NCI has awarded $54 million in grants to four centers to explore the interaction between obesity and cancer. The new initiative will studythe integration of diet, exercise, and weight and its impact on the development of cancer.

In an [news release](http://www.cancer.gov/newscenter/pressreleases/TREC) on October 11, 2005, NCI announced the grants as part of Transdisciplinary Research on Energetics and Cancer (TREC). Robert Croyle, director of NCI’s Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences, explained,

TREC will bring together outstanding scientists from many disciplines. Together these experts will answer critical questions that will help guide our nation’s public health efforts. NCI is determined to help avoid an increase in cancer deaths in the 21st century due to obesity like the one caused by tobacco in the 20th century.

Funded centers include

+ **Case WesternReserve University** in Cleveland will concentrate on cellular mechanisms and clinical research focusing on obesity, metabolic dysfunction, and colorectal cancer.
+ **Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center** in Seattle will explore diet and exercise and their impact on breast and colorectal cancer.
+ **University of Minnesota** in Minneapolis will study causes of obesity and its prevention in youth and families.
+ **University of Southern California** in Los Angeles will study physiologic, metabolic, genetic, behavioral, and environmental influences on obesity and cancer risk in minority children.

The Fred Hutchinson Center Center will serve as the coordinating center for the initiative providing communication, data-sharing, and collaboration among the projects.

Chewing gum a few times a day reduces the time it takes for bowel function to return after laproscopic colectomy, allowing patients to leave the hospital sooner. Patients who chewed a stick of gum four times a day had bowel activity return sooner and went home on average almost a day earlier than patients who were restricted to sips of water after surgery.

During surgery to treat colon cancer by removing all or part of the colon, rhythmic bowel activity stops, a condition known as *postoperative ileus*. Eating or drinking during this time can lead to bloating, abdominal pain, and vomiting. Until normal bowel motility returns, patients have been limited to ice chips or very small sips of clear liquids. They cannot leave the hospital until they can eat and drink normally and have had at least one bowel movement.

Surgeons at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas; Western Pennsylvania Hospital, Pittsburgh; and Presbyterian Hospital, Dallas randomized 102 patients undergoing both traditional open colectomy and laparoscopic colectomy to chew a stick of gum four times a day or be in a control group that was not given gum. Their research was discussed at the American College of Surgeons 2005 Clinical Congress in San Francisco.

For those who had laparoscopic surgery, bowel function returned for gum chewers an average of 2.9 days after surgery compared to 3.5 days for the control group. They left the hospital 4.4 days post-surgery compared to 5.2 days for the group that did not chew gum.

However, there was no similar difference for patients who had open colectomy. Both gum chewers and the control group had bowel function return at 3.6 days. Gum chewers went home at 5.9 days compared to 5.3 days for controls.

Harry Papaconstantinou, MD, who led the study explained that

There are multiple stimuli that can affect the gut motility after surgery, and some of these are manipulation of the bowel during surgery, the type of anesthetic used, any inflammation that might be caused by the surgery, as well as alterations in the autonomic [peripheral] nervous system, the release of neurotransmitters [chemical substances that influence the transfer of nerve impulses to muscle] and gut hormones. When patients undergo colectomy, all of these factors can be significant stimuli that results in postoperative ileus.

He estimated that each day in the hospital costs an average of $500 to $750 and that the small cost of several packs of gum could have a major impact on medical costs after laparoscopic surgery.

[Xilinx](http://www.xilinx.com/), a maker of programmable chips, has joined other Santa Clara County companies in creating a *Colon Cancer Free Zone*. The company is providing seminar and internal website information to help their workers learn about the risks, tests, and treatments for colorectal cancer.

In addition, the company insurance coverage has been expanded to cover the full range of screening tests for colorectal cancer, including the more expensive colonoscopy.

According to an article in the October 21, 2005 issue of the [San Jose Mercury-News](http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/12959457.htm) Xilinx Vice-President Steve Haynes and other company executives had themselves screened for colorectal cancer and made the results public. `We declared ourselves *colon cancer free* to lead the way,” Haynes told the *Mercury News.*

Earlier this year Xilinx joined several other [Silicon Valley companies](http://www.embeddedstar.com/press/content/2005/8/embedded18726.html) to support the American Cancer Society effort to promote colorectal cancer awareness in [Santa Clara County](http://www.lizkniss.org/proclamations/2004/ColonCancer.html),

In 2003 oncologist Dr. Richard Androuny, author of [Understanding Colorectal Cancer,](http://www.upress.state.ms.us/catalog/spring2002/understanding_colon_cancer.html) urged the California city of Monte Serano in Santa Clara County to become a colon cancer free zone and raise awareness of colorectal cancer and its prevention.

CNN and the Associated Press have picked up a story about next year’s [Colondar](http://www.colonclub.org/colondar.html). They are featuring Chicago-area firefighter Steve DeLuca and his colon surgery scar.

DeLuca is the May pin-up for the [Colon Club's](http://www.colonclub.org/index.html) 2006 Colondar, featuring young colorectal cancer patients baring their scars for the camera. [Molly McMaster](http://www.colonclub.org/aboutus.html), who survived a colon cancer diagnosed when she was 23, and Hannah Vogler, whose cousin Amanda Roberts died of colorectal cancer when she was only 27, developed the Colondar to remind the public that, although colorectal cancer is most often found in people over 50, young people do get colorectal cancer and need to be aware of its symptoms.

The most exciting news about the news is the awareness the Colondar project brings to colorectal cancer. Trying to write this message, I got the following error: “403.9 Access Forbidden: Too many users are connected” That’s right, too many people were trying to access the [Colon Club website](http://www.colonclub.org/index.html) — perhaps for a peep at DeLuca, perhaps for more information about colorectal cancer and CRC screening.

Thirty patients were treated at three Australian cancer centers with selective internal radiation (SIR) spheres for liver metastases from colorectal cancer. All patients had previously had their cancer progress on 5FU (fluorouracil) treatment. At the time, neither oxaliplatin nor irinotecan was available as reimbursible treatment in Australia, but 73% of patients had previously received either oxaliplatin or irinotecan treatments and gotten worse.

Twenty-nine (29) patients were evaluated for safety and effectiveness of the SIR-spheres treatment. There were 10 partial responses (33%) that were greater than 30% decrease in tumor size. The median duration of response to treatment was 8.3 months, with a median time to progression of cancer of 5.3 months. However, among patients who had a partial response to therapy, time to progression was 9.2 months.

Some responses continued to progress over time, with one patient having a complete response (disappearance of all target lesions) at 6 months.

Fourteen (14) patients had already received all available chemotherapy treatments, but there was a lower rate of response among this group (21%) and a shorter time to disease progression (3.9 months.) No patients with a poor performance status score or who had cancer outside the liver showed a response to treatment.

Toxicity was acceptable, although there were 4 cases of late gastric ulceration. Most side effects were mild and included nausea, loss of appetite, lethargy, or abdominal pain.

The research team, headed by Lionel C. Lim, concluded,

In patients with metastatic colorectal cancer that have previously received treatment with 5-FU based chemotherapy, treatment with SIR-spheres has demonstrated encouraging activity. Further studies are required to better define the subsets of patients most likely to respond

Their results were published in [*BMC Cancer*, Volume 5](http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2407/5/132/abstract)