Cancer Treatments

These days, thanks to advances in treatment and detection, millions of women survive breast cancer.   But surviving the disease doesn't necessarily mean the entire battle is over, a population-based study of breast cancer survivors in Sweden and Denmark, published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine , seems to suggest. Assessing a total of 2,168 women whose breast cancer was treated with radiation therapy between 1958 and 2001, a team of researchers found that women's chances of having a major coronary event - a heart attack, bypass surgery or heart disease death - rose in proportion with the radiation dose they received, even at the lower doses of radiation delivered in newer treatments.

Better cancer treatments and an aging population will push the number of cancer survivors in the U.S. to nearly 18 million by 2022, according to a new report from researchers at the National Cancer Institute. As of January 2012, there were 13.7 million survivors of bladder, breast, colorectal, kidney, lung, prostate, thyroid and other cancers, the report says. Over 10 years, that figure is projected to grow 31% to 17,981,391, the researchers estimate. Today, the biggest group of cancer survivors is women who had breast cancer (22%)

Avalanna Routh, the little girl who made headlines because of her "marriage" to Justin Bieber, has died, bringing more attention to a rare but aggressive form of childhood cancer. Avalanna died Wednesday in a month when she and her parents had had an even higher profile -- Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. Avalanna, who was 6, had a Twitter account in her name that just a week ago posted: "September is Childhood Cancer Awareness month. My @SU2C video is now on YouTube:  youtube.com/watch?

These days, thanks to advances in treatment and detection, millions of women survive breast cancer.   But surviving the disease doesn't necessarily mean the entire battle is over, a population-based study of breast cancer survivors in Sweden and Denmark, published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine , seems to suggest. Assessing a total of 2,168 women whose breast cancer was treated with radiation therapy between 1958 and 2001, a team of researchers found that women's chances of having a major coronary event - a heart attack, bypass surgery or heart disease death - rose in proportion with the radiation dose they received, even at the lower doses of radiation delivered in newer treatments.

Re "Bush Proposes Cuts in Medicare Payments," July 28: It appears that cancer patients will be losing some prescription medicines and will be forced to go to hospitals instead of receiving treatment in their doctors' offices, "forcing a dramatic change in care," according to the article. (Of course, the government savings of $530 million next year is much more important than saving the lives of cancer patients.) So with this proposal potentially affecting the quality of life of so many people, why did The Times bury it on Page 19 instead of displaying it prominently on the first page?

The war on cancer is poised to enter a new phase that promises more precise treatments, fewer side effects and, most of all, more survivors. And none too soon. Although death rates from many cancers have slowly but steadily declined over the decades, experts agree that current treatments are mostly too blunt, too scattershot and too dangerous for the patients they are intended to save. Today, treating cancer often means an all-out chemical assault on tumors. Doctors bombard patients' bodies with drugs that aim to destroy cancer cells.

Cancer cells are riddled with genetic errors, and each tumor has its own unique set of mistakes. Reading those errors, scientists believe, will help them not only understand how a tumor came to be, but also how best to poison it. "Every tumor is telling its own story, its own history," says Kevin White, director of the Institute for Genomics and Systems Biology at the University of Chicago. One by one, he's reading and analyzing those stories as part of the university's $5-million Chicago Cancer Genome Project.

Elwood Jensen, a medical researcher whose ground-breaking work in the field of endocrinology and breast cancer led to revolutionary and life-saving treatments, died of complications from pneumonia on Dec. 16 in suburban Cincinnati, the University of Cincinnati announced. He was 92. He was repeatedly nominated for the Nobel Prize for his discovery of hormone receptors while at the University of Chicago in the 1950s and 1960s. At Chicago, Jensen focused on the impact that breast tissue had on estrogen while most other researchers analyzed how the hormone influenced tissue.

Endocare Inc. in Irvine and Cryomedical Sciences Inc. prostate cancer treatments won government approval for coverage by the Medicare health insurance program for the elderly, the Clinton administration said. Medicare now will cover devices and procedures used to freeze tissue to destroy cancer cells, a technique known as cryosurgery, the government announced Friday night.

A court order requiring a 15-year-old Hmong girl with ovarian cancer to undergo chemotherapy has been lifted by authorities hoping to persuade the girl to return home. Lee Lor, a small 10th-grader, ran away from home in late October after the Juvenile Court here--over the strong protests of her parents and Hmong community leaders--ordered the cancer treatments. "We asked the court to remove the order because it was proving to be a major stumbling block," said Dr.

President Hugo Chavez returned to Venezuela from Cuba today to continue treatment for cancer less than a week after the government released the first photos of him since December. Chavez thanked his doctors, Cuban President Raul Castro and his brother Fidel and God, according to his official Twitter account. He landed in Venezuela at 2:30 a.m. local time and went to the Carlos Arvelo military hospital, Diosdado Cabello, the head of the National Assembly, said on his Twitter account.

The inspiring story of this season's Indianapolis Colts has captivated the sports world. It's not just that the team rebounded from a 2-14 record last season to make the playoffs, or that the Colts did so with a rookie quarterback in Andrew Luck. But they have gotten this far after losing their head coach, Chuck Pagano, to nearly three months of cancer treatments. Pagano returned for the regular-season finale, a home victory over Houston, and now he brings his team back to Baltimore, where last season he was the Ravens' defensive coordinator.

Elwood Jensen, a medical researcher whose ground-breaking work in the field of endocrinology and breast cancer led to revolutionary and life-saving treatments, died of complications from pneumonia on Dec. 16 in suburban Cincinnati, the University of Cincinnati announced. He was 92. He was repeatedly nominated for the Nobel Prize for his discovery of hormone receptors while at the University of Chicago in the 1950s and 1960s. At Chicago, Jensen focused on the impact that breast tissue had on estrogen while most other researchers analyzed how the hormone influenced tissue.

Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens announced Monday that she has begun chemotherapy treatment for breast cancer but will continue to actively lead one of the state's largest law enforcement agencies. During a news conference at department headquarters in Santa Ana, Hutchens said she was confident that she could still serve and aggressively combat the cancer. If she found that she couldn't handle the load, she said, "I'd make other arrangements. " Sheriff's officials said the department was notified of Hutchens' health problems about two weeks ago in a staff memo that was sent the day after she began chemotherapy.

A common type of brain tumor may be caused by mature adult cells being genetically "rewound" to a more immature state, according to a study in the journal Science . The discovery could pave the way for improved brain cancer treatments. The cancer that was studied, called glioblastoma multiforme, is the most common type of brain tumor. It is also the most aggressive. Researchers had previously thought that the tumors were generated by neural stem cells gone awry rather than adult cells, which were not thought to have a natural ability to revert to an earlier state of development.

Los Angeles City Councilman Bill Rosendahl said Monday that he has decided not to seek reelection in order to focus on his fight with cancer. In a statement he planned to send to constituents early Tuesday, Rosendahl said he was "passing the baton" to let a new elected official represent his Westside district, which stretches along the coast from Westchester to Pacific Palisades. He named his longtime chief of staff, Mike Bonin, as his preferred successor, saying, "With Mike ready to fill my shoes, I can step aside with confidence.

A doctor who received network television attention for unusual cancer treatments that include coffee enemas was told by a jury Thursday to pay the husband of a dead patient $282,000. The jury found Dr. Nicholas J. Gonzalez negligent for telling Hollace Schafer, a college music professor, that by testing her hair he could diagnose the state of her cancer and prescribe appropriate treatment. Schafer died in 1995. The verdict was the second against the 51-year-old Gonzalez.

Former Sheriff's Deputy David Joens thought life couldn't get any tougher once he got the phone call from his doctor explaining that the lump under his left arm was cancerous. "And I'm sorry to say the treatment at this time is fair at best," the doctor told Joens. Determined not to give in to a form of cancer with a 20% survival rate, Joens underwent painful surgery, chemotherapy and even tried an experimental vaccine.

In a long-sought achievement, Japanese researchers have demonstrated in mice that both eggs and sperm can be grown from stem cells and combined to produce healthy offspring, pointing the way to a new avenue for fertility treatments. If the milestone accomplishment can be repeated in humans -- and experts said they are optimistic that such efforts will ultimately succeed -- the technique could make it easier for women in their 30s or 40s to become mothers. It could also help men and women whose reproductive organs have been damaged by cancer treatments or other causes.