Tumor

ARLINGTON, Texas -- New York Yankees outfielder Darryl Strawberry was found to have colon cancer yesterday and is scheduled to undergo surgery to remove a walnut-sized tumor tomorrow at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital in New York.Strawberry, 36, underwent two days of testing to find the cause of lingering intestinal discomfort. Doctors detected a spot on his colon Wednesday and conducted a colonoscopy that revealed the tumor yesterday.Club officials announced the results of the examination during a team meeting late yesterday afternoon at The Ballpark in Arlington, where the Yankees were preparing for Game 3 of their Division Series against the Texas Rangers.

Orioles general manager Pat Gillick sat in an auxiliary clubhouse yesterday, talking about Eric Davis' reputation."Going back, he had a little bit of a rap on him, that at times he didn't want to play," Gillick said.Davis lacerated his kidney diving for a ball in Game 4 of the 1990 World Series, but people thought he didn't want to play.He returned from a self-imposed 18-month retirement after neck surgery, but people thought he didn't want to play.Now he has undergone surgery to remove a cancerous mass from his colon, a condition that he apparently had all season.

Craig Allan Warnick, who pursued an active life despite a struggle with a little-known hereditary cancer called von Hippel-Lindau disease or VHL, died of the illness Thursday at Johns Hopkins Hospital. He was 40.Mr. Warnick was 18 and a high school senior when he developed a brain tumor, although his condition was not diagnosed for four years.VHL is a relatively rare genetic disorder that produces tumors, primarily in the eyes, brain, spinal cord, kidneys and adrenal glands, and affects vital functions such as coordination.

A monument to hyperinflation hangs on Steve Hanke's office wall. It's a framed piece of paper money with more zeros than you can count, a 500 billion-dinar Yugoslavian note that in its heyday could have bought, maybe, a modest meal.Hanke enshrines the bank note the way an oncologist might pickle and preserve a remarkable tumor -- as a testament to the enemy's power and a goad to do better next time. Hanke is a doctor of national currencies, and demand for his skills is growing on several continents.

Guilford Pharmaceuticals Inc., a Baltimore-based biotechnology company, said yesterday that it has filed an application for regulatory approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to market its wafer implant that prevents brain cancer relapses.The company hopes to have a hearing on the application later this year.JTC Guilford Pharmaceuticals already has FDA approval to distribute the wafer, called Gliadel, to neurosurgeons who have patients with a recurrence of malignant brain cancer.

A macabre irony weaves through Joe Cannon's survivor story.While he was almost consumed by cancer six years ago, Anne Arundel officials rushed to name a baseball stadium in Harmans for him before his death. Today, Mr. Cannon runs the Recreation and Parks Department that operates the 1,600-seat tribute to his memory.With a chuckle, the avid sports fan points out that the tumor once threatening his life was as big as a football."I'm so damn lucky," said Mr. Cannon, a square block of a man.Mr.

A macabre irony weaves through Joe Cannon's survivor story.When he was battling cancer six years ago, Anne Arundel officials rushed to name a baseball stadium in Harmans for him before his death. Today, Mr. Cannon runs the department that operates the 1,600-seat tribute to his memory.With a chuckle, the avid sports fan points out that the tumor once threatening his life was as big as a football. He was written off several times by doctors during the past 13 years, he says, but survives a young physician who once treated him."

SAN ANTONIO -- In the battle against breast cancer, doctors over the years have focused on one particular substance within the tumor cell carrying the descriptive, if not grimly ironic, name of HER2.Interest in HER2 -- its complete name is HER2neu -- has risen and waned over time as researchers first speculated that excess amounts in tumor cells could predict how aggressively a tumor ** would behave but then mostly discounted that notion.Now researchers are taking a second look at HER2 after recent studies suggesting that, rather than predicting aggressiveness, it may play a role in determining whether the tumor is resistant to chemotherapy.

Hugs shared, prayers said, Diane Aikens is wheeled into the operating room at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Brain surgery awaits. A medical team hovers over the patient, prepping her for the five-hour ordeal. The room is bright, cold, quiet. Too quiet, Aikens decides.Before nodding off, she summons her strength and, with impeccable timing, delivers the punch line:"All my life, people have been trying to see what's been going on inside my head, and now you guys get to do it."One year later, Aikens says she can still hear the nurses laughing beneath their surgical masks.

Matt Chrest of Abingdon was just a carefree 10-year-old last summer when a dangerous tumor invaded his mouth.His only chance for survival was having his tongue removed in a 17-hour operation that took place in November. His family didn't know if he ever would be able to eat solid food or talk again.But today, Matt is happily swallowing pureed McDonald's hamburgers and pizza. And most surprising, even to his doctors, he speaks clearly enough for strangers to understand him.He's also become a celebrity of sorts as the boy with no tongue.

Pancreatic cancer has been in the news recently. Last month, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg underwent surgery to remove a malignant tumor from her pancreas. That same week, actor Patrick Swayze, who was diagnosed with the disease about a year ago, wrote a letter to Congress urging increased funding for research. The pancreas is a large organ that secretes enzymes that aid digestion and hormones that help regulate the metabolism of sugars. While cancer of the pancreas is not as common as other cancers, it is particularly virulent, says Dr. Armando Sardi, director of the Institute for Cancer Care and head of surgical oncology at Mercy Medical Center.

BETHESDA - Micromet Inc.'s experimental cancer treatment shrank tumors in people with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in a study that might lead to a new approach in tackling malignant diseases. The medicine, called blinatumomab, caused complete or partial tumor regression in all seven patients who received the highest dosage in tests by German researchers, according to data published in Science magazine. The findings were first presented at a medical meeting in Switzerland in June. Blinatumomab is a protein that binds immune cells with cancer-fighting properties to tumor cells, releasing toxins that destroy the disease more effectively at the site.

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy chose to undergo yesterday's brain surgery at Duke University after some of the country's top medical experts disagreed with specialists at the Boston hospital where he was initially treated. Dr. Allan H. Friedman, co-director of Duke's brain tumor center, was among those who favored an aggressive attack on the tumor that triggered a seizure last month, alerting doctors to his condition, according to a Johns Hopkins physician who consulted in the case. Friedman, an internationally known neurosurgeon, announced yesterday that the 3 1/2 -hour operation went well and that his patient was talking and in good spirits afterward.

Pop music blared from the radio of an empty Volkswagen Beetle convertible parked in front of Lime Kiln Middle School. The dark blue car was plastered with magnetic banners reading "Groovy" and "Far Out, Man," along with yellow smiley faces and psychedelic peace symbols. Plunked incongruously on the car's hood amid the hippie greetings and flower-child emblems were a Red Cross and the slogan, "Give Life, Give Blood." To the friends and family of Anna Tomalis, a seventh-grader at the Fulton school, the car set the tone for the blood drive she organized Saturday.

JERUSALEM -- Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced yesterday that he has prostate cancer but that he will continue to govern and expects to be cured by surgery. Olmert, 62, looking fit and speaking calmly, told a news conference that a biopsy had detected a malignant tumor in its early stage. He said he had learned of the diagnosis over the weekend and has chosen to undergo surgical removal of the prostate gland "in the coming months." "My doctors have informed me that I have a full chance of recovery and there is nothing about the tumor that is life-threatening or liable to impair my performance or my ability to carry out the duties bestowed upon me," he said.

Boy made threats, prosecutors say An 8-year-old boy charged with shooting a 7-year-old day care classmate in the arm had previously made threats involving guns, including shooting police and killing another person, prosecutors said yesterday. The boy also was influenced by a violent video game given to him by his father, who prosecutors allege introduced the boy to guns. The father, John L. Hall Sr., is accused of showing his son how to use the .38-caliber handgun used in the shooting the night before the incident.

Growing knowledge about a gene may lead to therapies for stemming metastasis, the deadly spread of cancer cells from an initial tumor site to other parts of the body, researchers said. The gene, called caspase-8, helps control the growth of cells in neuroblastoma, a tumor that afflicts mainly young children, according to a study in the journal Nature. Researchers said cells that don't have active versions of the gene often grow and spread to other tissue. Therapy that can activate the gene in tumor cells may provide new ways to fight cancer, the report's authors said.

ORLANDO, Fla. - Two new drugs are offering hope to people with kidney cancer, which until now has mostly defied treatment, doctors said. Results of clinical trials, announced last weekend at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, suggest that the drugs - one developed by Pfizer and the other by Bayer and Onyx Pharmaceuticals - should eventually win approval, kidney cancer specialists and analysts said. "We've reached the point in the illness where the door is open, so to speak," said kidney cancer specialist Dr. Ronald M. Bukowski of the Cleveland Clinic.

Mosquito-borne viruses are usually bad news - the cause of such dangerous illnesses as dengue and yellow fevers, eastern equine encephalitis, West Nile fever and others. But a research team at the New York University School of Medicine has found a mosquito-borne virus that may someday prove to be good news for cancer victims. The Sindbis virus, named for the town in Egypt where it was identified 50 years ago, has been found to target and kill tumor cells in mice. Better yet, it does not appear to have toxic effects on healthy cells.

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. - An experimental test for breast cancer from a Redwood City company was able to predict with unprecedented precision which patients, among hundreds in a study, had a higher risk that the cancer would return after surgery, researchers announced yesterday. The test, from Genomic Health, could prove helpful to many patients with early breast cancer who must make difficult decisions about further treatment. Those with a low risk of cancer recurrence might decide to forgo chemotherapy, the powerful chemical treatments that often cause severe nausea, hair loss and other problems.