Aging population means cost of care will increase by 27 percent in the next decade Following the life stages of baby boomers has become somewhat of a national pastime — and now, as the flower-power generation reaches the age of Medicare eligibility, policymakers are wondering how much their health care will cost. A new study published today by researchers at the National Cancer Institute predicts how much more the nation can expect to spend on its collective cancer care a decade from now. The aging of the population alone means that the cost of cancer care will increase by 27 percent between...

Study: Herceptin plus Tykerb help women with early breast cancer more than either drug alone SAN ANTONIO (AP) — New drug combinations are helping women with early breast cancer. Using two drugs that more precisely target tumors doubled the number of women whose cancer disappeared compared to those who had only one of the drugs, doctors reported Friday. However, another study added to the controversy over Avastin for breast cancer. Most women who received the drug for a few months before surgery fared no better than those who did not, it found. The studies were presented Friday at the San...

Glenda Kwek Australian experts have hailed as “remarkable” and “significant” a study that found taking aspirin daily cuts your risk of getting cancer, but cautioned the drug should not be regarded as a “magic bullet”. The British study, which was published in the medical journal The Lancet, analysed eight trials involving 25,570 patients, and found a daily dose of aspirin of less than 75 milligrams – about a quarter of an aspirin tablet – reduced cancer deaths by an average of 21 per cent during the studies and 34 per cent after five years. “It’s...

By Judy Peterson October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, bringing out pink ribbons, but more importantly drawing attention to the disease that more than 1,000 Santa Clara County women are expected to be diagnosed with this year. Early detection is key to survival, and now there is a new technology available locally that is being used to augment mammograms in high-risk patients. El Camino Hospital brought a 3T MRI online at its Mountain View campus a few weeks ago. “It’s an incredibly sensitive machine,” Dr. Jessie Jacob said. Jacob is the director of El Camino’s breast...

By Melinda Dodd The Cleveland Clinic announced a possible breakthrough—but is a breast cancer vaccine too good to be true? It’s something generations of women could only dream about: a cancer vaccine that keeps malignant cells from taking hold in the breast, and stops tumors in their tracks. Announced earlier this week by the Cleveland Clinic, the proposed breast-cancer vaccine contains a small amount of alpha-lactalbumin, a protein that researchers say is present in the majority of breast tumors. The vaccine is intended to create an immune response in your body that should help you beat...

(Reuters) – An experimental new breast cancer drug made from sea sponges helped in a range of cancers, from breast cancer to sarcoma, researchers report. Three studies show the drug, Eisai’s eribulin, was effective and tolerated in patients with breast cancer, colon cancer and urinary cancer, according to brief data released on Thursday by the American Society of Clinical Oncology. Sarcomas are cancers that grow from muscle or bone. A fourth study of patients with advanced breast cancer will be detailed in a “late-breaker” session at ASCO’s annual meeting in June. The...

By Daniel Martin A method of destroying breast tumours by surrounding them with ice could offer hope of a safe non-surgical cure for the disease, research suggests. The technique called cryotherapy is already used to treat prostate cancer. It involves inserting several needle-like ‘cryoprobes’ into the tumour and passing super-cold gas through them. The ice ball rapidly created around each site kills off the cancerous cells. Freezing therapy has been tried before for breast cancer – but this is the first time a minimally invasive version, which requires no surgery, has been developed....

Researchers at the University Of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center released a study that shows that freezing cancerous tumors can kill the cancer, another up-side to this being that it causes an immune system response that could provide a natural barrier to this disease. Research showed that of two methods used (fast freezing in 30 seconds, and slow freezing, over a period of minutes) that not only was fast freezing more effective in killing the cancerous cells, it provided an immune system response that hindered the spread, it is believed. Read More…