Holistic Cancer Treatment

Women suffering from recurrent ovarian cancer may have a new treatment regimen that may increase the response to treatment and prolong their lives. Doctors at H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute are testing a combination of chemotherapy and the drug Avastin in these patients. Moffitt opened a clinical trial recently and is looking for new participants for the study.

"We can often get the cancer to shrink for periods of time, but ultimately, it becomes resistant to standard chemotherapies," said Dr. Robert Wenham, member of the gynecologic oncology program at Moffitt. "The hope is that by using these targeted therapies, we can prolong and manage the cancer making it more of a chronic disease process rather than something that's going to take the patient's life."

The clinical trial will address ovarian cancers that are incurable and tough to treat.

Use of Marker To Predict How Pancreatic Cancer Patients Do After ...

Researchers has found further evidence supporting the ability of a protein to predict how well a patient with advanced pancreatic cancer will do after surgery, chemotherapy and radiation. The levels of the protein CA 19-9 in the blood can be used to determine the need for further therapy, they say.Adam Berger, M.D., assistant professor of surgery at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University, and his co-workers examined CA 19-9 levels and the survival of 385 patients with advanced pancreatic cancer who were treated with surgery and subsequent chemotherapy and radiation. They found that those patients whose post-operative CA 19-9 level exceeded 180 U/ml did much worse than those with lower levels.In fact, at least half of those whose CA 19-9 level was higher than 180 U/ml lived for approximately nine months, while half of those whose levels were 180 or below lived more than twice as long, about 21 months.

Queen’s new cancer program is well worth the effort

John's Lutheran School and an active coach in basketball, volleyball and track. During what he thought was a routine colonoscopy last August; he was diagnosed with colon cancer.“I was able to teach through the first semester during chemotherapy and radiation, but my first surgery had complications and I was in the hospital for six weeks," said Hauch, 58. “I had liver surgery in May and spent seven days in the hospital."Hauch wants to return to his classroom when school resumes in late August. To ready himself, he's enrolled in the new Cancer Wellness Program at Queen of the Valley Medical Center.“The Cancer Wellness Program has been a two-year project in the making," said Mike Smith, a physical therapist and catalyst for the program. “I've always had an interest in using exercise to relieve pain.