Thread: Cancer sucks

Turns out mine was a basil cell squamish type. He dug deep and its gone now. this type is only a slight chance to kill you. Thank fook. But for all you dolly's, get them rockets checked out asap .

Originally Posted by BLD

Turns out mine was a basil cell squamish type.

Some confusion here. Basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma are two different types of nonmelanoma skin cancer.

^^Must have been a relief to get that good news.

Couple months ago, the dermatologist I see here in Thailand froze 6 different small spots he saw on me.

Originally Posted by BLD

But for all you dolly's, get them rockets checked out asap .

they should get them checked yearly

Originally Posted by nidhogg

Some confusion here. Basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma are two different types of nonmelanoma skin cancer.

He cut it out quite deep and reckoned it won't kill.me. basil cell something or other. Anyway a huge relief

If you have to get skin cancer BCC is better than SCC and melanoma is the most challenging.

• 2.3M women died prematurely from cancer in 2020: analysis

Thousands of premature cancer deaths in women could have been prevented: researchers

Prevention could have prevented nearly seven in 10 premature cancer deaths among women worldwide in 2020, new research has found.

The Lancet Commission on Women, Power, and Cancer, as well as the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), released their findings(opens in a new tab) this week on the issue.

The researchers say 5.3 million adults, between 30 and 69 years old, died prematurely from cancer in 2020 around the world. Of those, 2.3 million were women.

The findings suggest that prevention could have stopped roughly two-thirds of those deaths.

"Globally, there are marked inequalities between countries in reaching the target of reducing premature mortality from non-communicable diseases, including cancer, set out by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals," Dr. Isabelle Soerjomataram, deputy head of the Cancer Surveillance Branch at IARC and co-chair of the Lancet Commission on Women, Power, and Cancer, said in a news release(opens in a new tab).

"Greater investments in cancer prevention programmes can reduce the prevalence of key risk factors for cancer, and increased coverage of vaccination alongside early diagnosis and screening linked to timely treatment can and must address the current cancer inequalities that are seen worldwide."

The research found premature deaths from cancer in women were higher in countries with a low Human Development Index(opens in a new tab) (HDI), a United Nations measurement that includes a number of different factors such as standard of living.

Beyond the loss of life, the researchers say an estimated one million children around the world became motherless because of these premature deaths.

"There is rapid societal and economic transition across populations, leading to enormous variation in global cancer patterns," Dr. Freddie Bray, head of the Cancer Surveillance Branch at IARC and a commissioner of the Lancet report, said.

"Although breast cancer remains the most important cause of premature cancer death in women worldwide, new analysis in our commission reveals that cervical cancer ranks second in women in countries with low and medium HDI, whereas lung cancer ranks second in women in countries with high and very high HDI."

The researchers point to four main risk factors that, if addressed, could have prevented almost one-third, or 1.3 million, of all cancer deaths in women of all ages. These include smoking tobacco, alcohol consumption, high body weight and infections.

However, the researchers point to a study that found only 19 per cent of women in the United Kingdom who had been screened for breast cancer were aware that alcohol consumption is a major risk factor.

The analysis also says there is a growing link between some commercial products – such as certain breast implants, skin lighteners and hair relaxers – that may increase a woman's cancer risk.

Then, there is the financial cost, with the researchers citing a study from eight countries in Asia that found a large majority of women with cancer spent 30 per cent or more of their annual household income on expenses such as medical costs and medicine in the year after their diagnosis.

Women, the analysis points out, also are largely the ones who do unpaid caregiving for people with cancer.

Among the solutions the researchers call for is a "new intersectional feminist agenda for cancer care, in which health systems, cancer workforces, and research ecosystems are more inclusive and responsive to the needs and aspirations of all women, whether they are patients, care providers, or researchers, thereby reducing the global burden of cancer."

_______

• The secret world of breast cancer: 17 surprising things I wish I’d known

Originally Posted by S Landreth

The research found premature deaths from cancer in women were higher in countries with a low Human Development Index(opens in a new tab) (HDI), a United Nations measurement that includes a number of different factors such as standard of living.

In accordance with the Human Development Report 2021-22, the (HDI) rank of India is 132nd, among 191 countries. The HDR was titled as “Uncertain Times, Unsettled Lives: Shaping our Future in a Transforming World”

And yet this is a country with two aircraft carriers, a nuclear sub, nuclear weapons and just put a probe on the moon.

• New prostate cancer treatment may be ‘on the horizon’, say scientists

Scientists say a new way to treat prostate cancer may be on the horizon after finding it is possible to reverse its resistance to therapy.

More than a million men worldwide are diagnosed with the disease each year. The chances of survival are generally good, particularly if it is diagnosed early. Many can live for decades without symptoms or needing treatment.

But some with advanced forms of prostate cancer find it is able to evade treatment by using their immune system to resist the impact of drugs. Now scientists have discovered a way to stop it being able to do this, opening up the possibility of treatments for men left with little hope.

By blocking the secret messages that cancer cells send to hijack healthy white blood cells, researchers were able to reverse resistance to therapy in a small group of patients. In some, they were able to shrink tumours or halt their growth. The findings were published in Nature.

“This is tremendously exciting and it suggests we have an entirely new way to treat prostate cancer on the horizon,” said Johann de Bono, a professor of experimental cancer medicine at the Institute of Cancer Research and consultant medical oncologist at the Royal Marsden NHS foundation trust.

In a trial led by the ICR, the Royal Marsden and the Institute of Oncology Research in Switzerland, scientists recruited 23 patients with advanced prostate cancer that had stopped responding to hormone therapy.

They were given a combination of AZD5069, an experimental drug that prevents white blood cells from being dragged inside tumours, and enzalutamide, a hormone therapy commonly used to treat prostate cancer.

Of 21 patients who could be evaluated, five (24%) showed evidence of their tumours responding to the combination, the ICR reported.

Their tumours shrunk by more than 30%, they experienced “dramatic decreases” in circulating levels of prostate specific antigen (PSA), a marker often elevated by cancer, or their blood levels of circulating tumour cells dropped, it said.

Patients also showed a drop in the white blood cells targeted by the treatment – myeloid cells – in the blood, and biopsies revealed fewer of them in their tumours.

“It’s hugely rewarding to see our theory proven in a trial of patients with this disease,” said De Bono. “Myeloid cells may be implicated in treatment resistance in a range of cancers, so the impact of this research could be very broad, across multiple cancer types.”

Prof Kristian Helin, chief executive of the ICR, said the results acted as a proof of principle for disrupting cancer and represented a smart new way to attack tumours.

“I look forward to seeing how this work progresses and hope it will pave the way to a new treatment that is beneficial to people with prostate cancer and potentially also many other cancer types.”

The study was funded by Prostate Cancer UK, Cancer Research UK, the Swiss Card Onco grant organisation, the Prostate Cancer Foundation, AstraZeneca, Wellcome and the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre at the Royal Marsden and ICR, with support from the Experimental Cancer Medicine Centres network.

Prostate Cancer UK’s director of research, Dr Matthew Hobbs, said he was extremely excited about the findings.

He said: “Now we want to see pharmaceutical companies working with researchers to develop new drugs based on what we’ve learnt and to test them in larger trials – turning research into reality for men.”

Targeting myeloid chemotaxis to reverse prostate cancer therapy resistance | Nature

• New study has found a way to stop key lung cancer protein

A new study by Tulane University has uncovered a previously unknown molecular pathway that could be instrumental to halting lung cancer in its tracks.

Lung cancer is one of the most common cancers and the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the world. The research, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could lead to the development of a new anti-cancer drug and more personalized lung cancer treatment, said senior study author Dr. Hua Lu, the Reynolds and Ryan Families Chair in Translational Cancer at the Tulane University School of Medicine.

The study found that a known tumor suppressor protein called RBM10 can inhibit lung cancer growth by suppressing the function of c-Myc, a protein that drives cancer cell growth and proliferation when overexpressed. Researchers discovered that RBM10 partners with two ribosomal proteins (RPL5 and RPL11) to destabilize c-Myc and impede the spread of lung cancer.

These findings are the first to identify a cancer-inhibiting relationship between the proteins.

“We found that RBM10 can directly target c-Myc for degradation and reduce its cancer-causing effects by binding with RPL5 and RPL11,” Lu said. “We know a lot about cancer, but the molecules involved are still a black box. Piece by piece, we are gaining a better understanding.”

To understand how the process may work to halt the progression of lung cancer, imagine two factories in a cell, each manufacturing parts for assembly into new protein machineries; c-Myc plays a regular part in this protein production process — and cellular growth in general — and humans could not live without it.

Occasionally, this manufacturing is disrupted, and the factories begin producing incorrect parts. When cancer begins forming, it uses c-Myc to continue production, allowing these “spare parts” to accumulate and form tumors. RBM10, with the help of RPL5 and RPL11, can destabilize c-Myc and shut down tumor growth.

Importantly, the research also discovered that a mutant form of RBM10 often found in lung cancers loses the ability to suppress c-Myc, fails to bind to the RPL5 and RPL11 ribosomal proteins, and eventually promotes tumor growth instead of suppressing it.

“RBM10 is an important protein that can suppress cancer cells, but when a cancer wants to develop, it will mutate RBM10 and block that function,” Lu said.

Lu hopes to further study how the RBM10 mutant functions in the hope of developing an anti-cancer drug to target it.

“Hopefully we can design a molecule to specifically target the mutant since that’s a special structure not existing in the normal tissue,” Lu said. “If we can convert this mutant, we can hopefully make it suppress c-Myc’s cancer-causing activity.”

RNA-binding motif protein 10 inactivates c-Myc by partnering with ribosomal proteins uL18 and uL5

Originally Posted by S Landreth

“RBM10 is an important protein that can suppress cancer cells, but when a cancer wants to develop, it will mutate RBM10 and block that function,” Lu said.

That is a fucking awful description of what goes on. When the fuck does a cancer "want" something and how the fuck does this "desire" end in a specific mutation?

Lu needs to read some more basic cancer biology.

hat is simply how educated medical people describe the actions of cancer to the general populace. Lu is the

Originally Posted by S Landreth

senior study author Dr. Hua Lu, the Reynolds and Ryan Families Chair in Translational Cancer at the Tulane University School of Medicine.

‘It’s huge’: Vaccine for melanoma found to reduce recurrence, death by half.

A new messenger RNA vaccine developed by Moderna and Merck has been shown to reduce the chance of recurrence or death from melanoma — the most dangerous form of skin cancer — by half after three years when paired with Merck’s antibody medication Keytruda, the companies announced Thursday.


The combination of the treatments cut the risk of recurrence or death by 49 per cent compared with Keytruda alone in the midstage trial, the drugmakers said.
The three-year study involved 157 patients with stage 3 and 4 melanoma, whose tumours were removed before being treated with either the vaccine or drug. The reduction is up from 44 per cent found a year earlier.
“It’s huge,” Melanoma Canada CEO Falyn Katz told Global News of the announcement. “This is a breakthrough.”


‘It’s huge’: Vaccine for melanoma found to reduce recurrence, death by half - National | Globalnews.ca

^It has been good news

Originally Posted by S Landreth

Merck-Moderna vaccine helps reduce chances of skin cancer

A vaccine launched by Merck and Moderna was found to reduce the chances of skin cancer when used with the drug Keytruda, according to a new study released Monday.

The new results found that 79 percent of participants who received the vaccine and Keytruda stayed cancer-free for 18 months compared to just 62 percent of people who only received Merck’s Keytruda. The companies also said that the results of Phase Two showed mild side effects with the vaccine, like fatigue, injection site pain or chills.

“Today’s results provide further encouragement for the potential of mRNA as an individualized neoantigen therapy to positively impact patients with high-risk resected melanoma,” Kyle Holen, Moderna’s Senior Vice President and Head of Development, Therapeutics and Oncology, said in a statement.

“The profound observed reduction in the risk of recurrence-free survival suggests this combination may be a novel means of potentially extending the lives of patients with high-risk melanoma,” Holen said. “We look forward to starting the Phase 3 melanoma trial soon and expanding testing to lung cancer and beyond.”

This trial used 157 patients who had high risk stage 4 or 5 melanoma and who were disease-free after having the melanoma removed. The participants received the two drugs after the melanoma was removed and then received Keytruda every three weeks until they received 18 treatments.

The study will be starting its phase 3 of the trial in 2023, which will include patients with adjuvant melanoma to expand to additional tumor types. The companies completed its phase 3 study in December, finding it reduced the risk of recurrence or death by 44 percent among the participants. Phase 1 marked the first time that an mRNA vaccine created an immune response in a patient who was taking another drug.

I visited my sister yesterday and she's putting on a brave face after suffering for the last couple of years. She had breast cancer around 25 years ago and now she has it again. Worse she has colon cancer as well. She had bits and pieces removed last month and is waiting for results.

I didn't realise the UK has moved on to chemo at home now. Anyway, fingers crossed they've operated in time.

Pseudomyxoma peritonei.

Pseudomyxoma peritonei is a very rare type of cancer that usually begins in your appendix as a small growth, called a polyp. Treatment could include surgery combined with chemotherapy into the tummy (abdomen).

1. About pseudomyxoma peritonei.
Pseudomyxoma peritonei (PMP) is a very rare type of cancer. It usually begins in your appendix as a small growth, called a polyp. This is different to polyps that cause bowel cancer and is called a Low Grade Appendiceal Mucinous Neoplasm (LAMN).

Pseduomyxoma peritonei is pronounced SOO-doh-mix-OH-muh PAYR-ih-TOH-nee-EYE.

More rarely, it can start in:

other parts of the bowel
the ovaries
the bladder

This polyp eventually spreads through the wall of your appendix or wherever else it starts. It then spreads cancerous cells to the abdominal cavity lining (the peritoneum). These cancerous cells produce mucus. The mucus collects in the abdomen as a jelly like fluid called mucin. PMP is sometimes called ‘Jelly Belly’.

Doctors often call PMP a borderline malignant condition. Malignant means cancerous. Cancers usually spread to other parts of the body through the lymphatic and blood system. PMP doesn’t behave like this and it doesn’t spread to other parts of the body. But it does grow and spread inside the tummy (abdomen).


Your appendix is part of the digestive system. It’s on the right hand side of your abdomen and is attached to your colon (large bowel). The role of the appendix is unclear.



Diagram showing the position of the appendix.

The sheet of tissue covering the organs of your abdomen is called the peritoneum. The peritoneum has 2 layers:
1.the parietal layer lines the abdominal wall
2.the visceral layer covers the organs


Diagram showing fluid in the abdomen

The space between these layers is called the peritoneal space. The peritoneum also makes a lubricating fluid (peritoneal fluid). It helps the organs inside move smoothly against each other as you move around.

3. How does pseudomyxoma peritonei spread?
Pseudomyxoma peritonei doesn't act like most cancers. It rarely spreads through the bloodstream or the lymphatic system to any other part of the body.

Instead, it spreads inside the abdomen. The cancer cells generally spread by following the peritoneal fluid flow. They attach to the peritoneum at particular sites. Here they produce mucus which collects inside the abdomen and eventually causes symptoms. Without treatment, it will take over the peritoneal cavity. It can press on the bowel and other organs.

This condition develops very slowly. It might be years before you have any symptoms of this type of cancer. Because of this, it has usually spread beyond the appendix before diagnosis.

3. What causes pseudomyxoma peritonei?
We don't know what causes this type of cancer. Most cancers are caused by a number of different factors working together.


4. What are the symptoms of pseudomyxoma peritonei?
Some people won't have any symptoms of pseudomyxoma peritonei. So it can be difficult to diagnose.

In women, this type of cancer can sometimes be confused with ovarian cancer. Ovarian cancer may also cause a swollen abdomen. Some types of ovarian cancer cells also produce mucin.

Symptoms can include:

abdominal or pelvic pain
not being able to become pregnant
abdominal swelling and bloating
changes in bowel habits
hernia (a bulge in the tummy wall or groin)
loss of appetite
feeling of fullness
Often, pseudomyxoma peritonei is only properly diagnosed after an operation to look into the tummy (abdomen). This is also called a laparotomy.

5.Tests
It can be difficult to diagnose PMP. Doctors sometimes find it by accident during treatment for other conditions.

Before you have treatment, your doctors will arrange for you to have tests. The tests include:

ultrasound scan
CT scan
MRI scan

4. What is the treatment for pseudomyxoma peritonei?
The main treatments for pseudomyxoma peritonei (PMP) are surgery and chemotherapy.

Your treatment depends on the size of the cancer and your general health.

You might not start treatment straight away. Your doctor closely monitors your cancer in case you need treatment in the future. This is called watch and wait.

If you need treatment you might have:

1.surgery combined with chemotherapy into the tummy (abdomen)
2.surgery to remove as much cancer as possible (debulking surgery)
3.chemotherapy
4.Watch and wait

Your doctor might decide to closely monitor your cancer if it’s small and slow growing and you don’t currently need treatment. Your doctor will check up on you regularly. Watch and wait can also sometimes be called active surveillance. They do this with blood tests and scans.

You might find it hard to cope with this and struggle with feeling that no action is being taken.


Surgery combined with chemotherapy into the abdomen
Where possible, you’ll have surgery combined with chemotherapy. This is given directly into your tummy (abdomen). It's called cytoreductive surgery (CRS) with hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC)

You have to be well enough to have this intensive surgery. And the surgeon needs to be able to remove the disease without affecting your vital organs.

It involves:

the surgeon removing any tissue affected by PMP
having heated chemotherapy drugs put directly into your abdomen during the surgery (HIPEC)

Debulking surgery
Debulking surgery aims to remove as much of the cancer as possible. It does not remove the cancer completely.

Debulking surgery helps to make a diagnosis and get samples of the tumour. It can also remove mucin. It won’t cure PMP but might ease your symptoms. It could also mean that you can then have cytoreductive surgery with HIPEC.

Debulking surgery might mean removing part of your bowel. The surgeon might remove your womb and ovaries if you are a woman.

Unless the surgeon can remove the whole cancer, it's very likely to come back. Because of this, you might have debulking surgery more than once.

Chemotherapy
You might have chemotherapy if you can’t have surgery. You are more likely to have chemotherapy if:



Specialist centres for pseudomyxoma peritonei.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has produced guidance for PMP. The guidance is on cytoreductive surgery with intraperitoneal chemotherapy. They recommend that people with PMP have treatment in a specialist centre.

There are 2 designated UK specialist treatment centres. This is because pseudomyxoma peritonei is very rare. The centres are:

the Peritoneal Malignancy Institute at Basingstoke and North Hampshire NHS Foundation Trust
the Colorectal and Peritoneal Oncology Centre at The Christie NHS Foundation Trust in Manchester

Is that what you had, Tax.

You’ve done an awesome job of not dying, tax. Glad you survived the hellish ordeal.

You’ve done an awesome job of not dying, tax. Glad you survived the hellish ordeal.

thanks, normally i am very anxious when it comes to illness and hospitals, but i was not in the least bit worried about this, apart from the possibility of having a stoma bag.
i had over a year to worry before the operation, but the worries never materialised. the hospital put me in touch with other patients that had been through it and talking to them was certainly helpful. and now i talk to others who are waiting and help them overcome their fears.

£300,000 eh.

Scrounging [at][at][at][at].

Originally Posted by cyrille

£300,000 eh.

Scrounging.

how do you reach that conclusion?

JeeZUZ, Tax ! You weren't wrong about it being the MOAS.

This part made me cringe:

Originally Posted by taxexile

The ureter and gonads were then dropped back

Do they mean retracted ? Your gonads were hardly in the way !

A stoma and bag would be rather disappointing. Did you notice recently that Fondles had his arse temporarily disconnected ?

Congrats on your great recovery, mate

Do they mean retracted ? Your gonads were hardly in the way !

the tumours can migrate into all the nooks and crannies in the abdomen, and that includes the pelvis and the scrotal area, so i guess they had to poke around down there a bit and in doing so move things around.

I am in awe of the medical teams who can bring an operation like that to a successful conclusion, and congrats to you for coming through it.