Tag • #cancer

Bowel cancer patients could be spared radiotherapy, US study suggests

news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Yesterday - 17:55

Doctors found some patients could rely on chemotherapy and surgery alone to treat the disease

Thousands of bowel cancer patients could be spared radiotherapy, a study suggests, after doctors discovered they could rely on chemotherapy and surgery alone to treat their disease.

Radiotherapy has been used to treat bowel cancer patients for decades, but the side-effects can be brutal. It can cause problems that negatively affect quality of life, including infertility, the need for a temporary colostomy, diarrhoea, cramping and bladder problems.

Lung cancer pill cuts risk of death by half, says ‘thrilling’ study

news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Yesterday - 12:00

Taking the drug osimertinib once a day after surgery reduces chance of patients dying by 51%, trials show

A pill taken once a day cuts the risk of dying from lung cancer by half, according to “thrilling” and “unprecedented” results from a decade-long global study.

Taking the drug osimertinib after surgery dramatically reduced the risk of patients dying by 51%, results presented at the world’s largest cancer conference showed.

UK trials for cancer breath tests reach final stages

news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Yesterday - 09:00

Quick and simple tests in GP surgeries could detect cancer of the oesophagus, stomach, pancreas, colon or liver

Simply blowing into a bag at a GP’s surgery could show that a patient has cancer. That is the aim of an ambitious new project that is going through its final clinical trials in the UK. If successful, cancer breath tests could be used in a few years in order to pinpoint a range of tumours in the early stages of their development.

The technique is primarily aimed at detecting cancers of the gut, including those of the oesophagus, stomach, pancreas and colon, but could also be used to pinpoint cases of liver cancer. In total, these tumours formed more than 20% of all cancer cases in the world, said the project’s leader, Prof George Hanna of Imperial College London. “We have been working on this technique for more than 15 years and have now reached the stage where we are going through final clinical trials,” he told the Observer .

New drug combination offers ovarian cancer breakthrough

news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · 2 days ago - 17:30

The revolutionary treatment has been shown to significantly shrink tumours in almost half of patients with the disease

Thousands of women with ovarian cancer could benefit from a revolutionary drug combination after it was shown to significantly shrink tumours in almost half of patients with the disease.

The new treatment blocks tumour growth, helping keep the disease at bay for years. Experts said the “fantastic” and “very exciting” results from clinical trials of the drug combination, presented at the world’s largest cancer conference this weekend, showed it was “far more effective” than any available option for patients.

Cancer biotech customers mistakenly informed they might have cancer

news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · 2 days ago - 11:20

Enlarge / Grail is a subsidiary of Illumina, the world’s biggest gene sequencing company. (credit: Grail)

More than 400 patients who signed up to take a pioneering oncology detection test developed by US biotech company Grail received erroneous letters last month suggesting they may have developed cancer.

According to an internal company document seen by the Financial Times, 408 patients were incorrectly told they had a signal in their blood suggesting they could have cancer.

Grail said the letters were sent “in error” by its telemedicine provider PWNHealth and that its staff had moved swiftly to contact affected customers to reassure them their test results were wrong.

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Blood test for 50 types of cancer could speed up patient diagnosis, study suggests

news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · 3 days ago - 06:42

NHS trial results of liquid biopsy suggest Galleri test has potential to spot cancer in people with symptoms

A blood test for more than 50 forms of cancer could help speed up diagnosis and fast-track patients for treatment, a study suggests.

NHS trial results of the liquid biopsy, published at the world’s largest cancer conference in the US, suggest the Galleri blood test has the potential to spot and rule out cancer in people with symptoms.

Esther Rantzen reveals her lung cancer has progressed to stage 4

news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Friday, 26 May - 11:15

Veteran broadcaster says she has no regrets and treasures the friends she has made

Esther Rantzen has revealed that her lung cancer has progressed to stage 4, after announcing her diagnosis for the disease in January.

Rantzen, 82, who is considered a trailblazer for female broadcasters, became a household name during her career at the BBC. She is best known for presenting That’s Life! between 1973 and 1994.

A measurement for chronic pain is a scientific holy grail – and we’re getting closer | Abdul-Ghaaliq Lalkhen

news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Thursday, 25 May - 12:00 · 1 minute

People who have chronic pain without a visible injury are often not believed, but new research can help visualise that pain

Most people, including doctors, do not appreciate that the organ that produces pain is the brain. A broken bone, damaged tissue or a bleeding wound is often the focus, but the experience of pain is the sum total of more than just the physical injury – it is the result of information sent from our nerves being filtered through an individual’s unique psychological makeup, genetics, gender, beliefs, expectations, motivations and emotional context. Pain is therefore an individual experience, and often confounds and frightens us, as well as those we love and who love us.

Acute pain is a life-preserving sensory and emotional experience, like hunger or thirst, and is produced by the brain to alert us to an actual or potential threat to our survival from damage to our bodies. It is a complex biological alarm system and, like all systems, may malfunction. When it becomes dysfunctional, the individual experiences pain without identifiable damage. The disease state that results is called chronic pain . At the moment, it cannot be cured – in other words, there is no bone that can be mended or wound that can be stitched that will cause the alarm to be switched off.

Dr Abdul-Ghaaliq Lalkhen specialises in pain medicine and is a visiting professor at Manchester Metropolitan University. He is the author of Pain: The Science of the Feeling Brain

The extraordinary bucket list of Laura Nuttall who died of brain cancer at 23

news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Monday, 22 May - 17:18 · 1 minute

Lancashire woman met Michelle Obama, commanded a warship, performed with Peter Kay and drove a tank

Very few people would be able to say they had commanded a Royal Navy ship, met Michelle Obama and presented a television weather forecast.

But Laura Nuttall from Barrowford in Lancashire did not let a terminal cancer diagnosis stop her from ticking off an impressive bucket list before her death on Monday at the age of 23.

Went fishing with Paul Whitehouse and Bob Mortimer (she caught a pike, they caught nothing)

Graduated with a 2:1 in politics, philosophy and economics from Manchester University

Driven a monster truck, a bus, a 650-tonne crane, a tractor, a digger and a tank (after her driving licence was revoked due to seizures)

Met Michelle Obama

Had a pub lunch with Peter Kay and danced on stage with him in front of 10,000 people

Had a song dedicated by Johnny Marr

Drove a London Underground tube train

Completed a skydive

Presented the weather on the BBC (“I thought it would be quite easy, but it’s really not.”)

Commanded a Royal Navy warship

Spent a day with police tackling a simulated riot

Travelled to the US

Went on safari in South Africa

Watched the Women’s Euro final at Wembley and received a video message from England captain Leah Williamson

Went sailing around the west coast of Scotland with the Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust

Visited the Uncle Joes’s Mint Balls factory in Wigan and also the Heinz factory, receiving tins with her name on

Had a video chat with Malala Yousafzai

Visited the Royal Mint and pressed a 50p coin

Had tea at the Ritz with newscaster Sophie Raworth

Ran a marathon