Medical News

It is official, summer is here! Certainly, as North Americans, summer time is to be cherished and not to be taken for granted. Even just for pure health reasons, we should be spending more time outdoors, to be more physically active, to be able to get more fresh air and also to get some desperately needed extra sunshine (vitamin D).

However, as with many other good things, too much sunshine can pose a problem- increased risk of developing skin cancer. This is not ground breaking news to anyone, we are all aware of the importance of skin protection. But did you know that depending on which sunscreen you are using, you might be increasing your chances even more.

If this is news to you, remember that it’s old research.

Professor Johan Moan of the Norwegian Cancer Institute found, in 1991, that a very strong correlation between sunscreen usage and the incidence of skin cancer. He published an article in The British Journal of Cancer stating that ozone depletion is not the cause for skin cancer. Further research supported Dr. Moans’ conclusions.

Many sunscreens that are on the market contain benzophenone or its derivatives (oxybenzone, benzophenone-3) as the active ingredient. These serve their “sun-blocking” properties by absorbing UVB rays (and to a small extend UVA rays as well, depending on the brand. It is important to note that UVB rays are a primary cause of sunburns, while UVA rays are the rays that are more likely to cause skin cancer. Further, the absorption of UV rays can cause these active ingredients (benzophenones and it’s derivatives) to become unstable, forming free-radicals. Free radicals can lead to DNA damage, and thereby cancer development.

This is certainly not to say that sunscreen is to be skipped in the summer, especially if you do spend extended periods of time outside. However to protect yourself, be sure to pick the RIGHT sunscreen. There are two major types of mechanisms of UV ray blocking, chemical or physical. Benzophenone is a chemical sunblock, while ingredients such as titanium dioxide and zinc oxide block the sun by reflecting it away from the skin. Physical forms of sunscreen are safe to use, as they do not lead to free radical formation.

Lastly, it is important to keep in mind that one should not rely on the use of sunscreens to protect the skin. Other skin protection tips include wearing protective clothing such as hats and light coloured shirts and pants/skirts, and avoiding/minimizing sun exposure during hours when the UV index is highest (i.e. the few hours before and after 12:00pm).

Gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) is a type of sarcoma. Sarcomas, including Gist are a type of cancer. They occur in connective tissues, bones, muscles, fats, nerve cells, blood vessels and cartilage. GISTs occur in the gastrointestinal tract of the body.

GIST are derived from mesenchymal cells are primarily related to the mutation of a genetic protein CD117 or c-kit. Mesenchymal cells are connective cells such as fibroblasts, muscle cells, and blood vessel lining cells. Gist is a sarcoma and not a carcinoma; hence it requires a different medical treatment from that of more identifiable cancers such as lung, skin and prostate cancer. GISTs can occur anywhere in the GI tract including the stomach, small intestine, colon, rectum and esophagus. In rare cases, GISTs can occur in other locations in the abdomen.

Metastasizing of a cancer is when it spreads from its site or organ of occurrence to another site. GIST tumors can spread to the liver and the abdominal membrane enclosing the intestines and stomach. The symptoms and signs of the onset of GIST are indications of vague abdominal discomfort or pain, presence of a visible abdominal mass, and an unexplained feeling of being full as the most innocuous. GIST tumor cells often have a mutation in the c-kit (KIT) protein. GIST tumors are believed to originate from stem cells or from specialized cells, found in the gastrointestinal tract essential for normal gastrointestinal movement. GIST is more common in older adults, but can occur at any age, including in children. There are several different type of GIST tumors such as adult GIST, wild type gist, pediatric, familial and eGISTs. eGISTs occur outside the gastrointestinal tract.

Cancers and tumors such as GIST are diagnosed from tissue samples taken from the patient in a procedure called a biopsy. The tissue sample is acted upon by various antibodies. The antibodies are used such that they react with specific proteins in cells on the tumor’s surface. The antibodies react with specific proteins and the stain or color the tissue sample. In the case of GIST diagnosis the antibody that reacts with the tissue sample is c-kit protein specific.

The primary treatment for GIST is surgery. The oral targeted chemotherapies Gleevec or Sutent are used to treat metastatic or inoperable GIST and Gleevec is used as preventative treatment for GISTs with a moderate to high risk of recurrence after surgery.

Further information about GIST and GIST treatments can be found on the internet.

Prostate cancer is the most diagnosed cancer and is the common cause of cancer deaths among men. The sad fact about this is that most men do not realize that they acquire this killer disease until it has already spread. This type of cancer spreads rapidly but it can be prevented earlier once you know the prostate cancer symptoms you have to watch out for.

Having prostate cancer can affect your overall wellness. It can stop you from doing activities you normally do. It can affect your relationship with other people and even your sex life. Most prostate cancer patients failed to recognize prostate cancer symptoms earlier that they often found out too late. Luckily, you can avoid being one of them by keeping yourself well informed about this dreaded ailment.

Just like other diseases, prostate cancer has several symptoms. Though older men from 50 years old and above are prone to it, still it helps to know the signs of this killer disease earlier in life. Below are five prostate cancer symptoms you need to be aware of for early detection of the killer disease.

1. Difficulties during urination

Top on the list among the prostate cancer symptoms is urinary difficulties. Since the bladder and the prostate are close to each other, the tumors that grow on the prostate press the bladder causing difficulty in urinating. This is the most obvious among prostate cancer symptoms.

2. Presence of blood in the urine

The presence of blood during urination is one of the prostate cancer symptoms you must know. When the patient is already experiencing this, it is now advisable for him to go to his doctor. Though, this doesn’t necessarily mean that one has already cancer since some of the urinary tract infections also experience the same symptom, an early check up is still advisable.

3. Difficulties during erection

Prostate cancer symptoms include difficulties during erection. This kind of cancer affects the sexual life of the patient. He gets the inability to get and maintain an erection. Sometimes he experiences painful ejaculation. The prostate is a part of the male reproductive system so it is only normal that symptoms may affect other sex organs. If you have been experiencing the same scenario, you might as well see your doctor to be diagnosed instead of waiting for other prostate cancer symptoms.

4. Legs start to swell

Perhaps, you may wonder why swelling of the legs is considered as one of the many prostate cancer symptoms. Well, as the disease continues to grow, it will also spread to the lymph nodes. When this happens, legs begin to swell. Sometimes, the swelling also cause hips and buttocks to experience severe pain.

5. Pelvic discomfort

Prostate cancer symptoms like having severe discomfort on the pelvis, roots from having affected lymph nodes. The nodes squeeze the pelvis causing pain. To prevent prostate cancer, the five early prostate cancer symptoms should be taken into consideration. Consult your doctor immediately once you experience these symptoms for treatments. It is the best way to fight prostate cancer before it gets worse.

I was watching some presentations this morning on “TED Talks” and found some wonderful evidence that we are making headway in the battle against both cancer and obesity. It also supports what I have been saying for 10 years. We are on the cusp of radically successful cancer treatment. Dr. William Li explained the concept of “angiogenesis”.

Angiogenesis is the process your body uses to build blood vessels. Your body consists of about 19 billion capillaries, which are the vessels for both life and death.

According to Dr. Li, excessive angiogenesis (too many blood vessels) promote diseases such as cancer, blindness, arthritis, endometriosis, multiple sclerosis and many others. As if that isn’t bad enough, angiogenesis also promotes obesity. When our bodies are not creating those extra blood vessels, we are said to be in a state of anti-angiogenesis.

One piece of research conducted over the last 10 years studied male and female victims of deadly automobile accidents. The study indicated that nearly 60% of those victims were found to have cancer cells in either their breasts or in their prostrate glands. So we must ask the question – what makes a cancer cell decide to start growing? What are the mechanisms of cancer growth? We know that cancer needs a blood supply to grow, and we know that once a cancer cell takes root, something happens to cause it to metastasize.

Traditional chemo therapy has been designed to target cancer cells directly. I use a metaphor for chemo-therapy as though it were a machine gun in an auditorium. Here is how it works. Let’s suppose we have an auditorium filled with 20,000 screaming fans! Now – somewhere in the middle of the auditorium there are 500 terrorists. What do we do?

How do we ensure that we knock off the terrorists without killing all the fans? Well, under the chemo-therapy model, you do it like this. You stand on stage with the most powerful machine gun you can find. You start blasting out into the crowd until everything in the middle of the auditorium is levelled. Your hope is that you will have killed off all of the terrorists, but kept alive most of the fans! Under this model, the stage manager calls it a success!

Dr. Li’s contention is that we have dietary options that can be as effective as those offered by the most potent pharmaceutical drugs. Li began studying anti-angiogenesis foods and eventually came to the conclusion that if we choose the right foods, we can essentially “eat our own chemo-therapy” three times a day! What I was most interested in is the fact that all of the foods that Dr. Li identifies as anti-angiogenesis foods are the same ones we have been identifying in the high pH diet plans.

For the first time in my very long research history, I am excited by the prospects that mainstream medicine is finally getting it! The work done by Dr. Li should not be taken lightly. His work runs counter to everything that corporate health care has been pushing for many decades. Regardless, I see this as the thin edge of the wedge and I am certain that proponents of high alkaline diets will be doubling down on their efforts to get the message out.

According to Li, resveratrol from red grapes, for example, have been shown to inhibit abnormal angiogenesis by 60 percent. Even more potent is the ellagic acid found in strawberries. And of the 79 men who were followed for 20 years, those who consumed anti-angiogenesis foods were 70% less likely to develop prostrate cancer. That is a significant number that doesn’t even take into account militating environmental factors!

It is now more important than ever that we all do our diligence to put some pressure on the system so that it works for us. We have an abundance of epidemiological evidence now to suggest that we are on the right track. Go to open source websites like “pub med” and do some research. Join newsletters and stay active in the battle to crush this disease!

It is important for women to educate themselves about ovarian cancer and the risk factors for this disease. In the past, the belief was that this condition would strike without symptoms. But now the medical community is aware of the early warning signs. Women can protect themselves and dramatically increase their chances of surviving this disease by paying attention to their bodies and by knowing the symptoms.

This form of cancer is more prevalent than once thought. Recent estimates suggest that one out of every 55 American women will develop the disease. The reason that it takes the lives of so many women is they do not detect the symptoms during the early stages. Often, they find out that they have it when the chances for survival are slim.

During the early stages of ovarian cancer, a woman’s ovary contains cancerous cells that begin multiplying abnormally. At this time, there are some warning signs. However, these symptoms are often dismissed as being normal feminine conditions such as menstrual cramps.

The early symptoms include pain in the pelvic region, rapid weight gain or loss, and pain during sexual intercourse. Other warning signs are a lack of energy, nausea, unusually heavy bleeding during the menstrual cycle, or extremely long periods. A woman may experience one or more of these indicators. Anyone who experiences these symptoms for an extended amount of time should see a physician in order to find out if the discomforts are caused by the early stages of cancer. This is especially important if the symptoms last for more than one week.

A physician will do a biopsy along with a pelvic examination on a woman who may be experiencing the early symptoms of ovarian cancer. This will help determine if there are any abnormalities or cancerous or pre-cancerous cells. It will also reveal if treatment is necessary and which type of medication would be best in order to prevent the problem from advancing.

Detecting the disease during the early stages dramatically increases the chances that a patient can be cured. Unfortunately, many women do not become aware of their condition until it has progressed to the stages. By this time, it may have spread to other areas of the body, which lowers the chances for survival.

Cancer is the least word you want to hear if you are diagnosed with something not normal with your body. All cancer cases are life threatening and usually impossible to treat when not earlier detected. There are a lot of causes of cancers such as environments, genes and habits. One damaging habit you may want to avoid after reading this article is drinking sodas.

Study reveals that drinking at least two sodas a day can increase your risk of pancreatic cancers, a disease in pancreas. Too much sugar content in soda drinks are believed to be the culprit. Pancreatic cancers is a very complicated disease in which patients only survived for five years or more after being diagnosed with the illness.

Europeans and Westerners are more prone of this habit because of their usual lifestyle of eating outside restaurants. But Asians are not too far behind as serious cases of cancers were recorded and mostly are smokers and soda drinkers.

Although sodas are not directly been accused as the main cause of pancreatic cancer, a research reveals that most patients of the said disease has sugar loving tendencies which also tends to prefer drinking sodas from water. Research also shows that patients are smokers, less physically active and carnivorous eaters. This means that aside from the culprit which is sugar, the most obvious cause of pancreatic cancers is the unhealthy way of life.

Even though it is not justified that sodas are the main cause, lets all be aware that cola drinks are still bad for your health. Other bad effects of sodas are the following.

• Bad for Oral Health
• Increase in blood sugar level
• Cause of ulcers and other digestive abnormalities
• Cancers
• Liver damage
• Obesity

We only live once in this world. We have to fully maximize this gift of life from God and to do that, we must learn to love ourselves by living healthy and staying away from the things that can cause us harm. Stay healthy because health is wealth.

Stem cell therapy is going to revolutionize how we treat hearing loss, ATS, cancer, Parkinson’s and other deadly diseases. As stem cell treatments are taking place worldwide, there is a need to understand what they exactly mean. According to the medical fraternity, stem cells are the life providers of human beings and their use in the right way will lead to new discoveries in medical sciences in coming years. In Mexico, stem cell therapy is an effective way of treating various diseases. These cells can slow the ageing process and help people stay healthy in many ways.

They can boost the immune system and provide additional strength to the body. There are different types of stem cells present in the body like autologous, xenogenic, and allogenic. The common functionality of a stem cell is to differentiate between tissues and their healing power. The damaged tissues are repaired by these cells as they work together with systemic cells in the body. For stem cell treatment, Tijuana has world renowned doctors whom you can check out for any queries. Tijuana stem cell therapy is one of the best in the world.

Adult stem cells also hold the key in understanding how we can use these cells to treat lethal diseases. Adults stem cells are taken from one’s own bone marrow and are thus different from embryonic stem cells. These cells have the ability to renew themselves and thus can repair tissues hence providing vital regenerative powers to the body.

In some cases, researchers have found very positive results in the patients with multiple sclerosis. Though there is a lot of research going on for the treatments of these diseases yet a lot more funding is required to gain more knowledge. Stem cells research Mexico are indeed going to play a major role in diagnoses and prognosis for a disease and how effectively the damaged cells are removed and changed with regenerative cells through stem cell therapy.

Cancer these days are so common that there is a 50 to 75 per cent chance that someone in you family could be diagnosed with it. Cancer takes many forms and to date, there is no known cure that can completely eliminate this disease.

The Human Papillomavirus (HPV) is a virus that causes different types of cancers. The HPV 16 and HPV 18 cause cervical and vulval cancer. A recent study by a leading Cancer Research scientific team found a vaccine to combat against certain forms of the Human Papilomavirus.

The vaccine, known as TA-HPV was modified from a smallpox vaccine. Scientists tested the vaccine in 18 women with Vulval Intraepithelial Neoplasia (VIN), a form of vulval cancer. This form of vulval cancer is very hard to treat as the precancerous lesions appear on the lining of the vulva.

Following the vaccination, 13 out of the 18 women were found to develop a specific immune reaction towards HPV. Also, in 8 out of the 18 women, the cancerous lesions shrunk by 50 percent. The patients also experienced symptom relief. These results were encouraging as more than half women in the study gained clinical benefits.

The best part of this vaccine is that it is relatively free of side effects. However, scientists who came up with this vaccine also believe that this vaccine will be most useful if used as a part of a combination of treatments. This vaccine is also more than a glimmer of hope for women whose bodies have already started generating some kind of immune response against the disease.

It is also possible that repeated vaccination may be more effective in combating the disease. This is because, when a patient is given a number of shots of vaccine during a course of treatment, it helps to build up an immune response against cancer.

Treatment vaccines such as the TA- HPV vaccine will play an important role in controlling cancers. Studies such as this raise awareness about how vaccines direct the immune system against cancer. Vaccines such as this are vaccines of hope that may give many a second chance to lead a normal, cancer-free life.

Noninvasive infrared cancer therapies combine the unique physical and optical properties of nanoshell or nanoparticles with a near infrared laser source to thermally destroy cancer tissue without significant damage to surrounding healthy tissue. So far, several laboratory studies prove very promising results of 100% complete eradication of tumors without any known side effects, preliminary FDA reports.

The incidence rates of cancer of the liver, pancreas, kidney, esophagus, and thyroid have continued to rise, as have the rates of new cases of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, leukemia, myeloma, and childhood cancers. The incidence rates of cancer of the brain and bladder and melanoma of the skin in women, and testicular cancer in men, are rising, reports National Cancer Institute 2010.

The potential benefits of nanoparticle cancer treatment are highly selective and rapid tumor destruction with minimal damage to surrounding healthy tissue. Preclinical studies have demonstrated that it is effective and causes no detectable systemic toxicity. Additionally, this therapeutic device may be used in combination with and could increase the effectiveness of standard chemotherapy and radiation. Alternative Fighting Cancer with Magnetic Nanoparticles VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUh1gHG2jns&feature=related

What Are Nanoshells? – A nanoshell is made up of a few million atoms forming silica particles, essentially tiny glass particles too small to see with the naked eye. So it’s larger than typical proteins or DNA. The nanoshell can cross the width of the smallest capillary in the human body. A chemical is introduced to the nanoshell that enables researchers to build-up (attach) gold metallic deposits that ultimately form a gold shell around the glass core. Companies such as Izon’s aNano provide nanoparticle research instruments that provide previously unavailable particle detection and measurement capabilities, tunable from micro to molecular scales. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLNpDfPXQzE&feature=related

The key innovation with nanoshells is the ability to tune their color from the visible using the dimensions of the core and the shell to different regions of the spectrum. Therefore, it can tune away from the visible region and into the near-infrared region of the spectrum. Doctors are able to heat up very precise targeted areas of interest such as tumors. So by using an infrared light from the surface of the skin it can penetrate deep (10 centimeters) deep into the body. It heats up the tumor eradicating it passing through the body as waste. Gold Nanoparticles and Cancer Cell Detection VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyhxRIvw_cY

Nanoshell Treatment

Nanoshell therapy is comprised of three components:

- an off-the-shelf near infrared laser source,

- an off-the-shelf interstitial fiber optic probe for delivery of the laser energy to a site near or inside the tumor, and

- the investigational nanoshell particles, a near-infrared absorbing, inert material designed to absorb and convert the laser energy into heat.

The nanoshell treatment may be used with an FDA-cleared laser that emits near infrared energy with the clinical study specified parameters (power, duty cycle, treatment time) and with an FDA-cleared fiber optic probe for energy. Nanoshell particles consist of a gold metal shell and a non-conducting, or dielectric, silica core and serves as the exogenous absorber of the near infrared laser energy delivered by the fiber.

Nanoshell particles are administered intravenously and because of their small size they are specifically able to enter the tumor through its leaky vasculature. This process is known as the enhanced permeability and retention effect and is well documented for many solid tumors. The particles are unable to exit normal vasculature and therefore do not accumulate in healthy tissue.

After the particles accumulate in the tumor, the area is illuminated with a near-infrared laser at wavelengths chosen to allow the maximum penetration of light through tissue. The nanoparticles are specifically designed to absorb this wavelength and convert the laser light into heat. This results in the ablation of the tumor.

History of Nanoshells – Dr. Naomi Halas Ph. D, a professor at Rice University, invented the tiny (Nanoshell) particles, with a glass core and gold covered shell, in the 1990’s. Now Halas and her colleagues have figured out a way to make nanoshells smarter. They’ve attached a bright fluorescent dye to the particles that make them glow under infrared light. They’ve also added a magnetic shell that makes the particles visible to MRI. In addition, researchers can now attach antibodies to the nanoparticles that help them hone-in on a variety of cancer cells.

“If you try to do the same thing with molecules or with drugs, it’s very difficult, if not impossible, to attach several different functions to the same drug without disrupting its first function. But with nano-particles you have a nice platform that you can add several different things to it and still preserve the primary function of the nano-particle itself.” http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/3209/03-nanoshells.html 

At this point, laser light converts that light to heat, and then kill tumor cells with that heat. Halas says being able to watch the progress of the nanoparticles, both optically and magnetically, is crucial to manage the process.

”In terms of being able to facilitate medical treatments with this approach, this type of tool is going to be very good. It gives eyes to the medical research. It gives two sets of eyes to the medical research, the optical eyes and the magnetic eyes. Those in combination complement each other so more information will be available using this approach.” http://www.tcrt.org/c3018/c4130/Nanoshell-Enabled-Photonics-Based-Imaging-and-Therapy-of-Cancer-p-33-40-p12032.html 

NANOSHELLS:

FDA Nanoparticle Trials - The future of nanoshell cancer treatment involves exhaustive studies on hundreds of varying subjects and optimize the shape and the surface properties of these nanoshells so that it gets favorable bio-distribution where most of the stuff retains in the tumor and its clear of the liver and kidneys to the body. Once that is done, it should be ready for pursuing the FDA approval (5-7 years) process for these researchers working with clinicians and planning further human trials.

Nanoshell particles are investigational at this current time and only available through designated FDA sanctioned clinical study sites. http://www.fda.gov/ScienceResearch/SpecialTopics/RunningClinicalTrials/default.htm

Some Leading Nanoparticle Biotech Companies

• Elan Drug Technologies’ NanoCrystal® technology
• Abraxis BioScience (ABBI)
• Nanospectra BioScience
• Calando Pharmaceuticals 

In this article today I’d like to talk about several tips, tricks, and techniques that you can use to catch and treat melanoma cancer before it gets out of hand and becomes life-threatening.

Even though many forms, if not most forms of cancer, seem to be declining thanks to medical advances; melanoma cancer seems to be rising in frequency for any number of reasons that I’m not really going to get into today. What is important is that we catch melanoma before it becomes life-threatening and that’s what I’m going to talk about in this article today.

The first thing you should always do is have a visual body scan checkup with your doctor at least once a year and possibly up to four times a year if you are the kind of person with a higher probability of skin cancer than most. This includes people that work outside for a living or who were exposed to a lot of sun damage early in life, or who have a high history of skin cancer in the family. A general physician can administer a simple visual scan in a normal checkup, but you may want to visit a dermatologist instead. Whichever you’re most comfortable with will work just fine.

Next between checkups you should watch for danger signs yourself. These types of things include asymmetrical spots on your body where half of the spot looks different than the other half. Also look for border irregularities. Melanomas usually have notched rather than round borders. Next look for color variations in your skin. Normal moles are usually all one color whereas melanomas are often different colors of tan as well as brown, black, pink, white, and even blue sometimes. Finally watch for spots with a diameter that is greater than one quarter of an inch.

When it comes to this type of skin cancer the earlier that you detect it the better. In fact early detection is vital in many circumstances. If you are a high-risk person then you should administer self exams to yourself at least monthly using a full-length mirror in a bright room. You will also need a small hand-held mirror and possibly even a flashlight to see yourself from all possible angles.

Treatment of melanoma cancer depends on the different stage of cancer that you have and there are basically four stages that I’m not going to get into in great detail today. Basically when a possible melanoma is found, a biopsy is done in which the entire region is removed and examined. If the cancer has not yet spread it can often be removed surgically. If the cancer has spread to nearby lymph nodes then things get more difficult and may include chemotherapy and more intense surgery.

So there you have some fairly strong information when it comes to melanoma cancer. At the end of the day just remember that the earlier you detect it the better off you will be; so be sure to get regular checkups and keep an eye on things yourself in the meantime, and stay out of the sun as much as possible!