I’ve just spent three great days in Washington reviewing grants for the Peer Reviewed Cancer Research Program, part of the Department of Defense.

Our panel of scientists and consumer reviewers worked hard, and I learned a lot from the scientists on the panel who were all experts in their fields.  It felt good to know that there some really wonderful ideas out there moving cancer research forward and that my critiques and scores will help decide the best of the best to receive funding.

The experience made the hairy early-morning drive to the airport through more than three feet of snow well worth it. Read the rest of this entry »

A large new study has found that people who took aspirin regularly for at least 4 years were 21 percent less likely 20 years later than those taking a placebo to have died from a solid-tumor cancer.  The study has received wide media attention, but there are some important details described in some—but not all—the coverage.

Following up on intriguing hints that aspirin use is related to lower cancer rates, University of Oxford researchers went back to investigate cancer death rates among 25,570 participants in large randomized trials conducted decades ago to test aspirin’s affect on heart disease and stroke. During the trials, which lasted an average of four years, they found about 20 percent fewer cancer deaths in people taking aspirin compared to people taking a placebo.

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“With the flu season now well underway…we need to stress always…that flu is deadly, and all Americans need to take this threat seriously,” announced Howard Koh, MD, PMH, assistant secretary for health in a telebriefing today. “That’s why the CDC…has promoted what’s called universal vaccination,” meaning that everyone except children under 6 months of age should receive influenza vaccinations. Read the rest of this entry »

If doctors ask  healthy people simple questions about cancers in their families, they can find people who are at increased risk for Lynch syndrome, an inherited condition that greatly increases risk for colorectal and uterine cancer.

Doctors can use a simple set of screening questions available online to pinpoint an individual’s risk before that person ever gets cancer.   The online tool takes less than two minutes to complete.

If family history shows an individual to be at higher risk, genetic testing not only saves lives but is cost-effective.

Once Lynch syndrome is diagnosed, active steps can be taken to prevent Lynch-associated cancers or diagnose them early when they can be cured. Read the rest of this entry »

In a computer simulation, FIT — fecal immunochemical testing — done every year saved more lives and cost the least of any colorectal cancer screening method, including colonoscopy.

The computer model looked at 100,000 average risk people and compared screening methods results for

• number of colorectal cancer cases
• number of colorectal cancer deaths
• cost of screening and treating colorectal cancer for each screened person

Compared to not screening at all, annual FIT  could save 3 out of 4 deaths from colorectal cancer. For every 100,000 people between 50 and 75, nearly 3,500 people wouldn’t get colorectal cancer, and over 1,300 wouldn’t die.

Not only did FIT screening save the most lives, it was the most cost effective.  It saved about $70 (Canadian) in screening and cancer treatment expenses for each person screened, better than any other method. Read the rest of this entry »