Treatment

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I'll pass on the Chemo, Pass the apricots

An austrailian paper carried the story of Paul Reid last week, who was diagnosed with incurable lymphoma over a decade ago.

He's still alive today. According to him, the secret to his success is apricot kernels - thirty a day.

Reid turned down chemotherapy, vowing to eat himself well. Today, 13 years in remission, the 68-year-old believes that ''cancer-killing'' properties in the kernels he still eats daily, coupled with a strict vegan diet and prayer, have cured him. ''We're not immortal, but I believe I'll be healthy from taking this direction,'' he says.

Biggest Challenge of Drug Development in Lymphoma is Enrolling Patients on Clinical Trials

There are currently 1230 clinical trials actively enrolling patients in 1419 worldwide centers. Since January 2009, a total of 437 new lymphoma studies were registered and are currently enrolling patients, of which 238 trials are enrolling patients in the United States.

Dr. Anas Younes is an oncologist, lymphoma expert, and a Professor of Medicine at M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. He is asking for help in promoting high priority clinical trials that are likely to make an impact on patients’ lives.

Researchers have a new hope for a new therapy

I love sharing good news – it’s one of the best parts of my job. When a new therapy or protocol is showing promising results – I love to hear it, then I attempt to understand it and share it with you. Today’s encouraging word? PCI-32765.
Ok, it doesn’t sound terribly impressive, but wait. It’s a new drug being assessed in a Phase I clinical trial at the Virginia G. Piper Cancer Center in collaboration with the Clinical Division of the Translational Genomics Research Institute.

Rituxan Approved for CLL

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Rituxan (rituximab) yesterday to treat certain patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), a slowly progressing blood and bone marrow cancer. It’s not a new drug, but the approval for CLL is new.
Rituxan, a popular anti-cancer drug, is intended for patients with CLL who are beginning chemotherapy for the first time and for those who have not responded to other cancer drugs for CLL. Rituxan is given with two other chemotherapy drugs, fludarabine and cyclophosphamide.

Poor Nutrition Affects Cancer Recovery

I almost wrote the headline “poor nutrition affects health,” but realized that nobody would be surprised. After all, we all know that, right? The question for us on this site is to what degree nutrition affects cancer?

Get a Cancer Battle Plan

When people are trying to get pests to leave the house, they make them as uncomfortable as possible – they set traps, remove food sources, spray chemicals - anything to send the message that they aren’t welcome. When police are trying to get bad guys to evacuate a house, they have the same approach. Do everything you can to make the environment inhospitable. No food, no water, no air conditioning, and maybe even a smoke bomb or two.
What does this have to do with cancer?

Myeloma and Waldenström macroglobulinemia Co-Pay Funding Announced

Effective February 1, 2010, eligible myeloma and Waldenström macroglobulinemia patients will now be able to receive up to $10,000 in support to help offset the costs of prescription drug co-pays and other insurance related expenses.

Organizing Your Treatment

I am all about anything that makes life easier – so I love the idea of an all-in-one Cancer Medical Organizer for patients and care givers to track and organize there treatment care journey. Medtrakker.com is the first one I’ve seen, although I imagine you could create one yourself. The benefits are numerous:

Ending Cancer's Information Lottery

In cancer's information lottery, there's no cash bonanza and you may never be certain that you've won or lost. Here's how it's played:

Following a cancer diagnosis by your local doctors, you're sent to more specialized doctors. Will they be up on the very latest treatments and therapies for your specific cancer?

Will you even know if they aren't?

Congratulations, you're playing cancer's information lottery. Luck is on your side if you happen to fall into the hands of doctors who know either the latest, or the best, treatments.

Voreloxin Trial Completes Enrollment

To get good news, we have to rejoice in the lots of little positive announcements along the way. At first, when I read Sunesis' press release about the enrollment completion, I wanted to yawn.

But, then I was reminded, that if enrollment wasn't complete, then nothing could be learned. So...here is some potentially good news down the road: