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SUPPORTIVE CARE OF CHILDREN WITH CANCER: PREVENTION AND TREATMENT OF CHEMOTHERAPY-INDUCED LIVER TOXICITY (SPECIFIC MODIFICATIONS OF CHEMOTHERAPEUTIC AGENTS WITH LIVER-DEPENDENT METABOLISM)

admin — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 08:46:19 +0000

A. Vincristine, vinblastine, and VP-16 (etoposide)Bilirubin <1.5 mg/dL and aspartate aminotransferase (SGOT) <60 U/mL: give 100% dose.Bilirubin 1.5-3.0 mg/dL or SGOT 60-180 U/mL: give 50% dose.Bilirubin >3.1 mg/dL or SGOT >180 U/mL: hold dose.B. Adriamycin, daunorubicin, idarubicin, and actinomycin-DBilirubin <1.5 mg/dL and SGOT <60 U/mL: give 100% dose.Bilirubin 1.5-3.0 mg/dL or SGOT 60-180 U/mL: give 50% dose.Bilirubin 3.1-5.0 mg/dL or SGOT >180 U/mL: give 25% dose.Bilirubin >5.0 mg/dL: hold dose.C. Methotrexate and cyclophosphamideBilirubin <1.5 mg/dL and SGOT <60 U/mL: give 100% dose.Bilirubin 1.5-3.0 mg/dL or SGOT 60-180 U/mL: give 50% dose.Bilirubin 3.1-5.0 mg/dL or SGOT <180 U/mL: give 25% dose.Bilirubin >5.0 mg/dL: hold dose.Restart at 5096 dose when bilirubin <1.5 mg/dL and SGOT <60 U/mL.D. Actinomycin-DRestart at 5096 dose when the toxicity decreases to grade 0.Increase the dose by 2596 increments if tolerated.E. Hold all the following drugs when bilirubin >5.0 mg/dL orSGOT >180 U/mL:CCNUBCNU5-FluorouracilCytosine arabinosideDacarbazine (DTIC)Procarbazine*38\168\2*

A WORD ABOUT SOY INFANT FORMULAS – DESCRIPTION

admin — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 17:18:51 +0000

The humble soybean has had a meteoric rise to fame and fortune in Western countries during the last decade. Like any high profile rock star or movie idol, lots of media hype as well as several multi-million dollar marketing efforts have been essential to making this bean a household name. Making the soybean into a legitimate infant formula product has been a well-planned and expensive process. It certainly appears to have paid off since it is estimated that soy-based formulas account for $750 million of the $3 billion baby formulas market. And soy is still a bright star on the rise since sales have more than doubled in the last ten years.
According to Naomi Baumslag, clinical professor of pediatrics at Georgetown University Medical College, “Only 50 percent of newborns today suckle at the mother’s breast even once. After six months, the number has reduced to only one mother in five. Often mothers for the sake of convenience plunk soy bottles into the infant’s mouth.” In fact, nearly 2Q| percent of infants worldwide are fed soy formula, with 750,000 US infants receiving soy formula every year.
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RISK FACTORS FOR BREAST CANCER DEVELOPMENT

admin — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 12:25:48 +0000

About 1 out of 8 women will develop breast cancer at some time in her life. Although this oft-repeated ratio has frightened many women, it represents a woman’s lifetime risk. Thus, not until the age of 80 does a woman’s risk of breast cancer rise to 1 in 8. Here is the risk at earlier ages:
-    Birth to age 39: 1 in 227
-    Ages 40-59: 1 in 25
-    Ages 60-79: 1 in 15 Birth to death: 1 in 8
In 2000, approximately 182,800 women in the United States were diagnosed with breast cancer for the first time. About 1,400 new cases of breast cancer were diagnosed in men in 2000. About 41,200 women (and 400 men) would die, making breast cancer the second leading cause of cancer death for women. According to the most recent data, mortality rates went down dramatically from 1992 to 1996, with the largest decrease in younger women, both white and black. The decline in rates may be due to earlier diagnosis and improved treatment as numerous studies have shown that early detection increases survival and treatment options.
Warning signals of breast cancer include persistent breast changes such as a lump, thickening, swelling, dimpling, skin irritation, distortion, retraction or scaliness of the nipple, nipple discharge, possible pain, or tenderness.

Risk Factors
The risk of breast cancer increases with age. Although there are many possible risk factors, those that seem to be supported in the research include these:
-    Women who have a personal or family history of breast cancer (primary relatives such as mother, daughter, sister)
-    Women with a biopsy-confirmed atypical hyperplasia
-    Women with a long menstrual history (menstrual periods that started early and ended late in life)
-    Women who’ve had recent use of oral contraceptives or postmenopausal estrogens
-    Women who’ve never had children or had their first child after age 30
-    Women who consume two or more drinks of alcohol per day
-    Women who have higher education and socioeconomic status
Those risk factors that need more rigorous research before being confirmed include these:
-    Consuming a diet high in saturated fats
-    Exposure to pesticides and other chemicals
-    Weight gain
-    Physical inactivity
-    Use of selected estrogen-receptor modulators (SERMs) such as tamoxifen and raloxifen
-    Possible genetic predisposition through BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes
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WHY DO WE GET SKIN CANCER?

admin — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 09:30:31 +0000

The common kinds of skin cancer (called basal cell cancers or squamous cell cancers) occur as a result of exposure of susceptible skin to ultraviolet light- Pigmentation protects the skin and so it is the fair-skinned races who tend to get these common kinds of skin cancer. Once skin has become pigmented as a result of exposure to sunshine – once you have obtained your tan – then the tanned skin will give some very limited protection against burning. A tan provides the equivalent of a sun protection Factor of about 2. People do not always realize that even if skin is quite tanned, sunburn is still possible. Artificial tans out of a bottle can also protect the skin slightly but are even less effective than a natural tan. They do, however, have the advantage of making it unnecessary for people to bake themselves in the sun. While we may chink of a can as attractive, a tan produced by the sun is actually a sign of skin damage.

There are other factors that can contribute to common skin cancers, including chemicals and radiation and deranged function of the body s immune system. These are rarely significant and almost all common skin cancers are directly related to sunlight. We do not understand how sunlight damages the DNA within cells of the skin to produce these common skin cancers, but we do know that individuals need a lot of exposure to sunlight to get the common skin cancers and that they are mainly a problem for fair-skinned people who have lived in the tropics and had a lot of outdoor exposure. Because they do not spread very readily and are easily removed, common skin cancers tend to be regarded by doctors as a relatively minor problem. Only occasionally will doctors have difficulties in curing this kind of skin cancer. For this reason, it is probably sufficient to adopt a relatively simple policy of watching out for new spots or blemishes on the skin and showing them to a doctor if they cause concern; this kind of skin cancer does not represent any new or developing threat to the population. We must however give more attention to melanoma, which is more complicated in its origins and more threatening in its behaviour. It represents one of the most serious trends in cancer in the latter part of this century.

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WHY DO WE GET SKIN CANCER? The common kinds of skin cancer (called basal cell cancers or squamous cell cancers) occur as a result of exposure of susceptible skin to ultraviolet light- Pigmentation protects the skin and so it is the fair-skinned races who tend to get these common kinds of skin cancer. Once skin has become pigmented as a result of exposure to sunshine – once you have obtained your tan – then the tanned skin will give some very limited protection against burning. A tan provides the equivalent of a sun protection Factor of about 2. People do not always realize that even if skin is quite tanned, sunburn is still possible. Artificial tans out of a bottle can also protect the skin slightly but are even less effective than a natural tan. They do, however, have the advantage of making it unnecessary for people to bake themselves in the sun. While we may chink of a can as attractive, a tan produced by the sun is actually a sign of skin damage.There are other factors that can contribute to common skin cancers, including chemicals and radiation and deranged function of the body s immune system. These are rarely significant and almost all common skin cancers are directly related to sunlight. We do not understand how sunlight damages the DNA within cells of the skin to produce these common skin cancers, but we do know that individuals need a lot of exposure to sunlight to get the common skin cancers and that they are mainly a problem for fair-skinned people who have lived in the tropics and had a lot of outdoor exposure. Because they do not spread very readily and are easily removed, common skin cancers tend to be regarded by doctors as a relatively minor problem. Only occasionally will doctors have difficulties in curing this kind of skin cancer. For this reason, it is probably sufficient to adopt a relatively simple policy of watching out for new spots or blemishes on the skin and showing them to a doctor if they cause concern; this kind of skin cancer does not represent any new or developing threat to the population. We must however give more attention to melanoma, which is more complicated in its origins and more threatening in its behaviour. It represents one of the most serious trends in cancer in the latter part of this century.*66\194\4*

YOUR CANCER YOUR LIFE – PATTERNS OF SECONDARY GROWTH (PART 2)

admin — Tue, 12 May 2009 12:08:02 +0000

When cancer cells lodge in lymph nodes or other parts of the body, they don’t always immediately start multiplying to form an obvious secondary growth. Cancer cells have the ability to lie dormant, sometimes for many years. You could think of them as seeds which are waiting for the right conditions before they start growing. It is this ability of cancer cells to lie hidden and dormant which makes it very difficult to know whether we have completely got rid of every cancer cell. The only real test is the passage of time—we must wait until every hidden cancer cell would have started to grow and make its presence obvious. This length of time differs for different types of cancer. With some cancers we can be very confident of a cure after only two years free of any signs of disease; in others, secondary growths can still develop twenty or more years later.

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