April 20, 2009, 5:08 AM CT

Herbal extra to against pancreatic cancer

An herb recently found to kill pancreas cancer cells also appears to inhibit development of pancreas cancer as a result of its anti-inflammatory properties, as per scientists from the Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson. The data were presented at the AACR 100th Annual Meeting 2009 in Denver. (Abstract #494).

Thymoquinone, the major constituent of the oil extract from a Middle Eastern herbal seed called Nigella sativa, exhibited anti-inflammatory properties that reduced the release of inflammatory mediators in pancreas cancer cells, as per Hwyda Arafat, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of Surgery at the Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University and a member of the Jefferson Pancreatic, Biliary & Related Cancers Center.

Nigella sativa seeds and oil are used in traditional medicine by a number of Middle Eastern and Asian countries. It helps treat a broad array of diseases, including some immune and inflammatory disorders, Dr. Arafat said. Prior studies have also shown it to have anti-cancer effects on prostate and colon cancers.

Based upon their previously published findings that thymoquinone inhibits histone deacetylases (HDACs), Dr. Arafat and her colleagues compared the anti-inflammatory properties of thymoquinone and trichostatin A, an HDAC inhibitor that has previously shown to ameliorate inflammation-associated cancers......... Posted by: Sue      Read more         Source

April 6, 2009, 9:25 PM CT

Finding pancreatic cancer early

A cancer scientist from Johns Hopkins has convinced an international group of colleagues to delay their race to find new cancer biomarkers and instead begin a 7,000-hour slog through a compendium of 50,000 scientific articles already published to assemble, decode and analyze the molecules that might herald the furtive presence of pancreas cancer.

With limited resources available for the exhaustive and expensive testing that needs to be done before any candidate can be considered a bona fide biomarker of clinical value, it's important to take stock of the big picture and strategize, says Akhilesh Pandey, M.D., Ph.D., an associate professor in the McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and founder and director of the Institute of Bioinformatics in Bangalore, India.

Having mined the literature to amass 2,516 potential biomarkers of pancreas cancer, Pandey and his team are publishing their compendium on April 6 in PLoS Medicine They systematically cataloged the genes and proteins that are overexpressed in pancreas cancer patients, then characterized and compared these biomarker candidates in terms of how worthy each is of further study.

More than 200 genes are shortlisted because they were reported in four or more published studies to be overexpressed meaning that the proteins they make are in higher abundance in people with pancreas cancer than in people without the disease. This qualifies them as "excellent candidates" for the further studies that are needed to validate them as sensitive and specific biomarkers, note the authors......... Posted by: Sue      Read more         Source

February 25, 2009, 4:55 AM CT

Determining Risk for Pancreatic Cancer

In the latest clinical trial for a technique to detect pancreas cancer, scientists found they could differentiate cells that are malignant from those that are benign, pre-malignant, or even early stage indicators called mucinous cystic lesions.

Pancreas cancer is dangerous to screen for, yet deadly if ignored. The pancreas is extremely sensitive--biopsies can lead to potentially fatal complications--but with few symptoms, the cancer is commonly detected too late.

The disease is the fourth largest cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States, with a five-year survival rate of less than 5 percent. If doctors can find ways to identify early precursor lesions, the disease can be prevented in most individuals.

Reporting online Feb. 10, 2009, in the journal Disease Markers, scientists from Northwestern University and Evanston Northwestern Healthcare report convincing results with their minimally invasive methods for detecting pancreas cancer.

"This technique allows us to detect changes in cells that look normal using microscopy," says co-author Vadim Backman of Northwestern University. "This level of detail allows us to detect cancer in its earliest stages".

Their techniques, called four-dimensional elastic light scattering fingerprinting (4D-ELF) and low-coherence enhanced backscattering spectroscopy (LEBS), identify the cancer and its precursors by analyzing light refracted through cells in the duodenum, a section of the small intestine adjacent to the pancreas......... Posted by: Sue      Read more         Source

January 15, 2009, 7:15 PM CT

Genes and pancreatic cancer

Abnormalities in genes that repair mistakes in DNA replication may help identify people who are at high risk of developing pancreas cancer, a research team from The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center reports in the Jan. 15 issue of Clinical Cancer Research

Defects in these critical DNA repair genes may act alone or in combination with traditional risk factors known to increase an individual's likelihood of being diagnosed with this very aggressive type of cancer.

"We consider DNA repair to be the guardian of the genome," said main author Donghui Li, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology at M. D. Anderson. "If something is wrong with the guard, the genes are more readily attacked by tobacco carcinogens and other damaging agents".

With this in mind, Li and her colleagues set out to identify DNA repair genes that could act as susceptibility markers to predict pancreas cancer risk. In a case-control study of 734 patients with pancreas cancer and 780 healthy individuals, they examined nine variants of seven DNA repair genes. The repair genes under investigation were: LIG3, LIG4, OGG1, ATM, POLB, RAD54L and RECQL.

The scientists looked for direct effects of the gene variants (also called single nucleotide polymorphisms) on pancreas cancer risk as well as potential interactions between the gene variants and known risk factors for the disease, including family history of cancer, diabetes, heavy smoking, heavy alcohol consumption and being overweight......... Posted by: Sue      Read more         Source

January 14, 2009, 6:31 AM CT

New gene to predict outcome in pancreatic cancer

Variations in mismatch repair genes can help predict therapy response and prognosis in patients with pancreas cancer, as per research from The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center presented today in advance of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium.

In the study, single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in genes involved in DNA mismatch repair were linked to response to gemcitabine (Gemzar)-based preoperative chemoradiation, tumor resectability (the likelihood of removing the entire tumor), and overall survival.

"Gemcitabine is a major chemotherapeutic agent used to treat pancreas cancer, but we don't understand why some patients respond and most patients do not," said Donghui Li, Ph.D., the study's main author and professor in M. D. Anderson's Department of Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology. "There has been no biomarker for pancreas cancer used in the clinic to predict response. Our research interest has been to determine whether genetic variation in DNA repair can be a predictor of therapy response or a prognosis factor for patient survival".

DNA repair is a complicated process, Li noted, with various mechanisms responsible for identifying and correcting different types of DNA damage. Mismatch repair genes correct mistakes in DNA replication or trigger cell death (apoptosis) if repair is not possible. Ensuring cell death is critical to preventing the runaway cell division that occurs in cancerous tumors......... Posted by: Sue      Read more         Source

January 14, 2009, 6:29 AM CT

Hepatitis C May Increase Pancreatic Cancer Risk

A newly released study shows that infection with hepatitis C virus (HCV) increases a person's risk for a highly fatal cancer of the biliary tree, the bile carrying pathway between the liver and pancreas. This finding is in the recent issue of Hepatology, a journal published by John Wiley & Sons on behalf of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD). The article is also available online at Wiley Interscience (www.interscience.wiley.com).

More than 4 million Americans are infected with HCV, which causes chronic hepatitis, cirrhosis and liver cancer. However, the associations between the virus and other potentially-related cancers are less clear.

To better understand the associations between HCV and these cancers, scientists led by Hashem El-Serag of Baylor College of Medicine, conducted a retrospective cohort study of more than 718,000 U.S. veterans who were treated at Veterans Affairs medical facilities between October 1, 1988 and September 30, 2004. Among them, 146,394 were infected with HCV and 572,293 were not. Uninfected subjects were matched to infected ones by sex, age and type and date of visit.

The scientists followed the subjects for an average of 2.3 years to determine the incidence these cancers. They observed that "risk for biliary tree cancer in the HCV-infected cohort, eventhough low (4 per 100,000 person-years), was more than double that in the HCV-uninfected cohort"......... Posted by: Sue      Read more         Source

November 25, 2008, 9:41 PM CT

Radiation Before Surgery Improves Pancreatic Cancer Outcomes

Pancreas cancer is one of the deadliest and most difficult to treat cancers. Now, in a major step forward, scientists at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center have shown that administering radiation treatment previous to surgery nearly doubles survival in pancreas cancer patients with operable tumors.

"Patients who received pre-surgical (neoadjuvant) radiation had almost double the overall survival compared with similar patients who didn't undergo radiation, and survived significantly longer than patients who received radiation after the tumor was removed," says the study's senior author, Dr. David Sherr, assistant professor of clinical radiation oncology at Weill Cornell Medical College, and a radiation oncologist at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center.

The findings appear in the Nov. 15 issue of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology and Physics.

Pancreas cancer remains the fifth deadliest malignancy in the United States, killing more than 32,000 Americans each year. It is typically not detected until it is already at an advanced stage when cure is rarely possible. In fact, the five-year survival rate for pancreas cancer has been stalled at just 5 percent for the past 25 years.

Because pancreatic tumors have often spread or have directly invaded critical structures by the time they are detected, just 15 to 20 percent of patients are deemed suitable candidates for surgical removal (resection) of the tumor. And while post-operative radiotherapy has long been used to sterilize residual cancer cells that may not have been removed by surgery, the notion of using radiation before resection has been a controversial one......... Posted by: Sue      Read more         Source

October 29, 2008, 8:52 PM CT

New pancreas tumor registry

Charles J. Yeo, M.D., Samuel D. Gross Professor and Chair, Department of Surgery at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University, announces the establishment of the new Jefferson Pancreas Tumor Registry (JPTR).

"The purpose of the registry is to further study whether pancreas cancer occurs more frequently in families with a history of the disease," said Dr. Yeo, who is the principal investigator of JPTR. "It will also be used to determine the environmental and occupational risk factors to which pancreas cancer patients have been exposed."

The JPTR modeled after the National Familial Pancreas Tumor Registry is a longitudinal study in which participants may engage in long-term follow-up and receive information regarding scientific and epidemiological breakthroughs in pancreas cancer.

Participants are asked to complete a detailed questionnaire and may be asked to submit a blood sample and/or cheek swab. The questionnaires are designed to elicit the family health history of a patient with pancreas cancer or a non-affected family member, and to document exposure to occupational and environmental factors, such as residential radon, asbestos and second-hand tobacco smoke.

Research has shown that certain rare genetic conditions are linked to an increased risk of pancreas cancer, including familial breast-ovary cancer, familial melanoma, familial colon cancer, hereditary pancreatitis and Peutz-Jegher's syndrome (a rare hereditary condition that results in gastrointestinal polyps). "While we have not identified a causative gene yet to allow predictive testing for pancreas cancer, we can offer risk assessments and surveillance via imaging, blood tests and endoscopic ultrasound for patients with a strong family history of pancreas cancer," added Dr. Yeo......... Posted by: Sue      Read more         Source

September 29, 2008, 10:19 PM CT

Hepatitis B exposure and pancreatic cancer

HOUSTON - In a first-of-its-kind finding, scientists at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center have discovered that exposure to the hepatitis B virus (HBV) may increase the risk of pancreas cancer.

The study, reported in the Oct. 1 edition of the Journal of Clinical Oncology, also suggests that patients with this lethal form of cancer treated with chemotherapy may face danger of reactivation of their HBV.

Pancreas cancer is diagnosed in 37,000 people in the United States each year, and more than 34,000 people die of the disease annually, as per the American Cancer Society. It is often diagnosed in the late stages and is particularly perplexing because few risk factors are known.

"If this study is validated, it will give us more information about the risk factors of pancreas cancer and possibly even help prevent it in some cases," said lead author Manal Hassan, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor in M. D. Anderson's Department of Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology.

HBV and hepatitis C virus (HCV) are major global health problems, affecting about 2 percent of the population worldwide. In the United States 1.25 million people have chronic HBV, while 3.2 million have chronic HCV. These systemic viruses can harm the body in a variety of ways, including traveling through the bloodstream and damaging tissues throughout the body......... Posted by: Sue      Read more         Source

September 25, 2008, 11:01 PM CT

Prevention and treatment of pancreatic cancer

A number of gastrointestinal tumors, including pancreas cancer, have been shown to overexpress the EGFR. The overexpression of EGFR correlates with rapidly progressive disease and poor prognosis. Targeting EGFR pathway as a potential therapeutic strategy for pancreas cancer has been developed. Erlotinib is a small molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitor that efficiently blocks EGFR. Preliminary results of phase III trial in pancreas cancer revealed an improvement in survival with the addition of erlotinib. Treatment with anti-EGFR agents is used as a potential therapeutic strategy for pancreas cancer, but the mechanisms are still not precisely understood.

This article was published on September 21, 2008 in the World Journal of Gastroenterology The research team from Department of Gastroenterology, Affiliated First People's Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China studied the effects of erlotinib on six different pancreas cancer cell lines. How erlotinib exhibits its antineoplastic activity in vivo needs to be further elucidated.

In this study authors revealed the efficacy of erlotinib, as a single agent, on pancreas cancer cells growth in vitro, and in vivo study using a nude mice xenograft model and the mechanisms involved were also explored. Erlotinib repressed BxPC-3 cell growth in a dose-dependent manner, triggered G1 arrest and induced cell apoptosis,and suppressed capillary formation of endothelium in vitro. In vivo, erlotinib treated mice demonstrated a reduced tumor volume and weight as compared with control. The relationship between EGFR and angiogenesis has also been investigated using tube formation assay in vitro and immunohistochemical analysis of tumor-associated blood vessels in vivo. These findings provide evidence for the inhibitive activity of erlotinib in pancreas cancer cells. Inhibition of EGFR may be a promising adjuvant in chemotherapeutic strategy in the therapy of the dismal disease. The results also demonstrate that EGFR signaling pathway is an important target in pancreas cancer......... Posted by: Sue      Read more         Source

September 16, 2008, 10:07 PM CT

New drug substantially extends survival in pancreatic cancer

A new form of chemotherapy that destroys new blood vessels that grow around tumors has produced excellent results in a phase II trial of patients with inoperable pancreas cancer, scientists report at the 33rd Congress of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) in Stockholm.

European researchers led by Prof. Matthias Lhr from the Karolinska Institute reviewed the efficacy and safety of three different doses of cationic lipid complexed paclitaxel (EndoTAG-1) administered twice weekly, in combination with weekly infusions of gemcitabine, in comparison to gemcitabine alone, in 200 patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma.

"EndoTAG consists of charged particles that bind preferentially to the fast-growing endothelial cells in new blood vessels being formed by tumors," Prof. Lhr explained. "The drug, paclitaxel, is then released and thus directly reaches an important target in tumors, i.e. the vessels. Paclitaxel itself is not very efficient in pancreratic cancer".

After following patients for a year, the scientists observed that therapy with such combination led to a substantially extended median survival time in comparison to standard treatment. Patients given gemcitabine alone survived on average 7.2 months, in comparison to up to 13.6 months for patients who received repeated doses of the combination (EndoTAG plus gemcitabine)......... Posted by: Sue      Read more         Source

March 4, 2008, 6:20 PM CT

Chemoradiation for pancreatic cancer better

The addition of the drug gemcitabine with chemoradiation for the therapy of patients who had surgery for pancreas cancer was linked to a survival benefit, eventhough this improvement was not statistically significant, as per a research studyin the March 5 issue of JAMA.

Despite the potential benefits of surgically removing cancer involving the pancreas, there is a 50 percent to 85 percent rate of local relapse linked to liver and intra-abdominal failure and a 5-year survival of less than 20 percent, as per background information in the article. The frequency and pattern of failure makes the combination of added postoperative chemotherapy and radiation an important consideration. The drug gemcitabine has been shown to improve outcomes compared with the drug fluorouracil.

William F. Regine, M.D., of the University of Maryland Medical Center, Baltimore, and his colleagues conducted a study to assess if the addition of gemcitabine to the supplemental therapy of fluorouracil chemoradiation (chemotherapy plus radiation) improved survival for patients who had a portion of their pancreas removed as a therapy for pancreas cancer (surgical resection). The randomized controlled phase 3 trial included 451 patients enrolled between July 1998 and July 2002 at 164 U.S. and Canadian institutions, with follow-up through August 2006. Patients received chemotherapy with either fluorouracil (n = 230) or gemcitabine (n = 221) for three weeks previous to chemoradiation treatment and for 12 weeks after chemoradiation treatment (with fluorouracil)......... Posted by: Sue      Read more         Source

January 28, 2008, 10:31 PM CT

The smaller the tumor, the better your chances

The odds of surviving cancer of the pancreas increase dramatically for patients whose tumors are smallest, as per a new study by scientists at Saint Louis University and the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston the first study to specifically evaluate the link between tumor size and survival rates for one of the most common and deadly cancers.

The findings in the current edition of Pancreas (www.pancreasjournal.com) vividly underscore the importance of early diagnosis of pancreas cancer, the scientists said.

Even though it seems intuitive and was supported by preliminary observations from earlier studies, for the first time we now have evidence that a progressive decrease in the size of a pancreatic tumor at the time of diagnosis improves patient outcomes rather dramatically, said Banke Agarwal, M.D., Associate Professor of gastroenterology at the Saint Louis University School of Medicine and lead author of the study.

These data emphasize the benefit and the need of finding and diagnosing tumors in the pancreas as early as possible, Agarwal added. In order to make progress against pancreas cancer, we have to redouble our efforts to identify symptoms that are linked to the early stages of the disease.

Pancreas cancer is the fourth most common cancer in the United States and one of the most deadly, responsible for more than 33,000 deaths a year, as per the National Institutes of Health......... Posted by: Sue      Read more         Source

January 10, 2008, 10:35 PM CT

Pancreatic cancer cells evade immune system

A protein that helps prevent a womans body from rejecting a fetus may also play an important role in enabling pancreas cancer cells to evade detection by the immune system, allowing them to spread in the body.

Scientists at Jeffersons Kimmel Cancer Center in Philadelphia observed that the metastatic cancer cells in the lymph nodes of patients with pancreas cancer produce enough of the protein, IDO, to essentially wall-off the immune systems T-cells and recruit cells that suppress the immune systems response to the tumor. The findings might mean not only a better way to detect pancreas cancer spreading to lymph nodes, but also could enhance tumor immune treatment strategies against the fast-moving, deadly disease.

As per Jonathan Brody, Ph.D., assistant professor of Surgery at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University, one way that metastatic cancer cells can survive in nearby lymph nodes is by avoiding the immune system. Evidence from studies by researchers looking at other cancers has indicated that IDO (indolamine 23 dioxygenase) is critical to regulating the immune environment. The Jefferson researchers wanted to know if metastatic pancreas cancer cells residing in the lymph nodes expressed IDO to avoid being found, and if so, could they target this enzyme with available drugs to prevent the cancer cells from hiding from the immune system......... Posted by: Sue      Read more         Source

October 4, 2007, 4:52 AM CT

Apple compounds reduce risk of pancreatic cancer

Eating flavonol-rich foods like apples may help reduce the risk of pancreas cancer, says a team of international researchers. Quercetin, which is found naturally in apples and onions, has been identified as one of the most beneficial flavonols in preventing and reducing the risk of pancreas cancer. Eventhough the overall risk was reduced among the study participants, smokers who consumed foods rich in flavonols had a significantly greater risk reduction.

This study, reported in the October 15 issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology, is the first of its kind to evaluate the effect of flavonols compounds found specifically in plants on developing pancreas cancer. As per the research paper, only a few prospective studies have investigated flavonols as risk factors for cancer, none of which has included pancreas cancer.

Scientists from Gera number of, the Univ. of Hawaii and Univ. of Southern California tracked food intake and health outcomes of 183,518 participants in the Multiethnic Cohort Study for eight years. The study reviewed the participants food consumption and calculated the intake of the three flavonols quercetin, kaempferol, and myricetin. The analyses determined that flavonol intake does have an impact on the risk for developing pancreas cancer......... Posted by: Sue      Read more         Source

August 15, 2007, 8:35 PM CT

Obesity, lack of exercise and pancreatic cancer

Obesity and aversion to exercise have become hallmarks of modern society and a new study suggests that a blood protein associated with these lifestyle factors may be an indicator for an increased risk of developing pancreas cancer. Scientists from the Dana Farber Cancer Institute report their findings in the August 15 issue of Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

In a study of 144 patients with pancreas cancer and 429 people without the disease, a subset of patients with low blood levels of a protein called IGFBP-1 were at approximately twice the risk of developing pancreas cancer. Low blood levels of this protein have previously been associated with excess weight and lack of physical activity. Their data originated from tens of thousands of men and women enrolled in four large-scale cohort studies the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study, the Nurses Health Study, the Physicians Health Study and the Womens Health Initiative Observational Study all of which followed the health of participants over numerous years.

The prognosis for a number of patients with pancreas cancer remains poor, so it is vitally important that we indentify and better understand risk factors for the disease, especially risk factors that are modifiable said lead study author, Brian M. Wolpin, M.D., attending doctor at Dana Farber Cancer Institute. In addition to cigarette smoking, exercise and weight control appear to be important modifiable risk factors for this difficult disease......... Posted by: Sue      Read more         Source

August 15, 2007, 8:33 PM CT

Protein May Indicate Pancreatic Cancer Risk

A protein that dwindles in response to obesity and a sedentary lifestyle may one day help doctors predict which people are at increased risk for pancreas cancer, new research by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and collaborating researchers indicates.

In a report in the Aug. 15 issue of Cancer Research, the researchers observed that, in a large study group, people with the lowest blood levels of a protein called IGFBP-1 were twice as likely to develop pancreas cancer as those with higher levels. Though much work remains to determine if the protein -- whose acronym stands for insulin-like growth factor binding protein-1 -- is a reliable indicator of pancreas cancer risk, the finding adds to the scientific understanding of how the disease develops.

"The levels of insulin and another circulating hormone, insulin-like growth factor or IGF, are modified by obesity and sedentary lifestyle, and there is evidence that these hormones may stimulate the growth of pancreas cancer cells," said the study's lead author, Brian Wolpin, MD, of Dana-Farber. "When IGF binds to proteins like IGFBP-1, there may be less IGF available to bind to pancreas cancer cells and promote their growth. We wanted to determine whether IGFBP-1 levels in the blood were linked to pancreas cancer risk"......... Posted by: Sue      Read more         Source

August 1, 2007, 9:18 PM CT

New technique for earlier diagnosis of pancreatic cancer

A new optical technology, coupled with routine endoscopy, may enable doctors to detect the subtle tell-tale traces of early pancreas cancer, as per scientists at Northwestern University in Illinois. The optical technology, developed by biomedical engineers at Northwestern exposes cellular changes indicative of cancer in tissue near the pancreas that had previously been detectable only through intensive radiologic scanning or invasive surgery, two techniques that can put pancreas cancer patients at risk.

The results of the pilot study, presented in the August 1 issue of Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, could represent a new approach to detecting pancreas cancer at a very early stage, when therapy is most likely to succeed.

Pancreas cancer is not often detected early because it is a rather inaccessible organ, so this technique holds the potential to be the first reliable, routine screening tool for pancreas cancer, said co-author author Randall Brand, M.D., an associate professor of medicine at Northwestern University and physician at Evanston Northwestern Healthcare. If we could apply this to those at high risk such as people with chronic pancreatitis or who have a family history of pancreas cancer we might see a drastic improvement in pancreas cancer survival......... Posted by: Sue      Read more         Source

May 31, 2007, 11:43 PM CT

vitamin B6. B12 and folate, may decrease pancreatic cancer risk

Scientists exploring the notion that certain nutrients might protect against pancreas cancer observed that lean individuals who got most of these nutrients from food were protected against developing cancer. The study also suggests this protective effect does not hold true if the nutrients come from vitamin supplements.

As per a research findings reported in the June 1 issue of Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, researchers combined data from four large studies and observed that people who were at or below normal body weight decreased their risk for developing pancreas cancer if they took in high levels of vitamin B6, vitamin B12, and folate from food. The study determined that their risk was 81 percent, 73 percent, and 59 percent lower, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, and folate respectively, compared with participants who did not eat as much of these nutrients or who weighed more. As per the researchers, that was the only statistically significant finding from the study, which is the largest yet to look at these nutrients and pancreas cancer risk.

All we can say is that a person who has reason to be concerned about their risk of developing this cancer, which is relatively rare but quite deadly, should maintain a normal weight and eat their fruit and vegetables, said the studys lead investigator, Eva Schernhammer, M.D., Dr.P.H., an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School......... Posted by: Sue      Read more         Source

April 16, 2007, 10:08 PM CT

A Pancreas Cancer Risk Model

People with a family history of pancreatic cancer now have a way to accurately predict their chance of carrying a gene for hereditary pancreatic cancer and their lifetime risk of developing the disease. Developed by Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center researchers, the novel computer software tool is designed to help genetic counselors and physicians decide who would most benefit from early screening.

An estimated 10 percent of aggressive and highly fatal cases of the disease are caused by inherited genes. Even if there is a 100 percent chance that an individual carries a pancreatic cancer gene, their risk for developing the disease is only 20 to 25 percent over their lifetime, says Alison Klein, Ph.D., assistant professor and director of the National Familial Pancreas Tumor Registry at Johns Hopkins. So, while its a rare disease, the need for screening in these persons is important.

The risk calculator, based on similar tools for breast and colon cancer, calculates a percentage score of probability that a person carries a pancreatic cancer gene. Called PancPRO, it also computes an individuals lifetime risk of developing the disease.

Eventhough scientists have still not identified specific genes that cause the disease, they can estimate high risk based on clusters of family members with a history of pancreatic cancer. We know how genes behave, and coupled with information about a family - who has the disease, their age, family size, and causes of death - our model can provide a good estimate of an individuals risk, says Klein......... Posted by: Sue      Read more         Source