Sleep Hormone Helps Breast Cancer Meds
According to the Center for Disease Control, the most common type of cancer that women experience is breast cancer. With more than 200,000 cases recorded in the United States each year researchers have been making significant progress in treating the disease. The most common drug used to stop and kill the breast cancer cells is called Tamoxifen. Although the drug is extremely popular among cancer doctors world wide, there is a significant amount of alarming side effects that may result from Tamoxifen use. Researchers have been working tirelessly to stop the side effects and create safer and more effective cancer treatments.
Tamoxifen Common Side Effects Include:
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Tamoxifen Serious Side Effects
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Melatonin
Melatonin is a naturally occurring hormone found in the human body. It helps promote healthy sleep and regulates the internal cycle of sleep. Melatonin is also produced in labs in various forms, but most commonly pills. New research that has been conducted through the Tabriz University of Iran, suggests that melatonin paired with chemotherapeutic drugs can allow for the drug to be more effective in killing cancer cells. As a result of this Tamoxifen may work quicker and more effectively decreasing the need for it, ultimately reducing the nasty side effects of the drug. Many lab tests have been conducted to show that nanostructures filled with Melatonin can be injected every few hours to help Tamoxifen kill the cancer cells. Also important to note, Melatonin is relatively unstable and it breaks down fairly quickly so it needs to be reinjected a few times a day. But, once the Melatonin is broken down in the body the nanostructures left behind have been found to cause no harm to the tissue.
This research is a significant breakthrough in cancer treatment even though it is in its early stages.
Medical Journal Reference
Mehdi Sabzichi, Nasser Samadi, Jamal Mohammadian, Hamed Hamishehkar, Maryam Akbarzadeh, Ommoleila Molavi. Sustained release of melatonin: A novel approach in elevating efficacy of tamoxifen in breast cancer treatment. Colloids and Surfaces B: Biointerfaces, 2016; 145: 64 DOI: 10.1016/j.colsurfb.2016.04.042
Best Apps for Cancer Research and Assistance
Breast cancer begins when cells in the breast form a tumor that can often be seen on an x-ray or feels like a lump. The tumor becomes harmful if the cells develop into encompassing tissues or spread to far off territories of the body.
Cells in almost any part of the human body are susceptible to malignancy, and have the ability to spread. For more information on breast cancer in men and women, visit Cancer.org.
Aside from the information and resources available on Cancer.org, there are also many apps on Android and Iphones that can assist with detecting breast cancer, keep diagnosed patients informed about their breast cancer, and help keep them mindful of the importance of self-exams and mammograms.
Here are some apps (free and paid, but mostly free!) that can be helpful for cancer patients as well as survivors.
Cancer Therapy Advisor
Price: Free
Android rating: 4.5 stars
Iphone rating: 4.5 stars
About the app: Cancer Therapy Advisor users have access to learn about the latest news and upcoming trends in oncology.
Users should be aware of the clinical language used. It may be a difficult read for many, however, if a patient happens to see information relevant to their situation they should bring it to the attention of their physician.
Breast Cancer: Beyond the Shock
Price: Free
Iphone rating: 4.5 stars
Not available on Android
About the app: The moments following news of a breast cancer diagnosis are significantly hard for patients. This app, created by the National Breast Cancer Foundation is created to help deal with all the emotions associated with the news of a breast cancer diagnosis.
iBreastCheck
Price: Free
Iphone rating: 4.5 stars
Not available on Android
About the app: This app assists with reminding patients to follow through with weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly exams. There is also a video feature that allows users to see how a proper self-exam is done.
CareZone
Price: Free
Android rating: 4.5 stars
Iphone rating: 4 stars
About the app: CareZone’s family organizer app. The app creates profiles for each member of the patient’s family and syncs the schedules of every family member, so you can stay up to date on what everyone is up to.
The app also has a journal feature that allows you to share relevant and important news with family members and friends and a medication/prescription schedule.
Early Detection Plan: Breast Cancer
Price: Free
Android rating: 5 stars
Iphone rating: 4 stars
About the app:The Early Detection Plan (EDP) app reminds patients to perform routine breast exams, remind you to schedule checkups and mammograms. The app alerts are set based upon the risk factors, health history, and age.
Pills on the Go
Price: Free
Android rating: 4 stars
Not available on Iphone
About the app: Pills on the Go is an app that can inform patients their medication supply is due for a refill and which time of day medicine(s) should be taken.
TweetCaster PINK for Twitter
Android price: $10.99
Android rating: 4.5 stars
Iphone price: $9.99
Iphone rating: 4 stars
About the app: TweetCaster PINK for Twitter combines social media in conjunction with ability to raise funds for breast cancer awareness.
3 Questions and Answers for Cancer Immunotherapy
Stories of apparently marvelous results are originating from a developing field of cancer treatment known as immunotherapy, an expansive term that covers a scope of medications that tackle patients’ invulnerable frameworks to battle their diseases.
Vice President Joe Biden has described immunotherapy as “cutting-edge area of research and care that could be ‘revolutionary’ in the cancer field”. The Vice President recently addressed specialists at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center regarding the necessities to make cancer cures happen in the coming years. Biden is the leader of the National Cancer Moonshot initiative, which intends to increase the pace of advancement in the growth of cancer research.
Yet, with a large portion of these treatments still in the trial stage and others being brand new, unanswered inquiries flourish. The Fred Hutch immunotherapy specialists contributed their viewpoints on a couple of the central issues relevant to cancer immunotherapy research and the strides that they are taking to answer them as fast as possible.
The questions and answers provided by the Fred Hutch experts are as follows:
“Some of the greatest excitement in the immunotherapy field is coming from ongoing trials of patients’ own immune cells that are engineered with a cancer-targeting receptor to kill their cancer cells.”
In one trial, conducted by analysts at Fred Hutch, patients’ T cells are customized with engineered receptors called CARs to wipe out blood cancers with a marker referred to as CD19. “Trial researchers have preliminarily reported high rates of complete remissions in patients with certain late-stage, CD19-positive blood cancers who had very few conventional treatment options available to them before they received the CAR T cells.”
“And solid tumors pose particular challenges for immunotherapies that aren’t factors in liquid tumors, where the cancer cells are in the bloodstream and more accessible to immune cells”
New innovations now empower scientists to rapidly and reasonably arrange the genomes of individual tumors an action that was inconceivable 10 years ago.“With efficient genomic sequencing, multiple groups across the Hutch and around the world are seeking T-cell targets in many tumor types”.
“The problem is that most cancers don’t trigger much of an immune response to begin with. The solution will be to find ways to stimulate an immune response within a tumor that can then be boosted with a checkpoint inhibitor.”
Many already existing drugs such as select chemotherapies may be the solution.
Blood Test Can Help Predict If A Stroke Patient Will Have A Second Stroke
New studies have been done surrounding ischemic stroke, and the findings will make a big difference in the way strokes are treated in the medical field. Now, patients who have had a stroke will be able to find out if they will get a second stroke. What’s even more miraculous about this discovery is that this prediction is made using the patient’s genetic profile and a simple blood test.
University of Virginia School of Medicine Researcher Stephen WIlliams, PhD, along with other researchers, discovered that there is a link between increased risk for recurrent ischemic stroke and high levels of C-Reactive Protein, an enzyme located in the blood. Produced in the liver in response to inflammation, C-Reactive Protein is already checked in order to determine patients’ risk of developing coronary artery disease. Thanks to this new research, this test can also help out ischemic stroke patients as well.
So what is ischemic stroke and how exactly does it come about? Ischemic strokes are very common, making up approximately 85 percent of all strokes that occur. Ischemic strokes occur when there are blockages preventing blood flow to the brain. These are different from the less common hemorrhagic strokes, which result from a burst in blood vessels, thus causing bleeding into the brain.
In this study, Williams and his colleagues sought to gain a better understanding of ischemic strokes. To do so, they set out to figure out how our genes impact the levels of C-Reactive Protein and other biomarkers our blood. The findings? According to the study, elevated C-Reactive Protein levels are associated with increased risk of stroke. They also identified which gene variations lead to those risks.
At this point in the study, Williams and his colleagues decided to determine if they could predict the increased risk of stroke based purely on the genetics, and they proved successful. They determined that there is a shared genetic susceptibility for increased C-Reactive Protein and for increased risk of stroke. As a result, they arrived at a hazard ratio based on the genetics, which is essentially the ratio of the risk of having a second stroke versus not having one.
Dr. Williams hopes that one day doctors will use C-Reactive Protein levels along with a patient’s genetic makeup in order to find out the patient’s overall risk for having a second stroke. While the genetic makeup is definitely a helpful factor, the C-Reactive Protein levels alone could be instrumental in determining the risk of a second stroke after the initial stroke. Measuring a patient’s C-Reactive Protein level is as simple as a blood draw. It’s fairly inexpensive and is part of routine workups that are often done for patients. That being said, genetic information would complete the process, giving doctors an even greater ability to identify who is at risk for having a second stroke.
This is especially significant because for someone who has already has one stroke, the biggest risk of death is to have a second stroke. One day, doctors may be able to identify who is at the greatest risk, which can serve as a jump-off point for discovering better treatment.
Research Reveals the “Achilles’ Heel” of Cancer
We all know that cancer affects many people all around the world. One terrible thing about cancer is its ability to spread throughout the body. Many cases have been previously thought of as hopeless due to one cancer triggering a number of other cancers. But now, there may be a treatment for cancer that prevents it from spreading throughout the body.
When cancer spreads, this is because cancer is thought to be resistant to drugs. Cancer cells typically mutate in order to evade drugs. Due to cancer’s rapid change in makeup, many current treatments are unsuccessful.
This may all change thanks to a study conducted by scientists at University College London and Cancer Research UK. These scientists discovered that even when cancer has mutated, it still carries signature molecules which never change, referred to as “flags”. These “flags” are antigens, meaning they are toxins that can be detected by the immune system. There are already immune cells within the body that can battle these antigens, but there are not enough of them within the body to be effective.
But there is a solution to this. Now that this study has been completed, doctors can examine the genetic profile of a tumor in order to find the “flags”. Doctors could then engineer billions of special immune cells, and these could then be transferred into the body in large numbers in order to kill the tumors. Essentially, if we ‘fish out’ the immune cells and multiply them in a lab, we will be able to wipe out cancer, even if it has already spread throughout the body.
The genetic profile could also have another key use. It could be used to create a vaccine that will increases the body’s ability to fend off this cancer. This means that not only can this breakthrough help us to kill cancer; it can also help us to prevent it from returning in the future. It could also work on cancer that has spread throughout the body, because the tumours would all have the same genetic “flag”.
No two tumors are the same, so in order to do this process, scientists would need to take a biopsy of a tumor. Then, and only then, would they be able to engineer immune cells to target the cancer. After this treatment is administered, it is unlikely that the cancer would come back, because the immune system would be ramped up, and it would know to fight that specific cancer.
Researchers are hoping that within two years, the first trials will be conducted on patients.
This study is extremely important in a time when so many people are being diagnosed with cancer. Before this experiment, there was thought to be little to no solution for patients whose cancer had already spread throughout their bodies. Thanks to this study, doctors understand cancer much better. This breakthrough has allowed us to tailor treatments to the immune systems of individual patients in a way that has never been done before. Because of this discovery, the landscape of cancer research and treatment is likely to dramatically change for the better in the future, bringing us closer to a cure.
Pancreatic Cancer Discovered To Be Four Different Diseases
Each and every day, advancements are being made in the way of cancer research. With people all around the world working to find a cure, we are slowly gathering more and more information about the disease in its various forms. And slowly but surely we are moving toward our goal of finding a cure for cancer. One type of cancer that we have recently learned more about is pancreatic cancer. Much research has been done in the way of pancreatic cancer, and a recent study has led to a truly unique set of findings that will have a large impact on how we treat the disease.
It turns out, pancreatic cancer is actually not one disease, but four different diseases. This breakthrough is the result of an experiment that was carried out by an international team that was led by Australian researchers. This in-depth analysis of the genetics of pancreatic cancer was led in particular by Professor Sean Grimmond, formerly of The University of Queensland’s Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB). Grimmond is currently the Director of Research & The Bertalli Chair in Cancer Medicine, University of Melbourne Centre for Cancer Research.
What the researchers observed was a very complex phenomenon. Over the course of seven years, the scientists studied the genomes of 456 pancreatic tumors in order to figure out what core processes were damaged when the pancreatic issues transform into aggressive cancers.
The study found that there were 32 genes from 10 genetic pathways that were consistently mutated in pancreatic tumors. But this wasn’t all they found. It was also found through further gene activity that there were four distinct types of tumors. From this study, it has been concluded that pancreatic cancer is best considered to be four separate diseases. These diseases have different treatments and underlying genetics, as well as different survival rates.
This study is truly groundbreaking because it was the first study in which an integrated genomic analysis was performed. This means that the team combined the results of a number of techniques in order to assess not only the genetic code, but also variations in gene activity and in structure. As a result, we now know more than ever before regarding the genetic damage that leads to pancreatic cancer.
Professor Grimmond also added that there are already cancer drugs available, as well as some in development, that would be able to target the parts of the ‘damaged machinery’ that often lead to the start of pancreatic cancers. Some strains of pancreatic cancer, for example, are surprisingly associated with mutations that are typically associated with leukemia or with colon cancer. Experimental drugs for these associated diseases are available or in development, thus meaning a possible treatment for certain strains of pancreatic cancer.
Grimmond felt that it was critical to learn more about the genetic causes of pancreatic cancer because most patients who suffer from the disease only live a few months after diagnosis. Furthermore, it was predicted that within a decade, pancreatic cancer would become the second most common cancer in the Western countries. This study’s finding is instrumental to our journey toward a cure. If a doctor can find out which subtype of pancreatic cancer a patient has, the doctor will be able to provide a more accurate prognosis, and better recommendations for treatment. This study could make a huge difference in the future of pancreatic cancer.
February Celebrates World Cancer Day
World Cancer Day is a worldwide day recognized on February 4 to bring issues of cancer to light and promote its prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. The essential objective of World Cancer Day is to altogether diminish sickness and death brought about by cancer by the year 2020. Surprisingly, not many people are aware of the meaning of World Cancer Day, how it began, or when it became into existence.
This day was established by the Paris Charter and supported at the World Summit Against Cancer for the New Millennium in Paris on February 4, 2000. In Paris Charter’s article 10, it was decided that from that day forward February 4 would be known as World Cancer Day. In doing so, the Charter of Paris would remain near and dear of individuals around the globe.
Article 10 itself establishes that since cancer knows no limits and the isolation of cancer by an individual nation is not an option, another agreeable way to deal with the examination support, avoidance and treatment had to be set up. The article then goes on to guarantee that all those who signed the article were agreeing to create phenomenal worldwide systems and collusions to advance the objectives of this the Charter. Those objectives included:
- Observing World Cancer Day on the for of February every year.
- Building up standing boards of trustees that would create yearly reports, benchmarking progress against each of the articles of the Charter.
- Shaping a worldwide system of promotion gatherings to empower grassroots backing for Charter articles inside of their communities.
- Making a worldwide exploration association made up of driving proficient social orders far and wide to guarantee that knowledge is shared, research crevices are distinguished and promising ranges are investigated.
- Assembling one million individuals around the globe to sign the Charter of Paris by the year 2001.
World Cancer Day addresses misinformation, brings issues to light, and lessens stigma. Multiple activities orchestrated on World Cancer Day to show support for those afflicted or troubled by cancer. One of these developments is #NoHairSelfie, “a worldwide development to have “hairticipants” shave their heads either physically or virtually” to demonstrate an image of strength.
For more information on World Cancer Day, the impact, or what you can do to get involved, visit WorldCancerDay.org/get-involved
The Future of Cancer Treatment
A revolutionary new advancement in cancer research has found that a certain cancer drug just got a whole lot more effective. That drug is paclitaxel, and it’s being put on the market it an entirely new way.
Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel HIll have found a way to kill a cancer that was previously thought to be drug resistant using paclitaxel. How you may ask? They have figured out a way to package the drug within a container that is comes directly from the immune system of the patient. This prevents the drug from getting destroyed by the body’s defenses. Ultimately, the entire supply of the drug goes directly to the tumor.
What’s the secret to this work? Exosomes. Exosomes are tiny spheres that come from the white blood cells and protect the body against infection. The human body does not detect them as foreign. In fact, they are made from the same material as cell membranes. This is a huge breakthrough because the obstacle we have faced when treating this cancer has been the body’s resistance to the treatment due to detection of a foreign body. Exosomes are the perfect delivery vehicles for the drug because they essentially hide the medicine from the immune system. Ultimately, the exosomes swarm the cancer cells, thus delivering the entire payload of paclitaxel.
This breakthrough was discovered by Elena Batrakova, Ph.D. and her colleagues, who conducted a study on mice. They extracted exosomes from the white blood cells of mice and then filled them with paclitaxel. They went on the test the treatment by placing it in petri dishes with multiple-drug-resistant cancer cells. They found that 50 times less of the drug causes the same cancer-killing effect as the amounts of the drug that is currently used to fight cancer.
So what exactly are the visible effects of this advancement? In the future, doctors will be able to use smaller and more accurate doses of powerful chemotherapy drugs to treat patients. This will lead to more effective treatment with fewer side effects.
Chemotherapy has a number of side effects, and being able to see these disappear would have tremendous real world effects. The side effects of paclitaxel in particular are hair loss, muscle and joint pain and diarrhea. In addition, paclitaxel can put patients at a much higher risk for serious infection. With this new advancement, patients can live better lives and be treated much more quickly.
This is a huge accomplishment in the world of cancer research. Pinpointing a tumor and treating it without causing as many harmful side effects will benefit cancer patients enormously. This is just one step in the fight against cancer, and the future holds many more.
Donating Stem Cells? Make Sure You Get Some Sleep!
We all know sleep is important. It gives you energy, increases productivity, and improves your health. Sleep deprivation has a number of negative effects including skin aging, poor judgement, and even weight gain. There are plenty of reasons to get a good night’s sleep but according to recent stem cell research, sleep is important in another context: stem cell transplants.
You may be thinking, well of course you need sleep if you’re going to be executing a transplant. Even getting a good night’s sleep if you’re the patient makes sense. But there is one person who we’re forgetting whose amount of sleep is unexpectedly important in the process: the donor. It turns out the person providing the hematopoietic stem cells needs to be well-rested to
A new study at Stanford’s School of Medicine shows that if the donor is sleep deprived, there can be some serious effects. This is because when the donor gets less sleep, the blood and immune system stem cells have more difficulty to traveling to the correct locations within the recipient’s bone marrow.
The study lead by Dr. Asya Rolls and Dr. Wendy Pang, was performed on laboratory mice. A comparison was made between mice that were gently handled so that they couldn’t sleep for four hours and mice that were well-rested. When injected into other mice, the stem cells from well-rested mice were able to make up around 26 percent of the recipient’s myeloid cells while the stem cells of the mice who had been handled for four hours only made up approximately 12 percent.
In the end, the experiment showed that a sleep deficit of four hours can have as much as a 50 percent effect on the migration of stem cells. This sheds light on an important issue in medicine, and will hopefully lead to a shift in focus that needs to be made by medical professionals when performing stem cell transplants. Doctors put so much effort into finding the right donors. While this is extremely important, there is not nearly enough focus placed on how well the patient sleeps.
With stem cell procedures being widely used today, the findings of this study have huge real world implications. Procedures that are often referred to as bone marrow transplants, which doctors more accurately call hematopoietic stem cell transplants, are a very prevalent today. They are used to help a number of patients with immune system cancers or disorders.
Hopefully now, doctors can open their eyes to a big problem that needs to be solved: allowing donors to be well-rested. We should always be getting sleep to benefit our own health. But if we want to help out by donating stem cells, we need to be sure we sleep for the good of the recipients, too.
Medical Blog
Gil Schwartzberg has always had an interest in medicine. He shares relevant information pertaining to medical research, particularly associated with cancer here. Stay tuned!