Cancer Care

Health Discovery Corporation (”HDC”) (OTCBB: HDVY) announced that HDC’s new gene-based molecular diagnostic test for prostate cancer has now successfully completed it’s Phase III double-blind clinical trial and is now ready for commercialization to be used by physicians on their patients at risk of having prostate cancer. The new prostate cancer test will be performed at Clarient’s Clinical Laboratory in Aliso Viejo, CA. HDC will receive 30% royalty on each test performed.
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Mariko Jumper has beaten brain cancer and is now battling cancer of the spine.

Serious? Certainly, but the 10-year-old Richmond girl wasn’t letting the big C get her down at Saturday’s picnic for cancer survivors.

She ate her fill, listened to the music, laughed at Ronald McDonald’s magic tricks and saw a lot of friends.

”It’s really fun; it’s good for people to play,“ Mariko said.

She saw some of the same kids recently at a special summer camp for cancer survivors, but (and she lowered her voice) ”I can’t always remember their names.“

Behind the fun at the 4th annual survivors picnic was an important purpose, explained Dr. Sherry Bayliff, a children’s cancer specialist at Kentucky Children’s Hospital in Lexington.
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Patients with rare cancers are being left to die because of a postcode lottery that decides who gets access to drugs, according to research from a cancer charity.

There are wide variations across England in the number of patients granted access to medicines, a study from the Rarer Cancers Forum found.

The charity used the Freedom of Information Act to gain full information from 62 of England’s 152 primary care trusts (PCTs).

It revealed that 100% of applications from patients were rejected in some areas of the country while in other areas every single one was approved.

A total of 96% of patients living in Mid Essex had their requests approved, while every one in neighbouring South West Essex had theirs rejected.

Overall, one in four exceptional requests for cancer treatment were denied - about 1,314 patients in total.

“The NHS should be available to all who need it,” said the charity’s chief executive, Penny Wilson-Webb.

Thousands of cancer patients had been forced to plead for their lives since October 2006, the time covered by the survey, she pointed out.

“There has to be a better way,” she added. “We urge the Government to accept our 10 point plan to end this bizarre and demeaning lottery.”

According to the Forum, between 30% and 50% of all cancer cases could be classified as “rarer”, falling outside the common cancers such as colon, breast, lung and prostate. A cancer may be classed as “rarer” either because it affects an unusual site in the body, or because the cancer itself is of an unusual type, is difficult to diagnose, or requires special treatment.

This latest report comes after last week’s rejection by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence of four drugs last that treat advanced kidney cancer.

The Department of Health insists that funding for treatments “should not be withheld solely because Nice guidance is not available, but that decisions should be made on the basis of the available evidence”.

source : uk.news.yahoo.com

Laurence Ball, who lives in Shetland, had surgery at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary to remove a tumour on his lung.

But Mr Ball, 58, was later told there had never been cancer in the organ. He is now planning legal action.

NHS Grampian said the case was in the hands of the Central Legal Office and the board considered it inappropriate to comment further.

The problems started when Mr Ball suffered a chest infection in May 2005 and was sent for tests at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.
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LONDON (AFP) - Cancer sufferers’ access to innovative drugs which are funded outside of the NHS is subject to a “postcode lottery,” The Rare Cancers Forum claimed on Monday.

Discretion over who receives drugs that have not been assessd by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (N ICE ) falls with local NHS commissioners, who received 5,000 requests over a 20-month period, nearly a quarter of which were rejected.

However, the charity found a huge variation in the success of patients’ appeals depending on which NHS Trust they live in.
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It’s a dread disease. The fourth-highest cause of cancer deaths in the United States, it’s usually portrayed as an unstoppable, incurable killer. It has struck some high-profile figures: Hollywood actor Patrick Swayze has been diagnosed with it. Opera star Luciano Pavarotti and former Ronald Reagan aide Michael Deaver died of it. So, too, on July 25, did Randy Pausch, the former Carnegie Mellon University computer science professor whose “last lecture” before a university audience became a YouTube sensation and a best-selling book.
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After members of The Hagen Team, as they identified themselves, crossed the finish line Sunday to conclude their 1-mile walk, they looked around for the group’s namesake, who had separated from the pack.

Kathy Hagen was only three weeks removed from her last chemotherapy treatment. She would later admit that just days before the Race for the Cure, she wasn’t sure how she would hold up physically.

But wearing a pink survivor T-shirt Sunday morning, she looked strong and invigorated when she eventually caught up to her group across from Union Station — after opting to go the full distance on the 5-kilometer course.
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BEIJING, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) — Chinese scientists announced on Monday that they have bred a genetically altered cow capable of producing cancer fighting proteins for humans.

The cow, which can produce CD20 antibodies in its milk, was born in Beijing on Aug. 2 and a dozen more are due to be born next month.

Researchers said mass breeding of the animal would enable China to mass produce the therapeutic proteins cheaply.

The human monoclonal (produced from a single cell) antibodies could be purified from the milk of the transgenic cow, and used to treat B cell lymphomas and leukemias and some auto-immune diseases, said research team leader Li Ning, an academician with China Academy of Engineering.
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University of Florida College of Pharmacy researchers claim to have found a marine compound that can halt cancer progression.

The researchers say that the compound found off the cost of Key Largo has been found to inhibit cancer cell growth in laboratory tests, giving hope that new drugs to better battle the disease may soon be available.

A presentation on the efficacy of the UF-patented compound largazole, derived from cyanobacteria that grow on coral reefs, was made at an international natural products scientific meeting in Athens, Greece.

Experts attending the meeting described largazole as one of the most promising they had found since the college’s marine natural products laboratory was established three years ago.
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Four times a week, Anne Rinn, 28, a psychology professor in Bowling Green, Ky., whose mother died of breast cancer, goes to kickboxing, aerobics or Pilates classes. Liz Usborne, a 64-year-old breast-cancer survivor, lobs tennis balls over the net and circuit-trains at a women’s gym near her home in Bonita, Calif. The thread binding them? Concern about getting—or surviving and thriving after—breast cancer.
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