Chemotherapy

Cranberry juice contains chemicals that may improve treatment of ovarian tumors that aren't killed by conventional medicines, scientists say. Ovarian cancer, the fifth-leading cause of cancer death among U.S. women, became as much as six times more sensitive to the chemotherapy drug paraplatin after treatment with the cranberry derivative, a study of cells in dishes by Rutgers University found.

Amgen Inc. said Friday that interim results from an independent study involving breast cancer patients found its anemia drug Aranesp did not enhance the effect of chemotherapy before surgery. Amgen shares, which closed at $55.25, down 21 cents, fell 4% to $53 in extended trading as the company also reported preliminary follow-up data showing more deaths and reports of tumor growth among patients who received Aranesp than among those in the control group.

A genetic test can help doctors determine which breast cancer patients are likely to benefit from chemotherapy, even for those whose tumors are more advanced, researchers reported Thursday. The finding needs to be confirmed in clinical trials, but experts said the test could already be used to spare some women from the debilitating side effects of cancer drugs.

As millions of people know firsthand, cancer survival often comes with a price. New therapies can extend patients' lives, in many cases to an extent unimagined a generation ago, but the treatment itself -- particularly chemotherapy -- can be grueling. The accompanying nausea, vomiting, fatigue and hair loss have become synonymous with cancer treatments. Some patients who are recommended for chemotherapy actually decline it, even when doing so decreases their chances of a cure.

Nicotine can prevent chemotherapy drugs such as Taxol from killing lung cancer cells, researchers reported in a finding that may help explain why lung cancer is so difficult to treat in smokers. The study was published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The researchers tested the drugs gemcitabine, cisplatin and Taxol on several cell lines taken from lung cancer tumors.

At last, researchers have some hopeful news for women whose breast cancers are typically more difficult to treat: Modern chemotherapy means more of them will survive than previously thought. The latest findings offer more evidence that a tumor's "personality characteristics" are more important than its size and how much the cancer has spread. Often the key is whether the tumor is fueled by the hormone estrogen. Increasingly, doctors are considering that when recommending treatment.

Extracts from a mushroom used for centuries in Eastern Asian medicine may be able to boost the power of a leading chemotherapy drug for prostate cancer, researchers have found. They found that when the mushroom \o7Phellinus linteus\f7 was added to doxorubicin in the laboratory it improved the drug's ability to kill cancerous cells.

Chemotherapy drugs may cause more serious side effects for breast cancer patients younger than 64 than once thought, according to a study released last week. Researchers mined insurance claims for 3,526 women who had intravenous chemotherapy for breast cancer and tallied problems serious enough to require emergency care or a hospital stay.

Chemotherapy can cause changes in the brain's metabolism and blood flow that can last as long as 10 years, a discovery that may explain the mental fog and confusion that affect many cancer survivors, researchers said Thursday. The researchers, from UCLA, found that women who had undergone chemotherapy five to 10 years earlier had lower metabolism in a key region of the frontal cortex.

Cancer chemotherapy can impair the brain, killing crucial neural cells and causing key parts of the organ to shrink, according to two studies released this week. The new findings add to a growing body of evidence suggesting that "chemo brain" -- the mental fuzziness, memory loss and cognitive impairment often reported by cancer patients but often dismissed by oncologists -- is a serious problem.