Reducing fatigue in cancer patients reduces anxiety and depression. (CANCER) May 30, 2003 Lung cancer patients in a double-blinded, randomized, placebo-controlled trial of darbepoetin alfa (Ananesp) were psychologically tested at the beginning of the trial for fatigue, anxiety, and depression.

As fatigue improved, so did anxiety and depression. The researchers could find no other cause of the reduced levels of anxiety and depression other than improved energy-levels.

Aranesp is a drug to combat fatigue caused by anemia. It stimulates the bone marrow to produce red blood cells.

Read the article abstract in Cancer.
Read more about the drug Aranesp.

No connection between high sugar or carbohydrate intake and colon cancer found in Canadian study. (Journal of the National Cancer Institute) June 18, 2003 -- Researchers followed a group of nearly 50,000 Canadian women over sixteen and a half years and found no link between dietary intake of sugar or overall carbohydrates and the women's risk of colorectal cancer.

Read the abstract in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Keeping mentally active may prevent the onset of dementia. BOSTON MA (CNN) June 19, 2003 -- Research published in this week's New England Journal of Medicine supports the hypothesis that mental activity may reduce the risk of Alzheimer's disease and related dementia in the elderly.

A study at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City found that those in the top third of mental activity had a 63% reduction in dementia risk. Even a single activity one day a week reduced risk by 7%.

The researchers tried to eliminate the question of whether dementia itself reduces games and hobbies by enrolling only people who had been dementia-free for seven years prior to enrollment in the study. They also adjusted their results for differing education and intelligence.

Physical exercise seemed to have no effect on the development on dementia. There was one exception to this -- ballroom dancing seemed to offer some protection. The researchers believe this may be due to the fact that listening to music involves mental activity.

Read the article on CNN.

Read the study abstract in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Surgeons report use of HIIC shows encouraging results: (Annals of Surgical Oncology) Surgeons reviewed 34 cases of patients treated for peritoneal carcinomatosis (colorectal cancer metatasis within the abdomen) with surgery and hyperthermic intraoperative intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIIC).

During surgery the patients had their abdominal cavities washed with heated chemotherapy (mitomycin C and cisplatin). No post-operative deaths were reported, but post-operative morbidity was 35%.

The 2-year overall survival was 31%, and the median survival time and the median time to local disease progression were 18 and 13 months, respectively. Survival and local disease control in patients with well- and moderately differentiated colon adenocarcinoma were significantly better than in those with poorly differentiated tumors.

The researchers concluded, "Considering the dismal prognosis of this condition, HIIC seems to achieve encouraging results in a selected group of patients affected with resectable peritoneal carcinomatosis arising from colon adenocarcinoma. These findings support the conduction of formal phase III randomized trials."

Read the abstract in the Annals of Surgical Oncology.

Women who have had a hysterectomy are more likely to have incomplete sigmoidoscopy during screening for colon polyps. (Gastrointestinal Endoscopy) June, 2003 -- A study in England has shown that women who have had a hysterectomy more likely to have incomplete sigmoidoscopic examinations. The scope does not reach as far and the procedure is more painful.

In addition, fewer polyps were discovered.

Read the abstract in Gastrointestinal Endoscopy Online

Oxaliplatin significantly improved disease-free survival when added to 5-FU/leucovorin in French clinical trials of adjuvant therapy for colorectal cancer. BETHESDA, MD (National Cancer Institute) June 1, 2003 -- A Phase III study of over 2,200 patients with stage II and III colorectal cancer has shown improved disease-free survival over three years in patients given oxaliplatin and infusional 5FU with leucovorin (the so-called FOLFOX regimen).

After three years, 77.8 percent of the FOLFOX group were alive with no recurrence of their cancer compared to 72.9 percent of those who received only 5FU and leuvocorin via infusion.

The two groups had a similar rate of death from any cause, 0.5 percent, indicating that the regimen was safe for patients. There was substantial neuropathy associated with the regimen including pain, numbness, tingling, swelling, and muscle weakness in about 12 percent of the patients receiving FOLFOX, but this condition disappeared in all by 1 percent within one year.

The study, called MOSAIC, was led by Aimery De Gramont, M.D., Hopital Saint Antoine, Paris, France.

Read the report on the NCI web site: Cancer.gov

Additional articles on Avastin and Erbitux news from ASCO.

Read an article in the Boston Globe.

Read the Associated Press article on Yahoo News.

Targeted therapies promise "big strides" in treatment of colorectal cancer WASHINGTON DC (The Washington Post) -- Reports from the annual meeting of ASCO, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, have doctors excited
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The success of Avastin in extending the lives of patients with advanced colorectal cancer and Erbitux in reducing the size of tumors has caused both excitement and optimism among doctors at the ASCO meeting.

"I'm pretty conservative and cautious in talking about advances. This is a milestone," said Alan P. Venook, a gastrointestinal oncologist at the University of California at San Francisco. "It just gives all sorts of new energy to researchers, to patients, to biopharmaceutical companies that this is a path worth pursuing. It's incredibly exciting."
Vernook, who treated patients with Avastin during the clinical trials, said that patients seemed to get "immediate benefit in how their felt and in their tumor burden."

Read the Washington Post article here.

Two targeted drugs -- Avastin and Erbitux -- improve outcomes for patients with advanced colorectal cancer NEW YORK (New York Times) June 2, 2003 -- Researchers report at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncologists that two drugs that target individual cancer cells have proven significant in treating advanced metatatic cancer.

Avastin, a drug that reduces the ability of cancer cells to develop and maintain a blood supply, gave patients with advanced colorectal cancer an average additional 5 months of life. Combined with chemotherapy, patients in the randomized clinical trials lived a median 20.3 months, compared with 15.6 months for those on chemotherapy alone.

Erbitux in combination with irinotecan (CPT-11 or Camptosar) shrank tumors in 22.9 percent of patients who had exhausted all other treatment options. Tumors shrank in 10.8 percent of patients who got Erbitux alone.

Results of the new Erbitux study, conducted by Merck of Germany, are similar to a previous US study which was rejected as flawed by the FDA. ImClone and Bristol-Myers Squibb, who will market Erbitux jointly in the United States, say that that they hope to talk to the FDA about the new data and an early approval of the drug based on the German studies.

Additional Erbitux clinical trials are underway in the United States with results expected later this year.

Read the New York Times article here.