American Cancer Society Gives Up On Health Promotion Ads In Favor Of Efforts To Seek Insurance Coverage For Cancer Care

Frustrated that its efforts have not lowered cancer rates, the American Cancer Society has replaced its traditional call for Americans to stop smoking and get screened for colon cancer to an advertising campaign that promotes adequate health insurance coverage for cancer treatment.

Does this signal the cancer care industry has given up on efforts to prevent cancer? While it is said that smoking and poor diets are responsible for a great deal of cancer, the ACS is now embarking on a different road.

A spokesperson for the ACS said that “lack of access will be a bigger cancer killer than tobacco.” Of course, such a statement assumes cancer treatment prolongs life, which has not been shown over the past 30+ years. Cancer rates have dropped in the past decade due to reduction in the number of smokers and women backing away from hormone replacement therapy, not from any advancement in treatment. The American Cancer Society has had little or no impact upon these changes.

A news report says “studies have shown that the rates would fall faster if more patients were diagnosed at early stages. And new research is confirming that insurance status often determines whether a patient is diagnosed early or late.” This is a total falsehood. Earlier diagnosis simply gives the impression cancer patients are living longer. Patients are still dying on the same calendar day. Furthermore, Americans without insurance coverage still have access to cancer care and some studies even show that delays in diagnosis and treatment actually result in prolonged survival compared to early detection and treatment. – Copyright 2007 Bill Sardi

More frequent screening for prostate cancer finds more tumors, but fails to reduce incidence of aggressive life-threatening tumors

Most men who live into their 70s and 80s and beyond will die with, but not of, prostate cancer. But some men do develop a fast-spreading type of prostate cancer that has a high mortality rate. The idea is for men to undergo bi-annual checkups to monitor for prostate cancer in hopes this will find the aggressive prostate cancer that is life-threatening. But a just-released study, published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, shows that men who underwent bi-annual PSA testing had about the same risk for aggressive tumors as men who were not screened as frequently. "Although many of us believe that early detection is saving lives, definitive evidence is lacking," Dr. David Crawford of the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center wrote in an editorial accompanying the study. This makes much of what modern medicine does to monitor prostate cancer nothing more than a "Chinese fire drill."

New Zealanders Wake Up To Reality: There Is No Cure For Cancer

In recent months two articles in the New York Times underscore the state of chaos in cancer treatment in America. Now New Zealand health officials concede their "cancer battle plan" is "uncoordinated and ad hoc." An article in the August 24, 2007 Dominion Post asks: "What is the point of detecting cancer if we don't have equipment and medicines to treat it?" Despite a government action plan, "very little has, in reality, been achieved," said a documentary report.

The report cited patient frustration with a "a truncated, unproven course of Herceptin while the patient must desperately raise funds to personally fund the extended course." Herceptin is an expensive anti-cancer drug that extends the life of breast cancer patient by a few months at best. Its widespread use would bankrupt most health plans.

A Cancer Society official said it was "intolerable" that nine years after the need was identified, cancer patients in the Wellington region were still waiting for a third radiation machine. The $5 million linear accelerator, which fires a gamma radiation beam to destroy tumors, cannot be installed till the ministry decides who will pay an estimated shortfall of $500,000 in treatment funding. While linear accelerators treat cancer, there is little evidence even one cancer has been cured by such treatment. The New Zealand Cancer Society is demanding more treatment, even if it is ineffective.

Does Sun Phobia Promote Cancer?

After a young woman developed melanoma skin cancer in Australia following frequent visits to a sun tanning parlor, health officials there have banned use of these UV-ray treatments for children under the age of 16. But will this practice really reduce the rate of skin cancer, and if it does, will it spawn other forms of cancer because of a lack of vitamin D?

Simultaneously, researchers report that 10-15 minutes of sun exposure will prevent hundreds of thousands of cases of breast and colon cancer annually. Cedric F. Garland, cancer prevention specialist at the Moores Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego estimates 250,000 cases of colorectal cancer and 350,000 cases of breast cancer could be prevented worldwide by increasing intake of vitamin D3, particularly in countries north of the equator. Vitamin D3 is available through diet, supplements and exposure of the skin to sunlight. [Nutrition Reviews August 2007]

At the same time the U.S. Food & Drug Administration has issued a bulletin claiming labeling of topical sunscreens is incomplete because the labels don't indicate the amount of UV-A radiation they filter. Sunscreens are labeled for their ability to block UV-B radiation, the type of sun rays that produce vitamin D in the skin.

The FDA acknowledges that there is no scientific evidence that using sunscreen prevents skin cancer. To learn why cancer rates soared, beginning with the widespread use of sunscreen lotions in 1971, read the book "You Don't Have To Be Afraid Of Cancer Anymore."

Recent ejaculation can elevate PSA and mislead doctors and patients regarding prostate cancer risk

Doctors in Greece report the case of a 52-year-old Greek man who had no prostate symptoms and who in an annual routine blood test had an elevated serum total PSA of 6 ng/ml (normal range 0-4.0 ng/ml). His personal and family medical history was unremarkable. There was no history of using drugs, or having symptoms of benign prostate hypertrophy, prostate cancer or prostatitis, and he had no recent diagnostic clinical tests of the genitourinary tract. The patient refused digital rectal examination. An abdominal and prostate ultrasound scan showed no evidence of benign prostate hyperplasia or of prostate cancer. Serum total PSA after ten days was 5.2 ng/ml, but the percent free PSA was 27% (normal > 20%). After a month, serum total PSA value dropped to 1.2 ng/ml. In another blood test after 3 months, serum total PSA value rose to 7 ng/ml with a percent free PSA of 40%. The urologist recommended a prostate biopsy. The patient also refused biopsy. After discussing this situation with the patient, his doctors were informed that he had sexual activity and ejaculation in less than 24 hours before the first and before the last serum PSA measurements (being 6 and 7 ng/ml respectively). Ejaculation might have had an effect on serum PSA levels in our patient. All other values of serum total PSA measurements performed at least 4 days after sexual abstinence were < style=""> Greek doctors suggest a 48-hour period of abstinence prior to total PSA measurement. –Hellenic Journal Nuclear Medicine 10: 119, August 2007.

Iron in breast tissue correlated with elevated risk for breast cancer

Researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine have conducted a very interesting study. They examined the mineral content of breast tissue among women with benign breast disease (dense breast tissue). A mild increased risk for breast cancer was correlated with higher amounts of minerals, zinc, calcium and iron, in breast tissues. When the data from postmenopausal women analyzed separately, the risk for breast cancer nearly doubled for iron in breast tissue compared to premenopausal women. There was no correlation between breast cancer and calcium or zinc in the breast tissue of postmenopausal women. Iron stood out as a strong risk factor. Postmenopausal women lack the control of iron they once had via monthly menstrual iron losses in blood flow. - Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers Prevention 16(8):1682-5, 2007.

Chemotherapy, hormone therapy and tamoxifen induce bone loss

Women receiving tamoxifen for prevention or treatment of breast cancer will experience accelerated bone loss. This is because the inhibition of estrogen entry into cells results in loss of calcium from bones. Stronger estrogen-blockers called aromatase inhibitors pose an even greater risk, increasing the risk of a bone fracture by another 35-50% compared to tamoxifen. Males with prostate cancer face similar problems. Hormone treatment (androgen deprivation- Lupron) reduces bone mass by 4-5% per year. –Osteoporosis International August 10, 2007 online.

Green leafy vegetables and folic acid (vitamin B9) pills almost cut risk for invasive breast cancer in half

Millions of American women have undetected breast cancer that will not affect their lives nor their life expectancy. A small percentage of breast tumors will be detected and treated and an even smaller number will become invasive, spread, and threaten life. Of those cases of breast cancer that do become invasive, researchers in Sweden report that folic acid, a common B vitamin found in dark-green leafy vegetables and provided in supplements, slashes the risk for invasive breast cancer by 46% (comparison between high and low folic acid intake from diet and/or supplements). –American Journal Clinical Nutrition 86: 434-43, August 2007.

Sleep determines quality of life among cancer patients

Cancer patients typically experience insomnia. It is the most common problem among patients with advanced cancer. A survey shows sleep is a strong governor of the assessment of quality of life for cancer patients. –Supportive Care Cancer, August 8, 2007. Editor’s note: Sleep is required for healing. This may explain why melatonin, a sleep hormone, when taken orally, increases survival among cancer patients.