured, I feel frustration towards anyone who would have denied her the best quality of life available. I am fed up with the lack of compassion of those who would deny anyone suffering from chronic or life-threatening disease the best quality of life available to them. For Williams, it is medical marijuana that offers him the best quality of life possible.

Someone once told me to think of cancer as a chronic condition -- an illness like diabetes or asthma that may linger for life and may require continual treatment. And while battling cancer, perhaps for life, I should just hope that medical advances occur and new treatments become available. And maybe, just maybe, the science of medicine will decrease by leaps and bounds the number of people who die from cancer.

During my own battle with cancer -- which has been 18 months long -- two new breast cancer drugs have hit the scene with rave reviews from researchers and medical professionals. This is good news for me because my type of breast cancer makes me a candidate for both drugs. Herceptin is one of these drugs -- given to women who are HER-2/neu positive -- that's me -- and over express a protein that makes the tumor aggressive. Herceptin is received over 52 weeks -- and I go every three weeks for a 90-minute infusion of this clear liquid that causes me really no side effects at all. It can be toxic to the heart but monitoring tests have revealed that my heart is not suffering at this time. And with just three more infusions to go -- one this Wednesday -- I will likely encounter no adverse reactions to this potentially life-saving drug.

And now Tykerb is making headlines. Tykerb, suggested for use with advanced breast cancer and manufactured by British-based GlaxoSmithKline PLC, is an experimental drug that delays the growth of tumors nearly twice as long as standard chemotherapy in patients who no longer respond to Herceptin. This finding, reported this past Saturday at a meeting in Atlanta of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, confirms initial findings about the promise of this drug -- that like Herceptin, made by Genentech, precisely targets tumors without killing lots of healthy cells. The difference between the two drugs is that Herceptin blocks the protein on the cell's surface and Tykerb does it inside the cell -- blocking a second abnormal protein too. And while Herceptin is given intravenously, Tykerb is given in pill form -- which may make it cheaper and easier to use.

While now part of an international study, Tykerb may be available to women in the United States later this year. And it perhaps will be offered in conjunction with Herceptin or instead of Herceptin for women with advanced breast cancer.

I hope I do not ever need Tykerb -- and that Herceptin alone will be enough for me -- but it is comforting to know that there is something else out there. Something that if necessary, just might help me live with this potentially chronic condition called cancer.

Valeant Pharmaceuticals International announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved Cesamet, a synthetic cannabinoid, THC, for treatment of nausea and vomiting associated with cancer chemotherapy in patients when conventional antiemetic treatments have failed. According to the American Cancer Society, approximately 70 to 80 percent of patients undergoing chemotherapy experience nausea and vomiting.

Current medications to relieve the side-effects of nausea and vomiting only work for less than half of cancer patients during chemotherapy. Cesamet as a prescription drug should be available in less than a month. Synthetic THC acts on the brain like the THC in smoked marijuana -- but eliminates having to inhale the otherwise harmful smoke contained in the illegal drug. Recently, the FDA made a public statement that it did not support the use of medical marijuana.