Colorectal Cancer

Colon Cancer A high-carb diet may increase odds that colon cancer will return THE QUESTION For people who have had colon cancer, might carbohydrate consumption affect whether the cancer comes back? THIS STUDY analyzed data on 1,011 adults, most in their early 60s, who had surgery and chemotherapy for Stage III colon cancer, in which the cancer had spread to lymph nodes in the immediate area but had not metastasized to distant parts of the body. In about a seven-year span, the...

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force has recommendations on a variety of screening tests. For more details and to create a personalized list, go to www.healthfinder.gov/ myhealthfinder . Blood pressure: Every two years for adults. Cholesterol: Every five years for men older than 35, and anyone with risk factors or family history of heart disease. (Cholesterol testing is not necessary for women without an elevated risk of heart disease.) Pap test: Every three years for women age 21 to 65 or, for women...

THURSDAY, Nov. 20 (HealthDay News) -- The cost of treating colorectal cancer can vary by tens of thousands of dollars per patient. To reach that conclusion, researchers compared the eight most commonly prescribed therapeutic regimens used to treat more than 400 patients at 115 ambulatory care centers across the United States. The regimens, which included supportive agents often required to ease treatment-related side effects such as nausea, ranged from the older chemotherapy cocktail 5-FU/LV (5-fluoroucil and leucovorin...

Colon Cancer A high-carb diet may increase odds that colon cancer will return THE QUESTION For people who have had colon cancer, might carbohydrate consumption affect whether the cancer comes back? THIS STUDY analyzed data on 1,011 adults, most in their early 60s, who had surgery and chemotherapy for Stage III colon cancer, in which the cancer had spread to lymph nodes in the immediate area but had not metastasized to distant parts of the body. In about a seven-year span, the...

THURSDAY, Nov. 20 (HealthDay News) -- Colorectal cancer screening detects 40 percent of cancers and should be carefully planned to be more effective, say Finnish Cancer Registry researchers. They studied 106,000 people, aged 60 to 64, to determine how sensitive Finland's colorectal cancer screening program was in identifying unrecognized disease. Half the people were assigned to a screening group and received fecal occult blood test kits by mail (the test detects small traces of blood in feces that may indicate...

MONDAY, Dec. 15 (HealthDay News) -- Despite major progress reducing overall colorectal cancer incidence and death rates in the United States, black men and women are still 45 percent more likely than whites to die of the disease. That finding was contained in a report released Monday by the American Cancer Society. The Colorectal Cancer Facts & Figures 2008-2010 report -- the second edition of a report first issued in 2005 found that colorectal cancer incidence and deaths continue to decrease among both blacks and whites,...

WEDNESDAY, Dec. 10 (HealthDay News) -- The use of fecal occult blood testing to screen for colorectal cancer reduces the number of deaths caused by the disease, according to an Italian study. Researchers at the Institute for the Study and Prevention of Cancer in Florence examined colon cancer incidence and deaths in two regions of Italy that introduced colorectal screening at two different times. The Empolese-Mugello district introduced screening in the early 1980s and the rest of the Florence and Prato provinces began screening...

THURSDAY, Jan. 8 (HealthDay News) -- Hormone therapy may lower a woman's risk of colorectal cancer, especially if she is no longer taking the hormones. This new finding, published in the January issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention , further complicates an already murky picture of the risks and benefits of hormone replacement therapy (HRT). Previous landmark research has shown an increased risk of breast cancer and cardiovascular problems, but a lowered risk of colon cancer.

Prevention strategies and screening tests could help cut the number of deaths in the United States from colorectal cancer — if people took full advantage of them. As it is, only 65 percent of the adults who should be screened actually are, a government survey found. And even with many screening and prevention strategies, colorectal cancer remains the country's second-leading cause of cancer-related deaths for both men and women. (Lung cancer is the first.) A survey of...

Regardless of whether Herman Cain wins the GOP nomination to run for president, he has already beaten the odds: He has survived a bout of advanced colon cancer. In 2006, Cain, now 66, received a diagnosis of stage IV colon cancer, which means that the malignancy had spread beyond his colon. In Cain's case, doctors found a tumor in his liver, a common location for colon cancer to spread, Cain wrote in his new book, "This is Herman Cain!: My Journey to the White House. " About...

The number of people with cancer is likely to surge by more than ­­75 percent across the world by 2030, with particularly sharp rises in poor countries as they adopt unhealthy "Westernized" lifestyles, a study said last week. Many developing countries were expected to see a rise in living standards in coming decades, said the paper from the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer. But those advances could come at a cost: an increase in breast, prostate and colorectal cancer linked to poor...

THE QUESTION People who have a virtual colonoscopy, which is done by CT scan, still have to undergo a traditional bowel cleansing to clear the colon and allow accurate detection of polyps. A new method uses computer software to adjust the CT image of the intestines, negating the need for a laxative-induced cleansing. Might that technique be a viable alternative? THIS STUDY involved 605 adults, 60 years old, on average, who were considered at moderate risk for colon cancer and were screened...

I agreed with virtually every word of Anna Holmes's Feb. 10 Style column, "Seeing red over the cult of thinking pink. " My only criticism is that it didn't go quite far enough. Ms. Holmes did not discuss the negative effect that the breast cancer culture has had on the larger fight against cancer. Six years ago, I was diagnosed with colorectal cancer. Not only did I have to deal with the horrors of the disease itself, but I also had to face the isolation that came with having the "wrong" cancer.

Prevention strategies and screening tests could help cut the number of deaths in the United States from colorectal cancer — if people took full advantage of them. As it is, only 65 percent of the adults who should be screened actually are, a government survey found. And even with many screening and prevention strategies, colorectal cancer remains the country's second-leading cause of cancer-related deaths for both men and women. (Lung cancer is the first.) A survey of 3,357 men and women...

A new study of people with a hereditary disposition to colon cancer adds to the growing body of evidence that taking a daily aspirin lowers a person's risk for that disease, the third-most common cause of cancer in men and women. Among a group of people with what is known as Lynch syndrome, the study found that those who took daily aspirin for two years were 60 percent less likely to develop cancer of the colon or rectum than those not taking the drug. Many...

Regardless of whether Herman Cain wins the GOP nomination to run for president, he has already beaten the odds: He has survived a bout of advanced colon cancer. In 2006, Cain, now 66, received a diagnosis of stage IV colon cancer, which means that the malignancy had spread beyond his colon. In Cain's case, doctors found a tumor in his liver, a common location for colon cancer to spread, Cain wrote in his new book, "This is Herman Cain!: My Journey to the White House. " About 101,000 Americans...

TUESDAY, June 10 (HealthDay News) -- Costs for treating Medicare patients with cancer increased substantially from 1991 to 2002, researchers report. The upward trend, seen with breast, lung and colorectal cancer in particular, reflects the fact that more patients are receiving radiation and chemotherapy, and those treatments are costing more. This may also influence what treatments doctors decide to use, one expert says. "The U.S. population is getting older, and it's growing, so there will be more people with cancer, so the burden...

MONDAY, June 9 (HealthDay News) -- Blacks with a family history of colorectal cancer are less likely to be screened than either their white counterparts or other blacks at average risk for the disease, a new study reports. The authors of the study, published in the July 15 issue ofCancer, couldn't find a clear reason why this was, even though blacks have the highest rates of colorectal cancer and death from the disease of all racial groups in the United States. Their research, based on a 2002 telephone...

Federal examiners have rejected patents for genetic screening tests because the applicants did not explore their effectiveness for different races, adding to the debate about whether race has scientific validity in modern DNA-based medicine. Some geneticists, sociologists and bioethicists argue that "black," "white," "Asian" and "Hispanic" are antiquated categories that threaten to revive prejudices. Others, however, say that meaningful DNA variations can track racial lines and that ignoring them could deny many...

The technology is produced, the research is done, and now two professors from George Mason University's Prince William County campus are trying to bring their findings to the bedside. With the help of grant money, Lance Liotta and Emanuel Petricoin launched a clinical trial last week to study whether medical professionals can customize treatment for patients with metastatic breast cancer by looking at the protein pathways that vary inside each tumor. "This breast cancer trial is the first of its kind and probably the...