The Run for Everyone will have a full weekend of races from the full Canon Marathon to a 2K Family Fun Run.  Activities begin on Saturday, May 10th with a pasta dinner, 5K run, and 10K run .  The Marathon and Half Marathon are on Sunday, May 11th.

There will also be student and corporate relays, a family fun run and walk, and the final 2 meters of the MaraFun program.

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A Study of Systemic Hedgehog Antagonist With Concurrent Chemotherapy and Bevacizumab As First-Line Therapy for Metastatic Colorectal Cancer

Patients are being recruited for a randomized Phase II clinical trial to test a new drug — GDC-0449 – for the initial treatment of metastatic colon  and rectal cancer.

GD-0449 is an agent that blocks the “hedgehog” molecular signal in cancer cells.  Hedgehog signals lead to tumor growth by encouraging cells to divide and accumulate without control.

The clinical trial will be testing whether adding GDC-0449 increases the time before the cancer progresses — progression-free survival. It will also be assessing side effects in both arms of the trial.  Hedgehog expression in tumor tissue will be studied as well.

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Fatigue is a problem for many people with cancer, particularly those who are receiving chemotherapy or radiation treatment. 

After a short, three-week exercise program patients were stronger and less tired.  However, they didn’t have less anxiety or an improvement in cognitive functioning.

During the program, participants walked on a treadmill for 30 minutes in improve endurance and also did resistance exercises.

Dr. F. Dimeo and his colleagues in Berlin concluded,

A 3-week exercise program leads to a substantial improvement of physical performance and reduction of mental and physical fatigue in cancer patients after treatment. However, this intervention does not affect depression, anxiety, or cognitive fatigue.

SOURCE:  Dimeo et al., Annals of Oncology, Advance Access, April 1, 2008.

Dutch researchers found no connection between use of proton pump inhibitors and the development of colorectal cancer.

Proton pump inhibitors (PPI’s) block the development of stomach acid and are used to manage heartburn, indigestion, gastric-esophageal reflux disease, and peptic ulcer.  Available both by prescription and over-the-counter they include Protonix, Prevacid, Nexium, Aciphex and generic versions of these drugs.

Researchers in the Netherlands were concerned that activity of proton-pump inhibitors that decreased gastrin levels and increased bacterial growth with resulting in dangerous bile salts might lead to more colorectal cancer.  They analyzed nearly 460,000 people in the Dutch Primary Care Information database to see if there was any connection between people who took PPI’s and colorectal cancer.

They found 595 cases of colorectal cancer in the database.  They then matched each of those cases to up to 20 similar people without colon cancer and looked at their use of proton pump inhibitors during the five years before diagnosis.

Results showed that

• There was no significant difference between colorectal cancer risk in people who had ever used PPI’s compared to people who never used them.
• Using PPI’s for more than a year did not increase the odds of getting colorectal cancer.
• There was no increased risk of colorectal cancer among PPI users in either the right or left colon;

Eva M. Soest and her colleagues at Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Center in the Netherlands concluded,

The present study indicates no association between PPI use and the risk of colorectal cancer. Larger numbers of long-term PPI users are needed to confirm the absence of a risk-increasing effect of long-term PPI exposure.

SOURCE:  Soest et al, American Journal of Gastroenterology, Volume 103, Number 4, April 2008.

Hospital patients with a potentially deadly intestinal infection doubled over five years from 2001 to 2005.  A new report from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality found that over 150,000 people were discharged from US hospitals after a Clostridium difficile associated disease (CDAD).

About a quarter of patients with CDAD had the infection as a primary diagnosis, the other 75 percent were in the hospital for some other reason and acquired the disease while there.  In 2005, 28,600 people with a diagnosis of CDAD died, 3,100 where CDAD was the primary diagnosis.

Based on a statistical brief from the Health Care Cost and Utilization Project report found:

• Over 2 million cases of clostridium difficile associated disease in US hospitals from 1993 through 2005.
• Two out of three infected patients in 2005 were elderly.
• Patients with CDAD were much more likely to die than other hospitalized patients:  overall 2 percent of hospital patients die compared to 9.5 percent of patients who had CDAD.
• Patients in Northeast hospitals had the highest rate of CDAD infections (144 cases per 100,000 population).  The lowest rate was in the West with 67 infections per 100,000 people.

Antibiotics can destroy normal bacteria in the intestinal tract making it more susceptible to CDAD infection.  Infection is spread from patient to patient by poor hygiene — lack of handwashing and contaminated hospital equipment and supplies.  A new strain of clostridium difficile is particularly dangerous with higher levels of toxins.

Clostridium difficile increases time in the hospital, risk of dying, and, in rare cases, requires surgery to remove the colon. 

The Centers for Disease Control has more information on the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of clostridium difficile-associated disease.

To manage CDAD, the CDC recommends:

• Avoiding unnecessary and inappropriate use of antibiotics.
• Vigilant use of infection control measures to prevent spread to other patients.
• When diagnosed, stopping the antibiotics that led to the infection and beginning treatment with metronidazole (Flagyl) and vancomycin.

SOURCE:  Elixhauser and Jhung, Clostridium Difficile- Associated Disease in US Hospitals, 1993-2005, H-CUP Statistical Brief Number 50, April 2008.