Widely Prescribed Anti-parasite Drug Targets Cancer-causing Protein
Researchers at the NYU Cancer Institute and the Ronald O. Perelman Department of Dermatology have identified mebendazole, a drug used globally to treat parasitic infections, as a novel investigational agent for the treatment of chemotherapy-resistant malignant melanoma.
Because most patients with metastatic melanoma fail to respond to available therapies, the discovery of a viable investigational treatment with an established safety profile could address a serious unmet need in oncology. Effectively sidestepping the prohibitive costs and long lead times typically required to discover new cancer medicines, the NYU team screened a library of already approved drugs for activity against the most deadly form of skin cancer.
Their report, which was selected for advance online publication by Molecular Cancer Research, is published in the August issue of the journal. Since submitting the article for publication, the authors have conducted additional pre-clinical studies of mebendazole in an in vivo model of chemotherapy-resistant melanoma and are now preparing a phase I clinical trial, expected to begin next year at NYU Cancer Institute.
“While rational drug design remains a perfectly valid way to develop cancer therapies, we also need approaches that are less costly and more productive of new effective treatments,” said lead author Seth J. Orlow, M.D. Ph.D., Chair of the Ronald O. Perelman Department of Dermatology at New York University School of Medicine. “You could say this is more of a guerrilla approach. Instead of screening millions of untested compounds for an agent that inhibits or stimulates a particular molecular target, we chose to screen a large library of already approved drugs for novel activity against melanoma cells, and then advance the most promising candidate rapidly to clinical practice.”
First, the NYU researchers screened a library of 2,000 well-known drugs [Spectrum Collection (Microsource Discovery Systems)] and identified members of the benzimidazole family for their ability to inhibit melanoma growth and induce programmed cell death (apoptosis) of malignant melanoma cells without affecting normal melanocytes (pigment-producing cells). Of the identified benzimidazoles, the team selected mebendazole for further study because it was known to be a well-tolerated, orally available drug with anti-cancer properties.
In a surprising discovery, the team found that mebendazole takes advantage of a special difference between a melanoma cell and normal melanocytes. Melanomas produce high levels of a protein called Bcl-2, which is known to protect certain cancer cells from apoptosis. The team saw that when a melanoma cancer cell was exposed to mebendazole, it resulted in inactivation of Bcl-2, allowing apoptosis to occur.
Mebendazole, sold as a generic drug in the United States, has been used since the 1970s to treat roundworm, hookworm, pinworm, whipworm, and other worm-based parasitic infections. Previous research has shown it to have some antitumor activity in lung and adrenocortical cancer.
“Our ability to identify novel treatments for melanoma and advance them rapidly into the clinic very much depends on NYU’s multidisciplinary approach to melanoma care and research,” Dr. Orlow said. “To be effective, translational medicine cannot be unidirectional. Discovery moves continuously back and forth between the clinic and the bench. We are now focused on determining the range of doses to be tested in the clinic, whether specific types of melanomas will respond better than others, and whether combining mebendazole with other agents will be of further benefit”
The authors of this study are NYU Cancer Institute researchers Nicole Doudican, Adrianna Rodriguez, Iman Osman, and Seth J. Orlow. The study was supported by private philanthropic grants.
Adapted from materials provided by NYU Langone Medical Center / New York University School of Medicine, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
Anti-estrogen Drug Therapy Reduces Risk Of Invasive Breast Cancer In Older Women
New analysis of a drug approved for osteoporosis prevention and treatment has provided definitive evidence that the medication is also effective as a breast cancer preventative for certain cancers. Women who took the drug raloxifene were less likely to develop invasive, estrogen-receptor (ER) positive breast cancer compared with women who did not take the drug. The results of the randomized controlled trial will be published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women. In 2008, to date, 182,460 new cases of female breast cancer have been diagnosed and 40,480 women have died due to breast cancer (National Cancer Institute).
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What should you do if you think you are at risk for Mesothelioma?
Mesothelioma is a tough cancer to treat. Once doctors have diagnosed this disease, many patients have about 18 months to live. One reason for this is the advanced nature of the illness. Because symptoms can take decades to surface after exposure, the cancer is usually too advanced for successful treatment. Another reason is the lack of surgical treatment available—few surgeries are able to fully remove the tumor.
Protect your health
There are things you can do to protect the health of your lungs. Start today.
• If you are a smoker—stop smoking now. In addition to mesothelioma, research indicates that those who suffer from asbestos exposure and smoke are at a much greater risk of developing lung cancer.
• Keep yourself in good physical condition. Most doctors and health professionals recommend up to thirty minutes of activity at least three or four days a week. Physical fitness is essential for healthy lungs.
• Make healthy food choices. Filling your meals with leafy greens that are full of fiber, along with whole grains and fruits can help prevent other types of cancers. There is not direct evidence linking a good diet to a decreased risk of mesothelioma, but it is a good idea to eat healthy regardless.
If you’ve been exposed
If you believe that you were exposed to asbestos at all in your lifetime, you should talk to your doctor immediately. While there is no cure for mesothelioma, early detection has been proven to slow the progression of this fatal disease.
Mesothelioma is a very aggressive form of cancer, and one of the reasons that it has such a low survival rate is because it is not typically diagnosed until it is in the advanced stages.
If you worked in an industry that has a high rate of asbestos exposure, you should consider yourself at risk of developing an asbestos related disease. Professions with a high exposure rate include:
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• Ship builders
• Petroleum plant workers
• Power plant workers
• Construction workers
In your home
If there is any concern that you might have asbestos in your home, you should research the best possible remediation methods right away. You can also hire an experienced contractor to assess you home for you. Remediation is not difficult, but you must be incredibly careful and follow specific guidelines to reduce chance of becoming accidentally exposed.
Factors to consider
Several factors can help to determine how asbestos exposure could affect you. These include:
• The amount of asbestos you were exposed to
• How long you were exposed to it
• The size, shape, and chemical makeup of asbestos fibers
• The source of exposure
• Individual risk factors like smoking and pre-existing lung disease
While every form of asbestos is deemed hazardous, different types of asbestos fibers may be associated with different health risks. Some particles, for example, tend to stay in your system longer than others. But all common commercial types of asbestos have been linked to lung cancer.
If you or a family member has been diagnosed with mesothelioma or asbestosis, please contact the experienced mesothelioma lawyers in Baltimore, Maryland and Washington, D.C. for a free initial consultation.
Important: The material on Best Syndication is for informational purposes only and is not meant to be advice. You should always seek professional advice before making financial or medical decisions.
Finasteride May Help Prevent Development Of Prostate Cancer
A comprehensive re-evaluation of the largest prostate cancer prevention study ever completed produced new findings suggesting that men and their doctors should consider a more aggressive approach that includes finasteride to prevent the development of prostate cancer.A pathologic analysis of that same study sheds light on the significance of the cancers found in that study. Additionally, this study highlights the role of prostate specific antigen (PSA) scores in treatment decision-making. Researchers found that even those men who have a low PSA screening value can have cancer that is difficult to cure.
The two studies will be published online in advanced of the June 2008 issue of Cancer Prevention Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.
The original study, the Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial (PCPT), had randomized 18,822 men to receive either a placebo or an agent known as finasteride, currently approved to control prostate growth, for seven years. Results showed that while finasteride reduced prostate cancer risk by 25 percent, it appeared to increase development of more aggressive prostate cancer in some men. Because of this finding and concerns that tumors detected had low PSA values and might be of little risk to patients, since the study’s original publication in 2003, few doctors have recommended finasteride for prostate cancer prevention.
From a new analysis of PCPT data using advanced statistical modeling techniques and a complete assessment of prostate tissue biopsies, they concluded that these concerns are now resolved: finasteride actually reduced the risk of developing prostate cancer more than researchers had originally thought, did not increase development of more aggressive cancers, and the majority of tumors prevented were those that could spread and cause death.
These new findings suggest that men should take an “individualized” approach to prostate cancer prevention, said Ian M. Thompson, M.D., Chair of the Department of Urology at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center at San Antonio, who is senior author on both studies, and was also lead author for the Southwest Oncology Group (SWOG) on the original PCPT results paper, which was published in July 2003.
“Because we now know that men with even low PSAs can develop prostate tumors, if a man is worried about his risk, regardless of PSA score, he can take an agent that is now proven to be effective in lowering that risk,” Thompson said.
Researchers looked at whether finasteride actually increased aggressive cancers in some men, and by studying biopsies and prostate gland tissue that had been removed, concluding that it did not. “Finasteride actually shrank the prostate gland, so it appeared in initial studies that more cancer was being found in biopsies of men who took the drug,” said Mary Redman, Ph.D., a biostatistician at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.
“What that means is that the cancer took up more prostate tissue in men who were treated, and that is why it was easier to find in a biopsy. Cancer was probably missed more often in biopsies of men on a placebo drug because the prostate gland itself was larger,” Redman said.
Redman found that in addition to a 25 to 30 percent reduction in prostate cancer development overall in men taking finasteride, there was no evidence that the drug increased the rate of aggressive tumors and likey decreased their rate by 27 percent.
“We think men should not be concerned about finasteride increasing their risk of these aggressive tumors” she said.
The second study examined whether the cancers detected in the men in the trial who had a low PSA level had clinically significant disease. With about 75 percent of the tumors detected on the study were classified as those which could potentially take a man’s life, researchers concluded that there is no clear-cut PSA threshold that can be considered normal.
All patients in PCPT were to have a biopsy of their prostate gland at some point during the seven-year trial, so investigators evaluated characteristics of the biopsy in relation to each man’s PSA score. Current practice is to consider a PSA score of below four as normal and above four as abnormal.
What they found, according to lead author Scott Lucia, M.D., a pathologist at the University of Colorado, Denver, was that while a large majority of the participants diagnosed with prostate cancer had a PSA that was considered normal, 72 percent of all tumors diagnosed from biopsies in both treated and untreated men were considered significant. In short, the finding of significant disease couldn’t be predicted by the PSA score, he said. Most patients in the study who had a PSA score of four or less and then had prostate cancer diagnosed by a routine biopsy were found to have significant prostate cancer, while some men who had a high PSA were found to have insignificant cancer.
That doesn’t mean that the researchers support reducing the level by which PSA scoring should trigger therapeutic intervention, Lucia said. “Over 90 percent of men in the country diagnosed with prostate cancer opt for treatment, yet we also found that even at higher PSA levels, men are being treated for tumors that would not have threatened their health,” he said. “This is the dilemma of PSA screening. While lower cut-off levels, those below four, increase risk of detection of insignificant disease, cure is more likely; conversely, more significant disease is detected with higher levels but at a greater risk of incurable disease.”
It does mean that men need to speak with their physicians about their PSA, when they should be biopsied, and about potential use of finasteride, which can reduce their risk, so that they will make a decision that is right for them, researchers say. For example, Lucia says, a man whose family members have been diagnosed with the disease may decide to have a biopsy even though his PSA is below four. If cancer is found then may opt to undergo treatment; if cancer is not found, he may choose to use finasteride to prevent the cancer from developing. Another man may decide to put off a biopsy, regardless of PSA score, if he is worried about side effects of treatment.
“These are not easy decisions, especially when we know now that we cannot rely on what the PSA looks like it is telling us,” Lucia said.
Emphasizing the importance of prevention, “if given the option of having my prostate cancer found early, getting it treated and then getting over the side effects of treatment or never getting cancer in the first place, I’d choose prevention any day,” said Thompson.
Adapted from materials provided by American Association for Cancer Research.
Local woman remembered
THE 10-year anniversary of the death of a local woman has been poignantly marked with the charity founded in her memory funding two treatment rooms at the Palliative Care East centre.
Since its launch in 2000 the Louise Hamilton Cancer Help Centre Trust has been working with the James Paget with the combined goal of improving care and treatment of patients, their carers and families whose lives are affected by incurable diseases.
Yesterday, marked the 10th anniversary of Louise’s death and Roberta Lovick, Louise’s mother and trust founder, said it felt “poignant” that the trust was announcing it would fund two treatment rooms named after Louise in the Palliative Care East centre, which will be built in the ground of the James Paget University Hospital.
She said: “As a trust we are pleased that patients and carers will receive much needed help sooner than anticipated.
“Through personal involve-ment and voluntary work both locally and nationally with Macmillan Cancer Support I realise the urgent need for such a centre, a facility which in my view cannot come soon enough.”
Some time later after the trust was launched, Mrs Lovick met Dr Patrick Blossfeldt, lead consultant in palliative care at the James Paget, and was able to explain the trust’s goals.
She said: “I asked that if at some point in the future the hospital should have a similar idea that we could work together for the good of patients, carers and their families.”
Then in 2006, the hospital’s £1.5m Palliative Care East public appeal was launched. So far more than £500,000 has been raised with pledges and donations.
Mrs Lovick said: “I was delighted when plans for Palliative Care East were divulged because it gave us the chance to be involved from the very beginning.
“Our aims are to give patients the best possible care and it seems fitting that we should work together towards this goal.”
Louise died of breast cancer in 1998 at the age of 28.
Mrs Lovick added her thanks to the devoted trustees and supporters of the trust which will continue to fundraise to offer a bursary award scheme to cancer patients.
The bursaries are aimed at patients on low incomes to allow them to receive complementary treatments.
Anyone wishing to apply for a bursary or donate to the Louise Hamilton Cancer Help Centre Trust should call 01692 670076.
Scientology Cruise Ship Locked Down Due to Blue Asbestos Contamination
The Scientology cult’s 440-foot long luxury cruise ship, MV Freewinds, has been locked down by public health officials on the Caribbean island of Curaçao, after local contractors doing repair work noticed widespread blue asbestos contamination. One Curaçao paper pointed out that Scientology officials had known about the contamination since at least 2001, yet had done nothing.
Blue asbestos is the most dangerous kind of asbestos, and people exposed to it are at much higher risk of mesothelioma (an especially deadly lung cancer). According to reports from several Caribbean newspapers as well as the shipping news journal Lloyd’s List, the Freewinds was sealed on April 26. One Curaçao paper, La Prensa Cur, pointed out that Scientology officials had known about the contamination since at least 2001, yet had done nothing.
Until the 1960s, when the Freewinds was built, blue asbestos was often used in shipbuilding (it was not known at the time to be so carcinogenic). Former Scientologist Lawrence Woodcraft, a licensed architect by profession, supervised interior remodeling work on the ship in 1987 when the cult first purchased it. According to a legal affidavit made after Woodcraft left the cult in 2001, Woodcraft had notified Scientology officials immediately about the widespread blue asbestos and the dangers it posed. The response he received was that he should carry on with the work, and leave the asbestos where it was. Since Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard had never mentioned that asbestos was dangerous, they were not going to worry about it. Scientologists believe that disease is caused not by microbes or toxic substances, but by the presence of “suppressive persons” (SPs), or people who disagree with Scientology and its goals.
The ship is used by Scientology for advanced training in “Operating Thetan” levels, for members who have paid fees of between USD$100,000 and $400,000, as well as for tax-deductible Caribbean cruises for its members and their families. Curaçao has been the ship’s homeport since it was purchased by Scientology, as it is not permitted to dock in any US port.
Scientology spokeswoman Karin Pouw responded to “Radar Online” about the asbestos reports, in an email published in an article in Radar on May 1. “The Freewinds regularly inspects the air quality on board and always meets or exceeds US standards,” said Pouw. She stated that two inspections performed in April “confirmed that the air quality is safe,” and claimed that the inspections revealed the Freewinds satisfies standards set by the United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the U.S. Clean Air Act. Pouw told Radar that “The Freewinds will be completing its refit on schedule.” The Church of Scientology-affiliated organization Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) had been planning a cruise aboard the Freewinds scheduled for May 8. As of May 18, the ship was still locked down.
In a May 15 statement to the United Kingdom daily newspaper Metro, a representative for Scientology said that “There is not now and never has been a situation of asbestos exposure on the Freewinds.”
“I stand by everything I wrote in my 2001 affidavit,” said Lawrence Woodcraft in a statement given to “Wikinews.” Woodcraft went on to state: “I would also comment that if the Church of Scientology claims to have removed the blue asbestos, I just don’t see how, it’s everywhere. You would first have to remove all the pipes, plumbing, a/c ducts, electrical wiring etc. etc. just a maze of stuff. Also panelling as well, basically strip the ship back to a steel hull. Also blue asbestos is sprayed onto the outer walls and then covered in paint. It’s in every nook and cranny.”
Many Scientologist celebrities have spent time aboard the Freewinds, including Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes, John Travolta, Kelly Preston, Chick Corea, Lisa Marie Presley, Catherine Bell, Kate Ceberano, and Juliette Lewis. “Now” magazine reported that Tom Cruise has been urged to seek medical attention regarding potential asbestos exposure, however a representative for Cruise stated he has “absolutely no knowledge” of the recent asbestos controversy. Cruise, Holmes, Travolta and Preston have celebrated birthdays and other events on the Freewinds.
Raw blue asbestos is the most hazardous form of asbestos, and has been banned in the United Kingdom since 1970. Blue asbestos fibers are very narrow and thus easily inhaled, and are a major cause of mesothelioma. Mesothelioma is a form of cancer which can develop in the lining of the lungs and chest cavity, the lining of the abdominal cavity, or the pericardium sac surrounding the heart. The cancer is incurable, and can manifest over 40 years after the initial exposure to asbestos.
“This is the most dangerous type of asbestos because the fibres are smaller than the white asbestos and can penetrate the lung more easily,” said toxicologist Dr. Chris Coggins in a statement published in “OK! Magazine.” Dr. Coggins went on to note that “Once diagnosed with mesothelioma, the victim has six months to a year to live. It gradually reduces lung function until the victim is no longer able to breathe and dies.”
The Scientology cult was founded in 1950 by science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard. Its primary goal is to “clear the planet” by “obliterating psychiatry.” Scientology’s many front groups include the Citizens’ Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), Criminon, Narconon, and Applied Scholastics. Scientology claims to be the “world’s fastest growing religion,” with some 8 million members, but mainstream demographic surveys have shown that the number of members is closer to 55,000 worldwide, and declining. Scientology is currently under investigation in several countries for a variety of human rights abuses, including child abuse, violation of child labor laws, kidnapping and running secret internal prison camps, as well as for a number of financial crimes.
Familial Breast Cancer Risk Continues Throughout a Woman’s Life
Women who have a sister diagnosed with breast cancer are at an increased risk of developing the disease throughout their lives. The increased risk is most pronounced in younger women, regardless of the age at which the first sister was diagnosed.Women who have a first degree relative affected by breast cancer are at increased risk for the disease, but it is unclear how a woman’s risk varies with her current age and the age at which her relative was diagnosed.
To find out, Marie Reilly, Ph.D., and colleagues at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm analyzed a national family database that is linked to the national cancer register. They compared the breast cancer incidence between 1958 and 2001 in 23,654 sisters of breast cancer patients and in 1,732,775 women who did not have a sister with breast cancer.
The familial risk was highest for young women, aged 20 to 39, with a 6.6-fold increase in the risk of breast cancer diagnosis, compared with similarly aged women who did not have a sister with breast cancer. The excess risk declined to approximately two-fold for women aged 50 and older. For the sisters of a breast cancer patient, the risk of diagnosis was similar regardless of whether she was approaching the age at which her sister had been diagnosed or had already passed it.
“Sisters of women diagnosed with breast cancer still have an increased risk of breast cancer 20 years after diagnosis of the sister, suggesting that women live with the burden of familial breast cancer for their lifetime,” the authors write.
Adapted from materials provided by Journal of the National Cancer Institute, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
Tom Cruise Put on Cancer Alert !
Tom Cruise and other Hollywood stars have been asked to get urgent medical checks after an asbestos scare on board a Church of Scientology cruise ship.
Freewinds, the 2 million dollars ship, was said to be “under seal” on the Caribbean island of Curacao after cancer-causing particles were found on the 40-year-old vessel.
According to reports, deadly blue asbestos dust was released during refurbishment of the ship, used by the church as a floating “education centre” and for VIP parties.
Besides Tom Cruise, 45, who is a senior Scientologist, other celebs known to have spent time on board include singer Lisa Marie Presley, Natural Born Killers actress Juliette Lewis, jazz great Chick Corea and JAG and Army Wives TV star Catherine Bell.
Experts warn that the guests could be at risk from the killer disease mesothelioma.
It can lay dormant for decades after exposure to blue asbestos, before causing cancer of the peritoneum - the lining of the lung.
“Anyone who believes they may have been exposed to asbestos should consult a doctor immediately,” The Daily Star quoted a medic, as saying.
Patrick Swayze transfers millions to wife
Dirty Dancing legend Patrick Swayze has reportedly readied his will, transferring his property worth millions to his wife of 32 years, Lisa Niemi.According to a friend, the move is a part of his final farewell to his wife as the end draws closer. “Patrick told Lisa, ‘I will always love you and can’t imagine how my life would have been without you’. It was very touching, and it’s part of his final farewell to his wife as the end draws closer,” The Sun quoted the pal, as saying. The actor had to have an emergency surgery after the cancer spread and part of his stomach was removed.
“Patrick told his family he’s not giving up, but he wanted to make sure everything like the will was in place in the event that his health began to fail quickly and he didn’t have time to take care of things,” the friend added. The Ghost star no longer looks like his former self especially with the months of treatment he has been going through for his cancer, but he tries to live his life as normally as possible.
Swayze, who is battling pancreatic cancer, was spotted shopping near his ranch on the outskirts of LA, and his gaunt appearance could be seen even beneath a pair of sunglasses.
Mammography is best breast cancer detector
A recent letter writer encouraged women of all ages to honor their mothers and themselves by practicing breast self- exams. I echo that life-saving message, and add that May is Mammography Month.
Delaware Breast Cancer Coalition encourages all women over the age of 40, and those who have been recommended by their health care providers, to get mammograms.
Mammography is still the best method available to detect early stages of breast cancer. And Delaware leads the nation in providing free and low-cost mammograms to all qualified residents who are uninsured or underinsured.
Screening for Life is a program of the state Department of Public Health. Delaware women who do not have health insurance and meet income eligibility guidelines are able to receive clinical breast exams and mammograms free of charge.
If breast cancer is found, the program provides free medical treatment throughout the course of the disease.
Even if a woman does not meet the eligibility guidelines for the Screening for Life program, there are services at local hospitals and federally qualified health centers that offer free or low-cost care and assistance. Women can find these programs by calling the Delaware Cancer Help Line at (800) 464-HELP.