What’s New – Cancer In Plain English – Cancer Information

Ghrelin stimulates appetite in cancer patients

RemwesMedical — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 09:11:14 +0000

A new treatment has been discovered which increases the appetite and the nutritional intake of patients with cancer.
A major problem, when it comes to cancer, is the loss of appetite. People with cancer just are not hungry. This loss of hunger in cancer patients (and in anyone who is not hungry) is called “Anorexia”. Unfortunately, this lack of appetite could not come at a worse time. Just when a person needs to eat and take in nutrition in order to build up strength with which to fight the cancer, they lose all desire to eat.
Until the development of this new medication known as Ghrelin, the major means for stimulating appetite in cancer patients was with a medication known as Megesterol (or Megace). This is a hormone which stimulates appetite in many cancer patients and, until now, was the best we could do in order to try to stimulate appetites in patients with cancer.
Well, enter Ghrelin. This is a relatively new hormone which was discovered by Dr. Kojima and colleagues in 1999. Its function is to circulate in the body and to stimulate the development of hunger.
In a study published in February of 2010 in the medical journal Cancer, researchers in Sweden administered Ghrelin as a daily subcutaneous injection for 8 weeks to patients with cancer who had poor appetites. More or less half the patients were given Ghrelin at a low dose and the other half were given Ghrelin at a higher dose.
The results of this study showed that the patients with cancer and a poor appetite who received the higher doses of Ghrelin tended to have significantly improved appetites, improved retention of their body weights and improved levels of energy. What’s more, the patients who received Ghrelin did not have any noteworthy side effects from this medication.
As such, it seems that we have now discovered a new medication for the stimulation of appetite in patients with cancer. For cancer doctors, the finding of this new means to stimulate the appetite of patients with cancer could not come a moment too soon. Lack of appetite has been a difficult problem for patients with cancer for a very long time. All of these concepts and many more are covered and discussed in the Colon Cancer audio CD available on www.CancerInPlainEnglish.com

Cigarette smoking and Colon Cancer

RemwesMedical — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 00:47:30 +0000

Inheriting a gene that increases one’s risk for the development of cancer is like inheriting a loaded gun. That gun never needs to go off unless someone or something pulls the trigger.
When we think of cigarette smoking and the health risks that come with that activity, we think of lung cancer, emphysema and other breathing ailments; however, we typically do not think of Colon Cancer.
Well, as per an article published in February of 2010 in the journal Clinical Cancer Research that thinking may soon change.
Researchers have known for years that cigarette smoking is not only related lung cancer. It is as well associated with other cancers such as Kidney Cancer and Throat Cancer.
The findings in this recent study indicate, however, that it may as well increase the chances of developing Colon Cancer in people who inherit a gene that makes them more susceptible to the development of colon cancer.
Drs. Pandel and Lynch of the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas studied a total of 752 people who were known to have inherited a gene for a form of colon cancer known as the Lynch Syndrome type of colon cancer. This form of colon cancer is also called the HNPCC syndrome. What they found is that patients who inherited the gene for this form of cancer and who smoked had a much higher chance of developing colon cancer than in patients who inherited that gene and who did not smoke – or who had quit smoking for at least 2 years or more.
The key here is that cigarette smoking seems to increase the risk of colon cancer in these people who have already inherited a gene that places them at an increased risk of cancer. As we mentioned earlier, this is comparable to having inherited a loaded gun, but it did not go off until cigarette smoking comes along and pulls the trigger.
What we can “take away” from the findings of these researchers is that cigarette smoking, although known to be harmful to the lungs can hurt us in ways that we never imagined. If, by chance, a person has inherited the gene for this form of colon cancer, does not know it AND starts to smoke cigarettes, his or her risk of colon cancer is thus increased. As such, it is important to not start smoking and if we already smoke, to do all we can to stop smoking. As we can see from this recent journal article, like a sinister and stealthy assailant, cigarette smoking can cause us harm in many and sometimes unexpected ways. All of these concepts and many more are discussed in easy to understand language in the Colon Cancer Audio CD available on the Internet web site www.CancerInPlainEnglish.com.

Ramucirumab – no food supply for you!

RemwesMedical — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 12:26:31 +0000

There is a promising new medicine for the treatment of various forms of cancer. This new medicine is known as RAMUCIRUMAB.
Cancer is a formidable foe. It not only starts out quietly and often grows quietly, it also makes sure that it creates its own blood supply to feed its growing appetite as it grows.
Lately, researchers have focused on this ability of cancer to create its own blood supply – its supply lines as it were – as an Achilles’ heel with which to attack and kill growing cancers. If we stop a cancer’s ability to feed itself, we thereby stop its ability to grow and ultimately to survive.
The way that cancers make new blood supplies is by making a protein in the blood called a VEGF. Think of VEGF as a baseball that comes to the baseball glove. The baseball glove is the VEGF RECEPTOR.
Well, when the baseball (the VEGF) arrives at the baseball glove (the VEGF RECEPTOR) this triggers the production of new blood vessels which in turn bring more blood and nutrition to the growing cancer.
Well, a relatively new medication which has been recently approved for the treatment of both Colon Cancer and Lung Cancer is called Bevacizumab (or Avastin). Avastin binds to the baseball (the VEGF) BEFORE it has a chance to be caught by the baseball glove (the VEGF RECEPTOR). Thus, if VEGF can never get to the VEGF RECEPTOR, then the reaction that happens when those two get together can never happen and, thus, no new blood vessels are made.
Well, what if we were to now make a new medicine to target not the baseball but the baseball GLOVE?
Well that is what the experimental medicine, Ramucirumab is. This is the first medicine that targets the baseball GLOVE (the VEGF RECEPTOR). What’s more, it SPECIFICALLY targets a very SPECIFIC TYPE of baseball glove. In other words, it specifically targets a type of VEGF Receptor known as the TYPE 2 VEGF Receptor. Thus, if the VEGF Receptor is taken out of commission, then, again, as with the medicine Bevacizumab (Avastin), the cancer cannot make new blood vessels to feed itself.
In a recent article in the February 10th, 2010 issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology, researches prove that this new medicine can be safely given to patients and it is reasonably well tolerated. It also promises to be a new addition to our armaments and weapons for treating cancer. Even though this medicine, Ramucirumab, is still investigational, it promises to be a wonderful new addition to our treatments for possibly Colon Cancer, Lung Cancer and possibly Kidney Cancer.
All of these concepts and more are covered in easy to understand language in the the Lung Cancer and Colon Cancer audio CDs available on www.CancerInPlainEnglish.com