A drug commonly used to minimize the toxic effects of chemotherapy has been shown in mice to cause bone loss and promote tumor growth, according to the results of a recent study.

This drug, granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) -- also known as Neupogen, Neulasta, and Granocyte -- helps restore white blood cell counts that take a beating during chemotherapy, protecting cancer patients from an increased risk of infection.

According to researchers, G-CSF -- essentially a growth factor -- encourages bone breakdown. And any therapy that decreases bone density can enhance tumor growth in bones. So doctors are urged to closely monitor their patients during chemotherapy with regular bone density scans. They can also prescribe medications to prevent bone loss if necessary. And patients can protect their bones by consuming enough calcium and vitamin D and engaging in regular exercise.

Currently, research on cancer patients treated with G-CSF have not yielded the same strong results researchers found among mice.

The details of this study appear online in the journal Blood, and will be published in an upcoming print issue.

Melissa Etheridge's song Run for Life -- inspired by her own personal battle with breast cancer -- plays just as the pink and white SUNCHIPS® website is opened. And visitors to the site learn quickly that they can contribute to the Crunch for the Cure campaign by simply purchasing a bag of specially-marked SUNCHIPS® and entering in the special printed code here. For each code entered through December 15, 2006, SUNCHIPS® brand will donate .25 cents to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation in support of its breast cancer initiatives. A pink breast cancer ribbon is the special mark on these bags of SUNCHIPS®, signifing a partnership in the fight against breast cancer.

This website also includes information about breast cancer, about Susan G. Komen races and volunteer opportunities -- and it even provides a means for thanking favorite Race for the Cure® volunteers. Readers can post their own thank-you messages that will appear on a virtual thank you wall.

Thank you SUNCHIPS® for your commitment to this cause.

I am fairly certain each one of us knows by now that exercise is good for a body that was designed to move in order to function at top efficiency and maintain health. Extolling the virtues of exercise is in the news almost daily now. There are organizations devoted to raising awareness about the benefits of exercise. Our government has launched programs to get people up and moving. There is a huge commercial industry built around exercise. Exercise is one of the single best ways to reduce risk of many diseases, including cancer. Common sense might be enough to support the message about the benefits of exercise, but it is interesting to know why it works as well as it does -- and that it isn't just the latest lifestyle fad of the decade.

Australian researchers report that exercise promotes an increase in a protein that blocks cancerous cell growth and induces cancerous cell death. The beneficial protein, IGFBP-3, that increases with exercise, blocks a different protein, IGF-1, from stimulating cancerous cell growth and forming new blood vessels that feed tumors. So the next time we are deciding whether or not to take that walk or run -- as the couch is beckoning us to sit and rest a spell -- just imagine we might be deciding which team of proteins we want to help do its job. In the fight against cancer and for cancer prevention, it's enough to make a body move.

A meeting between the FDA and an FDA advisory panel is set for tomorrow to discuss the safety and effectiveness of Gardasil, a Merck experimental vaccine the protects women from human papilloma virus, HPV -- a leading cause of cervical cancer. It is being reported that the FDA normally follows the FDA advisory panel advice in deciding which drugs to approve, and the FDA advisory panel has given a thumbs up for the new cervical cancer vaccine. There is a note of caution. Research has shown that the vaccine can actually raise the risk of cervical cancer if the woman is already infected with HPV at the time she receives the cervical vaccine.