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IT'S FANTASTIC. DOCS COOKED MY CANCER

WHEN lung cancer victim Kenneth Cook had a heart attack a few months after his tumour was diagnosed, he feared ­nothing more could be done for him as he was too weak to have an operation.

Then the 87-year-old father-of-two was told there was another option: his ­cancer could be “cooked”.

Mr Cook, pictured above, became one of the ­pioneer patients of the microwave tissue ablation system, a technique that could revolutionise ­cancer treatment and save thousands of lives a year.

Doctors at Oxford University Hospitals trust inserted a needle-like applicator into Mr Cook’s lungs through a puncture in his skin. When they ­activated the applicator, it discharged a blast of ­microwave energy that destroyed the cancerous tissues, cooking them in the same way a domestic microwave would.

BBC News - Exercise should be 'standard part of cancer care'

8 August 2011

All patients getting cancer treatment should be told to do two and a half hours of physical exercise every week, says a report by Macmillan Cancer Support.

Being advised to rest and take it easy after treatment is an outdated view, the charity says.

Research shows that exercise can reduce the risk of dying from cancer and minimise the side effects of treatment.

The Department of Health says local initiatives can get people moving.

Macmillan's report, Move More, says that of the two million cancer survivors in the UK, around 1.6 million are not physically active enough.

Adult cancer patients and cancer survivors should undertake 150 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity per week, the reports says, which is what the Department of Health guidelines recommend.

In the report, the American College of Sports Medicine also recommends that exercise is safe during and after most types of cancer treatment and says survivors should avoid inactivity.
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It doesn't need to be anything too strenuous, doing the gardening, going for a brisk walk or a swim, all count”

Getting active, the report says, can help people overcome the effects of cancer and its treatments, such as fatigue and weight gain.

"The evidence review shows that physical exercise does not increase fatigue during treatment, and can in fact boost energy after treatment."

"It can also lower their chances of getting heart disease and osteoporosis.

"Also, doing recommended levels of physical activity may reduce the chance of dying from the disease. It may also help reduce the risk of the cancer coming back."

Previous research shows that exercising to the recommended levels can reduce the risk of breast cancer recurring by 40%. For prostate cancer the risk of dying from the disease is reduced by up to 30%.
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Brain Tumor News: The curry spice curcumin selectively inhibits cancer cells growth in vitro and in preclinical model of glioblastoma.

Posted on: 07/22/2011

J Nutr Biochem. 2011 Jul 18. [Epub ahead of print]
The curry spice curcumin selectively inhibits cancer cells growth in vitro and in preclinical model of glioblastoma.

Zanotto-Filho A, Braganhol E, Edelweiss MI, Behr GA, Zanin R, Schröder R, Simões-Pires A, Battastini AM, Moreira JC.

Source

Centro de Estudos em Estresse Oxidativo, Departamento de Bioquímica, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil.



Abstract

Previous studies suggested that curcumin is a potential agent against glioblastomas (GBMs). However, the in vivo efficacy of curcumin in gliomas remains not established. In this work, we examined the mechanisms underlying apoptosis, selectivity, efficacy and safety of curcumin from in vitro (U138MG, U87, U373 and C6 cell lines) and in vivo (C6 implants) models of GBM. In vitro, curcumin markedly inhibited proliferation and migration and induced cell death in liquid and soft agar models of GBM growth. Curcumin effects occurred irrespective of the p53 and PTEN mutational status of the cells. Interestingly, curcumin did not affect viability of primary astrocytes, suggesting that curcumin selectivity targeted transformed cells. In U138MG and C6 cells, curcumin decreased the constitutive activation of PI3K/Akt and NFkappaB survival pathways, down-regulated the antiapoptotic NFkappaB-regulated protein bcl-xl and induced mitochondrial dysfunction as a prelude to apoptosis. Cells developed an early G2/M cell cycle arrest followed by sub-G1 apoptosis and apoptotic bodies formation. Caspase-3 activation occurred in the p53-normal cell type C6, but not in the p53-mutant U138MG. Besides its apoptotic effect, curcumin also synergized with the chemotherapeutics cisplatin and doxorubicin to enhance GBM cells death. In C6-implanted rats, intraperitoneal curcumin (50 mg kg(-1) d(-1)) decreased brain tumors in 9/11 (81.8%) animals against 0/11 (0%) in the vehicle-treated group. Importantly, no evidence of tissue (transaminases, creatinine and alkaline phosphatase), metabolic (cholesterol and glucose), oxidative or hematological toxicity was observed. In summary, data presented here suggest curcumin as a potential agent for therapy of GBMs.



Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

BBC News - 'Sat nav' cancer device at Merseyside centre

About 800 patients are due to benefit from the machine at the Clatterbridge Cancer Centre in its first year.

A groundbreaking radiotherapy device which could transform the way some cancer patients are treated goes into service on Merseyside later.

The Novalis Tx machine will allow doctors to treat tumours almost anywhere in the body in one session.

It uses a system similar to a 'sat nav' to destroy cancerous cells but helps to protect surrounding healthy tissue.

About 800 patients are due to benefit from the machine at the Clatterbridge Cancer Centre in its first year.

Dr Brian Haylock, consultant oncologist and clinical director for radiotherapy, said: "Unlike some other highly specialised radiation treatment machines, the Novalis Tx can treat many different types of cancer all over the body allowing us to treat more cancer patients with a single device.

"This coupled with the speed with which we can treat patients - in some cases in as little as 15 minutes in just one session - means the equipment will be available for the benefit of more patients here in the UK."
'Inspirational stuff'

The machines will also go into service at two other centres in Manchester and Edinburgh.

Almost 300,000 people are diagnosed with cancer in the UK every year.

Recent estimates show that of those, almost 50,000 people develop either primary or secondary brain tumours.

Sue Farrington-Smith, director of Brain Tumour Research, said: "We are delighted that advanced brain tumour treatments like the Novalis Tx are now available to cancer patients on the NHS.

"The work of Clatterbridge and The Walton Centre Trusts in Liverpool will undoubtedly provide the best cancer care for their patients. This is inspirational stuff."
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Is meditation the push-up for the brain?

NewsRx.com

07-21-11

Two years ago, researchers at UCLA found that specific regions in the brains of long-term meditators were larger and had more gray matter than the brains of individuals in a control group. This suggested that meditation may indeed be good for all of us since, alas, our brains shrink naturally with age.

Now, a follow-up study suggests that people who meditate also have stronger connections between brain regions and show less age-related brain atrophy. Having stronger connections influences the ability to rapidly relay electrical signals in the brain. And significantly, these effects are evident throughout the entire brain, not just in specific areas.

Eileen Luders, a visiting assistant professor at the UCLA Laboratory of Neuro Imaging, and colleagues used a type of brain imaging known as diffusion tensor imaging, or DTI, a relatively new imaging mode that provides insights into the structural connectivity of the brain. They found that the differences between meditators and controls are not confined to a particular core region of the brain but involve large-scale networks that include the frontal, temporal, parietal and occipital lobes and the anterior corpus callosum, as well as limbic structures and the brain stem.

The study appears in the current online edition of the journal NeuroImage.

"Our results suggest that long-term meditators have white-matter fibers that are either more numerous, more dense or more insulated throughout the brain," Luders said. "We also found that the normal age-related decline of white-matter tissue is considerably reduced in active meditation practitioners."
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Understanding the antiepileptic benefits of an Atkins-like diet

ScienceDaily (July 8, 2011) — Some individuals with epilepsy fail to respond to treatment with conventional drugs but benefit from consuming a ketogenic diet -- a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet similar to the more commonly known Atkins diet. A team of researchers, led by Detlev Boison, at the Legacy Research Institute, Portland, has now identified in mice the molecular mechanism responsible for the antiepileptic effects of the ketogenic diet.

The team found that a ketogenic diet reduces seizures in mice by decreasing expression of the protein Adk, which is responsible for clearing the natural antiepileptic agent adenosine from the brain. The clinical relevance of these data are highlighted by the team's finding that brain tissue from patients with epilepsy that fails to respond to treatment with conventional drugs shows increased levels of Adk.

The team suggests that their data could lead to the development of less-restrictive antiepileptic diets and alternate pharmaceutical approaches to treatment, notions with which Robert Greene, at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, concurs in an accompanying commentary.

The research is published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
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Cheap, 'safe' drug kills most cancers - health - 17 January 2007 - New Scientist

New Scientist has received an unprecedented amount of interest in this story from readers. If you would like up-to-date information on any plans for clinical trials of DCA in patients with cancer, or would like to donate towards a fund for such trials, please visit the site set up by the University of Alberta and the Alberta Cancer Board. We will also follow events closely and will report any progress as it happens.

Update, 16 May 2011: If you've just heard about this story, please read this recent update too.

Article originally published online 17 January 2007:

It sounds almost too good to be true: a cheap and simple drug that kills almost all cancers by switching off their "immortality". The drug, dichloroacetate (DCA), has already been used for years to treat rare metabolic disorders and so is known to be relatively safe.

It also has no patent, meaning it could be manufactured for a fraction of the cost of newly developed drugs.

Evangelos Michelakis of the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, and his colleagues tested DCA on human cells cultured outside the body and found that it killed lung, breast and brain cancer cells, but not healthy cells. Tumours in rats deliberately infected with human cancer also shrank drastically when they were fed DCA-laced water for several weeks.

DCA attacks a unique feature of cancer cells: the fact that they make their energy throughout the main body of the cell, rather than in distinct organelles called mitochondria. This process, called glycolysis, is inefficient and uses up vast amounts of sugar.

Until now it had been assumed that cancer cells used glycolysis because their mitochondria were irreparably damaged. However, Michelakis's experiments prove this is not the case, because DCA reawakened the mitochondria in cancer cells. The cells then withered and died (Cancer Cell, DOI: 10.1016/j.ccr.2006.10.020).

Michelakis suggests that the switch to glycolysis as an energy source occurs when cells in the middle of an abnormal but benign lump don't get enough oxygen for their mitochondria to work properly (see diagram). In order to survive, they switch off their mitochondria and start producing energy through glycolysis....
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Exercise associated with longer survival after brain cancer diagnosis

The finding, published online June 20 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, adds to recent research that exercise improves how cancer patients feel during and after treatments, and may also extend their lives.

"This provides some initial evidence that we need to look at the effects of exercise interventions, not only to ease symptoms but also to impact progression and survival," said Lee W. Jones, PhD, associate professor in the Duke Cancer Institute and senior author of the study.

Although the study was not designed to test whether regular exercise actually causes longer survival among brain cancer patients, it established a strong correlation that could give doctors and patients a more accurate prognosis of long-term survival.
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