Cancer is not just one disease. It is a group of more than 100 different and distinctive diseases. Bringing together data, related to cancer, in an organized manner, is the task of ONCOWIKIA.

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Heterocyclic Amines In Well-done (Charred) Meat May Lead To Increased Risk Of Pancreatic Cancer.

Even though the summer is over, and grilling is mostly done with, there is some news that is timely if you want to avoid or lesson the risk of pancreatic cancer.
According to findings from a University of Minnesota study presented this week at the annual American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) meeting in Denver, eating charred meat on regular basis increase the risk of pancreatic cancer by up to 60%.
It was know that meat cooked at very high temperatures creates Heterocyclic Amines or HAs that increases the cancer risk. HAs are created when  amino acids and other substances in meats cooked at particularly high temperatures and that are particularly well-done or worse charred. HAs turn up in grilled and barbecued meat as well as broiled and pan-fried meat.
The University of Minnesota study study investigates the association of HAs and Pancreatic cancer on a larger scale. The team of researchers, led by Kristin Anderson, PhD, associate professor and cancer epidemiologist with the University of Minnesota's School of Public Health and Masonic Cancer Center, surveyed the eating habits of more than 62,000 people, noting meat intake, preferred cooking methods, and doneness preferences. The study participants were then followed for average of 9 years as part of the PLCO (Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian) screening trial.
Over the study period, the team found that people who asked for well-done meat, be they bacon, sausage, hamburger, or steak had a higher risk of getting pancreatic cancer.
"We found that those who preferred very well-done steak were almost 60% more likely to get pancreatic cancer as those who ate steak less well-done or did not eat steak, furthermore, when we looked at amount of consumption with doneness preferences, we found that those with the highest intake of very well-done meat had a 70% higher risk for pancreatic cancer over those with lowest consumption. Our findings in this study are further evidence that turning down the heat when grilling, frying, and barbecuing to avoid excess burning or charring of the meat may be a sensible way for some people to lower their risk for getting pancreatic cancer," Kristin Anderson, PhD, associate professor and cancer epidemiologist with the University of Minnesota's School of Public Health and Masonic Cancer Center, said.
So in the future, when grilling or cooking meat;
  • Choose lean cuts of meat and trim any excess fat. Fat dripping onto hot coals causes smoke that contains potential carcinogens. Less fat means less smoke.
  • Line the grill with foil and poke small holes in it so the fat can still drip off, but the amount of smoke coming back onto the meat is lower.
  • Avoid charring meat or eating parts that are especially burned and black – they have the highest concentrations of HAs.
  • Add colorful vegetables and fruit to the grill. Many of the chemicals that are created when meat is grilled are not formed during the grilling of vegetables or fruits, so you can enjoy grilled flavor worry-free. Red, yellow, and green peppers, yellow squash, mushrooms, red onions, and pineapple all grill well and make healthy additions to your plate.
 Cancer Org

Friday, October 29, 2010

Experimental Lung Cancer Drug Crizotinib Meets Some Resistance From Tumors

Pfizer (Nasdaq: PFE) Inc's xperimental Lung Cancer Drug Crizotinib ( PF-02341066) said to be helping as much as 5% of lung cancer patients, while seems to be promising, might meet some resistance from some mutations of lung cancer.
Lung cancer affects 1.61 million people world wide, every year and 1.2 million succumb tot he illness. So any drug that effective against lung cancer will help to save that many people.
Crizotinib said to have shrunk tumors in 57% of the patients introduced to the drug. Another 33% of patients had the the cancer stabilized according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
"While this is a Phase 1 study, the high response rates  observed in patients with ALK-positive (lung cancer) who received crizotinib suggest that we may be one step closer to the development of 'precision' or 'personalized' cancer treatments that target specific genetic factors that drive certain tumors," said Pfizer's Dr. Mace Rothenberg.
Doctors of the University of Tokyo found a patient who developed two mutations that were resistant to Crizotinib. But the doctors were positive about the drug and also about being able to isolate the resistive mutations. Because a new drug could be developed to target these tumors.
The Pfizer's drug, Crizotinib works against cells that have turned cancerous when two genes fuse to form a new gene called EML4-ALK. Although only about 3 percent to 5 percent of people with non-small-cell lung cancer fall into this category, that translates into nearly 10,000 cancer patients in the United States alone.
AstraZeneca's Iressa and Roche's Tarceva are already known to be effective against cancer in patients with a mutation activating the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR).
Pfizer plans to submit the drug for approval early next year.

Pfizer press release;

Oct 27, 2010
5:01pm
NEW YORK, Oct. 27-- Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) announced today the publication of data showing that 57 percent of ALK-positive advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients treated with crizotinib (PF-02341066), an investigational oral anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) inhibitor, had either a complete (one patient) or partial (46 patients) response to treatment.  Data from 82 patients in this Part 2 expansion cohort of the Phase 1 study were published in the October 28 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.(1)

"It is gratifying to learn of responses like those seen in our study of crizotinib (PF-02341066), especially when you consider that most patients had already received two or more therapies by the time they entered the trial," said Dr. Eunice Kwak, MD, Ph.D., department of medicine, Harvard Medical School, assistant in medicine, hematology/oncology, Massachusetts General Hospital and lead author of the study.  "As we're discovering more about lung cancer, we have confirmed the fundamental need to test tumors for molecular changes, like the ALK fusion gene, so we can better identify the patients who may benefit from certain treatments."
Updated results from this study were also recently presented at the 35th Congress of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) in Milan, Italy, reporting on 113 patients and preliminary median progression-free survival (PFS) data of 9.2 months.(2)
Study A8081001 is a 2-part Phase 1 open-label, multi-center study evaluating crizotinib (PF-02341066), in patients with solid tumors.(3)  The Part 2 expansion cohort from study A8081001 is evaluating the safety and response of crizotinib (PF-02341066) in patients with ALK-positive advanced NSCLC treated with a dose of 250 mg twice daily.(1)
Crizotinib (PF-02341066) is a first-in-class compound that inhibits the anaplastic lymphoma kinase, or ALK.(4)  ALK is believed to be a tumor-exclusive target that is a key driver of oncogenesis, or tumor development.(5)  Approximately 3-5 percent of NSCLC tumors are ALK-positive.(4)
"The development of crizotinib is a testament to the benefits of collaboration and partnership, between industry and academia, with investigators from all over the world, including the United States, Japan, Korea and Australia, working together with the goal of discovering a more effective treatment for advanced NSCLC patients with few other options," said Dr. Mace Rothenberg, senior vice president of clinical development and medical affairs for Pfizer's Oncology Business Unit.  "While this is a Phase 1 study, the high response rates observed in patients with ALK+ NSCLC who received crizotinib suggest that we may be one step closer to the development of "precision" or "personalized" cancer treatments that target specific genetic factors that drive certain tumors."
Pfizer is continuing to study crizotinib (PF-02341066) in an ongoing clinical development program,(6,7) and plans to submit crizotinib (PF-02341066) data in the first half of next year to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for regulatory review.
Additional trials of crizotinib (PF-02341066) include a randomized, Phase 3 open-label study, PROFILE 1007 (A8081007), evaluating the safety and anti-tumor activity of crizotinib (PF-02341066) versus standard of care chemotherapy in patients with previously treated ALK-positive advanced NSCLC.(5)  PROFILE 1005 (A8081005) is a Phase 2 open-label, single-arm study of efficacy and safety of crizotinib (PF-02341066) in patients with ALK-positive advanced NSCLC who have received more than one line of prior chemotherapy.(6)
For more information on these clinical trials, please contact the Pfizer Oncology Clinical Trial Information Service at 1-877-369-9753 (US/Canada) or 1-646-277-4066 (international), via email at PfizerHPTrials@emergingmed.com or visit www.pfizercancertrials.com.
Study Results Published in the New England Journal of Medicine
In the Part 2 expansion cohort study which included 82 patients with ALK-positive advanced NSCLC, 57 percent (n=47)(95% CI 46%, 68%) of patients treated with crizotinib (PF-02341066) at a dose of 250 mg twice daily had either a complete or partial response to treatment.  An additional 33 percent (n=27) met criteria for stable disease, including five unconfirmed partial responses.  At eight weeks, the disease control rate (complete response (n=1) + partial response (n=46) + stable disease (n=24)) was 87 percent (n=71).  Three patients with stable disease were not included in the disease control rate because their evaluation for response was outside a pre-specified timeframe.(1)
At the time of the analysis, 77 percent of patients (n=63) continued to receive treatment with crizotinib (PF-02341066).  The median duration of treatment was 6.4 months, and follow-up is ongoing.
The most commonly reported all-grade adverse events associated with crizotinib included nausea (n=44), diarrhea (n=39), vomiting (n=36), and mild visual disturbances (n=34).  Grade 3 ALT (alanine aminotransferase) and AST (aspartate aminotransferase) elevations occurred in four patients.  One patient experienced a Grade 4 elevation in ALT and one patient discontinued treatment due to Grade 3 ALT increases. Tumors in the analysis were primarily of adenocarcinoma histology, and patients tended to be young, and were never or former light smokers.  Ninety-three percent of patients (n=76) had received at least one prior therapy and five patients were treated in the first-line setting.(1)  This Part 2 expansion cohort study of patients with ALK-positive advanced NSCLC, independent of the number of previous chemotherapies, followed the completion of the dose-escalation study which enrolled 37 advanced cancer patients with various tumors, including NSCLC, colorectal, pancreatic and inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor (IMT) tumors.(8)
These data were previously presented at the 2010 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting.(7)
About Crizotinib (PF-02341066)
Crizotinib (PF-02341066) is a first-in-class compound that inhibits the anaplastic lymphoma kinase, or ALK,(3) and is representative of Pfizer's personalized medicine approach to cancer treatment.  By inhibiting ALK, crizotinib (PF-02341066) blocks signaling in a number of cell pathways that may be critical for the growth and survival of tumor cells.(4)  Crizotinib (PF-02341066) is also an inhibitor of c-MET (mesenchymal endothelial transition factor).(3)
About Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer
Lung cancer is one of the most common cancers worldwide.(9)  NSCLC accounts for about 85 percent of lung cancer cases and remains difficult to treat, particularly in the metastatic setting. Approximately 75 percent of NSCLC patients are diagnosed late with metastatic, or advanced, disease, where the five-year survival rate is only 6 percent.(10,11)  In addition, the current standard of care for advanced NSCLC demonstrates a response rate of only about 15 percent.(12)  Approximately 3-5 percent of NSCLC tumors are ALK-positive.(4)

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Puma Project Pink, Tweet #projectpink To Win Gear

Retweet #projectpink for the chance to win WPS gear!
On Twitter for a week from Tuesday 12th October, @PUMAfootball will be joining the cause to raise breast cancer awareness by tweeting a fact about breast cancer and we want you to get involved.  All you have to do is show your support with a retweet including the #projectpink hashtag to your Twitter community, friends and followers.

What’s more, if you can get your friends to retweet your tweet, we’d like to thank you by giving you a chance to win some prizes.

The first person to get 5 retweets of their retweet each day will win autographed #projectpink WPS gear, with the 5 people who retweeted them also getting a little something to say thanks.

Click here for terms and conditions and get tweeting to support the fight against breast cancer.
And don't forget that for each tweet with the #projectpink hashtag through October 18th, PUMA will donate $1 to the winning Project Pink charity, up to a maximum of $25,000. Check out the Project Pink site for more details.

Breast Cancer Recurrence And Alcohol Consumption: The Life After Breast Cancer Epidemiology study.

Relationship between alcohol consumption and the increased risk of breast cancer has always been assumed, discussed and digested,  but now there is solid data behind this theory. In a study conducted by researchers, Kwan et al*, from the Division of Research, Kaiser Permanente, Oakland, CA; and the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, confirms that;

Consuming three to four alcoholic drinks or more per week after a breast cancer diagnosis may increase risk of breast cancer recurrence, particularly among postmenopausal and overweight/obese women, yet the cardioprotective effects of alcohol on non–breast cancer death were suggested.
The study included 1,897 LACE study participants diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer between 1997 and 2000 and recruited on average 2 years post diagnosis, primarily from the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Cancer Registry. Alcohol consumption (ie, wine, beer, and liquor) was assessed at cohort entry using a food frequency questionnaire. Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate hazard ratios (HR) and 95% CI with adjustment for known prognostic factors.
The complete article could be found here.
Editorial on the subject of Breast Cancer and Alcohol

* Marilyn L. Kwan,, Lawrence H. Kushi,Erin Weltzien, Emily K. Tam, Adrienne Castillo,Carol Sweeney and Bette J. Caan
Alcohol Consumption and Breast Cancer Recurrence and Survival Among Women With Early-Stage Breast Cancer: The Life After Cancer Epidemiology Study

    Tuesday, October 12, 2010

    OncoSemantic, A Portal, Database And A Social Hub Fro Oncology Information.

    We are in the process of preparing the OncoSemantic, a site focusing on oncology (cancer) information, chemotherapy protocols, oncology research, cancer treatment regimens and even individual drugs. The site is mainly meant for Healthcare providers in the field of Oncology but we are confident, that everyone will find, valuable information.
    Bringing together all the data together via semantic technologies will aid all users since thay do not need to traverse, hundreds of sites, just to get information on, just say, breast cancer.

    Why Google Rock, BING, YAHOO Suck

    I created the Oncowikia blog yesterday and posted an article on Meddesktop regarding the inception of OncoWikia and OncoSemantic. Both sites related to upcoming sites of namesakes.
    I just wanted to see how the leading search engines will see the sites. (Of course I had just registered and created the sites and I did not expect to see OncoWikia blog on search engines.) Google also helped me to find Cancer And You.
    Google gave following results;
     Google managed to find the original article in a search for "oncowikia" followed by two spam sites who archive blogs or articles related to cancer.

     Bing managed to find a Spam site and only that.

    Yahoo follows Bing, and it only found what Bing found, a spam site. You may say that my site is not important. Yes it may not be important to you, but search engines, are supposed to index and rank and if you only find spam sites, search engine fail.
    Both Bing and Yahoo had it wrong about the search itself, both said they could not find "oncowikia" and only found "onco Wikia" but the results show, as you can see from above, "oncowikia".

    Cancer And You, Source For Cancer Related Keywords

     I was checking on ONCOWIKIA on search engines, I found that Cancer and You site listed just below my post on Meddesktop, ONCOWIKIA and ONCOSEMANTIC, Will Be Caring For Cancer. A little examination found that Cancer and you is very good at collecting keywords related to cancer on it's blog. It only selects right words and gets very high search engine visibility for cancer. The way the posts are made, Cancerandyou.net looks like a spam site. The admin has installed the Semper Fi Web Design's "All In One SEO Pack", (By the way SFWD is a good resource for Wordpress related stuff and run by U.S. Combat Veterans.) Good idea for ONCOWIKIA blog, yes I like Wordpress better for SEO work than Blogger.
    Last few entries visible on the blog are centered on Mesothelioma and since all those article sites are filled with posts about Mesothelioma, Cancer and you, is getting a good collection.
    But if you are really looking for info Cancer and You.

    Monday, October 11, 2010

    How Cells Grow and Divide To Be Cancer

    This NOVA: video segment from "Battle in the War on Cancer: Breast Cancer" describes the role of oncogenes in uncontrolled cancerous growth. The video describes the journey of cancer cells from their origin, travel into the circulatory system, and then on to other parts of the body. Cancer never stops.
    How Cancer Grow! (Click here for the video)

     You can read more at Nova Beta. Articles like these will appear on ONCOSEMANTIC

    ONCOWIKIA, A Place Where All Information About Cancer And You Come Together.

    People, will seek information on cancer, even if they are not cancer patients themselves. But in the world of information overload, it is difficult to locate proper and trustable information. Oncowikia.com, will bring just that with OncoSemantic while OncoMeme will be the center of all news related to the cancer working as a knowledge sharing portal, for all involved or interested. Please wish us good luck and join us in combating cancer.
    ONCOWIKIA.COM, If It Is About Cancer, We Will Have It Here.