Colon Cancer

Colorectal cancer kills more Americans than any other cancer except lung cancer. But the death toll doesn't have to be as high as it is. Screening works. The American Cancer Society estimates that such tests saved 70,000 lives in the last 20 years. "Just think how many we could save if we did it right," says Dr. Otis Brawley, chief medical officer for the ACS in Atlanta. Doing it right would mean doing it on a lot more people. During those 20 years, only about 25% to 30% of the men and women who should have been screened — those age 50 or older — did get screened, Brawley says.

Kelly Osbourne had a seizure and collapsed on the set while filming her E! talk show "Fashion Police" on Thursday, was taken to the hospital and is on the mend. "Kelly Osbourne fainted on the set of E!'s 'Fashion Police' today," her rep told E! "She was taken to a local hospital for further testing and is awake, alert and in stable condition. She will be staying overnight for observation as a precautionary measure. " Entertainment Tonight said that the 28-year-old was rushed to a Los Angeles hospital after she experienced the seizure, which reportedly lasted 30 seconds.

Rep. Donald Payne, the first African American elected to Congress from New Jersey and the dean of that state's delegation, died Tuesday after a long battle with colon cancer. He was 77. Payne represented New Jersey's heavily democratic 10th District, encompassing parts of Union, Hudson and Essex counties, including sections of Newark. He was a teacher, business executive and local officeholder before winning his seat in Congress in 1988. He was easily reelected 11 more times. Payne was chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation and had held several leadership roles in the House.

Low levels of vitamin D in the blood double the risk of developing bladder cancer, Spanish researchers reported Wednesday. The low levels increase the risk of the most aggressive form of the disease almost six-fold, the researchers reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Spain has about 11,000 new cases of bladder cancer per year, one of the highest rates in the world. The United States has about 73,500 new cases per year, with nearly 15,000 deaths. It is primarily a disease of the elderly, with nine out of 10 victims over the age of 55. Low levels of vitamin D have previously been linked to increased risk of breast and colon cancer, but no one has studied the potential association with bladder cancer, according to Dr. Nuria Malats, a geneticist at the Spanish National Cancer Research Center.

In England, getting screened and treated for colorectal cancer -- the second leading cause of cancer death in the United Kingdom and worldwide -- is free.  So why do only about half of thepopulation go through with it? The answer, suggests a new study in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, is something of a self-fulfilling prophecy:people believe if they're going to get cancer, they'll die from it anyway, so why bother? This attitude, known as cancer fatalism, is known to be a factor in African Americans' lower rates of colorectal cancer screening in the U.S.  It may also be a key reason people of lower socioeconomic status in the U.K. fail to follow through on testing, reported University of London Psychologist Anne Miles and colleagues.

Colon cancer is most common in Westernized countries, such as the United States and European nations. That means lifestyle has a lot to do with why the disease develops. A study published Wednesday confirms that adhering to five basic health tenets could dramatically reduce the risk. In a study of more than 55,000 Danish men and women ages 50 to 64, researchers found these five factors cut colorectal cancer risk by 23%: -- Not smoking. -- Drinking no more than seven alcoholic drinks a week for women and 14 drinks for men. -- A waist circumference below 34.6 inches for women and 40 inches for men. -- Consuming a healthful diet (based on four recommendations: adequate daily intake of fruits, vegetables and fiber, and limiting consumption of red and processed meat and total fat.)

Colorectal cancer is the third-leading cause of cancer and death in the United States. So previous research hinting that statins, which an estimated 20 million Americans take to improve their cholesterol levels, might cut the risk of colorectal cancer has generated high interest. However, a study released Monday yielded disappointing news. Researchers studying a large group of postmenopausal women found that those who took statins did not have a reduced risk of colorectal cancer.

Of the 7 million Americans a year who undergo a colonoscopy, it's safe to say that none looks forward to it eagerly. Who would? Doctors insert a 5-foot flexible tube through the anus to inspect the rectum and the entire colon, or large bowel, looking for signs of cancer. Yet the vast majority of patients, doctors say, find the colonoscopy procedure much less painful and stressful than they expected.

Thalidomide, a drug notorious for causing birth defects but now being tested against a range of diseases, will also be tested against colon cancer, says Celgene Corp., which owns the rights to it. Celgene said the National Cancer Institute would sponsor the tests. Thalidomide caused severe birth defects when used by pregnant women as a tranquilizer in the 1950s and 1960s. Restrictions on testing and using it are designed to ensure that women who might become pregnant are not exposed.

People with Down syndrome suffer cancer less than most other people, and a study in mice published Thursday in the journal Nature gives one possible explanation -- they produce higher levels of a protein that may keep tumors from growing. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University found that a gene called Ets2 protected mice from colon cancer. The researchers used mice bred to develop colon cancer at extreme rates, and genetically engineered them to produce extra amounts of Ets2. The more Ets2 the mice had, the less likely they were to develop colon cancer.

It's not easy to outdo Kirk Franklin. A major presence in gospel music since the mid 1990s, Franklin is known for his intensity on stage. He doesn't sing a lot, but as a bandleader in the old-school Cab Calloway mode he does pretty much everything else: dancing, playing piano, acting out his lyrics like the extreme-sports version of a sign-language interpreter. Franklin exercised all those moves (and quite a few more) within the first several moments of his concert Thursday evening at the Gibson Amphitheatre, where he welcomed an enthusiastic crowd by declaring, “My goal tonight is for you to leave stinky.” But he wasn't alone in his quest to cultivate what he called “a spiritual funk.” This was the second date of the King's Men tour, a month-long U.S. trek teaming Franklin with three slightly lower-wattage gospel stars: Israel Houghton, Donnie McClurkin and Marvin Sapp.

Like all modern healthcare systems, the National Health Service -- Britain 's centralized, universal healthcare system -- has room for improvement. But there's much more to the story than that presented by Dr. Theodore Dalrymple in his Aug. 8 Op-Ed article, " Britain's cherished, lousy National Health Service . " The NHS' widely known strength is primary care. And time and again it has been shown that a strong primary-care system is at the heart of a healthy population. In part because of Britain's focus on primary care, the country has lower age-adjusted rates of diabetes (about half our rate)

Contrary to popular belief among physicians and patients, the family of hypertension drugs known as beta-blockers does not prevent development of colon and rectal cancer, German researchers reported Monday. In fact, long-term use of the drugs might even be associated with an increased risk of developing an advanced form of the disease, they said. Beta-blockers are a family of drugs that reduce blood pressure and improve heart function by reducing the body's response to stress hormones such as epinephrine and norepinephrine.

This post has been corrected. See note at the bottom for details. A colonoscopy is a life-saving procedure, identifying polyps and early-stage tumors so they can be removed before they grow and spread. But many people refuse to undergo the procedure because they don't relish having an endoscope inserted into their body, and they don't like the preparation for the procedure, which requires drinking laxatives and spending large amounts of time in the lavatory the night before.

Rep. Donald Payne, the first African American elected to Congress from New Jersey and the dean of that state's delegation, died Tuesday after a long battle with colon cancer. He was 77. Payne represented New Jersey's heavily democratic 10th District, encompassing parts of Union, Hudson and Essex counties, including sections of Newark. He was a teacher, business executive and local officeholder before winning his seat in Congress in 1988. He was easily reelected 11 more times. Payne was chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation and had held several leadership roles in the House.

Colon cancer is the third deadliest cancer in the U.S.; it is expected to kill more than 51,000 Americans this year, according to the American Cancer Society. Physicians have long assumed that removing precancerous polyps during patient colonoscopies reduces the numbers of such deaths. Now researchers have proved it. In a large, multi-decade study of more than 2,600 patients who had precancerous polyps removed during colonoscopies between 1980 and 1990, scientists at the Memorial Sloan-Ketting Cancer Center in New York and colleagues at other institutions found that removing the polyps reduced deaths from colon cancer in the group by 53%.  An article detailing their results was published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Obesity doesn’t just increase postmenopausal women’s risk of developing colon cancer, it might even raise their risk of dying from it, scientists say That analysis comes from researchers at the University of Minnesota, who culled data from the Iowa Women’s Health Study on 1,096 cases of colon cancer diagnosed between 1986 and 2005. Of the 489 women who died, 289 of them died from colon cancer. To see whether obesity had anything to do with those deaths, the researchers documented each woman’s body mass index, waist-to-hip ratio and waistline.

Far fewer women take hormone replacement therapy than did a decade ago, but the drugs are a mixed bag of risks and benefits, as studies occasionally point out. For women who are especially concerned about colon cancer, hormone therapy might be a good idea. A study has found that using hormone replacement therapy for any length of time cut the risk of distal colon cancer in half. The distal part of the colon is closest to the rectum. The longer women took hormone therapy, the greater the reduced risk.

Here's your take-me-home-tonight Tuesday roundup of consumer news from around the Web: -- There's no sugar high for Hostess Brands, maker of the Twinkie and other fine products. The company is reportedly preparing to go back into bankruptcy just two years after completing its last bankruptcy proceedings. People familiar with the matter say the company is facing a cash crunch with more than $860 million in debt, high labor expenses and rising ingredient costs. When Hostess, then called Interstate Bakeries, filed for bankruptcy protection in 2004, it blamed low sales and high fixed costs.