Cancer

Re "Doctor treated her own cancer at the South Pole," Obituary, June 25 I finished reading about the passing of Jerri Nielson FitzGerald, hoping to be inspired by her courageous battle with cancer. I was not. At 47 years old, her marriage failed and she lost custody of her children. She ran as far away as earthly possible. Then she needed to be rescued; that was both dangerous and expensive. Over the last decade she became a motivational speaker -- but of what exactly, I wonder?

Cancer vaccines: An article in Monday's Health section about vaccines used to fight cancer stated that the vaccine BiovaxID delayed remission of lymphoma in patients after chemotherapy by more than one year, on average. BiovaxID prolonged -- not delayed -- remission by more than one year.

Steven Rothenberg, president of domestic releasing for Lions Gate who served in a senior executive role as the company grew from an indie to a major player in Hollywood with films including "Crash," "3:10 to Yuma" and the "Saw" franchise, died July 16 of stomach cancer in Burbank. He was 50. -- news.obits@latimes.com

Olga Mendez, the first Puerto Rican woman elected to a state legislature in the mainland United States, died of cancer Wednesday in New York City. The former New York state senator, who served from 1978 to 2004, was 84. -- news.obits@latimes.com

A drug that can selectively target and kill the stem cells that may drive the growth of tumors has been identified. Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Broad Institute looked for compounds that could destroy the stem cells, which often resist conventional cancer treatment. One, salinomycin, cut the number of stem cells at least 100 times more than did Taxol, a common chemotherapy medicine, according to a report in the journal Cell.

Amgen Inc. said its cancer drug Vectibix was effective for advanced colon cancer patients as a second-line therapy, a finding consistent with results released Aug. 6 for the therapy as an initial treatment. A study found that Vectibix "significantly improved" the time before symptoms worsened in advanced colon cancer patients with a certain gene mutation, the Thousand Oaks company said.

Thank you to Betsy Sharkey for her tribute to Patrick Swayze ["Dignity More Than a Role for Swayze," Sept. 15]. As we watched his personal struggle unfold in a very public way, the decency and dignity she so eloquently characterized gave meaning to the terrifying yet unifying fact of cancer. His journey is shared by so many others, and his dignity is reflected in the efforts of doctors, nurses, research scientists, fundraisers, activists, healers, families and patients who deal with cancer every day. My thanks to Patrick, his family and those who treated and loved him for maintaining a strong spirit.

As famed mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne turns 74 today, she adds another milestone to her long list of accolades: "Prima donna -- and survivor." Two years after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, the same disease that killed her friend and fellow opera star Luciano Pavarotti, she is said to be free of it. And for the first time, she is talking publicly about her experimental cancer treatment in the hope that it might help others. Horne, who is director of the voice program at Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, was at Baltimore's Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center last week, getting another dose of a new cancer vaccine that has so far been administered to only about 200 people.

Two years ago, both of Dana Nelson's golden retrievers were diagnosed with cancer a day apart. She took them to the University of Wisconsin veterinary school in Madison for radiation and chemo, making the two-hour drive from her home in St. Charles, Ill., more than 20 times. At home she made them meals of raw meat, steamed vegetables and vitamins. Conventional treatment cost about $14,000, and Nelson said she couldn't even estimate how much she spent on holistic therapy, supplements and extra consultations for Jazz, who lived an extra 10 months, and Cameo, who survived 17. Nelson, a dog trainer, is still paying off vet bills.

In the 1890s, a New York surgeon named William Coley tested a radical cancer treatment. He took a hypodermic needle teeming with bacteria and plunged it into the flesh of patients. After suffering through weeks of chills and fevers, many showed significant regression of their tumors, but even Coley himself could not explain the phenomenon. His experiments were sparked by the observation that certain cancer patients improved after contracting infections.