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NEW YORK, NY, Jan. 21, 2011

With snow still on the ground, the American Cancer Society will welcome spring early as it kicks off its annual Daffodil Days fundraiser Wednesday at Zeidler’s Floral, 2011 N. Fulton Ave., in Evansville.

Among the many community volunteers that support Daffodil Days, News 25 anchor Shelley Kirk, a cancer survivor, is helping the American Cancer Society by serving as chair of this year’s Daffodil Days campaign. Kirk became involved in Daffodil Days last year following her treatment for breast cancer.

For a donation of $10, Tri-State residents will receive a bouquet of 10 fresh-cut daffodils while supporting the fight against cancer. Supporters can also give a Gift of Hope donation in which a bouquet will be given anonymously to a cancer patient in the community.

Kirk and other volunteers will gather at Zeidler’s Floral at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday to kick off the campaign. Anyone interested in coordinating the Daffodil Days program in their place of business, worship, or with friends and family is invited to attend.

Daffodils can be ordered until Feb. 28. Flowers will be delivered the week of March 14.

Dollars raised through Daffodil Days provide the American Cancer Society with much-needed funds for cancer prevention and early detection; funding cancer research and rallying individuals and civic leaders in the fight against cancer. for more information, call (812) 475-9486.

— John Lucas

Stages Of Colon Cancer Symptoms

Stages Of Colon Cancer Symptoms

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Stages Of Colon Cancer Symptoms

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Posted: Jan 07, 2010 |Comments: 0 |

The average five-year survival rate at this stage tends to be around 20 to 30 percent. Stages Of Colon Cancer SymptomsWhilst these figures make the outlook look bad, an end to all hope should not be dismissed with stage 4 colon cancer. The importance of screening and early detection at this time is paramount.

If stage 4 colon cancer has been diagnosed, this means that the cancer has now manifested itself in other parts of the body. it is almost certain that the cancer has invaded the lymph node system and could possibly be found in the liver, lungs, bones and even the brain. even at this stage, it is still possible for people to live past the projected five-year period. it all depends on the location of the spread of the stage 4 colon cancer. however, overall, the prognosis for stage 4 survival is not overly optimistic.

Even now, when stage 4 colon cancer has been diagnosed, there are several medical procedures and treatments that can be used to lessen symptoms. In areas where tumors can be removed, surgery can be performed to remove these tumors. if surgery isn’t an option, chemotherapy and radiation therapy are often used to help. whilst there may not be a ‘cure’ for stage 4 colon cancer, doctors strive to help those diagnosed to live their lives, if not a little longer, then at least a little more comfortably.

Prevention is of paramount importance in ensuring that people do not end up with stage 4 colon cancer. this in itself is not going to prove 100% effective for everyone, but to help avoid this cancer, here are a few things that people can do:

Reduce the risks. Not all of the risks can be removed. Some can though, and they simply involve changing your lifestyle habits. Smoking, over indulgence of alcohol and a diet that is high in fat and low in fiber are all risks that can be eliminated. Other personal risk factors that can be addressed are obesity and lack of exercise.

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Undertake a screening program. The normal check up procedure of screening starts around the age of 50. however, if the risks are deemed high in a person, then screening will start at an earlier stage. Both men and women are prone to colon cancer, so both can expect to have their physicians request screening exams every few years.

The importance of screening programs and risk reduction are highlighted by the fact that symptoms of colon cancer do not generally appear until the later stages. The best form of defense can be installed by making these two things a priority. by doing so, one can help to reduce the chances of stage 4 colon cancer forming.

Stage 4 colon cancer is not good and if diagnosed with this cancer, it doesn’t mean that all hope is lost. with the proper medical treatment and care, the chances of beating the five-year survival rate could be improved. Avoiding this situation in the first place by employing the combination of preventative measures and undergoing regular screenings is obviously the best step to take. These actions alone won’t guarantee that you won’t reach stage 4 colon cancer, but they will help in decreasing the chances for advancement of the colon cancer.

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Lynn Faulds Wood, who was given a 34 per cent survival chance 20 years ago, applauds the Government for its screening initiative

Twenty years ago, I was presenter of the BBC’s primetime investigative series Watchdog, married to my co-presenter John Stapleton and with a toddler son, Nicholas.

Life was good. I had never heard of the second-biggest cancer killer in the country  -  but it was growing dangerously inside me.

When I went to my then GP surgery with what I thought was just a bit of rectal bleeding, I was told it was ‘nothing to worry about at your age, probably piles’.

I didn’t worry, but something made me go back to a different GP months later when the subtle symptom continued. it was almost a year before I was finally diagnosed  -  to my complete shock and devastation  -  with Stage C advanced bowel cancer.

When I read that my chances of survival at that time, on paper, were just 34 per cent, the hairs on the back of my head stood up in fear and I faced years of worrying whether I would live to see my son grow up.

Today I’m cured  -  but that’s down to luck rather than good judgment.

Looking back, it was the dark ages for this common cancer. Most sufferers died, and Britain’s survival rates were among the worst in Europe.

Now we have gone from zero to hero  -  and all credit to the Government for announcing a new world-beating screening programme for bowel cancer, which starts rolling out across England from next year.

‘Totally elated’ and ‘fantastic’ are not the sort of words normally uttered by the top medical specialists and scientists in our country, but that’s the welcome the new screening programme has received.

‘It’s remarkable how quickly the Government has acted,’ says John O’Donohue, medical lead for London’s bowel cancer-screening programme.

‘It is rare to see such a genuine breakthrough as this test  -  and fantastic to see it being introduced so quickly.’

The Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley, says the Government acted quickly after being convinced by research into bowel cancer screening.

‘This research was very persuasive,’ he tells the Mail on Sunday. ‘It could save 3,000 lives a year.’

But if you are thinking bowel cancer-screening already exists, you’re right. a free screening programme started in England and Scotland in 2006. the existing programme is based on home-testing kits looking for traces of hidden blood in our stools, with follow-up colonoscopy if the kits show a problem.

Mr Lansley acknowledges that screening programmes ‘suffer from people who don’t respond’. he says: ‘Men are a problem. One of the benefits of this programme is that it’s curative as well as investigative.’ but Lansley believes that ‘people will be more willing to respond than to the present programme’.

The Health Secretary also wants to tackle what we eat, believing the country’s changing diet over the years is worrying  -  ‘with consequently rising rates of bowel cancer’.

In the English screening programme, more than 7,000 cases of cancer have already been found at a much earlier, curable stage  -  doubling the rate of early detection.

These kits have already been sent to most of the homes of those aged 50 or over in Scotland (ahead because almost half of Scotland was an original pilot site), and those aged 60 or above in England, with Wales and Ireland now joining in.

What the Government announced towards the end of last year was

DEARBORN HEIGHTS — American Cancer Society Relay For Life Of Dearborn Heights is gearing up the spring event with a gathering at 5:30 p.m., Feb. 2, at the Caroline Kennedy Library.Event volunteers and participants from last year’s successful event along with potential new walkers are expected for a kick-off rally to launch their fundraising efforts for the year.Although the Relay For Life of Dearborn Heights is more than three months away, now is the time to get involved, sponsors say. They invite residents to attend the kick-off celebration to learn more about the upcoming Relay For Life and how they can become part of an exciting overnight event that will pave the way to a world with less cancer and more birthdays.Relay For Life is the Society’s signature event, dedicated to increasing awareness and raising funds to fight cancer. Teams of family, friends and co-workers camp out overnight, taking turns walking the track.During the event, participants and visitors will have a chance to: celebrate the victory of area cancer survivors during the Survivors Lap; remember those we have lost to the disease during the poignant Luminaria Ceremony; and participate in the Fight back Ceremony that gives everyone a chance to proclaim their way of taking action against the disease.Community members are urged to start or join a team, and/or make donations to this event, by visiting www.relayforlife.org.the 2011 Relay For Life of Dearborn Heights will take place on April 30-May 1 at Chircop Field near Pardee Elementary School from 10 a.m. to 10 a.m.For more information on how you can get involved or about the kickoff event, contact Kelly Brown at (248) 663-3414 or by e-mail at kelly.brown@cancer.org.to learn more about the American Cancer Society or to get help, call anytime, day or night, at (800) 227-2345 or visit cancer.org.

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Prostate cancer is known to occur typically in older men. Yet some patients are younger than 50 years at the time of diagnosis. Scientists assume that these cases might be the key to understanding the biology of this disease. Early prostate cancer might be a subtype which is characterized by a relatively small number of genetic modifications. Cancer researchers believe it is likely that these include a number of what are called ‘driver mutations’ which extremely promote the development and growth of prostate cancer. Moreover, researchers assume that prostate cancer with hereditary background, which is not yet entirely understood, is more likely to occur in men under age 50.

In a research network funded by the German Ministry of Research and Education with € 7.5 million, physicians and scientists are now planning to uncover the genetics of early prostate cancer. this is the aim of a collaborative effort involving scientists from the German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ), the National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT) in Heidelberg and colleagues from the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE) and Martini-Klinik in Hamburg-Eppendorf. the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg and the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Genetics in Berlin will also participate in the project.

The project is part of the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC). this consortium globally captures characteristic genetic modifications of the most important types of cancer. By now, more than 20 countries have joined the endeavor.

After the project was officially approved in December, work will start in January to decipher the tumor cell genome of 250 prostate cancer patients aged 50 or younger and to compare it with the gene sequences from healthy cells of the same men. this will help to discover those gene mutations that cause and promote prostate cancer. with this giant project, the researchers aim to produce a complete map of all genetic modifications involved in prostate cancer.

“we have high hopes for the project to find new markers for diagnosis and new treatment approaches for prostate cancer,” said Associate Professor (PD) Dr. Holger Sültmann of DKFZ, coordinator of the network. “Focusing our project on young patients is also very likely to produce findings about the causes of hereditary prostate cancer,” says Professor Guido Sauter, Director of UKE’s Institute of Pathology and co-coordinator of the research project. “Our long-standing collaborations with the project partners, which have been established primarily with the support of the Research Ministry, have created excellent conditions for this project,” Sültmann confirms.

With more than 60,000 cases newly diagnosed each year just in Germany, prostate cancer is the most common tumor affecting men; each year, 10,000 men die from prostate cancer. As life expectancy is rising, these figures will dramatically increase over the years to come. therefore, we urgently need new and better diagnostic methods for prostate cancer. Early detection of aggressive tumors and their discrimination from benign diseases of the prostate is crucial for determining the best possible treatment for each individual patient. Study participants were recruited from more than 2,000 prostate cancer patients undergoing surgery at UKE’s Martini-Klinik every year. Martini-Klinik is the only hospital in Germany which specializes exclusively on prostate cancer. “more than 150 patients each year belong to the group of patients aged 50 or younger,” says Dr. Thorsten Schlomm, Scientific Director of Martini-Klinik.

The molecular analysis of prostate cancer is not the only project participation of DKFZ in the International Cancer Genome Consortium. Coordinated by DKFZ, researchers from Heidelberg, Dusseldorf and Berlin have been working together in the “PedBrain” network since January 2010 to analyze the genome of childhood brain tumors. Furthermore, scientists from DKFZ are partners in the German ICGC network for the analysis of malignant lymphomas.

Source: Dr. Sibylle KohlstaedtHelmholtz Association of German Research Centres

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AURORA, Colo. (Jan. 20, 2011)–Cancer scientists have designed the first molecular test to predict which bladder cancer patients may have cancer involvement in their lymph nodes at the time of surgery

By STEVE EIGHINGER Herald-Whig Staff Writer

The Cancer Center at Blessing Hospital is offering the “Look Good … Feel Better” program at 6 p.m. Monday on the lower level of the center to teach beauty techniques to women cancer patients, helping enhance their appearance and self-image during active chemotherapy and radiation treatments.Those participating in the free program will receive a complete makeup kit that includes cosmetics and skin care products donated by the cosmetic industry. Women also will learn ways to cope with hair loss by using wigs, scarves, and other accessories. About 15 cosmetologists, who volunteer their time, are certified for the program by the American Cancer Society.”Look Good … Feel Better” is a non-medical, product-neutral program offered in partnership with the American Cancer Society, the National Cosmetology Association, and the Cosmetic, Toiletry, and Fragrance Association Foundation, a charitable organization supported by the cosmetic industry.Registration is required and the session is limited to 15 women. for more information about the “Look Good â ¦ Feel Better” program and to register, contact Rosie Scott at (217) 223-8400, ext. 7709.Weighty issueThe Quincy Medical Group’s Gold Medal Moves program has more than 300 people involved in its community weight-loss program.”We have set our community weight loss goal at 1,000 pounds (by Feb. 19),” said Carrie Kimber, QMG’s community wellness director.the Gold Medal Moves participants’ combined weight at the Jan. 8 beginning of the program was 48,989 pounds.Signs will be posted at State Street Bank locations, Quincy Hy-Vees, Sheridan Swim Club, Quincy University, Refreshment Services Pepsi, Dene Lambkin Honda, Hyundai and Hertz, NuFIT for you and Quincy Medical Group so the community can track the progress of the combined weight loss.”Weight loss is just one way to track our success,” Kimber said. “Participants will (also) be awarded medals based on the amount of time they exercise per week. as part of our comprehensive wellness program, movement and exercise is as important as weight loss, creating an overall healthier person in the process.”For those who can exercise, our awards are measured based upon three times a week for 30 minutes earns a bronze medal, four times a week for 30 minutes earns a silver, and five times a week for 30 minutes earns a gold.”Dis-n-dataSpeaking of weight loss programs, Chaddock is participating in an employee wellness program with 37 participating. Angie Asmann of NuFit for you said the group lost a combined 90 pounds over the recent holiday period … the James E. Cary Cancer Center in Hannibal, Mo., has been granted a three-year Accreditation with Commendation from the Commission on Cancer of the American College of Surgeons. such accreditation is given only to those facilities that “have voluntarily committed to providing the highest level of quality cancer care” and that undergo a rigorous evaluation and on-site review process every three years … the Hannibal Regional Hospital Foundation will be hosting its second annual Sweetheart Swing benefit Feb. 19 to raise funds for the Cardiology Services Patient assistance Fund at Hannibal Regional Hospital. Go to www.hrhf.org or call (573) 629-3577 for more details.Quote of the Week”There are other ways to decorate that are less dangerous.”– Dr. Valerie Murrah, of the University of North Carolina, when talking about the dangers associated with tongue piercing that include infection, tooth chipping and gum recession.the goodA cheap generic drug used to stem bleeding from heavy menstrual periods could save the lives of tens of thousands of accident victims each year and help reduce the number of deaths in combat, a British report indicates. In a systematic review of studies on the effectiveness of tranexamic acid, or TXA, researchers found that it reduces the risk of death in injured patients with severe bleeding by about 10 percent, compared to giving no treatment. This would equate to saving more than 70,000 lives a year if the blood clotting drug was used worldwide, the study said.the badThe average person in the U.S. consumes 3,500 milligrams of sodium a day. That’s equivalent to almost 2 teaspoonfuls — way more than the 2,300 milligrams per day suggested by the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.the uglyThe negative health effects of smoking may begin within minutes, not months of cigarette use, according to information in a Chemical Research in Toxicology report. the study shows that genetic damage associated with lung and other types of cancer associated with smoking became apparent within 15-30 minutes of inhaling cigarette smoke. Researchers say it’s the first study to document how quickly certain toxic chemicals in cigarette smoke can cause DNA damage linked with cancer in humans. Smoking is now said to be the cause for about 90 percent of lung cancers and is linked to at least 18 other types of cancer.– seighinger@whig.com/221-3377

Newswise — Cancer Research Institute, Inc. (CRI), a U.S. nonprofit organization founded in 1953 to advance the science of tumor immunology and foster the discovery and development of new cancer immunotherapies, announced today that its Cancer Vaccine Acceleration Fund (CVAF), a joint initiative with the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (LICR), has completed a new investment agreement with Oncovir, Inc., a biotechnology company based in Washington, D.C., to enable the production of the immunological stimulant Hiltonol® (Poly-ICLC).

“CVAF support is a critical factor enabling the manufacture of enough high-grade Hiltonol® for clinical testing not only in cancer vaccines, but also for many other diseases for which it holds promise,” says Andres M. Salazar, M.D., founder, chief executive officer, and scientific director of Oncovir.

Through the collaboration, CVAF will provide $450,000 to Oncovir to help fund the manufacture of clinical grade Hiltonol®. as part of the agreement, 10,000 vials of Hiltonol® will be dedicated exclusively for use in 10 to 15 early- and mid-phase clinical trials designed and conducted within the CRI/LICR Cancer Vaccine Collaborative (CVC), a coordinated global network of 19 academic clinical trial sites and advanced immunological monitoring laboratories. since it was established in 2001, the CVC has completed more than 22 early-phase clinical trials of different, multi-component cancer vaccine formulations, with an additional 21 trials currently ongoing and 4 more planned to begin patient accrual.

Members of the CVC’s Coordinating and Review Committee have identified Hiltonol® as a powerful immunomodulator with the potential to enhance the efficacy of therapeutic cancer vaccines. in addition to holding a dedicated supply of Hiltonol®, CVAF will also receive a perpetual non-exclusive license for the agent’s use in combination with therapeutic cancer vaccines, according to the terms of the agreement with Oncovir.

“The CVC was established on the fundamental premise that cancer vaccines must include multiple components, including an antigenic target or targets, a delivery system, an immunological stimulant, and a modulator of immunosuppression, or checkpoint blockade, to ensure that the anti-tumor immune response, once aroused, does not shut down prematurely,” says Lloyd J. Old, M.D., director of the CRI Scientific Advisory Council and director of the CVC. “Providing funding that will enable a large quantity of clinical grade Poly-ICLC to be manufactured is essential to furthering both Oncovir’s and our program’s clinical research objectives. Specifically, having a supply of Hiltonol® under CVC control will make it possible for our investigators to identify its optimal use within the context of cancer vaccines, particularly in combination with other critical agents, such as antibodies that have the capacity to neutralize cancer-induced immunosuppression. The partnership with Oncovir brings us one step closer to an optimally effective therapeutic cancer vaccine for patients.”

As part of its ongoing collaborative program to make Hiltonol® available for a variety of therapeutic applications, Oncovir plans to continue to distribute Hiltonol®, including the remaining portion of the CVAF-supported batch, to qualified scientists and companies testing next-generation cancer vaccines, as well as to scientists testing promising new immunologic therapies for HIV, malaria, influenza, SARS, hepatitis, and other infectious diseases.

“The CVAF strategy was designed to achieve two principal goals—to increase the number of promising vaccine components in global development, and to facilitate clinical research that will accelerate the refinement of powerful, multi-component cancer vaccines,” says Adam Kolom, director of CVAF. “This new partnership with Oncovir will help us advance both, while also adding a valuable agent to our license and intellectual property portfolio, maximizing the potential for future financial returns and the impact of philanthropic support to CVAF.”

The CVAF agreement with Oncovir is the second to be completed since the fund’s public launch in late 2010. The first, a collaborative research agreement with the Cambridge, MA, biotechnology company Tolerx, Inc., provides for $1.5 million in research funding to support Tolerx’s clinical development of TRX518, a monoclonal antibody designed to enhance the immune system by enabling T cells to attack cancer cells more effectively. TRX518 is the first anti-GITR (glucocorticoid-induced tumor necrosis factor receptor) drug candidate to enter human clinical trials. Upon completion of the phase I study, TRX518 may be evaluated in clinical trials in combination with therapeutic cancer vaccines that could complement TRX518’s effect on T cells.

Media Contact:Brian M. BrewerCancer Research Institute+212.688.7515, ext. 242bbrewer@cancerresearch.org

About Hiltonol® (Poly-ICLC)As a natural pathogen-associated molecular pattern (PAMP), Hiltonol® provides the critical ‘danger signal’ needed by the body for generation, targeting, and maintenance of an effective high-quality, long-term immune response against multiple pathogens and tumors. This ‘danger signal,’ which is usually generated by a replicating virus, has been missing from most modern cancer and HIV vaccines. It includes induction by Hiltonol® of a ‘natural mix’ of interferons, cytokines, chemokines, natural killer cells, myeloid dendritic cells via toll-like receptor 3 and MDA5, T-cells, and various other dsRNA-dependent host defenses such as the OAS, PKR, and RIG-I enzyme systems. in other words, when properly presented together with vaccine antigen, Hiltonol® serves as a core immunogenic vaccine platform by inducing a comprehensive immune response that includes activation of antigen-presenting dendritic cells, generation of a high-quality polyfunctional cellular and humoral immune response best suited for antiviral and anti-tumor action, targeting of that response via induction of chemokines at the tumor site, and stimulation of memory cells via interleukin 15 and MDA5. About Oncovir, Inc.Oncovir, Inc.,is a pharmaceutical company dedicated to the development of nucleic acid-based clinical therapies for cancer, infectious, immune, and degenerative disorders. Founded in order to develop the potent stabilized dsRNA therapeutic viral mimic Poly-ICLC (Hiltonol®) for treatment of malignant gliomas (brain cancer), Oncovir has now continued this work in other cancer vaccine, infectious disease, and biodefense indications. Oncovir is currently collaborating in two dozen separate ongoing or completed phase I-II clinical trials using Hiltonol® alone or combined with a variety of therapeutic or preventive cancer vaccines in patients with gliomas, hepatomas, lymphomas, melanomas, and prostate, breast, ovarian, cervical, bladder, colorectal, liver, and pancreatic cancers. An HIV vaccine trial is also under way and others are in planning.

About the Cancer Vaccine Acceleration Fund (CVAF)CVAF is a nonprofit venture philanthropy fund established in 2010 by the Cancer Research Institute in partnership with the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research ltd (LICR). CVAF is designed to speed the clinical development of therapeutic cancer vaccines and other immune system-based cancer therapies by providing funding, scientific expertise, and clinical trials management resources for phase I and II clinical trials. The fund works with leading scientists and clinicians around the world to identify the most promising new cancer immunotherapies, and then partners with biopharmaceutical companies to help lower the initial hurdle to investment, kick-start their clinical development, and generate important new insights into the immunological and therapeutic efficacy of novel cancer immunotherapies. Availability of CVAF resources helps to mitigate the significant funding gap that exists in the early stages of clinical trials where the economic risk is highest, where critical new scientific insights can be garnered most cost-effectively, and where the backlog of promising new immunological cancer drugs is the greatest.

For more information about CVAF, or to download the full CVAF Donor Prospectus, visit http://www.cancerresearch.org/cvaf.

About the Cancer Research InstituteThe Cancer Research Institute (CRI), established in 1953, is the world’s only nonprofit organization dedicated exclusively to transforming cancer patient care by advancing scientific efforts that are leading to new and effective immune system-based strategies to treat, control, and prevent cancer. Guided by a world-renowned Scientific Advisory Council that includes four Nobel laureates and twenty-nine members of the National Academy of Sciences, CRI supports research conducted by immunologists and tumor immunologists at leading medical centers and universities across the globe, and has contributed to many of the key scientific advances that demonstrate the potential for immunotherapy to change the face of cancer treatment.

The Cancer Research Institute has one of the lowest overhead expense ratios among nonprofit organizations, with 85 percent of its resources going directly to the support of its science, medical, and research programs. CRI meets or exceeds all 20 standards of the better Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance, the most comprehensive U.S. charity evaluation service, and has earned the GuideStar Exchange Seal, indicating our commitment to the transparency of our organizational information to donors, funders, those we serve, the public, and regulators. CRI has also received an ‘A’ grade for fiscal disclosure and efficiency from the American Institute of Philanthropy, as well as top accolades from other charity watchdog organizations. For more information, visit http://www.cancerresearch.org.

About the Ludwig Institute for Cancer ResearchThe Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research ltd is a nonprofit research organization committed to improving the control of cancer through integrated laboratory and clinical research and novel therapeutic strategies based on the emerging understanding of cancer. The Institute translates these strategies into applications for human benefit by coupling discoveries from its basic laboratory research and renowned scientists with strong intellectual property positions, clinical development expertise, and the conduct of Institute-sponsored, GCP-compliant clinical trials.

The core of the Institute is concentrated at ten research locations two each in Australia, Sweden, and the U.S., and one each in Belgium, Brazil, Switzerland, and the UK. each research site is led by a Director who is a Member scientist of the Institute and part of the management team. For more information, visit http://www.licr.org.

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THURSDAY, Jan. 20 (HealthDay News) — Having both breast cancer and diabetes greatly increases the chances of dying, new research shows.

Researchers conducted a meta-analysis, or pooled analysis, of previously published studies that looked at how breast cancer patients with diabetes fared.

Six of seven studies found pre-existing diabetes was associated with significantly higher long-term, all-cause mortality. Specifically, the studies showed breast cancer patients with diabetes were nearly 50% more likely to die than those who didn’t have diabetes.

But much remains unknown, the study authors said, noting that it was premature to conclude that diabetes prevention or improved blood glucose control would lead to a better prognosis. The data didn’t look at the specific causes of death, nor does the research establish whether having diabetes actually caused more breast cancer deaths.

“It’s basically a signal that there may be a stronger association between diabetes and breast cancer mortality than we have appreciated,” said lead study author Dr. Kimberly Peairs, an assistant professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. “The next step is to determine if there is causality between diabetes and breast cancer mortality.”

The study, supported by grants from the U.S. National Institutes of Health, the American Cancer Society and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, is published in the January issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

The reason why breast cancer patients with diabetes are more likely to do poorly isn’t known, but several studies in the meta-analysis offer some clues.

One study, for example, found that women with type 2 diabetes tended to have their breast cancer diagnosed later than those without diabetes.

Women with pre-existing diabetes may also be sicker overall than women without diabetes. that may make them less able to handle the harsh chemotherapy drugs, or may prompt doctors to treat their cancer less aggressively because of concerns about their overall health, Peairs said.

One study the team reviewed showed that women with diabetes had more adverse events from chemotherapy, while another demonstrated that women with diabetes tended to receive less aggressive treatment, Peairs said.

There could also be a biological cause for the increased mortality risk. High levels of insulin may stimulate tumor growth, said Dr. Julia Smith, director of the breast cancer screening and prevention program at NYU Cancer Institute.

In people with type 2 diabetes, the cells become resistant to insulin, leading to rising blood sugar levels as well as more insulin circulating throughout the body.

“Insulin regulation, obesity and diabetes [are] critical in general health,” Smith said. “I can’t conclude that controlling insulin will modify anything about breast cancer, but it tells us we should be looking in those areas and there may be something very important.”

About 24 million U.S. residents, or 8% of the adult population, had diabetes in 2007, according to background information in the article. Prior research also shows that diabetics are at a higher risk of developing breast cancer.

Women should seek to maintain a body mass index of about 25, limit consumption of animal fats, and exercise to prevent diabetes and reduce cancer risk, Smith said.

And women who already have diabetes should make sure they are controlling it, while oncologists and physicians treating patients with diabetes should make sure they are coordinating care, Peairs noted.

Copyright © 2011 HealthDay. all rights reserved.

SOURCES: Kimberly S. Peairs, M.D., assistant professor of medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore; Julia A. Smith, M.D., Ph.D., director, breast cancer screening and prevention program, NYU Cancer Institute, new York City; January 2011, Journal of Clinical Oncology