Leroy Sievers, prizewinning journalist and NPR Morning Edition commentator, writes a daily blog about his life with metastatic colon cancer.

First diagnosed in 2001 with colon cancer, he found out four years later that the cancer had spread to his brain, lungs, and spine.

Cancer patients will recognize the emotions and situations he puts into words so wonderfully and honestly each day.

After that day, your life is never the same. “That day” is the day the doctor tells you, “You have cancer.” Every one of us knows someone who’s had to face that news. It’s scary, it’s sad. But it’s still life, and it’s a life worth living. “My Cancer” is a daily account of my life and my fight with cancer.

You can listen to October 30th NPR commentary on his positive scan results, autumn leaves, Halloween parties, and hope.  He says, “Hope is a new sensation. I don’t want to overdo it.”

There is  a connection to the daily blog is available via e-mail and RSS feed.  In addition, Sievers records a weekly podcast.

CancerCare is sponsoring a telephone education workshop on December 1, 2006 to help people who are Caring for Someone with Colon Cancer.

• Date:  December 1, 2006
• Time:  1:30 to 2:30 p.m (Eastern)

CancerCare telephone education workshops are free, but registration is required.  Sign up on the CancerCare website.   Information about how to dial into the call will be emailed to you about one week prior to the session.

Workshop leaders are:

• John S. MacDonald ,MD, Gastrointestinal Oncology Service, St. Vincent’s Comprehensive Cancer Center, New York.
• Guadalupe R. Palos, RN, DrPH,  Department of Symptom Research, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston
• Dominick Bonanno, MSW, Oncology Social Worker, Program Coordinator, CancerCare.
• Keith Lyons, MSW, Program Coordinator for Gastrointestinal Cancer, CancerCare

Increased taxes on tobacco products are the basis for a $3 million grant to the Colorado Colorectal Screening Program to expand screening to all community health clinics in Colorado.  The program screens uninsured individuals with incomes below 250% of the federal poverty level for polyps and colorectal cancer.

Screening is offered by either flexible sigmoidoscopy or colonoscopy with the goals of preventing colon or rectal cancer by finding and removing pre-cancerous polyps (adenomas) during the procedures or discovering colorectal cancers in early stages when they are most curable.

The program began in January 2006 in clinics in northeastern Colorado, in Denver, and in Pueblo.  It has already screened 600 people, found five cancers, and potentially prevented 12 additional cancers by removing large polyps.  It will expand statewide on November 1 with the additional grant funds.

Tim Byers, MD, MPH, director of the Colorado Colorectal Screening program, said,

We are thrilled to be making such a significant impact with this program.  This new grant will allow us to reach out to more patients, and substantially reduce the suffering from colorectal cancer across Colorado,

The program seeks to screen 12,500 Coloradans by 2010 with a goal of reaching 75% of uninsured people. 

The Colorado Colorectal Cancer Screening Program is part of the University of Colorado Cancer Center in Denver.

Metastatic colon or rectal cancer patients with low standardized uptake values (SUV) on a FDG-PET scan have a longer survival despite treatment choice.

Researchers in the Netherlands followed 151 patients with metastatic colorectal cancer, 67 who were treated with surgery and 85 with chemotherapy.  They measured the SUV of metastases prior to treatment, dividing the results into two groups — low uptake values less than 4.26 and a high group with values greater than 4.26.

Despite treatment, survival was significantly higher for the low-uptake group with median survival time of 32 months.  At 2 years, 59% of patients from the low-uptake group were alive, and 45% were alive at 3 years.  For the high-uptake group, median survival was 19 months with 37% alive at 2 years and 28% alive at 3 years.

Dr. LF de Geus-Oei and colleagues wrote in the November 2006 issue of the Annals of Oncology:

A significant survival benefit was observed in patients with low FDG uptake in metastases of colorectal cancer.

Researchers reviewed information from the State of Ohio Tumor Registry for all patients diagnosed with colon or rectal cancer from 1996 through 2001.  About half of the 27,000 patients in the registry were women.

Women with colorectal cancer in the Ohio data were significantly older than men and had more right-sided cancer.  They were diagnosed at a later stage and at stages with poorer prognosis.

The research team divided diagnoses into

• cancer in situ (stage I)
• local disease (stage II)
• regional disease (stage III)
• distant disease (stage IV)

They also combined stages I and II to form a more favorable prognosis category and stages III and IV to form a poor prognosis category.

Women were less likely than men to have cancer in situ or local disease and more likely to have regional disease.  They were about 10% more likely to have a poor prognosis (stages III and IV).

Scott W. Woods MD, MPH, MEd and colleagues from the Bethesda Family Medicine Residency Program in Cincinnati published their findings in the September 2006 Journal of Women’s Health.

Woods and his team concluded:

In the State of Ohio from 1996 to 2001, women had more advanced colon cancer at diagnosis than men.

Technorati tags: women’s health, women and colorectal cancer