Those of you who are regular readers of Research News may have noticed I haven’t been around for the past few weeks.
I’ve been busy dealing with some serious health issues — getting scanned and scoped and pumped full of chemo. Strangely, my early stage colon cancer which was surgically removed five years ago has recurred. Strange because it was stage II, Lynch-related, and five years in the past, all usually positive factors for cancer not coming back.
But after three months of chasing pain in my side thinking bowel obstruction, new primary Lynch-related urethelial cancer, even pancreatic cancer at one point, a biopsy of a lymph node proved to be identical to the pathology of the five-year-old tumor. Final diagnosis: recurrent colon cancer. Read the rest of this entry »
The antidepressant drug Duloxetine (Cymbalta®) was shown in a recent study to provide pain relief to people suffering from peripheral neuropathy caused by chemotherapy.
Chemotherapy drugs such as oxaliplatin (Eloxatin®, used in the FOLFOX regimen for colorectal cancer) can damage “peripheral” nerve cells (those beyond the brain and spinal cord), causing pain, tingling, numbness especially in feet and/or hands. This side effect, called chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN), can worsen over time and last long after the chemotherapy has stopped. (More information on CIPN can be found here.)
Chris Adams at Fight Colorectal Cancer's 2012 Call-on Congress
Written by: Christopher P. Adams, Ph.D.*
Chris Adams, one of Fight Colorectal Cancer’s research advocates, shares his thoughts about the results of a large breast cancer trial presented at the 2012 ASCO in Chicago, and aspects of the regulatory process. Thank YOU Chris!
On Sunday June 3 2012, at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting in Chicago, Dr Kimberly Blackwell from the Duke Cancer Institute, got on stage in front of over 10,000 doctors, researchers and worldwide media representatives to present initial results from the EMILIA trial.** The trial looked at the safety and effectiveness of a novel drug for a particular type of breast cancer. Despite its obvious applicability to breast cancer, the colorectal cancer community and the larger cancer community can learn a number of important things from EMILIA.
Grace Butler, Ph.D, had done everything right. She exercised regularly, ate healthy meals, and had an annual FOBT test, a sigmoidoscopy, and barium enema exams. But no one told her she needed a colonoscopy – and that oversight led to her diagnosis of stage III colon cancer in 1999.
Butler spoke to Fight Colorectal Cancer recently about the diagnosis that changed her life and how she’s extending hope in the fight against colorectal cancer to Texans without insurance.
Before your diagnosis, how would you describe your life?
I had a wonderfully blessed life before cancer. I am an educator, and I started my career as a band and orchestra teacher in New Orleans. I moved from teaching to administration in higher education. I completed a doctorate at New York University and I earned appointments at several universities.
Chris Adams, PhD shares his final day at ASCO. Thank YOU Chris!
After 4 days of meetings everyone is a little battle weary, probably more so after the great food and drinks at the ASCO Presidential Reception at Soldier Field the previous night.
This morning was the general colon cancer poster sessions. This is about 80 research projects lined up row after row. The nice thing about the posters is that you can actually talk one on one with the researcher. I spoke to some very interesting scientists including one at Georgetown Lombardi, an Australian medical oncologist, a medical oncologist from Japan and a medical oncologist from Ontario. The researcher from Canada presented some interesting statistics on the increase in the number of liver resections for patients with metastatic disease and the greater success of such treatments over the last 10 years. The work at Lombardi looked at the efficacy of a drug previously approved for kidney cancer that has never been tested in late stage colon cancer patients. Early results seemed promising enough to move into the next stage of the testing process.
My time at ASCO ended with a session covering my own situation, that of chemo and other therapy for early stage colorectal cancer. It is always strange reading research on your own situation. Unfortunately there is not much new to report. There is some ongoing work looking at reducing the amount of time patients need to be on chemo. Other than that, aspirin, vitamin D, exercise and eating well seem to be standard prescriptions.
My own doctor prescribed a dog, which was very upsetting to my wife and cat. I’m looking forward to getting home and taking my prescription dog for a long walk.
Thanks for the opportunity of attending ASCO this year – Chris Adams, PhD
Note: Chris is an economist at the U.S. Federal Trade Commission shares some notes and his personal insight of his experience at the 2012 American Society of Clinical Oncology’s (ASCO) Annual Meeting in Chicago.
Those of you who are regular readers of Research News may have noticed I haven’t been around for the past few weeks.
