Posted: 23 Feb 2010 10:02 PM PST

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Washington, Feb 24 : An extract from bitter melon, a vegetable common in India and known as 'karela' in Hindi, helps trigger a chain of events that kills breast cancer cells and prevents them from multiplying, claims an Indian-origin researcher at Saint Louis University.

Ratna Ray, Ph.D., professor in the department of pathology at Saint Louis University and lead researcher, said she was surprised that the extract from the bitter melon she cooks in stir fries inhibits the growth of breast cancer cells.

"To our knowledge, this is the first report describing the effect of bitter melon extract on cancer cells," Ray said. "Our result was encouraging. We have shown that bitter melon extract significantly induced death in breast cancer cells and decreased their growth and spread."

The expert decided to study the bitter melon extract's impact on breast cancer cells because research by others have shown the substance lowers blood sugar and cholesterol levels.

Ray conducted her research using human breast cancer cells in vitro - or in a controlled lab setting.

"There have been significant advances in breast cancer treatment, which have improved patient survival and quality of life. However women continue to die of the disease and new treatment strategies are essential," Ray said.

"Cancer prevention by the use of naturally occurring dietary substances is considered a practical approach to reduce the ever-increasing incidence of cancer. Studying a high risk breast cancer population where bitter melon is taken as a dietary product will be an important area of future research," Ray said.

She cautioned against seeing bitter melon extract as a miracle cure for breast cancer.

"Bitter melon is common in China and India, and women there still get breast cancer," Ray said.

--ANI

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Wyeth ordered to pay in breast cancer case - St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Posted: 22 Feb 2010 08:16 PM PST

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Pfizer Inc.'s Wyeth unit was ordered to pay $6 million in punitive damages to an Alabama woman who developed breast cancer after taking the company's menopause drugs, bringing the total award in the case to $9.45 million.

A Philadelphia state-court jury deliberated a few minutes before deciding that Wyeth should pay $6 million as punishment for failing to warn Audrey Singleton, a retired school bus driver, of the risks of the drug. The jury ruled earlier Monday that the company owed Singleton and her husband $3.45 million in compensatory damages.

The verdict is Wyeth's seventh loss in 10 cases to have gone before juries and the fifth in a row over the drug. Former users have filed more than 8,000 complaints against Wyeth and another Pfizer unit over menopause drugs, according to a Wyeth regulatory filing last year. The drugs are still on the market.

More than 6 million women took the pills to treat symptoms such as hot flashes before a 2002 Women's Health Initiative study highlighted the drugs' links to cancer. Until 1995, many patients combined Premarin, Wyeth's estrogen-based drug, with progestin-laden Provera, made by Pfizer's Pharmacia & Upjohn unit. Wyeth combined the two in Prempro.

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States Cut Back On Mammograms - Redorbit.com

Posted: 23 Feb 2010 05:56 AM PST

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Posted on: Tuesday, 23 February 2010, 08:02 CST

The Avon Foundation for Women released a survey on Monday that said some U.S. states have started using controversial new breast cancer screening guidelines to stop offering routine mammograms for uninsured women in their 40s.

The survey included 150 breast cancer health educators and providers from 48 states. A quarter of the states either cut or eliminated screening mammography and other early detection services for women under 50.

The Avon survey helped revitalize concerns that the guidelines from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force might be used to deny health coverage for women. The task force raised the recommended age for women to start getting screened for breast cancer to 50.

"Lawmakers at all levels need to act now to ensure that these recommendations do no further damage, and that women have full and ready access to mammography," Dr. James Thrall, chair of the American College of Radiology's Board of Chancellors, said in a statement to Reuters.

The guidelines created controversy when cancer doctors and advocacy groups said the charges would mean more women would die from breast cancer.

"Our survey gives us an early indication from those working on the front lines of breast cancer education, screening and treatment as to how the recommended guidelines may be affecting their work," said Marc Hurlbert, director of the Avon Foundation Breast Cancer Crusade, which is partly funded by Avon Products Inc.

Spokesman Mark Caffee said the poll was meant to get an early read on how states have responded to the guidelines.

People from small community groups to leading cancer centers, like Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, took place in the survey.

Respondents from multiple states said they have seen changes in breast and cervical cancer early detection programs in which screening mammography and other early detection services had been cut back or eliminated for women under 50.

The programs offer low-income, uninsured, and underserved women access to breast and cervical cancer screening and diagnostic services.

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in November that the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force did not set federal policy and its findings would not affect the services the government pays for.

The American College of Radiology rejected the task force guidelines and asked lawmakers to officially exclude the panel's recommendations from coverage decisions by federal and state insured programs.

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