Cancer Patients

Disco legend Donna Summer, 63, died Wednesday night, reportedly of lung cancer. As of press time, her family hadn't released details about her illness, so it was unknown what type of lung cancer she had, and how long she may have been ailing. According to the American Cancer Society , lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in both women and men, killing more than 150,000 people per year -- more than colon, breast, ovarian and prostate cancers combined. In 2012, the group estimates, there will be about 226,000 new cases of lung cancer in the U.S. Survival rates of people with lung cancer are low. Only about half of people diagnosed with early-stage non-small-cell lung cancer (the more common type)

Cancer can kill long before malignant tumors take their toll, new research shows. A study involving more than 6 million Swedes reveals that the risk of suicide and cardiovascular death increases immediately after a cancer diagnosis. Within the first week of being told they had cancer, patients were 12.6 times more likely to commit suicide than people of similar backgrounds who were cancer-free. The newly diagnosed patients were also 5.6 times more likely to die from a heart attack or other cardiovascular complication in those first seven days, according to a study published in Thursday's edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.

A medication for people with advanced colorectal cancer who have exhausted all other treatment options appears to slow tumor growth and extend life, according to new data. Bayer HealthCare, the makers of regorafenib, said it would seek Food and Drug Administration approval of the medication this year. If approved, regorafenib would be the first new treatment for colorectal cancer in more than five years. Although chemotherapy and other medications can extend life in people with metastatic cancer (cancer that has spread throughout the body)

A medication for people with advanced colorectal cancer who have exhausted all other treatment options appears to slow tumor growth and extend life, according to new data. Bayer HealthCare, the makers of regorafenib, said it would seek Food and Drug Administration approval of the medication this year. If approved, regorafenib would be the first new treatment for colorectal cancer in more than five years. Although chemotherapy and other medications can extend life in people with metastatic cancer (cancer that has spread throughout the body)

One in three patients with advanced cancer spend their final days in hospitals receiving costly, aggressive treatments they may not want, according to a major national study released Tuesday. Researchers at the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care, whose work on hospital spending has been cited by the Obama administration, reviewed a sample of 20% of Medicare beneficiaries nationwide with advanced cancer who died between 2003 and 2007, including patients at 65 California hospitals.

The psychedelic drug psilocybin, the active ingredient in "magic mushrooms," can improve mood and reduce anxiety and depression in terminal cancer patients, Los Angeles researchers reported Monday. A single modest dose of the hallucinogen, whose reputation was severely tarnished by widespread nonmedical use in the psychedelic '60s and ethical lapses by researchers such as Timothy Leary, can improve patients' functioning for as long as six months, allowing them to spend their last days with more peace, researchers said.

It used to be that it was enough just to survive cancer. As more people live longer with this disease, survivors are asking for more: They want their fitness back. And they're getting it, as more organizations, private gyms and clinics offer conditioning programs for the 9 million Americans who undergo treatment or are recovering from cancer therapy each year.

A handful of San Francisco breast cancer patients are donning frigid skullcaps to test a device designed to keep hair tightly rooted during chemotherapy. Researchers hope the study, run by UC San Francisco and Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., will eventually lead to Food and Drug Administration approval for the chilly caps. There is now no way to hang on to one's tresses during chemo for any kind of cancer, says study leader Hope Rugo, an oncologist at UCSF. The prospect of baldness is distressing to many patients, particularly women.

In this makeshift cancer ward, there's little risk of enduring bedsores, fussy nurses or tasteless hospital food. In fact, on some days, the cancer patients living on the sidewalk in front of Mumbai's Tata Memorial Hospital have no food at all. At any given time, there's a floating population of several hundred patients awaiting treatment, with barely a rupee to their name. Many have lived for months, even years, in makeshift tents that hug the hospital walls and gates. They recline, surrounded by their medicine bottles, religious icons and tattered luggage, waiting for a hard-won appointment at this, one of India's few state-of-the-art charitable hospitals.

Harriet Benjamin, whose breast cancer battle inspired the Wellness Community, an innovative support network for cancer patients and their families, died April 7 at her Marina del Rey home. She was 85. Benjamin was cancer-free for more than 35 years after her initial diagnosis in 1972. Her death came five months after she was found to have lung cancer, said her daughter, Ann.

Doctors and patients eager for better ways to treat advanced ovarian cancer were encouraged by two new studies showing that adding Avastin to traditional chemotherapy drugs allowed women with the disease to live a few months before their cancer returned or worsened. The two large , international studies credited Avastin with providing an additional 3.8 months and 3.6 months of “progression-free survival.” (The reports in Thursday's edition of the New England Journal of Medicine weren't able to say whether the women who took Avastin lived longer overall.)

The FDA last month rescinded approval for Avastin to treat advanced breast cancer because although preliminary studies show it led to longer periods of disease-free survival it did not increase overall survival. But a study presented Wednesday suggests their may be a role for Avastin after all. The phase-3 study was conducted among 424 women a type of breast called HER-2 positive disease. A new analysis of the data, presented at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium found that adding Avastin to a regimen of Herceptin and docetaxel resulted in a 28% reduced rate of disease progression or death.

The cancer that started 11 years ago has now ravaged the body of Freddie Ramos. It attacked a kidney first, then a lung, and the 57-year-old family man knows that death waits in the near distance. He's not ready to go, he says, but he's prepared. "Living in fear of death is no way to live," Ramos told me in the living room of the Los Feliz home he shares with his wife, Robin, and their daughters Bailey and Maya. INTERACTIVE: Share your story A Santana concert poster hangs on the wall, Hollywood Bowl, 2002, and a Diego Rivera art poster is nearby.

Norman Smith, who has liver cancer, was placed on the transplant list at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center last year. But early this year, doctors removed him because he was using medical marijuana and failed to show up for a drug test. To get back on the list, Smith, 63, has to spend six months avoiding medical marijuana, submitting to random drug tests and receiving counseling. He is still undergoing chemotherapy and radiation for the cancer, which recently returned after being in remission.

The cancer drug Avastin should not be used to treat breast cancer that has spread to other organs because it doesn't help patients enough to justify its risky side effects, the Food and Drug Administration ruled Friday. The decision comes five months after an FDA advisory committee recommended that the federal agency withdraw its approval of Avastin for breast cancer patients. Clinical trial results have fueled doubts for years about its value for treating breast cancer. Still, FDA Commissioner Margaret A. Hamburg said the choice was difficult because so many women and their doctors have put their faith in the drug and lobbied hard on its behalf.

Here's new evidence that the condition known as “chemo brain” is real: A study of breast cancer patients finds that women who had chemotherapy along with surgery to treat their disease had more trouble kicking their brains into high gear than women who were treated with surgery alone. They also performed much worse on tests of mental function than a group of healthy women who served as controls. The study , published Monday in Archives of Neurology, included 25 breast cancer survivors who had surgery and chemotherapy, 19 breast cancer survivors who had surgery but no chemotherapy, and 18 women with no history of breast cancer who were picked because their ages, level of education and menopausal status were similar to those of the women who had chemo.

A supplement promoted for improving sexual dysfunction in women does not do so in cancer patients, but it does improve their quality of life, researchers said Monday. ArginMax for Women is marketed as a sexual enhancement aid, but its benefits for that purpose are not apparent, a team from Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C., reported at a Chicago meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. ArginMax is made from a patented formula containing a proprietary blend of the amino acid L-arginine, ginseng, gingko and 14 vitamins and minerals noted for boosting energy and circulation and optimizing hormonal balance.

The American Cancer Society is holding two "Look Good, Feel Better" programs for cancer patients who are undergoing chemotherapy or radiation treatment. Participants will learn how to do their makeup and hair while they undergoing treatments, which may affect their appearance. The first program will be held from 6 to 8:30 p.m. Monday at the American Cancer Society, 250 W. Citrus Grove Lane, No. 200, Oxnard. The second will be offered from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Aug.

Question: I live alone in an upper-level apartment. I was recently diagnosed with cancer and began chemotherapy treatments. The side effects of the treatment include dizziness and exhaustion. My physician has suggested that I try to minimize my exposure to situations that may result in injury from the side effects. He also suggested that I move to a ground-floor unit to make things easier. One the same size as mine is available, so I asked my manager if I could transfer. The manager told me she would not allow me to transfer since my lease has three more months to go. I thought because of my disability status and condition, I could request this type of transfer.

Monthly shots of a cancer vaccine produced encouraging results in a small, very early trial of 26 women with metastatic breast or ovarian cancer (cancer that has spread to other sites around the body), most of whom already had had three or more rounds of chemotherapy. Among the 12 breast cancer patients, median survival time was 13.7 months and one patient was still alive at 37 months, when the paper was written up. Four remained stable during the course of the trial. Among the 14 ovarian cancer patients, median survival was 15 months.