Join us in Times Square on March 1!

What better way to turn on March’s spotlight to colon cancer than an event in NYC’s Times Square!

If you own a smart phone, tweet or use Facebook please join Fight Colorectal Cancer for our One Million Strong kickoff on March 1.

Live in NYC? Even better.

Click here if you live or work near NYC.

Click here if you live elsewhere but still want to help!

Read on to learn how YOU can show the world why YOU are part of One Million Strong.

Times Square. March 1. Be There.

Live or work in NYC? Our team at Fight Colorectal Cancer needs YOU!

Here is the roundup of activities planned for the One Million Strong kickoff on March 1 in Times Square. Come before work, during your lunch break, after work or anytime in between!

Come share your story. Bring a friend, too!

Please register for the Times Square events if you can volunteer or participate. (No costs involved… we need to know how many to expect.)

Sponsors…

A special THANK YOU to our event sponsor, Bayer, and board member David Wicks, Vice President of the NASDAQ MarketSite, for making our One Million Strong kickoff in Times Square a reality!

Not in NYC? Not a problem.

Even if you will not be in NYC on March 1, help us kick off colon cancer awareness month on March 1. Share your story. Speak up. Take action.

• Take the One Million Strong pledge.
• Use our One Million Strong Facebook cover photo.
• “Share” our flyer and encourage your friends and family in NYC to come out to the event!
• Download a Twibbon for your Facebook profile.
• Submit a photo for the One Million Strong Facebook Photo competition.
• Tweet at @fightcrc and use hashtags #1milstrong, #Coloncancer, #Colorectalcancer to get colorectal cancer awareness TRENDING!

About One Million Strong Campaign

Did you know over one million colorectal cancer survivors live in the United States? Our One Million Strong campaign raises awareness of colorectal cancer and encourages action.

We demand a cure!

Take a commitment to courageously raise awareness, be an advocate and encourage others to join the fight against colorectal cancer.

Take the pledge now!

A new virus causing diarrhea and vomiting has spread rapidly nationwide, causing an increasing number of outbreaks of what many call the “stomach flu,” according to a Jan. 24 2013 report issued by the CDC (Centers for Disease Control).

The new norovirus strain (named GII.4 Sydney) is highly contagious, and seems to cause more hospitalizations than other gastrointestinal viruses. It hits suddenly with diarrhea, abdominal pain, vomiting, fever, chills, and headache. Most people get better in one or two days, after the stomach or intestinal inflammation eases, but they are still contagious for 3 more days..

Dehydration is Danger

Even healthy people can get dehydrated with this illness if you don’t drink enough liquids to replace the fluids lost from throwing up or having diarrhea many times a day. Special rehydration drinks (such as Gatorade) are best, because they contain nutrients and minerals lost in diarrhea or vomiting.

Norovirus infection can quickly become serious  in young children, the elderly, and people with other health conditions if they become seriously dehydrated. Symptoms include urinating less often,  a dry mouth and throat, and feeling dizzy when standing up—which, for elderly or weakened individuals, greatly increases the chance of a fall during a rush to the bathroom.

Highly contagious

People ill with a norovirus are contagious from the moment they begin feeling sick until at least 3 days after they recover. Some people may be contagious for even longer. So even if you feel better, remember that you can still be infecting others. This is a hardy virus which can survive in food and especially on surfaces for quite awhile–such as bathroom appliances, door handles, bedding, and even on pets.

The CDC recommends that when norovirus hits a household:

(1)    Handwashing is the first defense, scrubbing with soap and water or alcohol-based cleanser before and after cooking and eating, using the bathroom, coming in contact with anyone who is ill, touching your pet, and especially before and after treating a cut or wound or caring for your catheter, port, or ostomy.

(2)    If you are ill, do not prepare food for yourself or others while you have symptoms and then for 3 more days;

(3)    Clean and disinfect contaminated surfaces. After throwing up or having diarrhea, contaminated surfaces should be immediately cleaned with a bleach-based disinfectant.

(4)    Wash laundry thoroughly: any clothing or linens that may be contaminated with vomit or stool should be handled carefully (ideally, wearing gloves, not agitating them to avoid spreading virus, and washing hands after handling). Wash with detergent on the longest possible cycle, and then machine dry.

 Cancer patients, especially if getting chemotherapy, should take special precautions

The CDC also provides clear advice for cancer patients, stating that if you get a fever during your chemotherapy treatment, it’s a medical emergency because infection during chemotherapy can be life-threatening.

And of course for patients with colorectal cancer or having an ostomy, dehydration also can become serious quickly. The CDC advises cancer patients to take your temperature any time you feel warm, flushed, chilled, or not well. If your temperature is 100.4°F (38°C) or higher for more than one hour, or 101°F (38.3°C) or higher for any length of time and you are on chemotherapy especially, call your doctor right away, even if it happens in the middle of the night.

You and anyone who comes around you, including all members of your household, your doctors, and nurses, should clean their hands frequently.

Sources: “Emergence of New Norovirus,” Jan. 25 CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report ;  “New Norovirus Strain Hits US,” Jan. 24 Medscape ]; “CDC Researchers Spot Increase in New ‘Stomach Bug’ Strain,” Jan. 24 HealthDay News; general tips to “Prevent the Spread of Norovirus,” and “Preventing Infections in Cancer Patients,” Centers for Disease Control.

The Centers for Disease Control is urging doctors to prescribe antiviral medications to high-risk patients suspected of having the flu, even without a positive test. When given within 48 hours of symptoms appearing, antivirals like Tamiflu or Relenza can ease symptoms, shorten illness, and prevent serious complications.

Clinicians are not prescribing antiviral medications as often as in previous years, even though the 2013 flu season is causing more hospitalizations and deaths according to government figures. Complications from this year’s predominant flu strain are especially high among the elderly, causing half of hospitalizations and 90% of deaths so far.

With a sharp increase in both hospitalizations and deaths in the 2^nd week of January, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) issued a physician advisory urging use of antivirals for more people–especially those at high risk–as soon as flu symptoms appear.

“When given promptly, they work,” CDC Director Thomas Frieden, MD, told a Jan. 18^th press briefing. “They can reduce symptoms, shorten the duration of illness, and prevent serious complications including hospitalization and death.”

Frieden also advised clinicians not to wait for test results or a positive ‘rapid flu test’ when probably flu appears in people at high risk for complications: anyone over age 65 or under age 2, or having any ongoing serious illness (including cancer survivors no longer in treatment).

Only halfway through the flu season

The number of influenza-related hospitalizations and deaths will rise in the coming weeks even as the  national average of new cases begins to slow, Frieden warned, partly because there is a lag time between when flu hits and when complications like pneumonia appear.

And even though flu rates are leveling out in much of the east and south, the outbreak is just beginning in California, Arizona, Hawaii, and Nevada. “Folks out West, you still have most of the flu season yet to come,” Frieden said.

What this means for you:

• Experts are still strongly recommending that anyone over 2 years old should get a flu shot for protection—of you and others—over the next several months.
• Even if you got vaccinated, you can still get a strain of influenza.
• If you begin to have flu symptoms and are “high-risk” or have contact with high-risk people, you should get antiviral medication with 48 hours. (High risk includes cancer survivors, even if you’re no longer in treatment. Even if it’s later than 2 days, you might still benefit, so call your doctor.)
• Flu symptoms include fever, cough, sore throat, body aches.
• You are contagious to anyone within 6 feet until you have been without a fever for 24 hours.  Stay home.

Sources:

• “CDC Urges Tamiflu RX to Curb Flu Death Rate,” Jan. 18 2013 Medscape
• Jan. 15 2013 CDC Health Advisory: Summary of CDC Recommendations for Influenza Antiviral Medications

This past year has brought remarkable scientific advances in the understanding of colorectal cancer (CRC), and—as usual with science—opened up even more questions to be answered in 2013 and beyond. Here are just a few highlights:

Your BODY: Peering inside cells

In 2012, scientists penetrated deeper inside cells to better understand why and how normal cells become cancerous and spread (metastasize) through the body.

(1)   For the first time ever, 150 researchers with the Cancer Genome Atlas Project—a collaboration of dozens of U.S. institutions–mapped the entire genome for each of 250 different colorectal cancers. Instead of just looking for specific mutated genes, they mapped literally the entire DNA package of 3.5 billion pairs of the 4-letter genetic “alphabet” contained in each cancer sample.

1. One surprise was that colon and rectal cancer are genetically virtually indistinguishable, putting to rest a long-held theory that rectal and colon cancers are somehow different.
2. By comparing cancer cell genomes to normal cells, they identified 24 separate genes involved with colorectal cancer—including 3 new genes. They also identified two other “over-active” genes directing cell proliferation, as well as changes in three different “signaling pathways” that turn genes on or off during cell growth.

(2)   A month later, a 9-year international collaboration called ENCODE (the Encyclopedia of DNA Elements) simultaneously published a blizzard of 30 journal articles, summarizing their findings about how at least four million gene switches can flick genes on and off, or, like an electric outlet dimmer, work together to turn genes up or down. Previously, scientists have only understood about how approximately 3% of DNA matter is normally active in directing cell functions. By analyzing data from 1,600 sets of standardized experiments using the equivalent of 300 years of lightning-fast computer analyses on more than 15 trillion bytes of raw data, scientists took a giant leap forward in understanding how the other 97% of the human genome (previously nicknamed DNA “dark matter”) might explain why many diseases appear.

Both major advances will not only help researchers find new treatments and tests for individual cancers, but they also might begin to explain how non-genetic factors like diet or exercise could affect whether cancer begins, recurs, or spreads.

Your LIFESTYLE: Population studies reveal roles of diet, exercise, aspirin,

While some scientists peered deep into cells, others looked at patterns in whole populations of people who have and don’t have colorectal cancer.

1. More than half of all cancers could be prevented, a researcher told the International Cancer Control (UICC) World Cancer Congress 2012 , if only people actually followed the lifestyle recommendations and screening or other interventions that we already know prevent cancer, including and perhaps especially colorectal cancer.
2. Researchers from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute found that those who consistently ate a high-carbohydrate, sugar-laden diet appeared to have markedly higher recurrence rates  of their disease than patients whose diets were more varied and contained less-sugar.
3. More studies in 2012 strengthened the evidence that daily exercise is closely related to a better quality of life for those having and recovering from CRC, and start regular, moderate exercise is associated with a significantly lower risk of recurrence.
4. In 2012, studies showed people who take low-dose aspirin—especially those with Lynch syndrome—show lower rates of having colorectal cancer recur.

Your TREATMENT: Two new drugs for metastatic CRC, and a cost challenge

For the first time since 2006, two new drugs—Zaltrap (ziv-aflibercept)  and Stivarga (regorafenib) were approved by the FDA to treat metastatic colorectal cancer which has progressed despite other chemotherapy.

The oncology world was a bit stunned in September 2012, when leaders of the world-renowned Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City publicly announced they would not use the latest new drug (Zaltrap) because it was no more effective but priced twice as high as Stivarga. The makers of Zaltrap subsequently announced a 50% discount in the price . However, that discount may not immediately apply to patients themselves, so Fight Colorectal Cancer staff remain closely involved in discussions with the FDA and others.

Your COSTS: Drug shortages, grey-markets, fake Avastin, screening coverage

1. Fight Colorectal Cancer’s Kate Murphy closely followed crucial shortages in CRC treatment drugs in early 2012, as well as a developing “grey market” where those drugs were sold for exorbitant prices, and even the appearance of fake Avastin in the U.S. briefly during the spring of 2012. Leucovorin remains on the FDA’s list of drugs in short supply as 2012 ends.
2. Also in 2012, Fight Colorectal Cancer worked with Kaiser Family Foundation and other cancer organizations to provide a detailed report to Congress  investigating the problem of patients being billed unexpectedly for costs of screening colonoscopies when polyps are removed.

We at Fight Colorectal Cancer know—and our advocates continually tell their families, communities, and legislators—that the very best way to stop colorectal cancer in its tracks is to never let it get started.

Our Future: The greatest hope of all is prevention and early detection

• In March 2012, Kate Murphy reported on the first definitive study to prove that colonoscopy and polyp removal reduce deaths from colorectal cancer : In a large followup of the National Polyp Study, people who had adenomas removed—the risky kind of polyps—were half as likely to die from colon or rectal cancer than  the general US population.
• In its annual summary and budget discussion for 2012-2013, the National Cancer Institute wrote, “Through molecular, epidemiologic, and mathematical studies of colorectal cancer… we now know that…a death from colorectal cancer today will most likely occur because the cancer or its precursor adenoma was not detected during the preceding 27 years.”

Forward into 2013

Science will drive us forward in 2013. Facts show that African Americans get colorectal cancer, and die from it, more often than other groups: We need to reach those populations with better screening. We know that the majority of people at risk for having Lynch syndrome—with its multiple cancers—don’t know they’re at risk, and we must help find and educate those families.

Even as we celebrate the enormous scientific strides forward in 2012, we could lose all momentum and years of invaluable work if we allow cancer research funding to dry up.  And so we keep fighting:

1. Fight Colorectal Cancer has given its first-ever two-year Lisa Fund grant to a young researcher whose laboratory is using a whole new method of quickly testing different treatments for metastatic colorectal cancer.
2.  We are training, as we speak, a whole new class of Research Advocates to take the patient’s voice and perspective to the decision-makers in research programs and funding. These 20 new advocates will be stepping into the shoes of two deeply respected advocates whom we lost in 2012: Pat Steer and also Kate Murphy, the founder of this Research News blog.

Here’s part of what Kate wrote last New Year’s Eve. Her words still ring as true as ever:

* Come to Call-on Congress and make sure that programs and funding for colorectal cancer prevention and research are strong and growing.

* Do one last, very important thing: Make a gift to Fight Colorectal Cancer and ensure that our programs and research grants continue until we end suffering and death from colon and rectal cancer.

Here’s to “Another year, full of hope and promises.”

Centers for Disease Control & Prevention

The flu season has arrived early in the U.S., and includes the H3N2 influenza strains which previously have been associated with more serious flu seasons. Especially during the holidays when people gather and travel, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) wants you to know some important facts, if you have cancer now or if you have had cancer in the past:

• Every person aged 6 months or older should get a flu shot;
• Only 37% of age-eligible Americans had gotten their flu shots as of the latest survey in mid-November;
• Although we don’t know if people with or having survived cancer get infected with influenza viruses more often, people who have cancer now or who are disease-free but have had cancer previously are at higher risk for complications if they get the flu;
• The CDC revised its pneumonia vaccine recommendations in Oct. 2012: Now, adults with specific immunocompromising conditions (included generalized malignancy) should get two different pneumonia vaccinations. Read the rest of this entry »