On the pulse

Cancerkin’s News….
Christmas is coming…
Preparations for the annual Christmas Tombola on 10th December are well underway and we have already received some generous prize donations, ranging from scented candles and book tokens to a family meal and haircuts. If you have any items that might make a suitable prize, such as a box of chocolates, toiletries or books, or if you work in a restaurant, café, shop or hairdressers and would be willing to donate your wares or services, we would love to hear from you. We are also looking for willing volunteers to shake some collection tins for us around the hospital on the day, so if you have a few hours to spare on 10th December, do get in touch. Please email Laura on l.smith@cancerkin.org.uk or call 020 7830 2323.

Yoga Classes Cancelled…
Unfortunately, our weekly yoga class will be cancelled this Friday, 19th November, and next Friday, 26th November, as our yoga instructor Martin will be away on holiday. Classes will resume on 3rd December 2010 when he returns.


In the news…
Annual breast screening for younger women?
As reported in The Telegraph, a leading cancer specialist has this week asserted that women under the age of 50 with a family history of breast cancer should be offered annual mammograms. Professor Stephen Duffy, a cancer screening expert at the Wolfson Institute for Preventative Medicine argued that those with a moderate to strong family history of the disease should be given annual screening from the age of 40. He estimates such a move could save up to 50 lives a year and could put the minds of many women in this category at rest.

Currently the NHS’s Breast Screening Programme offers a mammogram every three years to women aged between 50 and 70, helping to save between 1,000 and 1,500 lives a year. Prof Duffy points out that only a small number of women under 50 would require the annual checks he proposes – around 300,000 thousand women aged 40-49 fall into the high risk group. He states: "It's worth doing because nowadays people are more and more aware of relatives with cancer and it causes a lot of worry."

Prof Duffy’s comments follow the publishing of his study into breast cancer in women in their 40s. The study compared death rates of women in this age bracket with a family history of breast cancer who were given annual mammograms and those of two similar groups who were not given screening. He found that, in those who had had annual screening, cancers were smaller and less likely to spread and those with cancers that had spread were more likely to be alive 10 years after diagnosis.

To read The Telegraph’s article, please click here.

A quarter of all cancers discovered late…
Research conducted by the National Cancer Intelligence Network (NCIN) has revealed that 1 in 4 of all cancers in patients in England is found at a late stage following emergency admittance to hospital. Researchers at the NCIN examined the records of all English patients diagnosed with malignant cancer (excluding non-melanoma skin cancer and multiple tumours) in 2007, to find that 23 percent of patients presented as emergencies , that is via A&E, emergency GP referral, emergency consultant outpatient referral, emergency transfer, or emergency admission or attendance. An additional 25 percent were diagnosed through the ‘Two Week Wait’ urgent GP referral.

Results suggest that the route to diagnosis varied widely between types of cancer. In breast cancer patients, only 4 percent were diagnosed following an emergency admittance with 42 per cent diagnosed after urgent GP referral and 21 per cent following routine screening. In contrast, 57 percent of patients with acute leukaemia and 58 percent of those with brain tumours were diagnosed through emergency presentation. In terms of age and socioeconomic background, the under 25s, over 75s and those from poor backgrounds were most likely to be diagnosed in this way.

What the study most importantly revealed was that survival rates were much lower in patients diagnosed at this late stage in their disease. In patients presenting as an emergency with all cancers (except acute leukaemia), the likelihood of reaching a year after diagnosis was lower than with earlier diagnosis. Sara Hiom, Cancer Research UK's director of health information, said of the results: "Spotting cancer early can make all the difference to the outcome. And we're working hard to raise public awareness of the early signs and symptoms of cancer and to ensure that GPs have clear guidance on who and when to refer. It's also important that people take up their screening invitations. These new data show us there's a real opportunity to reduce the numbers of cancers diagnosed this way."

To read Cancer Research UK’s report in full, please click here.

New treatment for late-stage breast cancer…
A new chemotherapy drug called Halaven, used to treat patients with metastatic breast cancer, has this week been approved for use in the U.S. This approval follows a recent study into the drug which revealed its potential to significantly increase survival times for those in the late stages of the disease.

The study examined 762 women with metastatic breast cancer who had already had two other courses of chemotherapy. They were assigned treatment with either Havalen or another single agent therapy chosen by their oncologist. For those who received Havalen, the average survival time was 13.1 months, in comparison with 10.6 months for those receiving other treatments.

Havalen belongs to a group of drugs called microtubule inhibitors, which work by inhibiting the growth of cancer cells. It is a synthetic form of a chemotherapeutic agent found in the sea sponge Halichondria okadai and is received by injection. Richard Pazdur, M.D., director of the Office of Oncology Drug Products at the U.S.’s Food and Drug Administration Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said: "There are limited treatment options for women with aggressive forms of late-stage breast cancer who have already received other therapies. Halaven shows a clear survival benefit and is an important new option for women."

To read the full article released by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, please click here.

Laura Smith 18th November 2010
l.smith@cancerkin.org.uk