New iPhone App ‘Outbreaks Near Me’ Locates H1N1 (Swine Flu), Infectious Diseases

The application, “Outbreaks Near Me,” builds upon the mission and proven capability of HealthMap, an online resource that collects, filters, maps and disseminates information about emerging infectious diseases, and provides a new, contextualized view of a user’s specific location – pinpointing outbreaks that have been reported in the vicinity of the user and offering the opportunity to search for additional outbreak information by location or disease.

Additional functionality of Outbreaks Near Me is the ability to set alerts that will notify a user on their device or by e-mail when new outbreaks are reported in their proximity, or if a user enters a new area of activity.

“We hope individuals will find the new app to be a useful source of outbreak information – locally, nationally, and globally,” says HealthMap co-founder John Brownstein, PhD, assistant professor in the Children’s Hospital Informatics Program (CHIP). “As people are equipped with more knowledge and awareness of infectious disease, the hope is that they will become more involved and proactive about public health.”

The new application also features an option for users to submit an outbreak report. This will enable individuals in cities and countries around the world to interact with the HealthMap team and participate in the public health surveillance process. Users may take photos – of situations and scenarios of, and/or leading to, disease – with their iPhone and submit them to the HealthMap system for review and eventual posting as an alert on the worldwide map.

“This is grassroots, participatory epidemiology,” says HealthMap co-founder Clark Freifeld, a PhD student at the MIT Media Lab and research software developer at CHIP. “In releasing this app we aim to empower citizens in the cause of public health, not only by providing ready access to real-time information, but also by encouraging them to contribute their own knowledge, expertise, and observations. In enabling participation in surveillance, we also expect to increase global coverage and identify outbreaks earlier.”

HealthMap was founded in 2006 and mines the Internet – searching disparate data sources such as news reports, curated personal accounts, official alerts, blogs and chat rooms – to track and map infectious disease outbreaks. While the data have been shown to provide early information on new outbreaks, users are encouraged to interpret the data appropriately as it is drawn from both official and unofficial sources.

Swine Flu

Influenza viruses infect cells by attaching to bead-like molecules on the outside of the cell, called receptors. Different viruses attach to different receptors, and if a virus cannot find its specific receptors, it cannot get into the cell. Once inside the cell, the virus uses the cell’s machinery to make thousands more viruses, which then burst out of the cell and infect neighbouring ones, establishing an infection.

Seasonal influenza viruses attach to receptors found on cells in the nose, throat and upper airway, enabling them to infect a person’s respiratory tract. Today’s research, which was funded by the Wellcome Trust, the Medical Research Council and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, shows that pandemic H1N1 swine flu can also attach to a receptor found on cells deep inside the lungs, which can result in a more severe lung infection.

The pandemic influenza virus’s ability to stick to the additional receptors may explain why the virus replicates and spreads between cells more quickly: if a flu virus can bind to more than one type of receptor, it can attach itself to a larger area of the respiratory tract, infecting more cells and causing a more serious infection.

Professor Ten Feizi, a corresponding author of today’s paper from the Division of Medicine at Imperial College London, said: “Most people infected with swine-origin flu in the current pandemic have experienced relatively mild symptoms. However, some people have had more severe lung infections, which can be worse than those caused by seasonal flu. Our new research shows how the virus does this – by attaching to receptors mostly found on cells deep in the lungs. This is something seasonal flu cannot do.”

The researchers found that pandemic H1N1 influenza bound more weakly to the receptors in the lungs than to those in the upper respiratory tract. This is why most people infected with the virus have experienced mild symptoms. However, the researchers are concerned that the virus could mutate to bind more strongly to these receptors.

“If the flu virus mutates in the future, it may attach to the receptors deep inside the lungs more strongly, and this could mean that more people would experience serious symptoms. We think scientists should be on the lookout for these kinds of changes in the virus so we can try to find ways of minimising the impact of such changes,” added Professor Feizi.

The researchers compared the way seasonal and pandemic H1N1 flu viruses infect cells by identifying which receptors each virus binds to. To do this, the researchers used a glass surface with 86 different receptors attached to it, called a carbohydrate microarray. When viruses were added to the glass surface, they stuck to their specific receptors and the corresponding areas on the plate ‘lit up’. This meant the researchers could see which receptors the different viruses attached to.

Pandemic H1H1 influenza could bind strongly to receptors called ?2-6, which are found in the nose, throat and upper airway, and it could also attach more weakly to ?2-3 receptors, which are found on cells deeper inside the lungs. However, seasonal H1N1 influenza could only attach to ?2-6.

“Receptor binding determines how well a virus spreads between cells and causes an infection,” said Professor Feizi. “Our new study adds to our understanding of how swine-origin influenza H1N1 virus is behaving in the current pandemic, and shows us changes we need to look out for.”

Daily Dose of Broccoli Halts Ulcers and Cancer

Eating just a few ounces of broccoli each day may significantly reduce a person’s risk of ulcers and stomach cancer, researchers from Johns Hopkins University have found.

In a study published in the journal Cancer Prevention Research, scientists assigned 50 people in Japan to eat either 2.5 ounces of broccoli sprouts or 2.5 ounces of alfalfa sprouts each day for two months.

Broccoli, a cruciferous vegetable, contains high levels of the protective phytochemical sulforaphane. Alfalfa is not a cruciferous vegetable and contains no sulforaphane.

At the beginning and end of the study, the researchers analyzed participant stool samples for a chemical called HpSA, known to be a reliable marker of infection with the Heliobacter pylori bacterium. H. pylori causes chronic inflammation of the stomach lining, significantly increasing the risk of stomach cancer and duodenal or stomach ulcers.

While 25 to 30 percent of people in the United States carry the bacteria in their stomachs, 80 percent show no symptoms of the infection. Infection rates are much higher in Japan, at nearly 90 percent, due in part to crowding.

The researchers found that among those who ate broccoli sprouts, HpSA levels decreased 40 percent by the end of the experiment. Participants were then told to stop eating broccoli sprouts. After another two months, HpSA levels had returned to pre-study levels.

Consumption of alfalfa sprouts had no effect on HpSA levels.

“H. pylori is a known carcinogen,” Fahey said. “The fact that we were able to reduce the effects of an infectious agent that is also a carcinogen gives us hope that if someone were to eat broccoli sprouts or broccoli regularly, it would reduce levels of H. pylori and, over a period of many years, reduce the chance that they would get that cancer. It is not proven, but the results are highly suggestive.”

The researchers also found that inflammation levels in the stomach were reduced by consumption of broccoli sprouts.

“The fact that the levels of infection and inflammation were reduced suggests the likelihood of getting gastritis and ulcers and cancer is probably reduced,” Fahey said.

“The evidence is all pointing toward broccoli or broccoli sprouts being able to prevent cancer in humans.”

The researchers believe that much of broccoli’s protective benefit comes from its high levels of sulforaphane. In addition to functioning as an antibiotic, this chemical stimulates the body to reduce a number of enzymes with different health benefits. Prior research has shown that some of these enzymes protect the skin from sun damage, while others act to reduce inflammation or prevent heart disease.

In a second experiment, the same team of researchers fed H. pylori-infected mice either plain or broccoli-sprout smoothies for eight weeks. They then examined the animals’ stomachs for levels of H. pylori. Infection levels had not changed in mice drinking water, but were significantly reduced in the broccoli group. When the researchers genetically engineered another group of mice for inability to activate certain protective enzymes, however, a diet of broccoli-sprout smoothies had no effect on H. pylori infection.

Synthetic Hormones May Be Linked to Lung Cancer Deaths

According to researchers, women using synthetic hormones may have an increased chance of dying from lung cancer. Findings from the Women`s Health Initiative indicate that the use of Prempro, a synthetic estrogen coupled with a synthetic form of progesterone, can lead to a 59 percent increased risk of death if a woman develops non small-cell lung cancer. This was revealed by Dr. Rowan Chlebowski of Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

A study showed that for non small-cell lung cancer, there was a significant risk of dying if the women taking these synthetic hormones developed cancer.

There were 67 lung cancer deaths in the women taking Prempro and 39 among those in the placebo group, according to Chlebowski. The women taking the synthetic hormones had a median survival rate of 9.4 months while the survival rate of the women who took the placebo and got the disease was 16.1 months.

This recent analysis regarding Prempro and lung cancer deaths was taken from data stemming from the Woman`s Health Initiative study in which Chlebowski was lead author. This study enrolled 16,608 postmenopausal women ages 50 through 79 and randomly assigned these women either a placebo or Prempro. In 2002, researchers stopped this study short of its completion because they noted a significant increased incidence of breast cancer and cardiovascular disease among the women who took the synthetic hormones.

Acording to Chlebowski, 15 percent of postmenopausal women still take synthetic hormones.

A hormone is classified as synthetic if it does not have the identical structure as is found in the human body. When a synthetic hormone is taken into the body, the body metabolizes it differently than it would a natural hormone. This difference may account for the many grave side effects women who take synthetic hormones encounter.

Fortunately, natural hormones do exist and have been used by holistic physicians for many years. Natural hormones have an identical structure as those found in the human body and are used to effectively treat menopause symptoms. Natural hormones are available in creams, capsules, patches, and other system delivery methods. Before prescribing natural hormones, the holistic practitioner will test a woman’s present hormone level through blood, urine, and saliva testing. The holistic physician will prescribe bioidentical hormones based on these findings. Bioidentical hormones are those identical in molecular structure to the hormones made by the woman’s body.

Traditional doctors are trained by the big drug companies to prescribe medicine manufactured by them. These drug companies are against natural remedies as natural remedies cannot be patented. Since these traditional doctors are in allegiance with the pharmaceutical companies, the physicians too, often turn their minds off to the notion of natural hormones. In light of the negative press about synthetic hormones as reported in the study conducted by the Women’s Health Initiative, more traditional doctors are now willing to look at the use of natural hormones. These doctors, however, represent a growing, but still woefully small number.

Menopause occurs when the ovaries stop producing significant amounts of estrogen and progesterone. This leads to a cessation of the menstrual cycle, and in many women begins with symptoms such as hot flashes. The average woman will experience the onset of menopause at age 52. A woman is considered to be in menopause if she has had no periods for a year. Menopause is not a disease even though some women suffer, often for years, from some of the following symptoms:
Hot flashes
Vaginal dryness
Mood swings
Night sweats
Insomnia
Reduced libido
Weight gain
Urinary incontinence

Treatment for menopausal symptoms includes eating a diet rich in plant foods, especially whole grains, legumes, fresh vegetables and fruits. These foods contain phytosterols that have a hormone-balancing effect. Eating these foods also increases fiber that helps a heart stay healthy.

In addition, eating hormone-free animal products helps guard against a hormone imbalance in the body. Reduce red meat consumption and other sources of saturated fat. Caffeine, alcohol, spicy foods, and sugar aggravate hot flashes while carbonated drinks deplete calcium from the body.

The following remedies may help to safely minimize symptoms:
St. John’s wort may be used to treat mild to moderate depression. This should not be used in conjunction with prescription antidepressants.

Soy and Isoflavones are plant estrogens that may be helpful in relieving hot flashes and night sweats.

Black cohosh has been used to relieve hot flashes and night sweats.

American ginseng has been found to improve a woman’s sense of well being.

Cause of Cancer is Known in Lab Animals

It’s difficult to understand medical establishment claims that the cause of cancer and other diseases is unknown, when these diseases are easily created in lab rats by injecting pesticides and chemicals into them.

Dr. Sherry Rogers explains, “They merely give rats one dose of a common organic pesticide to cause Parkinson’s disease in them! Scientists use the same recipe to create cancer in rats for research. They give them one dose of a pesticide or related chemical.”

Incidentally, these pesticides and chemicals are the same ones that humans consume in the food supply and are regularly exposed to in the environment.

The confusion comes from the fact that this really isn’t complicated science or mathematics. For all the touted and presumed intelligence in the medical establishment, this isn’t a tricky one. It’s more like 2 plus 2. But in this 2 plus 2, the answer isn’t 4. It’s routinely ignored and discredited.

Pesticides and chemicals induce cancer in lab animals, and humans are regularly exposed to these same chemicals. But, what causes cancer in humans? Um, we don’t know, but those pesticides and chemicals certainly didn’t do it. Is this really the answer the medical establishment expects us to believe? All so we can be sold more chemicals, under the false delusion that they too, will cause us no harm? Even when our hair falls out and our bodies atrophy to waste, we’re supposed to believe that those chemicals are good for us and will create health in our bodies?

Even more than the medical establishment, which has an enormous profit motive in having people believe such nonsense, the American people need a wake up call. Folks, it’s 6am and your wake up call is here. Chemicals in your body from food and environmental sources are pretty much never a good thing. They cause problems in humans, just as they do in lab rats. Because before your friendly researcher can test a medical establishment drug on a rat, first that researcher needs to create the disease, and they very well know how to do that – making the assertion that they don’t know the cause of the disease is a little more than absurd.

An enormous part of the problem is that the government agency that regulates the food supply and that determines which chemicals are allowed in it (and which are not) is largely funded by the pharmaceutical industry. And pharmaceutical companies only make money when people are sick. In recent years, the fact that the FDA makes decisions based on the interests of the pharmaceutical companies, instead of the American people, has been brought to light on many occasions – including by the FDA’s own scientists.

Brain Tumor

A brain tumor is an abnormal growth of cells within the brain or inside the skull, which can be cancerous or non-cancerous (benign).

It is defined as any intracranial tumor created by abnormal and uncontrolled cell division, normally either in the brain itself (neurons, glial cells (astrocytes, oligodendrocytes, ependymal cells), lymphatic tissue, blood vessels), in the cranial nerves (myelin-producing Schwann cells), in the brain envelopes (meninges), skull, pituitary and pineal gland, or spread from cancers primarily located in other organs (metastatic tumors).

Primary (true) brain tumors are commonly located in the posterior cranial fossa in children and in the anterior two-thirds of the cerebral hemispheres in adults, although they can affect any part of the brain.

Brain Tumor
Classification and external resources
Brain metastasis in the right cerebral hemisphere from lung cancer shown on T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging with intravenous contrast. (L=left, P=posterior, back of the head)
ICD-10	C71., D33.0-D33.2
ICD-9	191, 225.0
DiseasesDB	30781
MedlinePlus	007222 000768
eMedicine	emerg/334
MeSH	[1]

In the United States in the year 2005, it was estimated there were 43,800 new cases of brain tumors (Central Brain Tumor Registry of the United States, Primary Brain Tumors in the United States, Statistical Report, 2005–2006),^[1] which accounted for 1.4 percent of all cancers, 2.4 percent of all cancer deaths,^[2] and 20–25 percent of pediatric cancers.^[2][3] Ultimately, it is estimated there are 13,000 deaths per year in the United States alone as a result of brain tumors.^[1]

Contents [hide] 1 Signs and symptoms 2 Diagnosis 3 Treatment and prognosis 3.1 Research to treatment with the vesicular stomatitis virus 4 Brain tumors in infants and children 5 See also 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Signs and symptoms

Symptoms of brain tumors may depend on two factors: tumor size (volume) and tumor location. The time point of symptom onset in the course of disease correlates in many cases with the nature of the tumor (”benign”, i.e. slow-growing/late symptom onset, or malignant, fast growing/early symptom onset) is a frequent reason for seeking medical attention in brain tumor cases.

Large tumors or tumors with extensive perifocal swelling edema inevitably lead to elevated intracranial pressure (intracranial hypertension), which translates clinically into headaches, vomiting (sometimes without nausea), altered state of consciousness (somnolence, coma), dilatation of the pupil on the side of the lesion (anisocoria), papilledema (prominent optic disc at the funduscopic examination). However, even small tumors obstructing the passage of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) may cause early signs of increased intracranial pressure. Increased intracranial pressure may result in herniation (i.e. displacement) of certain parts of the brain, such as the cerebellar tonsils or the temporal uncus, resulting in lethal brainstem compression. In young children, elevated intracranial pressure may cause an increase in the diameter of the skull and bulging of the fontanelles.

Depending on the tumor location and the damage it may have caused to surrounding brain structures, either through compression or infiltration, any type of focal neurologic symptoms may occur, such as cognitive and behavioral impairment, personality changes, hemiparesis, hypesthesia, aphasia, ataxia, visual field impairment, facial paralysis, double vision, tremor etc. These symptoms are not specific for brain tumors—they may be caused by a large variety of neurologic conditions (e.g. stroke, traumatic brain injury). What counts, however, is the location of the lesion and the functional systems (e.g. motor, sensory, visual, etc.) it affects.

A bilateral temporal visual field defect (bitemporal hemianopia—due to compression of the optic chiasm), often associated with endocrine disfunction—either hypopituitarism or hyperproduction of pituitary hormones and hyperprolactinemia is suggestive of a pituitary tumor.

[edit] Diagnosis

Micrograph of an oligodendroglioma, a type of brain cancer. Brain biopsy. H&E stain.

Although there is no specific clinical symptom or sign for brain tumors, slowly progressive focal neurologic signs and signs of elevated intracranial pressure, as well as epilepsy in a patient with a negative history for epilepsy should raise red flags. However, a sudden onset of symptoms, such as an epileptic seizure in a patient with no prior history of epilepsy, sudden intracranial hypertension (this may be due to bleeding within the tumor, brain swelling or obstruction of cerebrospinal fluid’s passage) is also possible.

Glioblastoma multiforme and anaplastic astrocytoma have been associated in case reports on PubMed^[who?] with the genetic acute hepatic porphyrias (PCT, AIP, HCP and VP), including positive testing associated with drug refractory seizures. Unexplained complications associated with drug treatments with these tumors should alert physicians to an undiagnosed neurological porphyria.

Imaging plays a central role in the diagnosis of brain tumors. Early imaging methods—invasive and sometimes dangerous—such as pneumoencephalography and cerebral angiography, have been abandoned in recent times in favor of non-invasive, high-resolution modalities, such as computed tomography (CT) and especially magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Benign brain tumors often show up as hypodense (darker than brain tissue) mass lesions on cranial CT-scans. On MRI, they appear either hypo- (darker than brain tissue) or isointense (same intensity as brain tissue) on T1-weighted scans, or hyperintense (brighter than brain tissue) on T2-weighted MRI. Perifocal edema also appears hyperintense on T2-weighted MRI. Contrast agent uptake, sometimes in characteristic patterns, can be demonstrated on either CT or MRI-scans in most malignant primary and metastatic brain tumors. This is because these tumors disrupt the normal functioning of the blood-brain barrier and lead to an increase in its permeability.

Electrophysiological exams, such as electroencephalography (EEG) play a marginal role in the diagnosis of brain tumors.

The definitive diagnosis of brain tumor can only be confirmed by histological examination of tumor tissue samples obtained either by means of brain biopsy or open surgery. The histological examination is essential for determining the appropriate treatment and the correct prognosis. This examination, performed by a pathologist, typically has three stages: interoperative examination of fresh tissue, preliminary microscopic examination of prepared tissues, and followup examination of prepared tissues after immunohistochemical staining or genetic analysis.

Another possible diagnosis would be neurofibromatosis which can be in type one or type two.

[edit] Treatment and prognosis

Many meningiomas, with the exception of some tumors located at the skull base, can be successfully removed surgically. In more difficult cases, stereotactic radiosurgery, such as Gamma knife, Cyberknife or Novalis Tx radiosurgery, remains a viable option.^[4]

Most pituitary adenomas can be removed surgically, often using a minimally invasive approach through the nasal cavity and skull base (trans-nasal, trans-sphenoidal approach). Large pituitary adenomas require a craniotomy (opening of the skull) for their removal. Radiotherapy, including stereotactic approaches, is reserved for the inoperable cases.

Although there is no generally accepted therapeutic management for primary brain tumors, a surgical attempt at tumor removal or at least cytoreduction (that is, removal of as much tumor as possible, in order to reduce the number of tumor cells available for proliferation) is considered in most cases.^[5] However, due to the infiltrative nature of these lesions, tumor recurrence, even following an apparently complete surgical removal, is not uncommon. Several current research studies aim to improve the surgical removal of brain tumors by labeling tumor cells with a chemical (5-aminolevulinic acid) that causes them to fluoresce ^[6]. Postoperative radiotherapy and chemotherapy are integral parts of the therapeutic standard for malignant tumors. Radiotherapy may also be administered in cases of “low-grade” gliomas, when a significant tumor burden reduction could not be achieved surgically.

Survival rates in primary brain tumors depend on the type of tumor, age, functional status of the patient, the extent of surgical tumor removal, to mention just a few factors.^[7]

UCLA Neuro-Oncology publishes real-time survival data for patients with this diagnosis. They are the only institution in the United States that shows how brain tumor patients are performing on current therapies. They also show a listing of chemotherapy agents used to treat high grade glioma tumors.

Patients with benign gliomas may survive for many years,^[8][9] while survival in most cases of glioblastoma multiforme is limited to a few months after diagnosis if treatment is ignored.

The main treatment option for single metastatic tumors is surgical removal, followed by radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy. Multiple metastatic tumors are generally treated with radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS), such as Gamma Knife, Cyberknife or Novalis Tx, radiosurgery, remains a viable option. However, the prognosis in such cases is determined by the primary tumor, and it is generally poor.

Radiotherapy is the most common treatment for secondary cancer brain tumors. The amount of radiotherapy depends on the size of the area of the brain affected by cancer. Conventional external beam whole brain radiotherapy treatment (WBRT) or ‘whole brain irradiation’ may be suggested if there is a risk that other secondary tumors will develop in the future.^[10] Stereotactic radiotherapy is usually recommended in cases of under three small secondary brain tumors.

In 2008 a study published by the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center indicated that cancer patients who receive stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) and whole brain radiation therapy (WBRT) for the treatment of metastatic brain tumors have more than twice the risk of developing learning and memory problems than those treated with SRS alone.^[11][12]

A shunt operation is used not as a cure but to relieve the symptoms.[2] The hydrocephalus caused by the blocking drainage of the cerebrospinal fluid can be removed with this operation.

[edit] Research to treatment with the vesicular stomatitis virus

In 2000, researchers at the University of Ottawa, led by John Bell PhD., have discovered that the vesicular stomatitis virus, or VSV, can infect and kill cancer cells, without affecting healthy cells if coadministered with interferon. ^[13]

The initial discovery of the virus’ oncolytic properties were limited to only a few types of cancer. Several independent studies have indentified many more types susceptible to the virus, including glioblastoma multiforme cancer cells, which account for the majority of brain tumors.

In 2008, researchers artificially engineered strains of VSV that were less cytotoxic to normal cells. This advance allows administration of the virus without coadministration with interferon. Consequently administration of the virus can be given intravenously or through the olfactory nerve. In the research, a human brain tumor was implanted into mice brains. The VSV was injected via their tails and within 3 days all tumor cells were either dead or dying.

Research on virus treatment like this has been conducted for some years, but no other viruses have been shown to be as efficient or specific as the VSV mutant strains. Future research will focus on the risks of this treatment, before it can be applied to humans.^[14]

[edit] Brain tumors in infants and children

A brain-stem glioma in four year old. MRI sagittal, without contrast

In the US, about 2000 children and adolescents younger than 20 years of age are diagnosed with malignant brain tumors each year. Higher incidence rates were reported in 1975–83 than in 1985–94. There is some debate as to the reasons; one theory is that the trend is the result of improved diagnosis and reporting, since the jump occurred at the same time that MRIs became available widely, and there was no coincident jump in mortality. The CNS cancer survival rate in children is approximately 60%. The rate varies with the type of cancer and the age of onset: younger patients have higher mortality.^[15]

In children under 2, about 70% of brain tumors are medulloblastoma, ependymoma, and low-grade glioma. Less commonly, and seen usually in infants, are teratoma and atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumor.^[16] Germ cell tumors, including teratoma, make up just 3% of pediatric primary brain tumors, but the worldwide incidence varies significantly.

Patients’ Pretreatment Quality Of Life Can Predict Overall Lung Cancer Survival

For those with advanced stage NSCLC, the median overall survival varies between six and 12 months, with approximately one-third of patients surviving past the one year mark. To better understand the factors that predict the overall survival of patients with NSCLC, various research has been done in the past to determine whether or not pretreatment quality of life can help predict overall survival, but yielding conflicting results. To provide a more definitive answer on this question, Yingwei Qi, M.D., M.S., of the Mayo Clinic Rochester in Minnesota, and a team of researchers conducted a pooled analysis of research from six different clinical trials, representing 420 patients overall.

The researchers found that patients’ self-assessment of their pretreatment quality of life, measured by the single-item Spitzer Uniscale, can alone predict overall survival, and that for those with a low score, the risk of death was twice as high as for those with high scores.

“This research shows conclusively that, even when we adjust for variables, how patients with advanced stage non-small cell lung cancer rate their quality of life with the Uniscale tool prior to treatment can predict their overall survival rate,” says Dr. Qi. “With the knowledge that quality of life is an independent prognostic factor, doctors will be better able to use this tool in patient assessment to provide more accurate prediction of overall survival.”

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths among both men and women in the United States, and NSCLC accounts for 80 percent of all lung cancer cases.

Why Don’t Brain Tumors Respond To Medication?

Malignant brain tumors often fail to respond to promising new medication. Researchers in Heidelberg have discovered a mechanism and a tumor marker for the development of this resistance. A “death receptor” can possibly provide information as to how great the chances of success are for chemotherapy. At the same time, it offers a new approach for promising brain tumor therapy.

Dr. Wolf Müller, senior consultant in the Neuropathology Department at the Institute of Pathology of Heidelberg University Hospital, and his team were able to show that certain brain tumors (astrocytomas) can deactivate a crucial protein on their cell surface, the so-called death receptor. The medication docks onto this receptor and causes the cells to die. An intact “death receptor” can thus serve as a tumor marker for whether or not a therapy has a chance of success. The study was conducted with funding from the Tumor Center of Heidelberg/Mannheim and was published in the journal Clinical Cancer Research.

Primary brain tumors that develop from brain cells, in particular their most malignant variant the glioblastoma, have a very poor prognosis. Although various kinds of therapies are attempted, patients with a glioblastoma usually die within two years of diagnosis. The researchers are thus working at high speed to become more familiar with the biology of these tumors in order to develop more efficient treatment.

“Death receptor” can be switched on and off

The researchers in Heidelberg examined various primary brain tumors (astrocytomas, which also include glioblastomas) and discovered that the gene for the death receptor DR4 was switched off in up to 75 percent of cases by what is known as “promoter methylation”. This means that methyl groups accumulate at the segment of the gene that is crucial for its activity (expression). The gene’s information can thus no longer be read, the gene is silenced.

The death receptor DR4 is an attractive target for receptor-specific therapy. Fortunately, an already-existing drug, Mapatumumab, an antibody protein, binds directly to the receptor and can trigger the death of the cell. This drug is currently being tested in a number of clinical studies (Phase II) for other solid tumors, e.g. lung cancer.

New approach for a specific therapy for brain tumor cells

For gliomas, treatment with Mapatumumab appears to be particularly interesting as the death receptor is usually found only on tumor cells, not on other brain cells. Since glioma growth is especially invasive into brain tissue, surgical removal is impossible and chemotherapy is very difficult. Chemotherapy with Mapatumumab could reach all tumor cells and kill them while sparing healthy brain cells without receptors.

In cell culture trials, the researchers have already been successful in reversing methylation and making the “death receptors” functional again – tumor cells reacted to the drugs and died off. If gene expression was again suppressed, the cells became resistant again.

“Therapies that are capable to switch on specific individual genes by these manipulations do not yet exist. But being aware of the tumor markers can point the way for the development of new therapies whose goal is gene manipulation,” explained Dr. Wolf Müller. Targeted examinations of tumor tissue prior to therapy can now make it possible to identify patients with an intact death receptor. These patients have good conditions for benefiting from the promising therapy, while other patients would at least be spared the side effects of useless treatment.

Narrow-band Imaging Increases Specificity Of Early Lung Cancer Detection

Past research has shown detection of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) while still localized to the surface of the lung can improve cure rates. Bronchoscopic technologies that utilize white light (WLB), auto-fluorescence imaging (AFI) and narrow-band imaging (NBI) have been developed to enhance the ability for physicians to diagnoses NSCLC at a pre-invasive stage. NBI is the newest of these technologies.

To confirm the efficiency of these new technologies, Felix J.F. Herth, M.D. of the Department of Pneumology and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Heidelberg in Germany and his team of researchers conducted a 10-month review of patients in need of airway screening and surveillance. Patients were randomized into groups receiving WFB, AFI or NBI bronchoscopies and any observed abnormal airway mucosa was biopsied.

Out of 57 patients, 30 percent were diagnosed with intraepithelial neoplasia. Researchers found that those observed with NBI and AFI bronchoscopies experienced significantly superior sensitivities compared to WLB alone. NBI also proved to provide high levels of specificity compared to AFI.

“This research shows that when diagnosing early stage lung cancer, using NBI may be a better option than AFI because it increases specificity without compromising sensitivity,” said Dr. Herth. “Continued research on these detection methods is necessary to further understand the best, most accurate ways to increase early diagnosis in lung cancer.”

New Target For Treating Breast Cancer Metastasis

Breast cancer metastasis causes nearly 90% of the lethality among breast cancer patients. Non-metastatic breast cancer cells rely on interactions with other cells and the extracellular matrix to survive. Metastatic breast cancer cells must survive in the absence of these interactions.

Harvey et al hypothesized that Brk, a tyrosine kinase expressed predominantly in breast tumors compared with normal breast tissue, plays a role in breast cancer progression by promoting anchorage independence. Indeed, high-grade tumors from human breast cancer patients expressed elevated levels of Brk when compared with lower grade tumors. Inhibiting Brk expression resulted in cell death in the absence of cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions, and tumor cells with increased levels of Brk expression survived without these interactions. These data therefore support a role for Brk in breast cancer progression and dissemination.

Dr. Harvey and colleagues suggest “that Brk plays a role in protecting breast cancer cells from detachment-induced cell death. Therefore, Brk expression in carcinomas may confer a survival advantage on metastasizing tumor cells. … [Future studies will examine] whether this function is manifest in other Brk-positive tumor cells from tissues other than the breast, such as the colon and prostate.”

Gene Assay To Help To Predict Lung Cancer Treatment Resistance

Ian Cree, from Queen Alexandra Hospital, Portsmouth, UK, led a team of researchers who assessed the chemosensitivity of a series of 49 NSCLC tumors and compared this with quantitative expression of putative resistance genes measured by RT-PCR. He said, “There was considerable heterogeneity between tumors, and while this showed no direct correlation with individual gene expression, there was strong correlation of multi-gene signatures for many of the single chemotherapy agents and combinations tested. This may allow the definition of predictive signatures to guide individualized chemotherapy in lung cancer”.

The researchers tested docetaxel, cisplatin, gemcitabine and combinations of the agents on tumour cells taken from 49 fresh NSCLC samples. There were considerable differences between tumors in their sensitivity to individual agents and combinations, though the combination of cisplatin + gemcitabine was usually the most active.

When these results were compared to the gene expression in the tumors, Cree and his colleagues were able to identify a number of patterns, especially in chemosensitivity to combinations of treatments. Cree said, “The genes identified in this study fall into several categories, linked with much studied mechanisms such as metabolism within the cell, membrane drug pumps, and DNA repair, but also with apoptosis, suggesting that the general susceptibility of the cell to undergo this process may be an important determinant of tumor chemosensitivity, outweighing more specific mechanisms”.

Stomach cancer

Stomach cancer (also called gastric cancer) can develop in any part of the stomach and may spread throughout the stomach and to other organs; particularly the esophagus and the small intestine.

It may also spread, through the stomach wall, to nearby lymph nodes and organs such as the liver, pancreas, and the lungs, or to distant organs such as the lymph nodes above the collar bone, the colon, and the ovaries.

Metastasis (the spread of cancer from its primary site to other places in the body) to the ovaries can result in Krukenberg tumors.

Stomach cancer represents roughly 2% (21,500) cases of all new cancer cases yearly in the United States, but it is much more common in Japan, Great Britain, South America, and Iceland.

It is associated with high salt in the diet, smoking, and low intake of fruits and vegetables.

Infection with H.

pylori is the main risk factor in about 80% or more of gastric cancers.

It is more common in men..

Metastasis

Metastasis is the spread of cancer from its primary site to other places in the body (e.g., brain, liver).

Cancer cells can break away from a primary tumor, penetrate into lymphatic and blood vessels, circulate through the bloodstream, and grow in a distant focus (metastasize) in normal tissues elsewhere in the body.

Tumor

Tumor (American English) or tumour (British English) originally means “swelling”, and is sometimes still used with that meaning.

Tumor meaning swelling is one of the five classical characteristics of inflammation.

However, the term is now primarily used to denote abnormal growth of tissue.