Cancer News

Women who had their tonsils removed in childhood may be at increased risk of developing pre-menopausal breast cancer, according to University at Buffalo researchers.

Study leader Theodore Brasky said an apparent association may be related to the loss of protective function of the tonsils when they are removed.

Alternatively, tonsils that needed to be removed may have been markers for severe or chronic infections in childhood, and that such infections cause inflammation that may contribute to cancer, Brasky said.

Mantle cell is a rare type of lymphoma that accounts for about 1 in 20 cases of non-Hodgkin lymphomas and about 3300 people are diagnosed in the United States per year. It is a cancer of the B-lymphocytes in the portion of lymph nodes called the mantle zone or outer edge of the lymph node.

There are different patterns of mantle cell lymphoma that can be seen under the microscope: mantle zone, nodular, diffuse and blastic. The mantle zone type may be slow growing and very responsive to standard chemotherapy, unlike the other types.

This type of lymphoma frequently spreads to the bone marrow and is not as responsive to chemotherapy as other types of lymphomas. Mantle cell lymphoma can occur at any age from the late 30's to old age, but is more common in people over 50. It is three times more common in men than in women.

AN unknown genetic and environmental cocktail has sparked a mysterious rise in blood cancers in Australia with rates almost doubling over the past two decades.

While most cancers have declined or stabilised, the incidence of blood cancers such as lymphoma is on the rise.

New cases of blood cancers have spiked from nearly 4000 cases in 1983 to more than 7500 diagnosed in 2001.

Blood cancers include leukemia and Hodgkin's lymphoma, the condition from which singer Delta Goodrem suffered.

GREENWOOD, Miss. -- Abraham Cherrix never set out to be an advocate for alternative medicine. He is just a 16-year-old with cancer who refused to undergo a second round of chemotherapy and went to court to fight for his right not to have it.

In a court-ordered compromise, the Virginia teenager landed at the North Central Mississippi Regional Cancer Center, one of a new breed of cancer facilities in the United States that integrate conventional medicine and alternative therapies.

Cherrix's struggle to use herbs and diet supplements to fight Hodgkin's disease, a cancer of the lymphatic system--rather than have a series of debilitating rounds of chemotherapy--has brought attention to a growing movement in the U.S. to bring alternative medicine into the mainstream.

SCOTTISH scientists have invented a light-emitting "sticking plaster" for treating skin cancer which could revolutionise the way the disease is treated.

The high-tech patch is operated by a pocket-sized battery and could allow patients to receive treatment at home or at a GP surgery instead of undergoing lengthy hospital visits.

Current skin cancer treatment can involve surgical removal of lesions, with associated scarring and risk of infection.

There's news for your health about a high-tech skin treatment that targets two very different conditions. It's called photodynamic therapy.

Not only does it clear up severe acne, it can also stop certain types of skin cancer in the earliest stages.

"About 10-years ago I started to develop skin cancers on my body and I've had about four or five removed." It's the price Debby Robinson pays for having spent so much time in the sun over the years.

And this could be just the beginning.

A type of Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) called mantle cell lymphoma accounts for about five to ten percent of all lymphomas. According to an article recently published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Velcade (bortezobib) is an effective treatment option for patients with mantle cell lymphoma that has stopped responding to prior treatments.

FRIDAY, Oct. 20 (HealthDay News) -- Skin cancer researchers focused on sun exposure may be on the right track: A new study finds that beachgoers accurately report their sun habits, such as use of sunscreen, protective clothing and time spent in the sun.

A team from the University of Hawaii, Honolulu, studied 88 adults, average age 40, who visited a beach in Honolulu in February or March 2004. The participants answered questions about their sun habits when they arrived at the beach, and again when they left the beach.

The researchers checked the participants' arms, legs and face for sunscreen, took note of their clothing, and assessed whether they had a sunburn.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 16 -- Researchers at the University of Missouri-Columbia can now detect the spread of skin cancer cells through the blood by literally listening to their sound. The unprecedented, minimally invasive technique causes melanoma cells to emit noise, and could let oncologists spot early signs of metastases -- as few as 10 cancer cells in a blood sample -- before they even settle in other organs. The results of the successful experimental tests appear in the Oct. 15 issue of the journal Optics Letters, published by the Optical Society of America.

The team's method, called photoacoustic detection, combines laser techniques from optics and ultrasound techniques from acoustics, using a laser to make cells vibrate and then picking up the characteristic sound of melanoma cells. In a clinical test, doctors would take a patient's blood sample and separate the red blood cells and the plasma. In a healthy person, the remaining cells would be white blood cells, but in a melanoma patient the sample may contain cancer cells. To find out, doctors would put the sample in saline solution and expose it to rapid-fire sequences of brief but intense blue-laser pulses, each lasting just five billionths of a second.

NEW YORK, REUTERS - Genes involved in skin pigmentation have an effect on a person’s skin cancer risk beyond their influence on a person’s hair or skin color, a new study shows.

Women who carried one so-called “red hair color” gene but had medium or olive skin, as opposed to fair skin, actually had the highest skin cancer risk among a group of Caucasian women, Dr. Jiali Han of Harvard Medical School in Boston and colleagues found.

Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center has announced the publication of pioneering research identifying the crucial role and novel mechanism of action of the protein RhoH GTPase in the development and activation of cells critical to the immune system. The findings, along with other studies, suggest that RhoH GTPase may provide a target for therapeutic intervention in some types of leukemia. The paper is due to appear in an upcoming edition of the journal Nature Immunology and was recently posted in the advance online publication section of the journal's website.

Lymphomas are cancers of the lymphatic system. There are two general types of lymphomas. Hodgkin's Disease, named after Dr. Thomas Hodgkin who first recognized the disease in 1832, and Non-Hodgkin's Disease (NHL). The difference between these two cancers is that Hodgkin's disease contains specific cells that are not seen in any other lymphomas. Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma is actually a group of about ten different types. One rare type of NHL is called cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL).

CTCL accounts for about one in twenty cases of NHL. It mainly affects the skin and can often mimic several skin disorders. It is caused by the uncontrolled growth of a type of white blood cell in the skin called a T-cell.

Scientists say they have discovered a cream that may ward off skin cancer by tanning skin a golden bronze without exposure to the sun.

Tests so far have been confined to mice, but researchers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Children’s Hospital in Boston say the findings would mark a seismic shift in the biology of tanning if the cream was determined to be safe for humans.