plus 4, Bone drugs may help prevent breast cancer, researchers say - Dallas Morning News

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• Bone drugs may help prevent breast cancer, researchers say - Dallas Morning News
• MRI Detects Breast Cancer At Earlier Stage - Redorbit.com
• Alcohol may raise chances of breast cancer return - Edmonton Journal
• Alcohol consumption increases risk of breast cancer recurrence - Genetic Engineering News
• The Missing Element - Foreign Policy

Bone drugs may help prevent breast cancer, researchers say - Dallas Morning News Posted: 11 Dec 2009 06:12 AM PST SAN ANTONIO – New results from a landmark women's health study raise the possibility that bone-building drugs such as Fosamax and Actonel may help prevent breast cancer. Women who already were using these medicines when the study began were about one-third less likely to develop invasive breast cancer over the next seven years than women not taking such pills, doctors reported Thursday. The study is not enough to prove that these drugs, called bisphosphonates, prevent cancer. More definitive studies should give a clearer answer in a year or two. Yet it greatly amplifies the hopeful buzz that started last year when researchers reported that a bisphosphonate cut the chances that cancer would come back in women already treated for the disease. "Now we're actually looking at this in the general population – healthy women who have never had breast cancer. And it looks like it's protective in those women as well," said Dr. Peter Ravdin of the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. "There's a strengthening story here," said Ravdin, who helped review the research for the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, where results were reported Thursday. "This is very promising." Millions of women already take bisphosphonates for bone-thinning osteoporosis, or to prevent fractures from cancer that has spread to their bones. The drugs range in cost from $100 for a three-month supply of the generic version of Merck & Co. Inc.'s Fosamax pills to as much as $1,200 for an infusion of Novartis AG's Zometa, given every six months for osteoporosis. Other brands are GlaxoSmithKline PLC's Boniva and Warner Chilcott PLC's Actonel. After last year's surprise finding that Zometa cut the risk of cancer recurrence, doctors wondered: Is it just making bones more resistant to cancer's spread, or does it have wider anti-tumor effects that may prevent cancer from developing in the first place? Dr. Rowan Chlebowski of Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, Calif., sought answers from the Women's Health Initiative, a federally funded study best known for revealing previously unrecognized risks from estrogen and progestin pills after menopause. Of the 151,592 participants, 2,216 were taking bisphosphonates – mostly Fosamax – when the study began. About seven years later, 31 percent fewer invasive breast cancer cases had occurred among those women than the others. The benefit persisted even after researchers took into account differences in age, smoking, weight, hormone and vitamin D use, and other things that affect bone density and breast cancer risk. A second study supported that view. Dr. Gad Rennert of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel, compared about 2,000 postmenopausal women with breast cancer to 2,000 similar women without the disease. Those with cancer were 29 percent less likely to have been taking bisphosphonates, he found. Neither study collected information on side effects. Bisphosphonates can cause bone, joint or muscle pain, and in rare cases, jawbone decay. Marilynn Marchione, The Associated Press fivefilters.org featured article: Normalising the crime of the century by John Pilger

MRI Detects Breast Cancer At Earlier Stage - Redorbit.com Posted: 11 Dec 2009 09:04 AM PST Posted on: Friday, 11 December 2009, 11:09 CST Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) coupled with mammography detects almost all cancers at an early stage, thereby reducing the incidence of advanced stage breast cancer in high-risk women. "Earlier stage breast cancers are more likely to be curable," said lead researcher Ellen Warner, M.D., M.Sc., medical oncologist in the Department of Medicine, Division of Medical Oncology at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center, in Toronto, Canada. "We can be fairly confident that if screening with MRI finds cancers at a much earlier stage, it probably also saves lives," added Warner, who presented details of these results at the CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, held Dec. 9-13. The researchers separated 1,275 women at high risk for breast cancer into two groups: One group was screened with MRI plus mammography, and the second, a control group, received conventional screening by mammography. Participants had the defective BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutation, which suggests a very high lifetime risk of developing breast cancer. Warner and colleagues followed the women over several years to determine which screening method detected cancer at a significantly earlier stage. Forty-one cases of breast cancer were diagnosed in the MRI group compared with 76 diagnoses in the control group. There were proportionately fewer advanced breast cancers, and more early cancers among women who screened with MRI compared with those not screened with MRI. Furthermore, cancer size was smaller in the MRI group. The average size of invasive cancers in the MRI group was 0.9 cm compared to 1.8 cm in the control group. Three percent of cancers in the MRI group were larger than 2 cm in diameter compared with 29 percent of those in the control group. "These results will hopefully convince high-risk women and their health care providers that breast screening with yearly MRI and mammography is a reasonable alternative to surgical removal of their breasts, which is commonly done to prevent breast cancer," Warner said. --- On the Net: American Association for Cancer Research More News in this Category fivefilters.org featured article: Normalising the crime of the century by John Pilger

Alcohol may raise chances of breast cancer return - Edmonton Journal Posted: 11 Dec 2009 11:20 AM PST CHICAGO – Post-menopausal women who have three to four alcoholic beverages a week of any sort have a significantly higher risk that their breast cancer will come back, U.S. researchers said Thursday. They said women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer should consider limiting alcohol consumption to less than three drinks a week, especially if they are overweight or obese. "We didn't find any increased risk in women who consumed less than half a drink per day. There was no association at all with breast cancer recurrence," said Marilyn Kwan, a research scientist at Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, California, who presented her findings at the American Association for Cancer Research San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. Other studies have shown that alcohol use can increase the chances a woman will develop breast cancer in the first place, but few studies have looked at the role of alcohol consumption in women who already have had a breast cancer diagnosis. Kwan and colleagues studied 1,900 women in the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Cancer Registry who survived early-stage invasive breast cancer between 1997 and 2000. The women reported their own level of alcohol consumption. The women were followed for eight years. Women who drank three to four alcoholic beverages experienced a 30 percent increase in the risk that their breast cancer would come back. Half of these women drank alcohol -- wine, beer and liquor -- to some degree. The study compared these with breast cancer survivors who did not drink. The more alcohol they drank, the higher their risk was for cancer recurrence, Kwan said. She said other studies have shown alcohol can affect levels of estrogen circulating in the body and can increase the rate at which the body processes estrogen. Since many breast cancers are fed by estrogen, and she said she thinks moderate to heavy alcohol consumption may be fueling the cancers. Kwan said for post-menopausal women who have had breast cancer, reducing alcohol consumption may be a smart move. More than 400,000 women die from breast cancer worldwide each year. fivefilters.org featured article: Normalising the crime of the century by John Pilger

Alcohol consumption increases risk of breast cancer recurrence - Genetic Engineering News Posted: 10 Dec 2009 08:58 AM PST Email Print Share More News Dec 10 2009, 12:00 PM EST Alcohol consumption increases risk of breast cancer recurrence EUREKALERT Contact: Jeremy Moore jeremy.moore@aacr.org 267-646-0557 American Association for Cancer Research SAN ANTONIO Moderate to heavy consumption of alcoholic beverages (at least three to four drinks per week) is associated with a 1.3-fold increased risk of breast cancer recurrence. Women who are post-menopausal or overweight may be most susceptible to the effects of alcohol on recurrence. Drinking less than three drinks per week was not associated with an increased risk. Marilyn L. Kwan, Ph.D., staff scientist in the Division of Research at Kaiser Permanente, Oakland, Calif., presented detailed results of this study at the CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, held Dec. 9-13, 2009. Based on these findings, Kwan suggested, "women previously diagnosed with breast cancer should consider limiting their consumption of alcohol to less than three drinks per week, especially women who are postmenopausal and overweight or obese." Previous research has shown that consumption of alcohol is associated with an increased risk of breast cancer, but there are limited studies to date about alcohol's role in patient prognosis and survival among those already diagnosed with breast cancer. Kwan and colleagues examined the effects of alcohol on cancer recurrence and mortality in the Life After Cancer Epidemiology (LACE) Study. LACE is a prospective cohort study of 1,897 early-stage breast cancer survivors diagnosed with early-stage invasive breast cancer between 1997 and 2000. The researchers recruited participants from the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Cancer Registry. Information on wine, beer and liquor consumption was documented via questionnaire. Each year, participants also filled out information on health outcomes, including recurrence of breast cancer, which was then verified by their medical records. After eight years of follow-up, Kwan and colleagues found 349 breast cancer recurrences and 332 deaths. Among drinkers (50 percent of the study population), wine was the most popular choice of alcohol (90 percent), followed by liquor (43 percent) then beer (36 percent). Increased risk of cancer recurrence was most predominant among those who consumed two or more glasses of wine per day. The increased risk of recurrence appeared to be greater among participants who were postmenopausal and overweight or obese, and was present regardless of type of alcohol. Alcohol consumption was not associated with overall mortality. "Considering the few studies that have addressed alcohol and its influence on breast cancer prognosis, and that the increased risk of recurrence was observed in only some subgroups, our results should be confirmed in other prospective studies. Yet, these results can help women make a more informed decision about lifestyle choices after a diagnosis of breast cancer," said Kwan. The mission of the CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium is to produce a unique and comprehensive scientific meeting that encompasses the full spectrum of breast cancer research, facilitating the rapid translation of new knowledge into better care for breast cancer patients. The Cancer Therapy & Research Center (CTRC) at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), and Baylor College of Medicine are joint sponsors of the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. This collaboration utilizes the clinical strengths of the CTRC and Baylor, and the AACR's scientific prestige in basic, translational and clinical cancer research to expedite the delivery of the latest scientific advances to the clinic. The 32nd annual symposium is expected to draw more than 8,500 participants from more than 90 countries. Email Print Share More News fivefilters.org featured article: Normalising the crime of the century by John Pilger

The Missing Element - Foreign Policy Posted: 11 Dec 2009 11:41 AM PST Every day, U.S. doctors perform more than 50,000 state-of-the-art procedures using a radioactive isotope called technetium-99. Injecting technetium into a patient allows doctors to monitor the blood supply to the heart, look at cardiac function in chemotherapy patients, see whether certain cancers have spread to a patient's bones, or monitor a tumor during breast cancer surgery. Most patients take for granted their ability to undergo these procedures. But they might be surprised to learn that nuclear medicine in the United States is dependent on one 52-year-old, leak-prone nuclear reactor that is currently offline, should have been shut down for safety reasons a decade ago, and moreover, undermines international nuclear nonproliferation goals. How did we get into this predicament? In short: Blame Canada. The National Research Universal (NRU) reactor in Chalk River, Ontario, supplies about one-third of the world's supply and about half of the U.S. supply of the molybdenum isotope that decays to form technetium. The reactor, built in 1957, is operated by the government-owned company Atomic Energy of Canada Limited. The reactor was first shut down for safety only a year after it opened, when a nuclear fuel rod caught fire, and it has suffered sporadic accidents and outages ever since. In 2007, after the reactor was shut down for a safety upgrade, the Canadian government, due to fears of an isotope shortage, ordered it open again over the objections of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. Canada's Natural Resources Ministry, which oversees the nuclear power industry, never intended for the NRU reactor to still be operating. Construction of two new reactors, known as MAPLE 1 and 2, began in 1996 after it became clear the NRU reactor was nearing the end of its useful life. The MAPLES were supposed to have become operational in 2000, but after numerous construction delays and unresolved safety issues and hundreds of millions of dollars spent, they were finally scuttled by Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government in 2006. So the NRU reactor was left to sputter on alone, without backup. This May, the inevitable happened: A leak of radioactive water was detected at the facility, and it was again shut down. The government's handling of the isotope debacle has been a front-page political story in Canada, particularly after Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt was caught on tape describing it as a "sexy" issue that she wanted to resolve to further her political career. Raitt later issued a tearful public apology to cancer patients. Because disruptions to medical care have been minor in the United States so far, the issue hasn't garnered much attention below the border. But that could change in March. Since the NRU reactor went down, a Dutch reactor in Petten has been picking up the technetium slack, along with smaller reactors in Belgium, France, and South Africa. But starting in late March, Petten, itself a 48-year-old dinosaur plagued by technical glitches, will be off-line for scheduled maintenance. The Canadian Natural Resources Ministry expects the NRU reactor "will return to service in the first quarter of 2010," according to spokesperson Micheline Joanisse. But that date has already been pushed back several times. And even if the reactor does go back online in 2010, it's unclear how much longer it can stay operational. The University of Texas at Austin's Alan Kuperman, a former senior policy analyst for the Nuclear Control Institute, notes the fragility of the situation. "Even if the Canadian reactor comes back online, we're only going to be one blip from a major supply crisis," he says. This would be a serious blow to hospitals and cancer patients in the United States and abroad. "If the Canadian reactor isn't up and running, we're going to really be struggling come April," says Robert Atcher, director of the National Isotope Data Center and former president of the Society of Nuclear Medicine, who thinks that current technetium supplies are enough for only about two-thirds of global demand. Depending on how long the United States goes without a reliable supply of technetium, the effect could be anything from a minor irritation to a major catastrophe. In Canadian hospitals, which were almost entirely dependent on domestic technetium supplies and are already feeling the pinch, some nuclear-medicine practitioners report canceling the majority of their diagnostics, and tests for heart damage and the spread of cancers have been delayed for weeks, with untold financial and health costs. Giuseppe Esposito, director of nuclear medicine at Georgetown University Hospital, says that his department hasn't felt the effects of the shortage yet, but that a more permanent disruption would make many of his regular procedures impossible to carry out. "For lung and bone imaging, there really are no substitutes [to technetium]," he says. You might think that, given the relatively small number of suppliers, the United States, which accounts for about 50 percent of global demand for technetium, would have wanted to develop its own supply. And indeed, there were plans to build a reactor for medical use in New Mexico in the mid-1990s. But the project was abandoned after Canadian authorities made what Atcher describes as a "compelling case" that the ill-fated MAPLE facility would meet international demand. Joanisse denies that the Canadian government misrepresented the state's production capabilities to its customers. "All along, our message to the international community has been simple," she said via e-mail. "We rely on ageing reactors and a fragile supply chain. There is a collective responsibility to bring forward additional sources of supply and to manage available supplies responsibly, particularly in periods of shortage." But given the costs of building a nuclear reactor, governments, including the U.S. government, were all too happy to let Canada shoulder the burden. "No one wants to spend the money and political capital to build a new reactor these days," says Edwin Lyman, senior scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists' global security program. "Everyone put their eggs in the Canadian basket." Faced with the possibility of a technetium shortage within coming years or even months, the U.S. government is finally taking action. A bill passed in the House of Representatives and under consideration in the Senate would allocate $163 million to investigate new methods for producing medical isotopes. Although this money probably isn't enough to build even a single reactor, it's the first step the United States has taken in years to developing isotope independence. A research reactor in Missouri is also being converted to produce isotopes, though Lyman notes that even under the best conditions, "there won't be a stable substitute ... for at least three years." Most importantly, the proposed legislation would also specify how medical isotopes are made. Both the Canadian and Dutch reactors produce technetium from bomb-grade highly enriched uranium, a situation that keeps nonproliferation experts up at night. "The Canadian government always gets up and says, 'We're a leader on nonproliferation,'" U.T. Austin's Kuperman says. "But they're also the country in the world using the largest amount of bomb-grade uranium for civilian purposes. You can't have it both ways." Under the proposed legislation, all suppliers to the U.S. market would be required to use safer, though slightly more expensive, low-enriched uranium. An expert panel convened by Canada's Natural Resource Ministry recommended last week that the country switch entirely to low-enriched uranium, though in the short term highly-enriched will continue to be used at the NRU reactor. In any event, Canada's days as a leader in medical isotopes seem to be over. The Natural Resource Ministry's panel recommended the construction of a brand-new multipurpose research reactor, though given the emergency measures that other countries are taking -- the Netherlands and Australia are also looking to boost their production capacity -- it's not clear that there will still be a market by the time it is completed. In June, Harper said, "Eventually, we anticipate Canada will be out of the business" of producing medical isotopes -- a realization that patients around the world might have wished for a decade ago. fivefilters.org featured article: Normalising the crime of the century by John Pilger This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

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