'Magic mushrooms' may prevent nerve damage caused by chemotherapy, research on mice finds

Although the latest research on psilocybin was conducted in mice, clinical trials on humans are scheduled to begin this month.

That's a big deal — because the preliminary study found that the hallucinogenic compound known as "magic mushrooms' may prevent nerve damage caused by chemotherapy.

A story by Andrew Jacobs in yesterday's editions of The New York Times says "a study published…in the journal Science makes a compelling case that administering psilocybin shortly before cancer treatments might prevent chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy, a condition that affects about two-thirds of patients who receive chemo."

If the trials are successful, the story claims, "the treatment could revolutionize cancer therapy and improve the quality of life for millions."

Peripheral neuropathy, for which there are currently no effective treatments, "causes pain, tingling and numbness in the hands and feet, and can force patients to scale back or halt chemotherapy when the discomfort becomes too much to bear," he article explains.

For some patients, the pain and discomfort never goes away.

Patrick Dougherty

"The good news," the story quotes Patrick Dougherty a pain medicine researcher at Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and an author of the study, is that after getting chemo treatments "you're cured of your cancer. The bad news is your hands and feet are going to feel like they're burning the rest of your life. This is not what people want."

Psilocybin, which remains illegal at the federal level, has already shown increasing promise for treating depression, anxiety, end-of-life distress and other mental health challenges," the Times article proclaims.

More information on clinical trials can be found in Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer, aVitalityPress book that I, Woody Weingarten aimed at male caregivers. My other books are MysteryDates — How to keep the sizzle in your relationship; The Roving I, a compilation of 70 of my newspaper columns; and Grampy and His Fairyzona Playmates, a whimsical fantasy intended for 6- to 10-year-olds that I co-authored with my then 8-year-old granddaughter. Check out my website at https://woodyweingarten.com for details.

 

FDA okays pill that can help pancreatic cancer patients live twice as long as having chemo

The FDA yesterday approved Daraxonrasib, which in a clinical trail had shown that advanced pancreatic cancer patients could live twice as long as those who got chemotherapy.

The drug is poised to transform care for the disease, according to a story by Gina  Kolata, Rebecca Robbins, and Carolyn Y. Johnson in today's editions of The New York Times. Daraxonrasib, the article says, "is not a cure, but it is the first treatment to substantially extend the lives of patients with pancreatic cancer."

The breakthrough drug, which will be sold under the brand name Rasonque, was approved for patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer who already tried chemo.

Dr. Anna Berkenblit

"We've never seen a benefit like this," the story quotes Dr. Anna Berkenblit, chief scientific and medical officer at the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, an advocacy group for research and patients.

The costly drug, which is taken twice a day, will have "a sticker price of $39,800 a month, or about $478,000 when patients take it for a full year," the Times piece reports. The vast majority of the cost  is expected to be covered through insurance.

Pancreatic cancer kills more than 50,000 people in the United States annually.

The researcher who led the key study, Dr. Brian Wolpin of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, the article notes, "said in an interview that he was stunned by the trial results..."I have not seen anything like [them] before in trials we have run...I just kept repeating, 'Wow.'" 

But Daraxonrasib, the story continues, "often causes side effects like rash, diarrhea, fatigue, and nausea. Several patients who took the drug in clinical trials said the side effects could be harsh."

More information on clinical trials can be found in Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer, aVitalityPress book that I, Woody Weingarten aimed at male caregivers. My other books are MysteryDates — How to keep the sizzle in your relationship; The Roving I, a compilation of 70 of my newspaper columns; and Grampy and His Fairyzona Playmates, a whimsical fantasy intended for 6- to 10-year-olds that I co-authored with my then 8-year-old granddaughter. Check out my website at https://woodyweingarten.com for details.

Updated 'Rollercoaster,' a tribute to cancer patient Nancy Fox, slated for August publication

The second edition of Rollercoaster should be ready for a curious public next month. 

With its first major revision in 15 years, the book, which now carries the adjusted subtitle How a man can survive his partner’s breast cancer or any other lethal disease, is up-to-the-minute insofar as medicines, treatments, and where to find help are concerned.

 

The volume, first of four I, Woody Weingarten, wrote since becoming a “retired” elder, contains several totally new chapters. It also features massive rewrites in virtually every other segment. 

Nancy and Woody, circa 1997

Nancy Fox, my musical-genius wife and muse who successfully battled breast cancer for more than three decades, is the heroine of Rollercoaster, a real-life love story and memoir. 

In effect, it is a tribute to her courage and ability to laugh and to genuinely enjoy her life despite having to forever fight off dangerous cells.

Anyone who wants to find information about my other three books should check out my website, www.woodyweingarten.com. 

 

Highlighted there are MysteryDates: How to keep the sizzle in your relationship; The Roving I, which features 70 favorite newspaper columns I penned; and Grampy and His Fairyzona Playmates, a children’s fantasy aimed at 6- to 10-year-olds that was co-written by my then-8-year-old granddaughter, Hannah Schifrin.

Scientists identify proteins that can predict lung cancers more than five years before diagnosis

"Early research suggests a path to predict and prevent lung cancer."

That was the headline of a recent story by Nina Agrawal that appeared on the online site of The New York Times. 

The subhead? "Scientists have identified proteins that could signal increased lung cancer risk, as well as a drug that could reduce the odds of a tumor developing."

A team of more than 80 researchers "working across four continents have identified a set of proteins in the blood that accurately predict lung cancers more than five years before diagnosis," the story says.

It indicates, too, that the scientists "also found early evidence that an existing anti-inflammatory drug [canakinumab] could significantly reduce lung cancer risk in people with elevated concentrations of these proteins, which they linked to inflammation."

The findings were published in the journal Cell. Lung cancer, the Times story says, "kills more people worldwide than any other cancer." Fewer than one-third of people diagnosed survive past five years.

Dr. Charles Swanton

"Prevention is the solution in my mind," the article quotes Dr. Charles Swanton, oncologist and director of the Francis Crick Institute in the United Kingdom who was senior author of the  paper. 

Swanton, who recently joined the board of Novartis, the maker of canakinumab, also contends that the findings suggest "smoke causes mutations and inflammation, which together cause cancer."

The drug, according to the story, "nearly halved the risk of lung cancer among 2,300 patients in the trial who had higher-than-average expression of the 14 proteins."

Dr. Peter Mazzone, a pulmonologist at the Cleveland Clinic, on the other hand, offers a massive caveat. He's quoted as warning about canakinumab's potential side effects, including increased risk of infection and sepsis, and says that "even within a narrow population, it could still be too toxic for the benefit to outweigh the harms. It's possible that a different medicine that targets the same pathway could work and would be safer." 

More information on new research can be found in Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer, aVitalityPress book that I, Woody Weingarten aimed at male caregivers. My other books are MysteryDates — How to keep the sizzle in your relationship; The Roving I, a compilation of 70 of my newspaper columns; and Grampy and His Fairyzona Playmates, a whimsical fantasy intended for 6- to 10-year-olds that I co-authored with my then 8-year-old granddaughter. Check out my website at https://woodyweingarten.com for details.

Half of the patients with advanced lung cancer, America's deadliest, reject treatment, study says

Fifty-two percent of metastatic lung cancer patients fail to get life-extending treatments, a new study finds.

According to a recent story by Simar Bajaj in The New York Times, the reason they skip such treatments as chemotherapy, immunotherapy. and targeted therapy is, experts suggest, because of "access issues, fatalism, and shame."

The Times article reports that the study, published in JAMA Oncology, "analyzed more than 250,000 people on Medicare between 2006 and 2021, with an average age of 73, and found that the proportion of patients who received these treatments increased only slightly over time, to 48 percent from 45 percent."

More than 110,000 Americans are annually diagnosed with metastatic lung cancer, the deadliest cancer in the United States.

Dr. Carolyn J. Presley

But over the past 15 years, Dr. Carolyn J. Presley, chief of thoracic medical oncology at Ohio State University (who wasn't involved in the study ), is quoted, dozens of promising new drugs have come to market. For some patients, a pill can hold the disease in check for years, "so the fact that so many older adults are not getting treatment is really, really sobering."

Some patients who smoked "might feel like they brought this disease upon themselves," Bajaj's story says,  and — according to Dr. Adam Fox, pulmonologist at the Medical University of South Carolina, who led the study — the stigma not only contributes to diagnostic delays but also to patients feeling unworthy of care.

Fatalism, the lingering belief that metastatic lung cancer is hopeless and treatment is unlikely to help, might be adopted by some primary care and emergency medicine doctors, the article suggests.

As for access issues, "one of the biggest barriers to treatment is not being diagnosed in time. Screening can catch tumors early, but it remains widely underutilized, largely because most people don't know it's available and complicated eligibility criteria make it difficult for docs to figure out who qualifies," Bajaj's piece notes.

More information on Stage 4, metastasized disease can be found in Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer, aVitalityPress book that I, Woody Weingarten aimed at male caregivers. My other books are MysteryDates — How to keep the sizzle in your relationship; The Roving I, a compilation of 70 of my newspaper columns; and Grampy and His Fairyzona Playmates, a whimsical fantasy intended for 6- to 10-year-olds that I co-authored with my then 8-year-old granddaughter. Check out my other website at https://woodyweingarten.com for details.

Supreme Court blocks thousands of suits that claim Roundup weed-killer causes cancer

A new Supreme Court ruling will restrict "one the largest waves of product liability lawsuits in the history of the nation."

According to a dispatch by Justin Jouvenal in today's editions of The Washington Post, the court specifically blocked "thousands of suits claiming Roundup causes cancer."

The court, in a 7-2 decision (liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson and conservative Justice Neil M. Gorsuch voted against), ruled that "Monsanto was not required to offer a warning because the Environmental Protection Agency holds that Roundup's active ingredient, glyphosate, is not a cancer risk," the story says.

The EPA finding, however, contrasts with another by the World Health Organization (WHO), which, Jouvenal's piece says, "found glyphosate was 'probably carcinogenic to humans' after reviewing available research on the chemical. In particular, the agency found a likely link between non-Hodgkin lymphoma and  glyphosate."

In  light of that report, some countries have banned the weed-killer.

Paul D. Clement

Paul D. Clement, attorney for Monsanto, now owned by Bayer, had argued before the Supreme Court that the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), which regulates the sale and marketing of pesticides and herbicides, "preempts state-court claims" that the company had to warn cancer victims of alleged dangers posed by Roundup because the EPA ruled it was safe.

According to the Post story, the court decision "turned on a technical legal question, but one with enormous stakes. On the line are billions of dollars, the fate of tens of thousands  of lawsuits filed by cancer victims, and the future of an herbicide farmers say is crucial to the nation's food supply but health groups warn is a danger."

Litigation, the article notes, had "prompted Monsanto to remove glyphosate-based Roundup from the consumer market, but it is still available to farmers and commercial users."

More information on lawsuits and disease can be found in Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer, aVitalityPress book that I, Woody Weingarten aimed at male caregivers. My other books are MysteryDates — How to keep the sizzle in your relationship; The Roving I, a compilation of 70 of my newspaper columns; and Grampy and His Fairyzona Playmates, a whimsical fantasy intended for 6- to 10-year-olds that I co-authored with my then 8-year-old granddaughter. Check out my website at https://woodyweingarten.com for details.

Cover design is final obstacle to publication of 2nd edition of Woody Weingarten's 'Rollercoaster'

A single design element yet to be decided for its cover is the final barrier to publication of the second edition of Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer or any other lethal disease.

Believe it or not, I, Woody Weingarten, its author, am still struggling to find the best way to disclose on the cover — without screening screwing up the initial design — that it's a completely updated edition. 

It should, however, be only a few weeks, and the addition of a few minute details on the copyright page, before the book will be made available to the public through vendors like Barnes & Noble and Amazon. Keep an eye on my https://woodyweingarten.com/ website to see when the book is launched.

Nancy Fox

The new volume includes up-to-date information on meds and treatments and where to get help, as well as two fresh chapters about the development of my wife's breast cancer, which returned after almost 30 years. 

Overall, it's even more of a tribute to Nancy Fox's bravery. flexibility, and humanness than was the first edition.

Several chapters have been switched around, for clarity, and new transition chapters have been inserted.

I spent an entire year reworking the book so it is current, easy-to-read (sans medical jargon), and useful as a guide to the emotional rollercoaster breast cancer or any other life-threatening disease might kidnap a patient or partner.

I, a longtime voting member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theater Critics Circle, can be contacted by email at voodee@sbcglobal.net or on both of my websites, https://woodyweingarten.comand https://vitalitypress.com. My books include Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner’s breast cancer, aimed at male caregivers; MysteryDates — How to keep the sizzle in your relationship; The Roving I, a compilation of 70 of my newspaper columns; and Grampy and His Fairyzona Playmates, a whimsical fantasy intended for 6- to 10-year-olds that I co-authored with my then 8-year-old granddaughter.

 

Promising pancreatic cancer pill can be taken while it's under regulatory review, FDA says

The Federal Drug Administration (FDA) has expanded access to a promising new drug for pancreatic cancer.

According to a recent story in The Washington Post by Christopher Rowland, "more patients will be able to take the pill while it is under regulatory review. The agency said it recognizes the dire need for a drug to fight one of the most lethal cancers."

The experimental drug was approved two days after the FDA received an access application from the drug's manufacturer, Revolution Medicines.

Dr. Marty Makary

The ultra-quick approval of daraxonrasib "reflects the FDA's strong commitment to facilitate early access to therapies for serious and life-threatening conditions, including pancreatic cancer," the story quotes former FDA Commissioner Marty Makary as saying. 

In trials, the drug "has doubled average survival time for pancreatic cancer patients who have already received conventional treatment," the article continues. "The expanded access program, also known as 'compassionate use,' will be limited to that set of patients as well."

Makary's piece also indicates that the "company said it will provide the drug at no cost to patients in the program. Insurance typically does not cover expanded access drugs before they have been approved."

In one clinical trial, "patients had a median survival of 13.2 months compared with 6.7 months for those people receiving chemotherapy," the story adds.

More information on clinical trials can be found in Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer, aVitalityPress book that I, Woody Weingarten aimed at male caregivers. My other books are MysteryDates — How to keep the sizzle in your relationship; The Roving I, a compilation of 70 of my newspaper columns; and Grampy and His Fairyzona Playmates, a whimsical fantasy intended for 6- to 10-year-olds that I co-authored with my then 8-year-old granddaughter. Check out my website at https://woodyweingarten.com for details.