Cancer death rates decline in U.S.

Cancer death rates have declined steadily in the U.S., where people now have a 20 per cent lower overall risk of dying compared with 20 years ago, according to a new report.
Tuesday's estimates from the American Cancer Society suggest there will be 1,665,540 new cancer cases and 585,720 deaths from cancer in the U.S. in 2014.
Among men, prostate, lung and colon cancer will account for about half of all newly diagnosed cancers.
Among women, the three most common cancers in 2014 will be breast, lung, and colon, which together will account for half of all cases, the society said.
Just over one in four cancer deaths is due to lung cancer in the U.S.
Since women began smoking in large numbers about 20 years later than men, the decline in lung cancer incidence rates among women in the U.S. began in the late 1990s compared with the mid-1980s for men, the group said.
"The biggest reason for this 20 per cent decline we're celebrating is prevention, it's actually smoking cessation and people not smoking in the 1960s and '70s," Dr. Otis Brawley, chief medical officer for the American Cancer Society, said in an interview.
Brawley said two-thirds of cancers are linked to the combination of bad diet, lack of physical activity, obesity and smoking.
"I think we need to double down our efforts in prevention," he said.
Last year, the Canadian Institute for Health Information said at 58 deaths per 100,000 population, lung cancer mortality in Canada is higher than the OECD average of 43 per 100,000.

• Lung cancer kills more Canadian women than in 'peer' countries

In the U.S., cancer deaths have declined by about half among middle-aged black men. Despite the progress, black men continue to have the highest cancer incidence and death rates among all ethnicities in the U.S. Asian Americans have the lowest rates.
After smoking, Brawley said the number 2 reason driving cancer death rates is that more people are living into their 70s and 80s.
While cancer survival has improved, detection and treatment of heart disease has improved even more, said Dr. Ben Neel, director of research for the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto.
Researchers are making progress in better understanding cancer, which is starting to pay off in new therapies, Neil said. He's optimistic that cancer survival rates will continue to show major improvements in the next 20 to 30 years.

• Liver cancer on rise in Canada

Overall in 2013, the Canadian Cancer Society estimated, 187,600 people learned they had a new cancer (excluding non-melanoma skin cancers). About 75,500 Canadians will die from some form of malignancy each year.

Source:  CBC CA News

Skin cancer linked to other cancer risks, Study finds

 By Karen Rowan
People who have had common skin cancers may be at an increased risk of getting cancer again in their life, according to a new study.
The study found that women with nonmelanoma skin cancers (such as basal cell carcinoma or squamous cell carcinoma) were 26 percent more likely to later develop another form of cancer, compared with women who didn't have these skin cancers. In men, the risk increased by 15 percent, the study found.
The study included more than 150,000 people who were followed for more than 20 years, so the findings strongly add to the growing evidence of a link between skin cancer and later development of other cancers, said Anthony Alberg, a professor of epidemiology at the Medical University of South Carolina.
The increased risk of cancer seen in the study isn't high enough to warrant recommending that people with nonmelanoma skin cancers undergo cancer screening tests earlier or more often than generally recommended, said Alberg, who was not involved in the new study. It does, however, raise the question of whether more screening might be beneficial for this group, and future studies might look at this, he said.
Nonmelanoma skin cancers are "so common we can't even count them," so the findings have public health significance, Alberg said. A 2006 study showed there were 2.1 million cases of non-melanoma skin cancer in the U.S.
The link may also help researchers to better understand cancer biology, he said.
The new study is published today (April 23) in the journal PLOS Medicine.
How cancer risk increases
For the study, researchers led by Jiali Han, an associate professor of dermatology at Harvard Medical School, looked at cancers among people participating in two large studies — the Health Professionals Study, which began in 1986, and the Nurses' Health Study, which began in 1984. By 2008, about 29,500 cases of cancer had been diagnosedin the 153,600 people in these studies.
Results showed that people with nonmelanoma skin cancer were at an increased risk of developing the deadly skin cancer melanoma, and that women with nonmelanoma skin cancer were at increased risk of lung cancer and breast cancer, according to the study. The researchers accounted for factors that could affect the results, such as people's ages, smoking, and for women, the use of hormone replacement therapy.
Alberg said that previous studies have linked common skin cancers with an increased risk of other types of cancers. In the new study, there was increased risk of other types of cancer as well, but these increases did not rise to the level of statistical significance. Still, the fact that 23 out of 28 cancer sites examined were trending toward an increased risk means there is likely something underlying the links, he said.
"The increase really doesn't map well with any specific cancer… there's more of a general increase in cancer risk," he said.
Why the link?
The link between nonmelanoma skin cancers and developing melanoma later may be due to sun exposure, the researchers said.
But the reason for the general increased risk of other cancers is unclear. Some researchers suspect that the cellular machinery involved in DNA repair may not work as well in some people, leaving them at an increased risk for any type of cancer, Alberg said.
By studying people who have developed more than one type of cancer, a situation called "multiple primary cancers," researchers can develop a better understanding of cancer biology, he said. The skin cancers in the study are common, and unlike other primary cancers, they are not typically treated with radiation or chemotherapy, both of which have been linked to increased cancer risk later on.

Source: NBC News

Study says nut eaters have lower cancer, heart disease risk

Help yourself to some nuts this holiday season: Regular nut eaters were less likely to die of cancer or heart disease — in fact, were less likely to die of any cause — during a 30-year Harvard study.
Nuts have long been called heart-healthy, and the study is the largest ever done on whether eating them affects mortality.
Researchers tracked 119,000 men and women and found that those who ate nuts roughly every day were 20 percent less likely to die during the study period than those who never ate nuts. Eating nuts less often also appeared to lower the death risk, in direct proportion to consumption.
The risk of dying of heart disease dropped 29 percent and the risk of dying of cancer fell 11 percent among those who had nuts seven or more times a week compared with people who never ate them.
The benefits were seen from peanuts as well as from pistachios, almonds, walnuts and other tree nuts. The researchers did not look at how the nuts were prepared — oiled or salted, raw or roasted.
A bonus: Nut eaters stayed slimmer.
"There's a general perception that if you eat more nuts you're going to get fat. Our results show the opposite," said Dr. Ying Bao of Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.
She led the study, published in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine. The National Institutes of Health and the International Tree Nut Council Nutrition Research & Education Foundation sponsored the study, but the nut group had no role in designing it or reporting the results.
Researchers don't know why nuts may boost health. It could be that their unsaturated fatty acids, minerals and other nutrients lower cholesterol and inflammation and reduce other problems, as earlier studies seemed to show.
Observational studies like this one can't prove cause and effect, only suggest a connection. Research on diets is especially tough, because it can be difficult to single out the effects of any one food.
People who eat more nuts may eat them on salads, for example, and some of the benefit may come from the leafy greens, said Dr. Robert Eckel, a University of Colorado cardiologist and former president of the American Heart Association.
Dr. Ralph Sacco, a University of Miami neurologist who also is a former heart association president, agreed.
"Sometimes when you eat nuts you eat less of something else like potato chips," so the benefit may come from avoiding an unhealthy food, Sacco said.
The Harvard group has long been known for solid science on diets. Its findings build on a major study earlier this year — a rigorous experiment that found a Mediterranean-style diet supplemented with nuts cuts the chance of heart-related problems, especially strokes, in older people at high risk of them.
Many previous studies tie nut consumption to lower risks of heart disease, diabetes, colon cancer and other maladies.
In 2003, the Food and Drug Administration said a fistful of nuts a day as part of a low-fat diet may reduce the risk of heart disease. The heart association recommends four servings of unsalted, unoiled nuts a week and warns against eating too many, since they are dense in calories.
The new research combines two studies that started in the 1980s on 76,464 female nurses and 42,498 male health professionals. They filled out surveys on food and lifestyle habits every two to four years, including how often they ate a serving (1 ounce) of nuts.
Study participants who often ate nuts were healthier — they weighed less, exercised more and were less likely to smoke, among other things. After taking these and other things into account, researchers still saw a strong benefit from nuts.
Compared with people who never ate nuts, those who had them less than once a week reduced their risk of death 7 percent; once a week, 11 percent; two to four times a week, 13 percent; and seven or more times a week, 20 percent.
"I'm very confident" the observations reflect a true benefit, Bao said. "We did so many analyses, very sophisticated ones," to eliminate other possible explanations.
For example, they did separate analyses on smokers and non-smokers, heavy and light exercisers, and people with and without diabetes, and saw a consistent benefit from nuts.
At a heart association conference in Dallas this week, Penny Kris-Etherton, a Pennsylvania State University nutrition scientist, reviewed previous studies on this topic.
"We're seeing benefits of nut consumption on cardiovascular disease as well as body weight and diabetes," said Kris-Etherton, who has consulted for nut makers and also served on many scientific panels on dietary guidelines.
"We don't know exactly what it is" about nuts that boosts health or which ones are best, she said. "I tell people to eat mixed nuts."

Source: FoxNews

End Stage Cancer Patients

How they are participating
We are going to run a Fund A Need campaign for Giving Tuesday. Lazarex Cancer Foundation helps end stage cancer patients participate in FDA clinical trials (often their last and only hope to beat the cancer). One of the ways we help is by reimbursing patients the out of pocket expenses for associated costs like airfare, hotel, rental car, gas, tolls, a travel companion, etc. So the Fund a Need will allow donors to contribute to selected needs and they can choose the donation level that works for them. For example: Airfare to a clinical trial for a year is $5,000 and we’ll break it up into 50 giving segments of $100. A rental car for a year is $800 with 32 giving segments of $25 and so on.

Lazarex Cancer Foundation honored as 2013 top-rated nonprofit

 

For Immediate Release:

Lazarex Cancer Foundation HONORED AS 2013 TOP-RATED NONPROFIT

New GreatNonprofits.org Award is Based on Positive Online Reviews

Danville, CA 10/29/13 – Lazarex Cancer Foundation announced today that it has been honored with a prestigious 2013 Top-Rated Award by GreatNonprofits, the leading provider of user reviews about nonprofit organizations.

“We are excited to be named a Top-Rated 2013 Nonprofit,” says Karen Ambrogi, Communications Manager for Lazarex Cancer Foundation. “We are proud of our accomplishments this year. We’ve increased the number of cancer patients we financially assist to participate in clinical trials by 47%.That’s huge. In 2014 we are launching a new program to address the (cancer) health disparities afflicting low income and medically underserved populations with Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and UNLV in Las Vegas.”

The Top-Rated Nonprofit award was based on the large number of positive reviews that Lazarex Cancer Foundation received – reviews written by volunteers, donors and clients. People posted their personal experience with the nonprofit. For example, one person wrote,

“When I was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer, I lost all hope because I needed an experimental drug in a clinical trial to save my life. Financially, we could not afford for me to participate in the trial. Then, I found Lazarex, and this Foundation came to my assistance. I am responding to the experimental drug and it is keeping me alive. I believe that this Foundation is saving my life by helping me afford to stay on this trial.”

While the Top-Rated Awards run through the end of October, Lazarex Cancer Foundation was part of the inaugural group to qualify for the year.

“Savvy donors want to see the impact of their donations more than ever,” said Perla Ni, CEO of GreatNonprofits, “People with direct experience with Lazarex Cancer Foundation have voted that the organization is making a real difference.”

Being on the Top-Rated list gives donors and volunteers more confidence that this is a credible organization. The reviews by volunteers, clients and other donors show the on-the-ground results of this nonprofit. This award is a form of recognition by the community.

About Lazarex Cancer Foundation

At Lazarex Cancer Foundation we support all end stage cancer patients and the cancer community by providing assistance with cost for clinical trial participation, navigation through clinical trial options, and community outreach and education.

About GreatNonprofits

GreatNonprofits is the leading site for donors and volunteers to find reviews and ratings of nonprofits. Reviews on the site influence 30 million donation decisions a year. www.greatnonprofits.org

Media Contact

Karen Ambrogi Karen@lazarex.org 925.820.4517

Womb cancer risks decrease with exercise, diet and coffee

  Written by Marie Ellis

A new report reveals that engaging in physical activity, eating healthfully and drinking coffee can all reduce risks of womb cancer, a disease that affects nearly 50,000 women in the US each year, according to the American Cancer Society.
Authors of the report, which was published by the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) and World Cancer Research Fund International, say that worldwide, endometrial cancer - cancer of the womb lining - is the sixth most common cancer in women.
However, in the US, regular physical activity (30 minutes a day) and keeping a healthy weight (BMI between 18.5 and 25) can potentially prevent nearly 60% of endometrial cancer cases, the report shows.
Though womb cancer is mostly diagnosed in women over 60, there is currently no reliable screening system to detect it in the general population.
Symptoms of the disease include abnormal vaginal bleeding or discharge, as well as pain in the lower abdomen during sex.
Keeping a lean body helps reduce risks, but the researchers found that the risks were even lower for women who have never used hormone therapy, according to Elisa V. Bandera, associate professor from Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey and panel member for the Continuous Update Project (CUP).
Bandera also says that evidence from cohort studies suggests that length of sitting time may increases risks, but she notes that more evidence is needed in order to make a firm conclusion.
Bandera adds:

"While additional studies are needed, it is a safe bet that maintaining a healthy weight and engaging in regular physical activity will reduce endometrial cancer risk, as well as having many other health benefits."

Coffee and other dietary choices decrease risk

The report showed that every cup of coffee consumed is linked with a 7% reduction in womb cancer risk. But researchers say more studies are needed.

 

In addition to staying fit, the research showed that drinking coffee can also reduce womb cancer risks.
Elisa V. Bandera says that both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee is associated with "an estimated 7% reduction in risk for every cup of coffee consumed, based on eight studies."
She says that while the findings are interesting, drinking excessive coffee can also have adverse side effects. For example, Medical News Today recently reported that four cups of coffee a day is linked to death risks.
On the other hand, other studies have shown that coffee intake is linked to lower suicide risks and lower stroke risks.
Bandera notes that "in terms of food choices, eating a diet high in vegetables and low in fat and refined sugars is going to, at a minimum, help with weight control, while probably also protecting against cancer in other ways."

Source: MNT

Couple raises money for Calif.

Son’s battle with rare cancer inspires parents’ fundraising effort

By Amanda Roberge CORRESPONDENT

  

                        

When Shrewsbury native Scott Zenaro arrived in California three years ago, he couldn’t possibly have understood that he was being given a second chance at life.

A rare diagnosis of Ewing’s sarcoma at age 30 led to four long and difficult years, which included a handful of surgeries, 18 months of chemotherapy and 70 days of radiation. By the time Scott was 34, his doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston had nothing left to offer him. They had exhausted their resources and referred Scott to an oncologist in Santa Monica named Dr. Sant Chawla.

Dr. Chawla was unique in that he offered terminally ill patients a chance to participate in FDA clinical trials, and the family rejoiced in this gem of good news: Scott was one of the few people chosen to be part of a trial for the antibody drug R1507. However, the joy of the news quickly faded, and it became clear that there was one potentially major roadblock. Dr. Chawla’s clinic was in Santa Monica.

In between the East Coast and West Coast there were a number of problems to solve, not least of which had to do with finances. How does a 30-something cancer patient on a fixed income afford a 3,000-mile move to one of the most expensive cities in the country, just to roll the dice with an experimental treatment? The Lazarex Cancer Foundation in Danville, Calif., exists for this exact reason.

“Our mission is to provide resources for cancer patients who’ve been told they have no other options, but who are not yet done with their journey in life and refuse to give up,” said Susan Sappington, director of development at Lazarex. “Our goal on a daily basis is to help build a bridge to hope for not only the patients but to their families, who need to know they have done everything possible for their loved ones.”

When Scott began to question the logistics of his cross-country leap, Lazarex stepped in and provided him with a condo in a beautiful Marina Del Ray community and took on the burden of his medical and living expenses.

“He loved his time in Marina Del Ray,” said Scott’s father, Ron Zenaro. “He became very important to everyone at Lazarex, and of course we are very indebted to them.” Not only was Scott enjoying his role in California as a Lazarex spokesman, he also found that his body was responding well to treatments.

Much to everyone’s delight, Scott took it upon himself to become the self-appointed Lazarex ambassador and welcome wagon for incoming patients.

“He made them feel so welcome,” said Ms. Sappington. “He became an important part of everyone’s experience here, helping them with whatever they needed.”

When Scott’s treatments ceased to work, Lazarex funded a trip to the Philippines for him to receive additional treatment, where his winsome and outgoing character continued to shine on everyone at the clinic.

“He just had so much personality,” said Ms. Sappington. “He made everyone laugh. He was always cracking jokes.”

Scott died on Feb. 24, at 36 years old, after flying home to Boston for a bronchoscopy that doctors hoped would help him continue his life. When all hope was lost and he failed to regain consciousness, his family made the difficult decision to pull his breathing tube and let him be at peace, a long journey over after a courageous and admirable life.

His death was devastating and sudden in its own way, and has left holes in the hearts of not only his parents, siblings and countless friends, but also the people at Lazarex. “We all loved him very much,” Ms. Sappington said.

While Scott’s friends and family continue to deal with the trauma of their loss, Scott’s mother, Carol, has found her own way to give back: crafting beautiful bracelets from beads made of clay, glass and wood. The family has begun pounding the pavement for donations in return for one of Carol’s creations. In fact, she began crafting the bracelets before Scott’s passing, while he was still in the Philippines. During his visit home for Christmas in 2009, Scott commissioned nine bracelets to take back to the clinic for his nurses and staff.

“He called us from one of his appointments after he got back to the Philippines and we could hear everyone yelling ‘Thank you,’ ” said Mr. Zenaro. “But still, the bracelets weren’t that big of a deal until after he died.”

Indeed, production and sales — all executed with love and reverence by a mother who continues to grieve the loss of her youngest child — have become something of a career for Mrs. Zenaro since her son’s passing. Mr. Zenaro is proud to point out that through her craft, the family has already been able to donate more than $13,000 to Lazarex and has no plans to slow down.

“This whole thing has been very devastating,” he said. “(Making the bracelets) is good for her.”

Ultimately, because 100 percent of every donated dollar goes directly to the patients at the Lazarex Cancer Foundation, the family is invested in raising funds in this grass-roots way. Mr. Zenaro, for one, carries his wife’s wares with him everywhere he goes. A natural salesman, he has taken to promoting her product with steadfast enthusiasm.

“The Lazarex Center allowed Scott to lead a dignified, normal life for two and a half years,” he said, adding that Scott became the center’s longest living patient and, ultimately, a huge success story for the experimental treatments he received through the clinic.

To purchase a bracelet or make a donation to the Lazarex Cancer Foundation, go to www.lazarex.org.