Types Of Cancer

If you have changed your dining habits to more healthful fare -- fruits, vegetables, fish and grains -- you're on the right track.A low-fat, high-fiber diet may not only prevent heart disease; it may also protect against cancer, according to medical experts. And tomorrow that diet theme will be highlighted nationally when the society stages events around the country to celebrate its second annual health promotion, the "Great American Food Fight.""Diet might be linked to as many as 35 percent of all cancers," according to the American Cancer Society.

As October Breast Cancer Awareness Month approaches, a new study has been gaining big attention today. Researchers doing what The New York Times calls the "first comprehensive genetic analysis of breast cancer" have named four genetically distinct types of breast cancer. While the new treatments expected to come from the research are years off, the study published Sunday in the journal Nature is considered a breakthrough, the newspaper reported. "This is the road map for how we might cure breast cancer in the future,"  Dr. Matthew Ellis of Washington University, a researcher for the study, told The New York Times.

For years, Michael G. Hanna had a radical vision for how cancer might be treated in the not-too-distant future.His dream: A cancer patient is given an injection of a drug that is so "smart" it zooms directly to tumor cells, bypassing healthy ones. The body's own defenses are alerted to attack the tumor, and the triggers for new cancer growth are disarmed.Like Hanna, cancer researchers in the United States and Europe have long toiled on just such a magic bullet. Hurdles, though, have been high.

A diagnosis of Stage IV metastatic breast cancer sounds like a death sentence. And, for some, it can be. It is both inoperable and incurable. But cancer experts say the disease is treatable, and its victims' prognoses vary as widely as their individual cancers. Elizabeth Edwards, wife of Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, learned Monday that her breast cancer, first diagnosed and treated in 2004, has turned up in her bones. But chemical, hormonal and biological drug therapies can be used to keep it in check, said Dr. Michael Schultz, director of the breast center at St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson.

A New York-based business executive is donating $20 million to support a new cancer research building on the Johns Hopkins University's East Baltimore medical campus. The building will be named the David H. Koch Cancer Research Building, in honor of the donor, at ceremonies Monday. The 267,000-square-foot building on Orleans Street opened in March with 10 stories of office space and five floors of labs for cancer investigators focused on various types of cancer. An connects the building with its twin, the Bunting Blaustein Cancer Research Building.

Q: We read so much about regular checkups as a way of diagnosing and treating cancers at an early stage. If I do have annual examinations, what type of cancer is my doctor most likely to find, and what are the chances of a cure?A: Without more information, your question can be answered only in general terms because the likelihood of specific types of cancer in any given individual is greatly influenced by many factors, including inheritance, the presence of other diseases, lifestyle, environmental exposures and age.For example, familial polyposis is an inherited disorder characterized by hundreds to thousands of small tumors in the colon.

Washington -- How goes the war on cancer, now in its 20th year?An unrealistic optimism prevailed when Richard Nixon, prodded by the Congress, signed the National Cancer Act into law on Dec. 23, 1971. Kindly but foolish congressional resolutions called for curing cancer in time to commemorate the 1976 bicentennial of American independence. Research funds rapidly increased, though the blank checks promised by the law were never delivered.Today, the disagreeable reality is that, while some battles have been won, victory in the ''war'' remains far off. True enough, there has been remarkable progress in the treatment of several types of cancer and recent scientific findings promise even greater progress.

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.

County officials, answering parents and faculty concerned over a spate of illnesses at two county schools, issued clean bills of health yesterday for both buildings.Officials said they could find no dangerous conditions at Jessup Elementary school, despite reports that 10 teachers and aides have been diagnosed with various forms of cancer.After tests for radon gas levels and air and water quality, health officials said they could establish no link between the cancer and the school building.

WASHINGTON -- Ending years of struggle in the courts and in Congress, President Bush signed yesterday the first law that compensates American civilians injured or killed by radiation from the U.S. program to build and test atomic weapons.Approved by Congress late last month, the law establishes a $100 million trust fund and is the latest in a series of extraordinary actions taken this year by the government to acknowledge and apologize for unsafe practices at U.S. nuclear weapons plants that may have resulted in injuries or deaths among workers and civilians.

A New York-based business executive is donating $20 million to support a new cancer research building on the Johns Hopkins University's East Baltimore medical campus. The building will be named the David H. Koch Cancer Research Building, in honor of the donor, at ceremonies Monday. The 267,000-square-foot building on Orleans Street opened in March with 10 stories of office space and five floors of labs for cancer investigators focused on various types of cancer. An connects the building with its twin, the Bunting Blaustein Cancer Research Building.

When Tracie Hoyt found a lump in her breast last summer, doctors confirmed that it was cancer. After surgery to remove the lump, she expected radiation treatments and months of chemotherapy. A self-described workaholic, Hoyt worried that she would be too ill to deliver mail along her Cockeysville postal route. "You hear how terrible chemo can be on your body and that people are really sick," she said. To her surprise, Hoyt, 46, was spared chemotherapy. A genetic test known as Oncotype DX provided a look at the inner workings of the tumor, helping her doctor predict that chances were low that her particular type of cancer would return.

Women who take aspirin regularly might have a significantly lower risk of developing breast cancer -- more evidence that the century-old "wonder drug" can help prevent a wide range of deadly diseases. Researchers at Columbia University found that women who took aspirin at least once a week for six months or longer had a 20 percent lower risk of breast cancer than those who took none. The risk decreased even more markedly for frequent users: Women who took at least seven tablets a week were 28 percent less likely to get the disease.

Imagine the world without cancer. That's what Lt. Col. George E. Peoples of Fulton is trying to accomplish with his cancer vaccines. Peoples, 38, a surgical oncologist at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, will be recognized as one of Ten Outstanding Young Americans for 2001 by the U.S. Junior Chamber of Commerce on Jan. 27. The award is presented annually to outstanding Americans with exceptional achievements who have demonstrated service...

For years, Michael G. Hanna had a radical vision for how cancer might be treated in the not-too-distant future.His dream: A cancer patient is given an injection of a drug that is so "smart" it zooms directly to tumor cells, bypassing healthy ones. The body's own defenses are alerted to attack the tumor, and the triggers for new cancer growth are disarmed.Like Hanna, cancer researchers in the United States and Europe have long toiled on just such a magic bullet. Hurdles, though, have been high.

Since it seems that more and more types of cancer can be inherited, I would like to know if a recent diagnosis of cervical cancer in my mother increases my own risk for this form of cancer.To date, there is no evidence that inherited genes play a significant role in the development of cancer of the cervix, the narrow lower portion of the uterus. Much evidence points to infection with certain human papilloma viruses as a cause, since they are detected in more than 90 percent of cervical cancers.

Since it seems that more and more types of cancer can be inherited, I would like to know if a recent diagnosis of cervical cancer in my mother increases my own risk for this form of cancer.To date, there is no evidence that inherited genes play a significant role in the development of cancer of the cervix, the narrow lower portion of the uterus. Much evidence points to infection with certain human papilloma viruses as a cause, since they are detected in more than 90 percent of cervical cancers.

Researchers have discovered an inborn genetic mutation that strongly predisposes people to breast cancer and at least six other malignancies.Although mutations for several rare childhood cancers have been identified, the new finding is the first detection of an inborn mutation that helps cause one of the biggest cancer killers of adults.Thus far, the mutation has only been analyzed in a specific hereditary cancer syndrome that afflicts a few hundred families around the world. But scientists believe that the genetic error could play a role in other instances of breast cancer, particularly in those families where more than one woman is afflicted, or when a woman contracts the tumor under the age of 35.The inherited mutation could also explain clusters of other types of cancer seen in families.

A British-American team has apparently wrapped up the mystery of inherited breast cancer, isolating a second gene that causes the disorder and thereby opening the door for increased screening in susceptible families.Like the first breast cancer gene, called BRCA1 and identified in September 1994, the newly discovered gene is thought to be responsible for about half of all inherited cases of breast cancer, which total as many as 18,000 cases per year.Women who inherit the gene, called BRCA2, have an 85 percent risk of developing breast cancer -- the same risk as with BRCA1.

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Oncology Center have identified a genetic change occurring during a man's lifetime that appears to trigger prostate cancer by knocking out a cell's ability to resist cancer-causing chemicals in the environment.Although further research is needed to determine the discovery's full significance, scientists yesterday said the finding may provide an important step toward understanding what causes the most frequently diagnosed cancer among American men.The scientists noticed the genetic change while studying 91 human prostate cancers -- tissues obtained from autopsies and biopsies of men who suffered from the disease.