Liver Cancer

Scientists have detected a molecular "hot spot" that is strongly linked to liver cancer, one of the most common and lethal malignancies in the world. The spot is a tiny region of a single gene where toxins that infiltrate the liver seem to home in, sabotaging the gene and touching off cancerous growth.The discovery, which is reported in two papers appearing today in the journal Nature, is the first persuasive example yet found of the exact way toxins and other risk factors attack DNA, the basic genetic material in cells, and cause cancer.

Hepatitis C has long been a problem with a low rate of cure. But new drug therapies are in use and others are on the horizon, according to Dr. Paul J. Thuluvath, chief of gastroenterology at Mercy Medical Center and the medical director of the Institute for Digestive Health & Liver Disease at Mercy. That has meant better liver health for millions in this country and around the globe. What is hepatitis C and what causes it? Hepatitis C (HCV) is a virus that causes liver disease in a significant number of the U.S. and world population.

CHICAGO -- A new drug looks poised to become the first effective treatment for liver cancer, one of the deadliest and most common cancers in the world, whose incidence has been rising in the United States, doctors said yesterday. In a large clinical trial, the drug, called Nexavar, extended the lives of patients by almost three months, or 44 percent. While that is far from a cure, experts say it represents a breakthrough after years of efforts to find a drug that works. "We did not have anything for these patients," said Dr. Josep M. Llovet, one of the principal investigators in the trial.

Columbia-based Celsion has deal with Japan firm Columbia-based drug maker Celsion Corp. said yesterday that Japanese pharmaceutical firm Yakult Honsha Co. Ltd has agreed to pay up to $20.5 million in licensing fees for the rights to market Celsion's liver cancer treatment, ThermoDox, to the Japanese market. ThermoDox is in a phase 3 clinical trial in the U.S. for liver cancer as well as a phase 2 trial for recurrent chest wall breast cancer. Yakult will pay Celsion $2.5 million, followed by $18 million once ThermoDox gains approval from the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare to treat primary liver cancer.

This Christmas season was sweeter for Tanika Thompson and Lynn Neubauer, two Maryland women who thought they wouldn't live long enough to celebrate it. Both received a diagnosis of liver cancer - Thompson in late 2003 and Neubauer last January - a lethal disease that had spread from other organs in their bodies. Both marked their lives in days and months, not years. But a new procedure at the University of Maryland Medical Center that sends microscopic beads of radiation directly to tumors gave them both new leases on life.

Those who knew Anna Tomalis best say the way she went about her life near the end truly captured her spirit. The 13-year-old Clarksville resident, who had been battling a rare form of liver cancer for three years, was struggling physically in recent days. But she resolved to press on with life, managing to go horseback riding and take in a movie. "Anna lived life to the fullest," said her father, Ron Tomalis. "She had every reason to not do something, but she always found ways to overcome her discomfort."

On April 19, 2006, MARK D. GIBBS, after a brief battle with liver cancer, he was 43 years old. He is survived by all who love him, in us he will live until we meet again. Memorial services were held, both in Jacksonville and Key West, Florida, attended by many friends and relatives.

Babrak Karmal, 67, a Soviet-backed leader who ruled Afghanistan in the 1980s during that country's bitter civil war, died of liver cancer on Sunday in Moscow. One of the world's poorest nations, Afghanistan was in turmoil from the day Karmal came to power in 1979 until the day he resigned in 1986.Pub Date: 12/07/96

Arnold Feuerman,81, an inventor and former chairman of Arnold Automotive Group, one of the nation's largest auto dealers, died Friday in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., of liver cancer.Willi Millowitsch,90, one of Germany's best-known comic actors and a fixture at the Cologne carnival, died Monday in Cologne.Fred Roti,78, a former Chicago alderman who was convicted of political corruption, died of lung cancer Monday in Chicago.

Harold W. Ezell, 61, the co-author of California's controversial Proposition 187 and a vocal advocate of immigration reform, died of liver cancer Tuesday in Newport Beach, Calif. He helped draft Proposition 187, which sought to eliminate publicly funded education and most health care services to undocumented immigrants. The measure passed in November 1994 but was later ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge.John R. Williams, 88, who helped propel Republicans to statewide power and was the first Arizona governor to serve a four-year term, died Monday in Phoenix.

Twenty-five years ago, a diagnosis of AIDS was a nearly immediate death sentence. But now that patients with the AIDS virus are living longer, doctors are discovering a new set of complications: People with HIV have a much higher risk of developing certain cancers - lung, liver, head and neck, to name a few - and doctors fear that a cancer epidemic among this group could be coming. Researchers in Maryland, home to one of the nation's largest AIDS populations per capita, are among the leaders in an effort to solve what has become something of a medical mystery.

Those who knew Anna Tomalis best say the way she went about her life near the end truly captured her spirit. The 13-year-old Clarksville resident, who had been battling a rare form of liver cancer for three years, was struggling physically in recent days. But she resolved to press on with life, managing to go horseback riding and take in a movie. "Anna lived life to the fullest," said her father, Ron Tomalis. "She had every reason to not do something, but she always found ways to overcome her discomfort."

Janice Marie Stelmach, a retired secretary who had beaten back cancer four times over a 23-year period, died of complications from liver cancer Monday at her home in Mount Airy. She was 66. Janice Waltrup was born in Washington to Elizabeth Waltrup and Charles Waltrup. She graduated in 1959 from Seton Keough High School in Baltimore. She worked as a secretary for a shipping company and a paintbrush manufacturer before she married George Stelmach in 1963. The couple lived in Virginia for a short time, then settled in Brooklyn Park, where they lived for 28 years.

Maryland : Biotechnology FDA approves Celsion study design Celsion Corp., the Columbia biotech, announced yesterday that the Food and Drug Administration has approved its study design for a final clinical trial of ThermoDox to treat primary liver cancer. Celsion said it would begin a 600-patient trial at 40 sites, including a number in Asia, where the incidence of liver cancer is higher than it is in the United States. ThermoDox, a heat-sensitive encapsulation of an approved cancer drug, will be tested in combination with radio frequency ablation, a liver cancer treatment in which electrical signals are used to heat the tumor.

CHICAGO -- A new drug looks poised to become the first effective treatment for liver cancer, one of the deadliest and most common cancers in the world, whose incidence has been rising in the United States, doctors said yesterday. In a large clinical trial, the drug, called Nexavar, extended the lives of patients by almost three months, or 44 percent. While that is far from a cure, experts say it represents a breakthrough after years of efforts to find a drug that works. "We did not have anything for these patients," said Dr. Josep M. Llovet, one of the principal investigators in the trial.

On April 19, 2006, MARK D. GIBBS, after a brief battle with liver cancer, he was 43 years old. He is survived by all who love him, in us he will live until we meet again. Memorial services were held, both in Jacksonville and Key West, Florida, attended by many friends and relatives.

Columbia-based Celsion has deal with Japan firm Columbia-based drug maker Celsion Corp. said yesterday that Japanese pharmaceutical firm Yakult Honsha Co. Ltd has agreed to pay up to $20.5 million in licensing fees for the rights to market Celsion's liver cancer treatment, ThermoDox, to the Japanese market. ThermoDox is in a phase 3 clinical trial in the U.S. for liver cancer as well as a phase 2 trial for recurrent chest wall breast cancer. Yakult will pay Celsion $2.5 million, followed by $18 million once ThermoDox gains approval from the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare to treat primary liver cancer.

Oseola McCarty, 91, a one-time washerwoman who earned widespread recognition after she donated her life savings to the University of Southern Mississippi, died Sunday in Hattiesburg, Miss., of complications of liver cancer.In donating the $150,000 in July 1995, she said she wanted to give others the chance to get an education she never had.ObituariesBecause of limited space and the large number of requests for obituaries, The Sun regrets that it cannot publish all the obituaries it receives.

Stew Albert, 66, a founder of the Youth International Party, whose members were better known as Yippies, died of liver cancer Monday in Portland, Ore. Mr. Albert was clubbed by police during the 1968 anti-war protests at the Democratic National Convention and was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the ensuing Chicago 7 trial. Though he helped found the Yippies, better-known leaders of the group included Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin and Paul Krassner. The Yippies in 1968 advanced a pig as candidate for president.