Colon Cancer

Carol Carr's diagnosis of colorectal cancer at age 44 ("Colon cancer rises for young," July 30) underscores the point that even though current national guidelines for average risk individuals call for colon screening to start at age 50, there are important exceptions. Anyone experiencing symptoms like Ms. Carr's should talk to a gastroenterologist. African-Americans fall into a high-risk category and are another exception to the rule to start screening at age 50. The American College of Gastroenterology in its official screening guidelines recommends that African-Americans should start younger - at age 45 - because they face a higher incidence of colorectal cancer generally, have more cancers in the right side of the colon, as well as potentially more aggressive tumors.

Columbia cybersecurity firm Sourcefire Inc. named John Becker, a longtime member of its board of directors, as the company's new CEO on Monday. Becker comes to Sourcefire from a position as CEO of ScienceLogic, a Reston, Va., company that sells network monitoring software and services. Before that, he led a series of information security companies that were each sold. He has served on Sourcefire's board since 2008. Becker steps in after Sourcefire founder and chief technology officer Martin F. Roesch led the company on an interim basis for nearly a year.

Of the 60,000 Americans who die from colon cancer each year, 5,000 to 10,000 carry a gene that predisposes them to the disease. With the recent announcement that scientists have now isolated that gene, there is a way to identify those people and help them take the kinds of precautions that could vastly prolong their lives.Dr. Bert Vogelstein of the Johns Hopkins Oncology Center and )) Dr. Albert de la Chapelle, his collaborator in Helsinki, Finland, estimate that the gene could be carried by one of every 200 people, giving them a 95 percent chance of developing colon cancer.

March is observed across the nation as Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month. Many survivors, patients, caregivers and others whose lives have been affected by colorectal cancer come together to generate awareness of the importance of getting screened and also encouraging loved ones to get screened. According to the American Cancer Society, excluding skin cancers, colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer diagnosed in men and women in the United States. In 2013, the American Cancer Society estimates 102,480 new cases of colon cancer and 40,340 new cases of rectal cancer will be reported.

Teams of scientists at Johns Hopkins and several other research labs have isolated a gene responsible for a rare inherited form of colon cancer. On the way, they also found the suspected triggers for the more common forms of the disease. The discoveries, reported in the journals Science and Cell, illustrate the promise of progress to come in mapping out the human genome.Several years ago, Bert Vogelstein of the Hopkins Oncology Center found a series of "tumor suppressor genes" that act like brakes, controlling cell growth.

Aspirin, already shown to protect against heart disease and stroke, may also protect against colon cancer.Patients who took aspirin at least four times a week for at least three months were half as likely to develop colon cancer as were patients who did not take aspirin, according to Dr. Lynn Rosenberg of the School of Public Health at the Boston University School of Medicine.The exact amount of aspirin taken was not known, Dr. Rosenberg said.The 11-year study compared 1,326 colon cancer patients with 4,891 patients who had other types of cancer or no cancer at all.The study was reported in the March 6 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Adding to a rapidly emerging picture about colon cancer, an international team of scientists has discovered a second gene that causes what might be the most common of all inherited diseases.People who carry the gene -- or another one identified late last year -- are born with almost certain odds of developing colon cancer. Together, the genes are believed to cause 90 percent of all cases of inherited colon cancer, a disease that strikes one out of 200 people in the United States.The discovery, reported in this week's issue of Science, was made by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Oncology Center; Human Genome Sciences Inc. in Gaithersburg; the Institute for Genomic Research in Rockville; the University of Helsinki, Finland; and Creighton University in Omaha, Neb.Dr.

BETHESDA -- Scientists at the Johns Hopkins Oncology Center have identified a genetic defect responsible for an inherited form of colon cancer and will soon test people to see if they are carriers.The test, which should be available at Hopkins and selected research centers across the country within six months, could bring important news to people whose families have been wracked by the disease.Carriers run almost certain odds of developing the disease. But those who know they inherited the gene could monitor their health for signs of a developing cancer in time to avoid fatal complications.

Researchers, led by a team based at the Johns Hopkins Oncology Center, have identified a gene they think may provide the earliest step in the lengthy development of colon cancer, the third-leading cancer killer of men and women.If further research confirms that this "leading candidate" gene is involved in the hereditary form of colon cancer, people at high risk could learn through a blood test if they were carrying the damaged gene, said Dr. Bert Vogelstein, oncology professor at Hopkins, who headed the research effort.

Aspirin, the mild-mannered pharmaceutical that has burst from the medicine cabinet in recent years as Superdrug, is now tackling cancer: Researchers report today that people who take regular, low doses of aspirin may cut their risk of dying of colon cancer.The finding is preliminary and already hotly debated, and researchers said it would be premature to recommend aspirin to prevent colon cancer.But they called the results intriguing, in that they suggest the disease might be controllable with a simple pill.

Sourcefire Inc., a Columbia-based provider of cybersecurity technology to government and commercial clients, said its CEO retired earlier this week after taking a medical leave to be treated for colon cancer. John C. Burris, 57, led Sourcefire since 2008. Company officials credited Burris, a former top executive with Citrix Systems, Lucent Technologies and AT&T, with helping it achieve profitability and expand its product offerings. Burris had been on medical leave since July. Martin Roesch, Sourcefire's founder and chief technology officer, is serving as the company's interim CEO until a successor for Burris can be found.

Description: Two Johns Hopkins University scientists were awarded one of the National Cancer Institute's first grants intended to answer what it calls "provocative questions" in cancer research. They will receive more than $500,000 over a year as they study how and why infections can cause certain types of cancer and how cancer spreads. Other "provocative questions" focus on how obesity contributes to cancer risk, why some cancers can be cured by chemotherapy alone, and why some tumors become malignant after years of being benign.

Carol Carr's diagnosis of colorectal cancer at age 44 ("Colon cancer rises for young," July 30) underscores the point that even though current national guidelines for average risk individuals call for colon screening to start at age 50, there are important exceptions. Anyone experiencing symptoms like Ms. Carr's should talk to a gastroenterologist. African-Americans fall into a high-risk category and are another exception to the rule to start screening at age 50. The American College of Gastroenterology in its official screening guidelines recommends that African-Americans should start younger - at age 45 - because they face a higher incidence of colorectal cancer generally, have more cancers in the right side of the colon, as well as potentially more aggressive tumors.

Annette C. Goodell, a certified tax consultant who was vice president of Broad Spectrum Optics LLC, died Feb. 2 of colon cancer at Gilchrist Hospice Care in Towson. The longtime Original Northwood resident was 73. The daughter of educators, the former Annette Carla Giovanna Schirokauer was born near Florence, Italy, in 1938. With the outbreak of World War II, she came to the U.S. with her mother and brother. They later settled in Baltimore, and it wasn't until after the war that her father was able to join his family.

Six faculty members at Gilman School are participating in Swim Across America's "open swim" Sept. 18 to raise money for cancer research and to honor family members who are fighting or died of cancer. The faculty members are Carl Ahlgren, director of college counseling and a history teacher; his wife, Kristin Ahlgren, a lower school library assistant; Ned Harris, academic dean and a history teacher; Patrick Hastings, an upper school English teacher; Rob Heubeck, an upper school history teacher and technology coordinator; and Jim Morrison, an upper school science teacher, according to Gilman spokeswoman Jodi Pluznik.

Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center announced Monday that it has established a Center for Personalized Cancer Medicine with a $30 million gift from the Richmond, Va.-based Commonwealth Foundation for Cancer Research. The money will further Hopkins' research into technologies that can pinpoint genetic characteristics of a patient's cancer so therapies can be tailor-made. "Treatment fine-tuned to a patient's genetic makeup is the future of cancer medicine," said Ronald J. Daniels, president of the Johns Hopkins University.

Astudy that last week showed a link between colon cancer and red meat confirmed what health experts have been saying for years: It's best to limit how often you eat meat and how much you eat when you do."One of the most important things about the study is that it comes after a lot of other evidence," said Dr. Walter C. Willett, professor of epidemiology and nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health.Dr. Willett, director of the six-year study of the dietary habits of 88,751 nurses, found that those who ate beef, lamb or pork every day had 2 1/2 times the risk of colon cancer as those who ate red meat once a month or less.

A much-touted, widely used stool-screening test is an ineffective, unreliable method for detecting colon cancer, researchers at the Mayo Clinic say.In a study involving more than 13,000 patients, researchers at the Mayo Institute, based in Rochester, Minn., found that the popular Hemoccult test failed to detect more than 70 percent of colorectal cancers and more than 90 percent of polyps found in follow-up exams.Researchers also looked at another test, HemoQuant, which is more sensitive in detecting fecal blood.

The month of May has been designated as Women's Health Month to encourage women to take charge of their health. There is no better step that a woman over the age of 50 (or 45 for African-Americans) can take than to schedule a colonoscopy. Colon cancer is the third leading cause of cancer deaths for women, but with early detection, it is 90 percent curable. And while mammograms and Pap tests are critical for the early detection of breast and cervical cancer, a colonoscopy can actually prevent colon cancer because colon cancer often starts as a benign polyp.

Madelene E. "Sugar" Marcus, a retired bakery manager and former longtime Linthicum resident, died April 14 of colon cancer at Victory Special Care Center in El Cajon, Calif. She was 85. Madelene Elizabeth Brown was born in Baltimore and raised in Curtis Bay. She attended city public schools. She was married in 1943 to John Marcus, a Shell Oil Co. truck driver, who died in 1993. "She was called 'Sugar' from the time she was very young because her sisters said she was so sweet," said her daughter, Jacqueline Whitney of West Palm Beach, Fla. From 1960 to 1970, Mrs. Marcus was a manager for the old Silber's Bakery.