National Cancer Institute

ONE OF the most remarkable breakthroughs in the past two decades is the discovery that cancer is a genetic disease. Human genes are being identified at such a rapid rate that this new knowledge promises a new era of prevention, treatment and cures.Dr. Richard Klausner, director of the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, addressed these issues during a recent press conference at a meeting commemorating the 40th anniversary celebration of Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine.The laboratory is the world's preeminent center for mouse genetics, and it has played a major role in setting the pace for human gene discovery.

Rockville-based EntreMed Inc. said yesterday that it has transferred its rights to the controversial drug thalidomide, a potential treatment for cancer, to Celgene Corp. of Warren, N.J.The agreement also calls for Celgene to take on the responsibility and cost of human clinical trials of thalidomide.The drug has shown promise in preventing tumors from developing blood vessels needed for growth.Under the agreement, Celgene will immediately begin paying EntreMed an undisclosed percentage of royalties on sales of the drug.

WASHINGTON -- When tens of thousands gather in Washington today for the March to Conquer Cancer, many will celebrate some hopeful news: Overall rates of new cancer cases are declining for the first time since the 1930s.But a smaller group is highlighting a dismal footnote. Cancer rates among minorities remain high -- and in some cases are rising.Despite research advances, treatment breakthroughs and unprecedented levels of funding, African-Americans, Latinos, Asian-Americans and American Indians get cancer and die from the disease at significantly higher rates than whites.

NEW YORK -- A new book by NBC medical correspondent Dr. Bob Arnot, "The Breast Cancer Prevention Diet," is a No. 1 best seller that purports to let women in on "the great untold secret" that proper nutrition can "prevent" breast cancer."

LOS ANGELES -- A drug used to prevent osteoporosis in older women reduces the risk of breast cancer by as much as 70 percent without any serious side effects, researchers said yesterday at a meeting of the American Society for Clinical Oncology in Los Angeles.The risk reduction produced by the drug, called raloxifene, is about the same as that reported earlier this year for tamoxifen, but the latter drug can increase the risk of endometrial cancer and blood clots."Coming on the heels of the recent tamoxifen study, this is very exciting news," said Dr. Derek Raghavan of the University of Southern California's Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Last week, as Harriet Legum waited for her mammogram at the Johns Hopkins Imaging Center, she fumed about the latest pronouncement from the National Institutes of Health. Unable to confirm the life-saving value of routine mammograms for women in their 40s, an NIH panel said Thursday that these women should weigh the evidence and decide for themselves whether to have the test.A breast cancer survivor, Legum was furious that anyone -- let alone a prestigious national health organization -- would refuse to recommend regular mammograms for women in their 40s. Her frustration spoke for millions of American women who expect guidance from national experts and instead find confusion about whether mammograms will help save their lives.

Confused about the mammogram guidelines for women in their 40s? Consider yourself in the majority.Last week, two of the nation's most influential cancer policy-making groups changed their recommendations yet again. You'd need a scorecard to keep track of it all.So here it is:The American Cancer Society, the nation's largest private cancer organization, recommends annual screening mammograms for women in their 40s. Previously, it recommended screening every one to two years.The National Cancer Institute, the government's principal agency for cancer research and public education, now recommends screening mammograms every one to two years beginning at age 40. Women whose risk for breast cancer is higher should consider getting mammograms earlier.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Alarmed at the seemingly high rate of brain cancer among children in St. Lucie County, Fla., a group of mothers who courted controversy with their calls for a major health study are starting to feel vindicated.Last summer, the mother of a child who died organized other families, raised concerns about the local water and soil and generally set the population on "pins and needles," in the words of the Port St. Lucie mayor.At first, the mothers' effort seemed to stall as community leaders tried to stave off panic over a highly questionable public health threat.

Twenty-five years after the United States launched an all-out "war on cancer," the incoming president of America's top cancer research organization asks, "What war?"His question comes despite recent evidence that cancer death rates have finally started to decline after decades in which news from the battlefront was usually discouraging.Nobody believes more fervently in the cause than Dr. Donald S. Coffey, a Johns Hopkins researcher who decided to commit his life to cancer while meditating beside a bread-wrapping machine in the Tennessee bakery where he once worked.

In an isolated section of SmithKline Beecham medical laboratory in Owings Mills, three women pore over microscopes in search of misshapen nuclei. They work in silence, occasionally getting up from the desk to enter their findings in a nearby computer.Their mission: to locate abnormal cells, the detection of which can save a woman's life.Their job: one of the toughest in laboratory science.They are "reading" Pap smears, searching for cancer in cells scraped from a woman's cervix. Imagine trying to find a clump of squares in 20,000 round grains of sand poured on a desk, and you have an idea of what it's like.

Most men diagnosed with prostate cancer in the past two decades never needed to know they had the disease, leading many to treatment that can do more harm than good, according to a new study. The findings, published in Monday's Journal of the National Cancer Institute, found that since a blood test became the standard way to screen for prostate cancer, an additional 1.3 million men have been diagnosed with the disease. But because many men are diagnosed with cancer that will not cause symptoms and will not kill them, the screening tests save few lives, the authors conclude.

A new study that suggests that racial differences in biology could be a key reason black women are more likely to die of breast cancer than white women has reignited an intense debate among medical experts about the role of genetics versus factors such as poverty, diet and unequal access to quality health care. For nearly three decades, researchers have known about the disparity in death rates, but they have been puzzled over the reasons why. In Maryland, for example, the breast cancer death rate for black women is 15 percent higher than for white women, even though African-Americans have a lower incidence of the disease.

A state auditor's finding that a private contractor tampered with the numbers in the Family Health Administration's cancer registry has cast a new spotlight on the disease registries used to identify and address emerging threats to public health. Experts in the field say the patient data in the nation's various cancer registries are vital to their efforts to track trends and focus research and public education. But they also complain that there are no comparable national registries for a long list of public health problems of growing concern in the United States.

NEW YORK -- Death rates for most forms of cancer have continued to decline despite a surprising and inexplicable rise in the incidence of thyroid cancer in women, scientists reported yesterday. The report takes a decade-long look at cancer incidence and mortality in the United States. It was compiled by the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries, the National Cancer Institute, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Cancer Society. Medical investigators report a 1.6 percent annual decline in cancer deaths for men from 1992 to 2003 and an 0.8 percent annual drop among women.

Doctors who treat women with breast cancer are glimpsing the possibility of a vastly different future. After years of adding more and more to the regimen - more drugs, shorter intervals between chemotherapy sessions, higher doses - they are now wondering whether many women could skip chemotherapy. If the new ideas are validated by large studies, such as two that are just beginning, treatment of breast cancer would markedly change. Today, national guidelines call for giving chemotherapy to nearly every one of the nearly 200,000 women whose breast cancer is diagnosed each year.

Research Vitamins don't stop prostate cancer Vitamins E and C and the nutrient beta carotene don't protect against prostate cancer, says the latest study in the continuing, confusing quest to determine when supplements really help health. Previous research has yielded conflicting results, and even this new study of almost 30,000 men published in this week's Journal of the National Cancer Institute doesn't settle the issue. Indeed, while vitamin E showed no effect on men overall, the study leaves open the possibility that it might help smokers.

Yetso helping develop anti-cancer agenda Brock Yetso of the Ulman Cancer Fund for Young Adults was one of 25 experts selected to travel to Austin, Texas, last week to help develop a national agenda to address cancers that affect adolescents and young adults. The National Cancer Institute, in collaboration with the Lance Armstrong Foundation, has established an Adolescent and Young Adult Oncology Progress Review Group to develop the agenda. The group will examine the National Cancer Institute's research on these cancers and identify scientific priorities and resources needed to make progress toward their management and cure.

Ovarian-cancer survival may be predicted by the levels of two proteins in the body, a new study shows, while other recent research suggests that more women's lives might be saved by using existing tests to diagnose persistent symptoms that might indicate the presence of the so-called "silent killer." Scientists at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston said in a report this week that low levels of both atypical protein kinase C iota and Cyclin E corresponded to a better chance of long-term survival for patients.

Marianne Kelly didn't know where to turn for help when she was diagnosed with a brain tumor almost 20 years ago. It wasn't so much a question of medical treatment. The doctors were more than capable of handling that part of the disease. It was everything else associated with battling cancer that overwhelmed her. Where to find pants with an elastic waistband because steroids caused her tummy to double in size? What kind of makeup would cover the terrible acne she got from chemotherapy, but also not irritate the sensitive, red skin she was left with from radiation?

When a woman receives a diagnosis of breast cancer, does her husband mask or admit his fear? If his wife must have a mastectomy, should he advocate for breast reconstruction? Must he listen patiently as his partner repeats the same concern for the umpteenth time? When his wife, Marsha Dale, a high school teacher, received a diagnosis of breast cancer in 2001, Marc Silver, an editor at U.S. News & World Report, had no primer for tackling such thorny questions. His initial response to her diagnosis was callous, Silver says.