Chicago- Blood samples from women for whom breast cancer has come back had high levels of estrogen although most of them had been treated with estrogen blocking drugs, U.S. researchers reported.

The researchers said that the finding recommends women with a history of breast cancer to take extra steps like that of weight management and regular exercise in order to lessen their estrogen levels and reduce the risk of the cancer’s return.

Estrogen has been highly linked with the development of many breast cancers. However, very few researches have examined at the connection between high estrogen levels and cancer recurrence, particularly in women who are treated with anti estrogen drugs such as tamoxifen.

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Washington– Blood thinners like that of aspirin can aid to fight cancer by preventing shelter to tumor cells that are wandering, a U.S. research team reported on Friday.

Experiments carried out on mice showed that using aspirin along with an experimental anti clotting drug reduced the rate of spread and growth of melanoma and breast tumors.

Blood contains cells known as platelets. These platelets feed and shelter the tumor cells in the bloodstream. This makes it easier for tumor to metastasize or spread, the research team said.

Inactivating the platelets can help to slow down or prevent the spread of tumor, the researchers wrote in the study published in the Journal of Cellular Biochemistry.

This study could lend support to other findings, which show persons who take aspirin or other similar drugs that have an effect on a gene and protein known as COX-2, including ibuprofen, aspirin and Celebrex (COX-2 inhibitor), have a reduced risk of certain cancers.

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London – It is more probable that smokers will quit the hazardous habit if they are informed about the age of their lungs, a study identified on Friday.

In the lung age concept, the age of the lungs is measured by comparing the lungs of the smoker to a healthy person’s age whose lungs function as same as that of the smoker’s. This has helped patients to understand about the ill effects of smoking effectively, researchers had previously found.

But the information is also useful in persuading smokers to quit the habit, said Gary Parkes, who led the study that was published in the British Medical Journal. Gary Parkes is a family physician in Hertfordshire outside London.

“Revealing to the smokers of their lung age can considerably increase the probability of quitting the habit,” Gary Parkes and his team wrote.

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“A protein which administers the development of human embryonic stem cells also slows down the growth and spread of malignant melanoma which a deadliest skin cancer” discovered by the Northwestern University researchers.

Metastatic melanoma has a death rate of more than 80% and the survival of the patient is less seven and half months that is developed from the transformation of skin pigment cells or melanocytes. This study led by Dr. Mary J.C Hendrix found that a protein called Lefty prevents the breast cancer cells from metastasizing. Lefty is secreted only in human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and no in any other stem cells.

Embryonic stem cells can become around 200 types of cells in the adult body depending on the signals received from their microenvironment and hence it is known as pluripotent. The gradual progress of cancer is also due to the receiving and releasing of signals by the malignant cells from their microenvironment which promote the tumor growth and metastasis.

Revolutionizing work done by Hendrix and colleagues is explaining how the melanoma cells gain improved abilities to migrate, invade and metastasize by remaining almost unidentified by the immune system. Hendrix and fellow researchers demonstrated before that a three-dimensional matrix accustomed by hESCs persuade metastatic melanoma cells to revert to normal skin cell like type with the ability to form colonies in the mode of hESCs.

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Washington - The American Cancer Society said that death rate in the U.S due to cancer is maintained a constant decline, which started in the early 90s. However, it may still cause an estimated 565,650 American deaths in this year.

Age-adjusted cancer death rates for U.S. males in a graphic released by the American Cancer Society. The U.S. death rate from cancer has continued a steady decline that began in the early 1990s but it will still kill a projected 565,650 Americans this year, the organization said on Wednesday. REUTERS/Handout

“The death rate due to lung, prostate, breast, colorectal and various other types of cancer dropped in 2005, which is the most recent year for which data were available. However the data was less compared to 2003 and 2004,” the American Cancer Society said. In 2005, there was about 184 cancer deaths per 100,000 people where as it was 186 the year before.

But there was increase in the actual number of deaths due to cancer. ACS said that about 559,312 people died due to cancer in 2005, compared to 553,888 in the year 2004. The numbers of deaths have increased in spite of fall in death rate as the population of the United States increased more. (more…)