Patrick Swayze has been pictured looking more healthy than he has in months.
The Dirty Dancing star, 56, who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer early last year, appeared to have gained a little weight and grown some of his hair back. He had…
Posts Tagged ‘Cancer’
Best-selling author McCourt dies
July 19th, 2009 |
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Frank McCourt, author of best-seller Angela’s Ashes, has died of cancer in a New York hospice.
The 78-year-old Irish-American writer was suffering from meningitis and had recently been treated for melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer.
Angela’s Ashes, a memoir of McCourt’s childhood in Ireland, sold millions of copies and won the Pulitzer Prize.
Before the book’s 1996 publication, McCourt was a New York high school teacher for 30 years.
Quoted by the New York Times newspaper, Susan Moldow of McCourt’s publisher Scribner said the cause of his death, on Sunday afternoon, was metastatic melanoma.
‘Epic of woe’
Born in New York, McCourt travelled to Ireland during the Great Depression with his parents at an early age.
Angela’s Ashes provides a graphic description of his childhood in abject poverty in the slums of the Irish city of Limerick.
Described by its author as an "epic of woe", the book was made into a Hollywood film in 1999 starring Emily Watson and Robert Carlyle.
The BBC’s Matt McGrath, an admirer of Frank McCourt’s work, says it shone a light on a dark period of Ireland’s social history.
His other works include ‘Tis and Teacher Man, which both draw on his later life in New York. </p
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Best-selling author McCourt dies
July 19th, 2009 |
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Frank McCourt, author of best-seller Angela’s Ashes, has died of cancer in a New York hospice.
The 78-year-old Irish-American writer was suffering from meningitis and had recently been treated for melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer.
Angela’s Ashes, a memoir of McCourt’s childhood in Ireland, sold millions of copies and won the Pulitzer Prize.
Before the book’s 1996 publication, McCourt was a New York high school teacher for 30 years.
Quoted by the New York Times newspaper, Susan Moldow of McCourt’s publisher Scribner said the cause of his death, on Sunday afternoon, was metastatic melanoma.
‘Epic of woe’
Born in New York, McCourt travelled to Ireland during the Great Depression with his parents at an early age.
Angela’s Ashes provides a graphic description of his childhood in abject poverty in the slums of the Irish city of Limerick.
HAVE YOUR SAY"Frank McCourt had a wonderful way of bringing his past to life"
Chris, UK
Send us your commentsDescribed by its author as an "epic of woe", the book was made into a Hollywood film in 1999 starring Emily Watson and Robert Carlyle.
The BBC’s Matt McGrath, an admirer of Frank McCourt’s work, says it shone a light on a dark period of Ireland’s social history.
His other works include ‘Tis and Teacher Man, which both draw on his later life in New York. </p
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Scientists find 3,600 disease ‘switches’ in human body
July 18th, 2009 |
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A collaborative study conducted by researchers at University of Copenhagen and the Max Planck Institute in Germany has led to the identification of no less than 3,600 molecular switches in the human body, which may prove to be a crucial factor in human ageing and the onset and treatment of cancer, Alzheimer’’s disease and Parkinson’’s [...]
Hartson undergoes emergency op
July 15th, 2009 |
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• Striker underwent brain operation this morning
• Hospital confirms cancer has spread to Hartson’s lungs
The former Celtic, West Ham and Wales forward John Hartson has undergone emergency neurosurgery to relieve pressure on his brain at Morriston Hospital in Swansea. The 34-year-old, who retired from football in 2008, has been diagnosed with testicular cancer which has now spread to his brain.
Hartson’s condition was confirmed at the weekend following tests at the Singleton Hospital in Swansea where he went after complaining of severe headaches.
Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University NHS Trust which governs Morriston Hospital said in a statement that cancer had also been diagnosed in Hartson’s lungs:
“He is currently being cared for by the critical care team at Morriston and is receiving round-the-clock care aiming to stabilise his condition,” said the press release. “Unfortunately, cancer has now also been diagnosed in his lungs. He will resume radiotherapy and chemotherapy as soon as possible.”
A statement from Hartson’s family was also released earlier today: “His partner Sarah, mum [Diana], dad [Cyri]), three children, brother, two sisters and very close friends are all continuing to support John in any way they can. He is receiving outstanding care from all the medical and surgical staff and we would like to thank everyone at both Singleton and Morriston, as well as the excellent ambulance staff.
“We have been overwhelmed by the support and goodwill from many thousands of football fans, players, clubs and sporting figures and we have drawn strength from this support.”
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Childhood cancer ‘increases with advancing maternal age’
July 15th, 2009 |
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Baby born to an older mother may have a slightly increased risk for many of the cancers that occur during childhood, according to a new study from the Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota.
Logan Spector, Ph.D., assistant professor of paediatrics and cancer epidemiology researcher, and Kimberly Johnson, Ph.D., postdoctoral fellow in paediatric epidemiology, led the [...]
Why some women develop breast cancer earlier than others
July 15th, 2009 |
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Researchers at New Jersey’’s only NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center have taken a step towards unlocking the mysteries of why some women develop breast cancer at an earlier age than others.
The researchers have expanded a study to identify genetic markers in women with the disease, and their trial will now include more healthy volunteers as well.
According [...]
Study doubts green tea’’s effectiveness in preventing cancer
July 15th, 2009 |
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A new research has raised doubts about the effectiveness of green tea in preventing cancer.
Many individuals are incorporating small changes into their daily routine – such as drinking green tea – hoping that it will keep cancer risk at bay. However, a systematic review of studies has produced conflicting results.
“Despite the large number of included [...]
Stewart planning to publish Fawcett’s cancer diaries
July 14th, 2009 |
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Late actress Farrah Fawcett’s best friend actress Alana Stewart is planning to publish a memoir she compiled while filming the final stages of the late actress’ cancer battle.
Stewart, 64, had shot much of the footage for the Farrah’s Story documentary, which showed the late actress trying to seek out new treatments in a bid to [...]
Alana Stewart To Publish Farrah Fawcett Cancer Diary “My Journey With Farrahâ€
July 13th, 2009 |
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Alana Stewart, Farrah Fawcett’s best friend of more than 30 years, is publishing a diary she kept of the late actress’ battle cancer.
The iconic pinup model and star of the ’70s series Charlie’s Angels died June 25 after a lengthy fight against anal cancer. She was 62.
My Journey With Farrah will be released through publisher [...]
Science Weekly: In search of time
July 13th, 2009 |
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What it time? Is it the uniform, steady flow envisaged by Newton that helps us follow our daily routines? A spooky, purely subjective feeling? A dimension of Einstein’s space-time? Or simply the phenomenon that stops everything from happening all at once?
Science writer Dan Falk is on hand to discuss the neuroscience, the physics and the philosophy of chronology and poses the question – do we really know what time is?
James Randerson and Nell Boase join Alok for a round-up of the week’s science news including claims that vegetarians are 45% less likely to develop cancer of the blood compared with meat eaters, a monster haul of new dinosaur species discovered in the Australian outback, and the G8 nations’ battle with climate change.
We also visit the Royal Society’s Summer Exhibition to sink our teeth into some of the latest creations of science. Among the exhibits were a virtual cow, lasers that can treat cancer – and a very excitable and science-literate bunch of schoolchildren.
Don’t be shy …
• Mail us at science@guardian.co.uk
• Get our Twitter feeds for programme updates and daily science news
• Join our Facebook group
N Korean leader Kim ‘has cancer’
July 13th, 2009 |
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Nuclear negotiators from China and South Korea have opened talks in the South Korean capital, Seoul, about how to handle the threat from the North.
The officials said their goal was to have frank and in-depth discussions.
The talks take place amid new rumours about the ill health of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, with unconfirmed reports he has pancreatic cancer.
The United Nations stepped up sanctions against the North after its nuclear and missile tests of May.
"What is important is that the two sides have frank and in-depth consultations," Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei was reported as saying by South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.
He was meeting Wi Sung-lac, the South Korean special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs.
Mr Wu, who chairs the international talks on the North’s nuclear programme, arrived in Seoul on Sunday. He had already visited Russia, the United States, and Japan which, with the two Koreas and China, make up the six-party negotiations.
These talks faltered last year when North Korea and the US could not agree on verification procedures to asses the full extent of the North’s programmes.
Health speculation
This second meeting in a month between Mr Wu and Mr Wi comes amid heightened speculation about the health of the North’s Mr Kim.
A South Korean television news report said Mr Kim had life-threatening pancreatic cancer, diagnosed around the same time as he was thought to have a stroke last August.
The report was based on unnamed South Korean and Chinese intelligence sources and has not been confirmed.
Mr Kim, now 67 years old, was seen on 8 July, attending a memorial to mark the 15th anniversary of his father’s death.
He appeared gaunt and thin, with a slight limp, prompting more questions about his health.
It has been widely reported that Mr Kim’s third son, Kim Jong-un, is being groomed as his heir, although the regime has made no announcement.
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This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Kim Jong Il Has Pancreatic Cancer: Report
July 13th, 2009 |
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SEOUL, South Korea — North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has life-threatening pancreatic cancer, a news report said Monday, days after new images of him looking gaunt spurred speculation that his health might be worsening following a reporte…
North Korea’s Kim dying of pancreatic cancer: report
July 13th, 2009 |
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North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, 67, has life-threatening pancreatic cancer, South Korean broadcaster YTN said on Monday, citing information gathered from Chinese and South Korean intelligence sources. The report raises questions about leadership in Asia’s only communist dynasty and who will
Breast cancer ‘being over-diagnosed’
July 10th, 2009 |
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Screening for breast cancer is leading to over-diagnosis with many women undergoing unnecessary surgery and chemotherapy, scientists say
One in three women who is told she has breast cancer after screening is being diagnosed and treated unnecessarily, scientists say today.
Not all breast cancers are potential killers, say researchers in a paper in today’s British Medical Journal. Some are inconsequential. If they were not picked up, women would not know they had them. But because they are detected through breast cancer screening, women usually undergo surgery and chemotherapy which are traumatic and potentially harmful.
The Nordic Cochrane Centre group, which did the research, has identified over-diagnosis of breast cancer in the past from the original trials carried out before mammography screening was widely introduced. But in today’s paper, it calculates the extent of that over-diagnosis (detecting harmless cancers) in real populations where screening is offered in the UK, Canada, Australia, Sweden and Norway.
It is no longer contested that screening leads to over-diagnosis, according to an editorial published by the BMJ. “The question is no longer whether, but how often, it occurs,” writes Gilbert Welch, professor of medicine at the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice in the US. “The NHS recently scrapped its leaflet inviting women to undergo mammography in response to criticisms that it failed to mention the major harm of screening – over-diagnosis.”
Some cancers grow so slowly that the person eventually dies of something else, while others are dormant or even regress, he says.
“Because doctors don’t know which patients are over-diagnosed, we tend to treat them all. Over-diagnosis therefore results in unnecessary treatment.
With the advent of widespread efforts to diagnose cancer earlier, over-diagnosis has become an increasingly vexing problem.”
In other cancers, it is well recognised that there is a risk of picking up and treating tumours that would have done no harm. Prostate cancer is an obvious example, where the advice to men in the UK who have a screening test (although it is far from conclusive) is to watch and wait. But neuroblastoma, melanoma, thyroid cancer and lung cancer can also sometimes be detected and yet cause no harm.
“Mammography is one of medicine’s ‘close calls’ – a delicate balance between benefit and harm – where different people in the same situation might reasonably make different choices. Mammography undoubtedly helps some women but hurts others. No right answer exists, instead it is a personal choice,” writes Professor Welch.
The study, by Karsten Jorgensen and Peter Gotzsche, looked at breast cancer trends seven years before and seven years after screening was introduced in the five countries. They also took account of other factors that may have affected the results, such as changes in background levels of breast cancer and any compensatory drop in rates of breast cancer among older, previously screened women.
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Third of breast cancer diagnoses ‘harmless’
July 10th, 2009 |
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BMJ study finds that one third of women identified as having breast cancer may be treated unnecessarily
One in three breast cancer patients identified in public screening programmes may be treated unnecessarily, a new study has found.
Karsten Jorgensen and Peter Gotzsche of the Nordic Cochrane Centre in Copenhagen analysed breast cancer trends at least seven years before and after government-run screening programmes for breast cancer started in parts of Australia, Britain, Canada, Norway and Sweden.
The research, published today in the BMJ, formerly known as the British Medical Journal, found that once screening programmes began, more cases of breast cancer were inevitably picked up.
If a screening programme is working, there should be a drop in the number of advanced cancer cases detected in older women, since their cancers should theoretically have been caught earlier when they were screened.
However, Jorgensen and Gotzsche found the national screening systems, which usually test women aged between 50 and 69, simply reported thousands more cases than previously identified.
Overall, Jorgensen and Gotzsche found that one third of the women identified as having breast cancer didn’t actually need to be treated.
Some cancers never cause symptoms or death, and can grow too slowly to ever affect patients. As it is impossible to distinguish between those and deadly cancers, any identified cancer is treated. But the treatments can have harmful side-effects and be psychologically scarring.
“This information needs to get to women so they can make an informed choice,” Jorgensen said. “There is a significant harm in making women cancer patients without good reason.”
Jorgensen said that for years women were urged to undergo breast cancer screening without being informed of the risks involved, such as having to endure unnecessary treatment if a cancer was identified, even if it might never threaten their health.
“Mammography is one of medicine’s ‘close calls’, … where different people in the same situation might reasonably make different choices,” wrote H Gilbert Welch of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Research in an accompanying editorial in the BMJ. “Mammography undoubtedly helps some women but hurts others.”
Experts said overtreatment occurs wherever there is widespread cancer screening. The NHS recently ditched its pamphlet inviting women to get screened for breast cancer after critics complained it did not explain the overtreatment problem.
Laura Bell of Cancer Research UK said Britain’s breast cancer screening programme was partly responsible for the country’s reduced breast cancer cases.
“We still urge women to go for screening when invited,” she said, though she acknowledged it was crucial for women to be informed of the potential benefits and harms of screening.
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Vegetarians ‘less likely to get cancer’
July 1st, 2009 |
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• Striking difference found in risk of disease in blood
• Scientists acknowledge more research still needed
For years, they have boasted of the health benefits of their leafy diets, but now vegetarians have the proof that has so far eluded them: when it comes to cancer risks, they have the edge on carnivores.
Fresh evidence from the largest study to date to investigate dietary habits and cancer has concluded that vegetarians are 45% less likely to develop cancer of the blood than meat eaters and are 12% less likely to develop cancer overall.
Scientists said that while links between stomach cancer and eating meat had already been reported, they had uncovered a “striking difference” in the risk of blood cancers including leukaemia, multiple myeloma and non-Hodgkin lymphoma between the groups. The study looked at vegetarians, fish eaters and people who ate meat.
Co-author Naomi Allen, from the Cancer Research UK epidemiology unit at Oxford University, said: “Previous research has found that processed meat may increase the risk of stomach cancer, so our findings that vegetarians and fish eaters are at lower risk is plausible. But we do not know why cancer of the blood is lower in vegetarians.”
She said the differences in cancer risks were independent of other lifestyle factors including smoking, alcohol intake and obesity.
However, Allen urged caution over the interpretation of the findings. “It is a significant difference, but we should be a bit cautious since it is the first study showing that the risk of cancer of the blood is lower in vegetarians. We need to know what aspect of a fish and vegetarian diet is protecting against cancer. Is it the higher fibre intake, higher intake of fruit and vegetables, is it just meat per se?”
The study also reported that the total cancer incidence was significantly lower among both the fish eaters and the vegetarians compared with meat eaters.
The study, published in the British Journal of Cancer, is part of a long-term international study, the European prospective investigation into cancer and nutrition (Epic).
Today’s findings were based on a study of 61,000 people who scientists followed over 12 years. During this time, 3,350 participants were diagnosed with cancer. Of those, 68% (2,204) were meat eaters, 24% (800) were vegetarians and 9.5% (300) ate fish but no meat.
They found that 180 meat eaters developed blood cancers, while 49 vegetarians developed the diseases and 28 fish eaters. They found the risk of being diagnosed with cancers of the stomach, bladder and blood was significantly lower in vegetarians than in meat eaters but, in contrast to earlier work, they found the rate of bowel cancer was slightly higher among vegetarians than meat eaters.
A spokesman for BPEX, the British pig executive, questioned the methodology of the study: “We are unable to take a view on this because there is mixed evidence based on the compounding factors to do with lifestyle that come into it.”
Richard Lowe, the chief executive of Eblex, the English beef and lamb executive, said: “We think that the link between diet and cancer is complex and as scientists themselves say, more research is needed to see how big a part diet plays.”
The Oxford research is the latest in a series of reports to discourage too much meat in the diet. Last year, Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – which last year earned a share of the Nobel peace prize – urged giving up meat at least once a week as a way of combating global warming. The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation has estimated that meat production accounts for nearly a fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions.
Two years ago, the World Cancer Research Fund found a link between red and processed meat and bowel cancer and recommended that the average amount of meat eaten should be no more than 300g a week. In Britain, the current meat intake is about 970g a week for men and about 550g a week for women.
In 2005, the Epic study, funded by the Medical Research Council, Cancer Research UK and the International Agency for Research on Cancer, concluded that eating just two portions of red meat a day – the equivalent of a bacon sandwich and a fillet steak – increased the risk of bowel cancer by 35%. It found that eating fibre, in the form of vegetables, fruit and wholegrain cereals, lessened the risk of cancer and that fish, eaten at least every other day, was also protective.
Annette Pinner, chief executive of the Vegetarian Society, said: “It is widely recognised that a third of cancers are directly related to diet and what’s interesting in this study is the findings on blood cancers. We wouldn’t claim vegetarianism is a panacea for cancer but it is a step in the right direction.”
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