Epigenomics, a molecular diagnostics company developing tests based on DNA
methylation, is developing a test for the methylation of a single gene, PITX2, that can predict recurrence of prostate cancer after radical surgery. This new test is not yet available but it looks worth watching out for. The same company is developing a blood test for early detection of colon cancer. The company presented study results this week at 97th AACR Annual Meeting in Washington D.C., USA. Full stories:

Clinical Study Proves Prognostic Power of Epigenomics’ Biomarker in Prostate Cancer

Epigenomics Presents Data Confirming Screening for Methylated DNA in Blood as Key to Early Colorectal Cancer Detection

Mon Apr 3, 12:53 AM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A compound formed when meat is charred at high temperatures — as in barbecue — encourages the growth of prostate cancer in rats, researchers reported on Sunday.

Their study, presented at a meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research, may help explain the link between eating meat and a higher risk of prostate cancer.
It also fits in with other studies suggesting that cooking meat until it chars might cause cancer.

The compound, called PhIP, is formed when meat is cooked at very high temperatures, Dr. Angelo De Marzo and colleagues at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore reported.

It appears to both initiate and promote the growth of prostate cancer in rats, they said.

“We stumbled across a new potential interaction between ingestion of cooked meat in the diet and cancer in the rat,” De Marzo said in a statement.

“For humans, the biggest problem is that it’s extremely difficult to tell how much PhIP you’ve ingested, since different amounts are formed depending on cooking conditions.”

For the study, Yatsutomo Nakai and other members of De Marzo’s team mixed PhIP into food given to rats for up to eight weeks, then studied the animals’ prostates, intestines and spleens. They found genetic mutations in all the organs after four weeks.

Source: Reuters: Barbecue meats linked with prostate cancer – Yahoo! News

In the past few years we have reported on a number of studies indicating that aspirin and other NSAIDs (non steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) may protect men against prostate cancer. For example:

Use of aspirin or other NSAIDs increases survival for men with prostate cancer October 5, 2004.

But one study of NSAIDs and cancer turned out to be fake. In April 2005 Dr. Jon Sudbø reported at the annual meeting of American Association for Cancer Research in Anaheim, CA that NSAIDs prevent some cancers but increase cardiovascular deaths. His paper was published in a leading medical journal. But in January 2006 the entire study was revealed as a fake built from fabricated data.

Now a Canadian team has confirmed that men who take non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs may receive protection against prostate cancer.

Doctor’s Guide ranks this as the top-read abstract about prostate cancer for the week of March 23, 2006. The stretch of one statistical finding in this study is remarkable – “The recovery of potency following radical prostatectomy varies from 16% to 86%.” This finding is in line with a review a couple of years ago in Greece which found:

Fresh lemon grass fields in Israel become mecca for cancer patients
By Allison Kaplan Sommer April 02, 2006

At first, Benny Zabidov, an Israeli agriculturalist who grows greenhouses full of lush spices on a pastoral farm in Kfar Yedidya in the Sharon region, couldn’t understand why so many cancer patients from around the country were showing up on his doorstep asking for fresh lemon grass.

It turned out that their doctors had sent them.

“They had been told to drink eight glasses of hot water with fresh lemon grass steeped in it on the days that they went for their radiation and chemotherapy treatments,” Zabidov told ISRAEL21c. “And this is the place you go to in Israel for fresh lemon grass.”

… Researchers at Ben Gurion University of the Negev discovered last year that the lemon aroma in herbs like lemon grass kills cancer cells in vitro, while leaving healthy cells unharmed.
More: Full story by Allison Kaplan Sommer April 02, 2006, at Israel 21c

This is the best ever cookbook of simple delicious everday recipes for men battling prostate cancer, and for their families and friends. David Ricketts, longtime contributing food and recipe editor to Family Circle magazine, had written a dozen cookbooks beforehe was diagnosed with prostate cancer in April 2001 at age fifty-five. After primary treatments, with his doctors encouragement he went to work to create a new way of eating for himself and other men hit by this disease. The result, this cookbook, is a classic keeper which can help you manage your meals everyday. Read our review:

http://www.psa-rising.com/eatingwell/beatpcacookbook_review.html

Help Continue Vital Prostate Cancer Research: Contact your U.S.
Senator Today!

Please contact your Senator and ask her/him to sign the Snowe-Johnson
“Dear Colleague” letter in support of the cancer research
programs at the Department of Defense, specifically urging an $85
million allocation for the Prostate Cancer Research Program.

A new method of delivering chemotherapy to cancer patients without incurring side effects such as hair loss and vomiting is being developed.

The method, produced at the University of Bath, involves using tiny fibres and beads soaked in the chemotherapy drug which are then implanted into the cancerous area in the patient’s body.

These fibres are bio-degradable and compatible with body tissue, which means they would not be rejected by the patient’s body. They gradually turn from solid to liquid, releasing a regular flow of the chemotherapy chemical into the cancer site, and a much lower dose to the rest of the body.

Cancer vaccines make headway
US News & World Report reports on the development of new cancer vaccines,
with a special focus on Cell Genesys.

A recent compilation of tests lists 21 anticancer vaccines that may have improved patient survival. Lung cancer and melanoma are just a couple. Doctors take great pains to say patients shouldn’t get their hopes up based on these early data. But the approaches, as experiments, are intriguing.

Cell Genesys, a biotech firm in South San Francisco, is developing vaccines to treat leukemia, prostate cancer, and pancreatic cancer.

US News: More cancers in the eye of the vaccine needleBy Josh Fischman Posted 3/28/06

Cell Genesys Initiates Second Phase 3 Clinical Trial Of GVAX® Vaccine For Prostate Cancer
July 5, 200

Cell Genesys Clinical Trials

National Cancer Institute Cancer Vaccine Fact Sheet

New York Times health editor Jane Brody reported yesterday that the epilepsy drug Neurontin (gabapentin), prescribed off-label for her pain after knee replacement surgery, helped her menopausal hot flashes. Brody went back to her doctor and asked for more after her knee pain ceased.

Gabapentin was developed, Brody says, “to help avoid the addictive quality of drugs called GABA analogues (Valium, Ativan and Xanax) used for anxiety and seizure disorders. The modified drug proved nonaddictive.”

Since this drug is non-hormonal and works on the brain, I wonder if it relieves hot flashes in men taking androgen blockade for prostate cancer?