According to a recent article in the BBC, the latest medical research has finally been able to answer the questions as to why some women do not respond to the breast cancer drug Tamoxifen.  This discovery will lead to hope in the women who have breast cancer and are not successfully responding to treatment.  This medical research was recently published in the Cancer Research Journal.

Scientists find why tamoxifen fails some breast cancers

“UK scientists say they have discovered why some women fail respond to breast cancer treatment, and it is a gene error they believe they can fix. Tamoxifen is given to most women diagnosed with breast cancer to prevent the cancer returning.

But not all women respond to the drug – experts estimate a third get no benefit. The work in the journal Cancer Research suggests the problem is too much of a gene called FGFR1.  This discovery could lead to new treatments for these women as scientists “switch off” the action of FGFR1, enabling Tamoxifen to work.

The team of scientists in the Breakthrough Breast Cancer Research Centre at The Institute of Cancer Research have already shown this is possible in the lab.
They introduced a drug which “switched off” the action of FGFR1.
Once FGFR1 was stopped, hormone-based treatments like Tamoxifen could get back to work in destroying cancer cells, they found.
The researchers believe this could ultimately help thousands of women each year.

They say one in 10 breast cancer patients has too much of the FGFR1 gene.
Dr Nick Turner, who led the research, said: “Understanding how this gene can cause Tamoxifen resistance reveals a new drug target for treating breast cancers in patients who would otherwise have a poor outcome.
“There are a number of drugs in development that stop FGFR1 working, and clinical studies are investigating whether these drugs work against cancers with too many copies of this gene.

“The next step is to set up a clinical trial to see whether a drug that blocks the action of this gene can counteract hormone therapy resistance in breast cancer patients.

“If these trials confirm our lab work we could be on the verge of a potentially exciting new treatment for breast cancer.”   Dr Lesley Walker of Cancer Research UK, the charity which helped fund the work, said: “Cracking the problem of resistance to treatments such as Tamoxifen would be a major advance in treating breast cancer.”   Breast cancer is the most common cancer in the UK affecting more than 45,500 women each year.

Tamoxifen blocks the female sex hormone estrogen that fuels the growth of some breast tumours. ”

Source:  BBC News

It is commonly known that men ignore their health symptoms and often don’t go to the doctor before it’s almost too late. Many men, in the past, even avoided going to the doctor at all. There are early warning signs for many diseases that men should become acquainted with and learn all the facts about their health.

This story about men’s health from the Times of India follows:

Dr. Harvey Simon, associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, called this “the ostrich phenomenon”, warning that doing so could lead to worsening conditions and also cause severe illness.

“I call it the ostrich phenomenon. Guys are very prone to sticking their head in the sand. It’s a very bad idea,” the Daily Express quoted him as saying.

Friends Provident, in a study to mark the launch of Men’s Health Week, reported nearly 18 million overlooked aches and pains despite knowing about its potential dangers.

While 44 per cent did not check for cancerous signs like lumps and moles, more than 34 per cent confessed not knowing how to check for testicular cancer.

Just a quarter said that they recognised the signs of breast and prostate cancer.”

Source: Times of India

Microwaving food generates the cancer-causing chemical acrylamide, Swedish scientists have discovered.
Swedish research published in April revealed the food contaminant was formed by frying and baking starch-based foods. But now chemists at Stockholm University have found heating any food containing potato in a microwave produces significant levels of acrylamide. Acrylamide, a chemical used in industry to make a plastic component, is known to have caused nerve damage in people who have been exposed to it. It appears to form when food reaches temperatures much higher than 100C during cooking.

The latest research, to be published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, is the work of a team led by Dr Margareta Törnqvist who first discovered acrylamide in food. She believes health is threatened by acrylamide in concentrations greater than 100 parts per billion. Her recent experiments showed the following amounts of acrylamide in foods:

• Potato chips – nearly 4,000 parts per billion
• French fries – 736 parts per billion
• Microwaved grated potato – 650 parts per billion
• Fried spinach – 112 parts per billion

“I would say that boiling at 100 C is the only safe cooking method,” Dr Törnqvist told 4×4 Reports. “We found that when we heated protein-rich foods, such as beef and chicken, only moderate levels of acrylamide were produced.” But carbohydrate-rich foods had high levels, with crisps and chips producing the most. “And the higher the cooking temperature, the higher the level of acrylamide.”

While Dr Törnqvist was hesitant to promote mild cooking because of the dangers of food-borne diseases like Salmonella, she said the study proved overcooking should be avoided, especially with potatoes.

“We have so far only studied the carbohydrate-rich staple foods of Western society.  “But these form some of our most popular meals So food companies may have to make big changes in the way they produce food.”

Source:  BBC news