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Hearing a cancer diagnosis is a life-altering and emotional time. A million thoughts race through your mind about treatments, life, death, your family, your friends, your job, and more. Although nothing can completely eliminate the stress of dealing with a cancer diagnosis and treatment, the tips given in this article will help to ease the process.

Don't be afraid to make yourself heard. Plenty of people still live under false stereotypes of the "cancer patient". They may think you are unable to perform your job or may be contagious, take this chance to prove them wrong. Consider how you will respond to these questions in advance and address them immediately. This may help you to retain control of how others interact with you during treatment.

Keeping a healthy weight is a good way to help prevent cancer. Obesity and being an unhealthy weight puts you at risk for many health problems, including cancer. If you are obese, you should speak with your doctor concerning a weight loss plan. If a healthy weight is already where you are at, keep it that way with a proper diet and regular workouts.

Try to eat three meals each day or eat small, frequent snacks of healthy foods. The treatments may leave you without an appetite, but your medications work best when taken on a full stomach. If you are experiencing nausea, then focus on starch-heavy meals. Eating vegetables and fruits really helps as well.

Besides being a great way to have energy for your everyday life, an effective exercise routine, maintaining your ideal weight and eating a nutritious diet will also help to prevent cancer. Eat lots of vegetables and fruit, drink adequate water and aim for 30 minutes of exercise a day. Not only will it improve your life, it could reduce your risk of cancer.

Smokers need to be very aware that quitting cigarettes not only protects against lung cancer and emphysema, but also against colon cancer. Tobacco can single-handedly boost the size of polyps found in colons, and the carcinogens in cigarette smoke is easily absorbed by the colon as well. Yet another reason to stop smoking.

When you go outside, wear covering clothes and sunscreen to defend yourself against the sun's UV rays. The ultraviolet rays in the sun can be harsh, and melanomas (skin cancer) can quickly be fatal if left untreated. If your skin is fair, use waterproof sunscreen with a high index of at least SPF 30.

When a friend or family member has been advised that they have cancer, it is a good idea to sit down and discuss the future with them. It is important for them to feel that you believe that they are going to overcome their condition. Making future plans is a subtle way to show your loved ones that you believe they are going to win the fight.

As you can tell, there are a number of ways to calm your fears and reduce the stress associated with cancer diagnoses, treatments and life with cancer. Finding treatments that work for you will be very a personal thing, with many options and applications, but there are ways to minimize the learning process. Using what you've learned here, and being patient, will lead you to a positive attitude, which can help you beat cancer!

Featured Article
Academic Journal
Main Category: Colorectal Cancer
Also Included In: Cancer / Oncology;  Genetics
Article Date: 28 Feb 2013 - 14:00 PST
It is well-known in bowel cancer research that because of inherent "chromosomal instability", cancer cells manage to retain the upper hand by being able to "reshuffle" their genetic pack of cards, the chromosomes that hold the cells' DNA information, thus increasing cell diversity in tumors, which makes them difficult to treat. Now new research reveals that if bowel cancer cells lack one of three genes they can do this genetic reshuffling very quickly.

The researchers, led by Charles Swanton, a professor based at Cancer Research UK's London Research Institute and the UCL Cancer Institute, write about their findings in the 27 February online issue of Nature.

Perhaps Getting Cells to Overshuffle their Genetic Pack Could Tip Them Over the Edge

Recent work from Cancer Research UK and other groups shows that the genetic landscape of a tumor is complex, and is beginning to change the way scientists understand the disease.

One explanation is that being able to continually shuffle their genetic pack, cancer cells deal themselves a better hand: by increasing their genetic diversity they can adapt to new environments, spur tumor growth, or help resist treatment.

Swanton says in a statement that by uncovering how cancer cells manage to continually shuffle their genetic pack, it may be possible to turn their strength into a weakness, and create so much instability that the cells can't function normally and die.

"We're now looking for ways in which this process can be targeted in order to tip cancer cells over the edge," he explains.

Chromosomal Instability

Chromosomal instability is a defining characteristic of most human cancers.

Normal cells have 46 chromosomes, each comprising a long string of DNA. Each time cancer cells divide, they gain or lose whole or large fractions of chromosomes, resulting in an imbalance in the number of chromosomes per cell (a state known as "aneuploidy").

This means that a tumor can contain cells of enormous genetic diversity, making them increasingly difficult to treat.

Chromosome instability is a well-known problem in bowel cancer, and patients whose bowel cancer cells contain particularly unstable chromosomes are known to do worse.

Researchers are beginning to find out what drives chromosome instability and this study sheds further light in that area.

If One of Three 18q Genes Is Missing, Bowel Cancer Reshuffles the Genetic Pack

Cancer cells are no different to normal cells in that cell-division is a two-stage process: first the cell must copy its chromosomes, and then split them between two new daughter cells.

What Swanton and colleagues found was that loss of any one of three particular genes on a chromosome region known as 18q, interfered with the normal copying process, which led to mistakes in chromosome separation.

This is the first time the three genes, PIGN (also known as MCD4), MEX3C (RKHD2) and ZNF516 (KIAA0222), have been implicated in chromosome instability.

Reducing Chromosomal Instability

By adding basic building blocks of DNA, or nucleosides, to bowel cancer cells lacking all three of the genes, Swanton and colleagues found they could dramatically reduce chromosomal instability, and prevent further copying errors and the genetic shuffling.

Nic Jones, professor and chief scientist at Cancer Research UK, says it is not just in bowel cancer that 18q is missing, suggesting perhaps this process is common to other types of cancer.

"By understanding how cancer cheats at life's card-game, we can see how an individual person's cancer can be so complex and varied," says Jones, adding that:

"Scientists can now start looking for ways to prevent this happening in the first place or turning this instability against cancers."

In February 2012, a team from Jefferson University in the US, published a study that showed a particular breast cancer subtype may respond to drugs targeting chromosomal instability.

Written by Catharine Paddock PhD
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today

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Main Category: Eye Health / Blindness
Also Included In: Transplants / Organ Donations;  Bones / Orthopedics
Article Date: 28 Feb 2013 - 13:00 PST
JAMA Ophthalmology Study Highlights

A study in the Netherlands by Viera Kalinina Ayuso, M.D., of the University Medical Center Utrecht, the Netherlands, examined the development of eye complications among children within one year of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT, a bone marrow transplant). (Online First).

The study included 49 patients who had ophthalmologic evaluations before HSCT and after. The ocular complications researchers looked at included uveitis (inflammation), hemorrhagic complications, optic disc edema and dry eye syndrome (DES). A total of 13 patients (27 percent) developed an ocular complication after HSCT. The complications included DES (n=7, 14 percent), (sub) retinal hemorrhage (n=6, 12 percent) and others, according to the study results.

"Ocular complications in pediatric HSCT patients are common, although mostly mild," the study concludes.

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Editor's Choice
Academic Journal
Main Category: Autism
Also Included In: Pediatrics / Children's Health
Article Date: 28 Feb 2013 - 12:00 PST
Animals help children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) interact better; they show increased positive social behaviors when an animal is present.

The finding came from a new study by researchers, led by Marguerite E O'Haire, from the University of Queesland, Australia and was published in the journal PLOS ONE.

Kids between the ages of five and thirteen with ASD were involved in the investigation. The experts analyzed their interaction with adults and with peers who were developing normally, while two guinea pigs were present. The interactions were compared a second time with toys instead of the guinea pigs.

According to the results, when the animals were present, the kids with ASD displayed more social behaviors such as:

• talking
• making physical contact
• looking at faces

Compared to when they were playing with toys, the kids with ASD were more receptive to social advances from their peers when the animals were in sight.

The children laughed and smiled more when the animals were present compared to the toys, and also reduced behaviors of:

Prior research has indicated that people have a higher probability of receiving overtures of friendship from strangers when taking a dog for a walk as opposed to when they walk unaccompanied.

Comparable outcomes have also been examined for individuals who have smaller animals, such as rabbits or turtles with them.

This 'social lubricant' effect of animals on human social interactions may be especially critical for people with socio-emotional disabilities, according to the researchers.

The capability of the animals to assist boys and girls with ASD communicate with adults may also be used to help them interact with teachers, therapists, and other adults in their life.

Animal-assisted interventions may also benefit the classroom dynamics as well, the scientists said.

The authors concluded:

"For children with ASD, the school classroom can be a stressful and overwhelming environment due to social challenges and peer victimization. If an animal can reduce this stress or artificially change children's perception of the classroom and its occupants, then a child with ASD may feel more at ease and open to social approach behaviors."

There have been several studies over the last week on ASDs. One published in BMC Medicine demonstrated that autistic kids have a structural difference in brain connections than those without the disorder, while another found that five major psychiatric disorders, including autism spectrum disorders, share genetic links.

Written by Sarah Glynn
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today

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Editor's Choice
Academic Journal
Main Category: Dermatology
Article Date: 28 Feb 2013 - 11:00 PST
Everyone has acne-causing bacteria living on their skin, but researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine have identified that there are "good" and "bad" strains of the bacteria, which determine the frequency and severity of developing pimples.

The findings, which were published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, reveal that not all acne bacteria trigger pimples, they even identified one strain that can actually help maintain healthy skin.

Little is known about the scientific causes of acne, a disease which affects close to 80 percent of Americans - at least once in their lives. The treatment options have remained the same over the past few decades, with much need for improvement. A report in The Lancet said that further research is urgently needed for effective non-antibiotic treatments for acne, given the concerns of long-term antibiotic use and bacterial resistance.

Lead author of the study, Huiying Li, PhD, said:

"We hope to apply our findings to develop new strategies that stop blemishes before they start and enable dermatologists to customize treatment to each patient's unique cocktail of skin bacteria."

Propionibacterium acnes is a tiny microbe that lives in the oily region of the skin's pores. The bacteria can aggravate an immune response which causes red, swollen bumps to develop on the skin (acne).

The researchers collected samples of P. acnes from the noses of 49 pimply people and 52 people with clear skin. They extracted the microbial DNA from the strips and tracked a genetic marker to identify the bacterial strains.

They sequenced the genomes of 66 different P. acnes strains, which allowed them to analyze the genes in each of the strains.

Co-author of the study, George Weinstock, PhD, professor of genetics at Washington University in St. Louis, said:

"Our research underscores the importance of strain-level analysis of the world of human microbes to define the role of bacteria in health and disease. This type of analysis has a much higher resolution than prior studies that relied on bacterial cultures or only made distinctions between bacterial species."

The investigators were specifically looking for any differences in the bacterial strains of those suffering from acne versus those with healthy skin.

They identified two unique strains of P. acnes found in 20 percent of the participants with pimples, that were close to non-existent among those with healthy skin. In addition, another strain of P. acnes was commonly found among the volunteers with healthy skin, yet quite rare in participants with acne.

The researchers believe that this "good" strain has a natural defense mechanism that targets and eliminated attackers that try and infect the cell.

The finding should help in the development of future acne treatments. The researchers believe that by increasing the body's concentrations of the friendly P. acnes strain - through the use of a cream or lotion - acne severity could be reduced.

Li added: "This P. acnes strain may protect the skin, much like yogurt's live bacteria help defend the gut from harmful bugs. Our next step will be to investigate whether a probiotic cream can block bad bacteria from invading the skin and prevent pimples before they start."

Further studies will look into possible drugs that can eliminate the bad strains of the bacteria whilst at the same time preserving the good strains, as well as assessing whether a simple skin test can effectively predict if someone will develop acne in the future.

A previous study, presented at the Society for General Microbiology's Spring Conference in Dublin, revealed that herbal preparations of thyme could well be more effective at treating skin acne than current prescription creams - promising to be a gentler and more effective treatment.

Written by Joseph Nordqvist
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today

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Editor's Choice
Academic Journal
Main Category: Genetics
Also Included In: Psychology / Psychiatry;  Autism;  Schizophrenia
Article Date: 28 Feb 2013 - 11:00 PST
Five common psychiatric disorders - bipolar disorder, attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism, major depressive disorder, and schizophrenia - have been found to have the same genetic risk factors.

Specifically, two variations in genes play a role in the balance of calcium in brain cells and are a common factor in a few of these disorders, and may be a goal for new treatments.

These new findings, published in The Lancet, are from the biggest genetic study analyzing psychiatric illness, and could aid in eventually identifying these disorders based on what causes them, rather than their symptoms.

Jordan Smoller from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, one of the lead researchers explained:

"This analysis provides the first genome-wide evidence that individual and aggregate molecular genetic risk factors are shared between five childhood-onset or adult-onset psychiatric disorders that are treated as distinct categories in clinical practice."

In an attempt to analyze the potential of common genetic markers - or nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) - that could influence susceptibility to the five disorders, the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium (PGC) reviewed the genome of 33,332 patients and 27,888 control subjects of European descent.

They found four risk gene mutation positions that have significant and similar associations with all five diseases or disorders - regions on chromosomes 3p21 and 10q24, and SNPs in two genes that make up parts of channels that control the flow of calcium in the brain cells.

The polygenic risk scores verified cross-disorder outcomes, most notably between adult-onset disorders: schizophrenia, major depressive disorder, and bipolar disorder.

More in depth examination confirmed that calcium channel activity is a significant factor in the development of all five disorders.

Smoller said:

"Significant progress has been made in understanding the genetic risk factors underlying psychiatric disorders. Our results provide new evidence that may inform a move beyond descriptive syndromes in psychiatry and towards classification based on underlying causes. These findings are particularly relevant in view of the imminent revision of classifications in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) and the International Classification of Diseases (ICD)."

In a linked editorial comment, Alessandro Serretti and Chiara Fabbri from the University of Bologna in Italy mentioned:

"the present study might contribute to future nosographic [classification] systems, which could be based not only on statistically determined clinical categories, but also on biological pathogenic factors that are pivotal to the identification of suitable treatments."

The authors conclude that with these new findings, psychiatric diseases or disorders could be predicted and prevented by genetics in the future.

Geneticists are starting to identify gene variants that occur in several psychiatric disorders and/or diseases. Scientists from The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia said they found 25 extra gene variants occurring in some people with an autism spectrum disorder.

Written by Kelly Fitzgerald
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today

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Posted on 28 February 2013. Tags: Better Business Bureau, Class Medical, medical's portable oxygen, portable oxygen, United States

Posted on 28 February 2013. Tags: benign prostatic hyperplasia, HIFU, Laparoscopic Surgery It, Prostate Cancer, prostate cancer cells, Robotic Surgery, Robotic Surgery Various

Main Category: Blood / Hematology
Also Included In: Tropical Diseases
Article Date: 28 Feb 2013 - 1:00 PST
The powerful venom of the saw-scaled viper Echis carinatus contains both anticoagulants and coagulants finds a study published in the launch edition of BioMed Central's open access journal Journal of Venomous Animals and Toxins including Tropical Diseases (JVATiTD). These may be a source of potent drugs to treat human disease.

The saw-scaled viper family Echis, responsible for most snake attacks on humans, are recognizable by the 'sizzling' noise they make, produced by rubbing together special serrated scales, when threatened. Echis venom causes coagulopathy, which can result in symptoms ranging from lack of blood clotting, hemorrhage, renal failure and stroke.

Researchers from the Razi Vaccine and Serum Research Institute, Iran led by Hossein Zolfagharian noted that treating plasma with venom from Echis carinatus actually causes it to coagulate. Splitting the venom by ion exchange chromatography showed that then venom contained both coagulants and anticoagulants. The clotting factors alone were toxic to mice.

The diametric effects of snake venom on blood are of interest because of medical applications, and although snakes can be considered as dangerous to humans - they may yet save lives.

In the auspicious Year of the Snake, BioMed Central, the open access publisher, is pleased to announce that the Journal of Venomous Animals and Toxins including Tropical Diseases (JVATiTD), the official academic journal of the The Center for the Study of Venoms and Venomous Animals (CEVAP) of São Paulo State University (UNESP), based in Brazil, has moved to BioMed Central's open access publishing platform. Also this journal marks growth of BioMed Central's portfolio of open access journals to 250.

Along with research into snakes JVATiTD publishes studies into all aspects of toxins, venomous animals, and their derivative products, as well as tropical diseases especially infectious diseases, parasites and immunology.

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Main Category: Aid / Disasters
Also Included In: Public Health;  Psychology / Psychiatry
Article Date: 28 Feb 2013 - 1:00 PST