On the pulse
Cancerkin’s news…
Introducing Indian head massage and No Hands Massage Therapy…
We are pleased to announce that Cancerkin will be offering a six week trial of ‘Indian Head Massage’ and ‘No Hands Massage therapy’ with Karen Bernard. Karen has been a massage therapist for 7 years, after she was given massage during a period of ill health to alleviate symptoms. She is completely passionate about massage, and loves seeing the positive response she gets from her clients.
‘Indian Head Massage’ is done fully clothed in either seated or laying position on a massage couch. The treatment consists of massage to the head, neck, face and shoulders and is extremely relaxing. Each session will last 20 minutes.
‘No Hands Massage Therapy’ can be deep, relaxing, rejuvenating and nourishing. The therapist does not use her hands but instead uses the soft surfaces of her forearms. This means it is both deeper and more relaxing than conventional massage and for this reason it has been called the Gentle Giant of Massage. Each session will last 30 minutes.
Appointments will take place on Mondays between 11am and 3pm, from 21st February 2011. If you are interested in booking an appointment, please contact Henry on h.ezenwa@cancerkin.org.uk or call 0207 830 2323.
Inaugural Cancerkin Annual Lecture in February…
As you may already know, Cancerkin has the honour of welcoming Professor Sir Mike Richards, National Clinical Director for Cancer at the Department of Health and UK cancer Tsar, to speak at our inaugural annual lecture in the Atrium at the Royal Free on 28th February 2011. He will be giving a talk entitled ‘tackling breast cancer in England: progress and challenges,’ beginning at 5.30pm.
Appointed in October 1999, Prof Sir Richards led the development of the NHS Cancer Plan in 2000, the first comprehensive strategy to tackle cancer in England and since then has been responsible for overseeing its implementation. During 2007 he led the development of the Cancer Reform Strategy. He is also leading the development of the End of Life Care Strategy, due for publication in summer 2008.
If you are interested in attending the lecture, please contact Laura Smith at l.smith@cancerkin.org.uk or call 0207 830 2323 to reserve a place.
Comedy with a Cause…
This February 21st, the Jewish Community Centre for London will be holding a charity comedy evening at London’s famous Comedy Store in association with Cancerkin. Ivor Baddiel and Tracy-Ann Oberman will host the ‘Comedy with a Cause’ evening and will be introducing some of the UK’s leading stand-up comedians including Comedy Store regulars Josh Howie, Bennett Arron, Adam Bloom and Mark Maier as well as the hilarious Helen Lederer.
There will be a raffle on the night, as well as a display and auction of spectacular customised bras by a host of celebrities. More than 40 big names have decorated plain white bras donated by Triumph for the online charity auction. Contributors to the auction include Kelly Brook, Rachel Stevens and Isla Fisher to name but a few. Their creations will be auctioned online from February 1st to 27th at www.jccbigbraauction.org.uk.
All proceeds from the comedy evening and the auction will be split between Cancerkin and the JCC for London. If you would like to know more about the event or would like to reserve tickets, please click here.
In the news…
Global cancer rates compared…
The World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) has this week published its analysis of World Health Organisation (WHO) data that ranks cancer rates across the world. The analysis reveals that in the overall ranking of cancer rates in both sexes the UK is placed at 22nd. Also revealed however is a considerable difference in ranking between UK male and female cancer rates. In terms of male cancer rates, the WCRF ranks the UK at 33rd, whilst for cancer rates in women it is ranked 12th. UK breast cancer rates are placed high in the global ranking at 11th.
The research finds that cancer rates are generally higher in high-income countries such as the UK. This tendency is attributed to elevated rates of obesity and drinking and lower levels of exercise in more affluent countries, with many cancers, for example breast cancer, being linked to such lifestyle factors. Martin Wiseman, WCRF’s medical and scientific adviser, said of this trend: "Lifestyle changes can make a real difference to people's risk. Scientists estimate that about a third of the most common cancers in the UK and other high-income countries could be prevented by maintaining a healthy weight, being more physically active and eating more healthily. Of course, not smoking will have an important effect beyond that, as will having sunburn."
Whilst female cancer rates are recognised as high, the overall UK’s ranking at 22nd has been described as relatively low by the government’s cancer advisor, Professor Sir Mike Richards. He attributes this overall ranking to Britain’s early handling of the ‘tobacco epidemic’ in comparison with other countries. Of the difference in ranking in male and female cancer rates, Prof Richards said: “I am encouraged by what I see for men. For women [the rate] is still too high but I am confident our picture will improve for both. As smoking rates come down, things like alcohol and obesity are highly important.”
To read more about the results, click here for The Guardian’s report and here for The Independent’s.
Laura Smith 28th January 2011
Friday 28 January 2011
On the pulse
Cancerkin’s News…
Spiritual healing at Cancerkin…
We are pleased to announce that, beginning next month, Cancerkin will be offering a six week trial of one-to-one spiritual healing sessions. Spiritual Healing is a natural energy therapy. It complements conventional medicine by treating the person – mind, body and spirit. Spiritual Healers act as a conduit for healing energy, which relaxes the body, releases tensions, and stimulates self-healing. The benefits of healing can be felt on many levels, not just physical, and the effects can be profound.
Sessions will be individual 45 minute appointments from 2pm until 5pm every Wednesday for six weeks from 16th February 2011. If you are interested in booking an appointment, please contact Habeeb at h.ahmed@cancerkin.org.uk or 0207 830 2323.
Comedy with a cause…
This February 21st, the Jewish Community Centre for London will be holding a charity comedy evening at London’s famous Comedy Store in association with Cancerkin. Ivor Baddiel and Tracy-Ann Oberman will host the ‘Comedy with a Cause’ evening and will be introducing some of the UK’s leading stand-up comedians including Comedy Store regulars Josh Howie, Bennett Arron, Adam Bloom and Mark Maier as well as the hilarious Helen Lederer.
There will be a raffle on the night, as well as a display and auction of spectacular customised bras by a host of celebrities. More than 40 big names have decorated plain white bras donated by Triumph for the online charity auction. Contributors to the auction include Kelly Brook, Rachel Stevens and Isla Fisher to name but a few. Their creations will be auctioned online from February 1 to 27 at www.jccbigbraauction.org.uk.
All proceeds from the comedy evening and the auction will be split between Cancerkin and the JCC for London. If you would like to know more about the event or would like to reserve tickets, please click here.
In the news…
Can cancer be normal?
Last weekend The Guardian published a extract taken from a forthcoming book ‘The Emperor of all Maladies: A Biography of Cancer’ written by cancer physician and researcher Siddartha Murkerjee. Interestingly written from a doctor’s perspective, the extract tells the story of Carla Reed, a woman who overcomes a rare and particularly aggressive form of leukaemia. Murkerjee’s depiction of Carla’s story is interspersed with analysis of the causes, characteristics and treatment of cancer, which lead him to raising questions about how ‘normal’ the disease is.
As he describes in the course of the extract, cancer cells seem to use normal cell process to generate, grow and survive – they are, he states, ‘more perfect versions of ourselves.’ When distorted by cancer, the ability of a normal human cell to divide, reproduce and repair allows a cancer cell to do the same - only at a much faster rate. This uncontrollable cancer cell growth is unleashed by genes that are already present in normal cells and that are distorted by carcinogens or viruses. Some scientists have also suggested that cancer cells use the normal ‘immortal regeneration’ process of the body’s stem cells to multiply infinitely. In this way, Murkerjee suggests that, as ‘Cancer is inherently stitched into our genetic being’, it seems to be more normal than unnatural.
Murkerjee also suggests that cancer has become more ‘normal’ because we are living longer than ever before. While certain cancers such as lung, liver, or cervical cancer have identifiable causes and therefore clear preventative steps to reduce risk, the risk of developing others, like prostate or breast cancer, seems for the most part reliant on age. As cells age, more mistakes are made as genes are copied, leading to mutant genes triggering cancer growth. The general rise in life expectancy in the developed world has been paralleled by a rising incidences of cancer. In the US for example, one in two men and one in three women will have cancer during their lives. Murkerjee therefore questions how, in such a society, cancer can be thought of as abnormal.
In the past, after treatment by surgery, radiation and chemotherapy cancer was thought of as having only one of two outcomes – being cured or being incurable. As treatment has changed and attitudes have developed, binary outcomes seem no longer to apply. Murkerjee takes the example of a young woman with breast cancer who will undergo a mastectomy, then chemo and radiation over several months followed by further drugs and treatments. She might receive anti-oestrogen therapy over a number of years, mammography for decades after and genetic testing for her family, meaning her therapy could span 5 or 10 years, possibly more. He suggests that, over this length of time, ‘cancer will become the new “normal”’ in a person’s life.
To read more of this fascinating extract, please click here.
Cancerkin’s News…
Spiritual healing at Cancerkin…
We are pleased to announce that, beginning next month, Cancerkin will be offering a six week trial of one-to-one spiritual healing sessions. Spiritual Healing is a natural energy therapy. It complements conventional medicine by treating the person – mind, body and spirit. Spiritual Healers act as a conduit for healing energy, which relaxes the body, releases tensions, and stimulates self-healing. The benefits of healing can be felt on many levels, not just physical, and the effects can be profound.
Sessions will be individual 45 minute appointments from 2pm until 5pm every Wednesday for six weeks from 16th February 2011. If you are interested in booking an appointment, please contact Habeeb at h.ahmed@cancerkin.org.uk or 0207 830 2323.
Comedy with a cause…
This February 21st, the Jewish Community Centre for London will be holding a charity comedy evening at London’s famous Comedy Store in association with Cancerkin. Ivor Baddiel and Tracy-Ann Oberman will host the ‘Comedy with a Cause’ evening and will be introducing some of the UK’s leading stand-up comedians including Comedy Store regulars Josh Howie, Bennett Arron, Adam Bloom and Mark Maier as well as the hilarious Helen Lederer.
There will be a raffle on the night, as well as a display and auction of spectacular customised bras by a host of celebrities. More than 40 big names have decorated plain white bras donated by Triumph for the online charity auction. Contributors to the auction include Kelly Brook, Rachel Stevens and Isla Fisher to name but a few. Their creations will be auctioned online from February 1 to 27 at www.jccbigbraauction.org.uk.
All proceeds from the comedy evening and the auction will be split between Cancerkin and the JCC for London. If you would like to know more about the event or would like to reserve tickets, please click here.
In the news…
Can cancer be normal?
Last weekend The Guardian published a extract taken from a forthcoming book ‘The Emperor of all Maladies: A Biography of Cancer’ written by cancer physician and researcher Siddartha Murkerjee. Interestingly written from a doctor’s perspective, the extract tells the story of Carla Reed, a woman who overcomes a rare and particularly aggressive form of leukaemia. Murkerjee’s depiction of Carla’s story is interspersed with analysis of the causes, characteristics and treatment of cancer, which lead him to raising questions about how ‘normal’ the disease is.
As he describes in the course of the extract, cancer cells seem to use normal cell process to generate, grow and survive – they are, he states, ‘more perfect versions of ourselves.’ When distorted by cancer, the ability of a normal human cell to divide, reproduce and repair allows a cancer cell to do the same - only at a much faster rate. This uncontrollable cancer cell growth is unleashed by genes that are already present in normal cells and that are distorted by carcinogens or viruses. Some scientists have also suggested that cancer cells use the normal ‘immortal regeneration’ process of the body’s stem cells to multiply infinitely. In this way, Murkerjee suggests that, as ‘Cancer is inherently stitched into our genetic being’, it seems to be more normal than unnatural.
Murkerjee also suggests that cancer has become more ‘normal’ because we are living longer than ever before. While certain cancers such as lung, liver, or cervical cancer have identifiable causes and therefore clear preventative steps to reduce risk, the risk of developing others, like prostate or breast cancer, seems for the most part reliant on age. As cells age, more mistakes are made as genes are copied, leading to mutant genes triggering cancer growth. The general rise in life expectancy in the developed world has been paralleled by a rising incidences of cancer. In the US for example, one in two men and one in three women will have cancer during their lives. Murkerjee therefore questions how, in such a society, cancer can be thought of as abnormal.
In the past, after treatment by surgery, radiation and chemotherapy cancer was thought of as having only one of two outcomes – being cured or being incurable. As treatment has changed and attitudes have developed, binary outcomes seem no longer to apply. Murkerjee takes the example of a young woman with breast cancer who will undergo a mastectomy, then chemo and radiation over several months followed by further drugs and treatments. She might receive anti-oestrogen therapy over a number of years, mammography for decades after and genetic testing for her family, meaning her therapy could span 5 or 10 years, possibly more. He suggests that, over this length of time, ‘cancer will become the new “normal”’ in a person’s life.
To read more of this fascinating extract, please click here.
Laura Smith 21st January 2011
Friday 7 January 2011
On the pulse
Cancerkin’s News…
Welcome back…
Art Therapy Classes starting this January…
Milena Petrova will be conducting four introductory art workshops this January and February. The workshops aim to be a liberating experience for patients where they can discover the freedom to explore their creativity. The workshops will use a specific approach to painting on damp paper that allows colour to flow easily and combine into beautiful and spontaneous patterns. No previous art experience is necessary.
The workshops will be held on Tuesdays at 11am-12.45pm on 18th January, 1st February, 8th February and 15th February 2011. Please note that no workshop will take place on 25th January. If you would like to book a place at the workshops or require additional information, please contact our office manager, Habeeb, on 020 7830 2323 or at h.ahmed@cancerkin.org.uk.
In the news…
New research into cancer survival figures…
Over the Christmas period, the findings of an international study into cancer survival figures in different countries were published in the Lancet Medical Journal, which indicate that figures in the UK have improved but are still lower that in other countries. The research, carried out by the International Cancer Benchmarking Partnership, looked at numbers of one-year and five-year survivors of newly diagnosed cases of four major cancers – breast, ovarian, bowel and lung – in Australia, Canada, Sweden, the UK (excluding Scotland), Denmark and Norway.
Results revealed that, between 1995 and 2007 survival figures of these types of cancer in the UK had improved but remained lower than the Australian, Canadian and Swedish equivalents. For example, statistics for five-year bowel cancer survival between 2005 and 2007 revealed a survival rate of 66 percent in Australia compared to 54 percent in the UK. One-year lung cancer survival was 30 percent in the UK compared with 43 percent in Australia and 44 percent in Sweden. However, the study also shows that relative survival had improved in all four cancers in the UK between 1995 and 2007, and that one and five-year breast cancer survival rates had improved more in the UK and Denmark than in other countries. This suggests that the NHS Cancer Plan, introduced in England in 2000, Northern Ireland in 1996 and Wales in 2004, is having an impact on survival figures.
The study proposed late diagnosis and differences in treatment, as well as differences in public awareness of cancer, the stage of cancer at diagnosis and the occurrence of other serious illnesses at the time of diagnosis, as possible explanations for the differing results. As the study is only the first stage in the Partnership’s research, further stages will look deeper into theses explanations.
Sara Hiom, Cancer Research UK’s director of health information said of the study: "It's encouraging to see that survival for breast, bowel, lung and ovarian cancers has improved across the board and this study shows how far survival has improved for some of the most common cancers in the UK. But we still have work to do. Now we know how we currently compare to other countries, we must look at exactly why these differences in survival exist."
To read more and to watch a video about the study released by Cancer Research UK, please click here.
Blood test for cancer…?
Much discussion in the press this week has focused on details of a new blood testing technique that is able to identify cancer cells, currently being developed by the drugs firm Johnson & Johnson. The firm announced this week that, following preliminary research, the technology will be tested in larger-scale clinical trials. The test technology uses a small chip covered in 78,000 tiny ‘bristles’, each coated in different antibodies that are able to catch cancer cells from a sample of blood. The cells are stained, making them glow, allowing doctors to count and analyse them. If successful during trials, the technique could be useful for detecting cancer at an early stage and in a non-invasive manner, and could provide doctors with useful information concerning the molecular makeup of a cancer, allowing them to personalise treatment.
Amid the excitement surrounding the announcement, Cancer Research UK has been quick to highlight that the technique is still in its very early stages and is far from being made available for patient use. While development of the technique is expected to take 5 years and cost £19 million, it was emphasised in CRUK’s online science blog that before the test is made available to the public it must first be proved effective on a large scale and must be produced in a cost-effective manner. Dr Kat Arney, Cancer Research UK’s science information manager, said: "Diagnosing cancer early and selecting the right treatment is vital if we are to improve survival rates in the UK, and many labs around the world are working on techniques to help doctors do this. This test looks promising, but we need to see the results of large-scale clinical trials to prove how helpful and practical it would be for general use."
To read the blog in full, please click here, or to read The Express and The Independent’s take on the story please click here and here.
Laura Smith 7th January 2011
l.smith@cancerkin.org.uk
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