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
No comments:
Post a Comment