New treatment choices provide added hope for gastric cancer patients, Mayo Clinic doc says

An increase in recent treatment options has given new hope for patients of stomach cancer, aka gastric cancer.

A recent article by Jason Howland of the Mayo Clinic News Network quotes Dr. Mohamad Sonbol, an oncologist at the clinic as saying that "I tell patients who have recently been diagnosed with gastric cancer that there is definitely a hope because we've gotten significantly better in the last decade, and more specifically, really, in the last year or two."

Dr. Mohamad Sonbol

Options depend on the cancer's location in the stomach, its size and stage, Howland's story indicates, "but can include surgery, chemotherapy, radiation and immunotherapy."

If you're a man, the piece also says, you're at higher risk for stomach cancer than if you're a woman. 

Other risk factors include obesity, smoking, and drinking alcohol.

Still other risk factors, says Sonbol, "are some hereditary syndromes or things that we inherit from our parents."

Early signs of stomach cancer vary, the story notes, "and can include abdominal pain, blood in the stool or just feeling tired."

Stomach cancer, the piece maintains, is relative rare in the United States, so it's frequently diagnosed at later stage of the disease "when symptoms like nausea, heartburn and feeling bloated are more pronounced."

More information about disease risks can be found in Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer, a VitalityPress book that I, Woody Weingarten, aimed at male caregivers.

Certain foods really can reduce your risk of cancer, American Cancer Society indicates

Many cancers potentially can be prevented by changing your diet, according to the American Cancer Society. 

A story by Nikki Campo in editions of The New York Times early this week indicates that "scientists have a good idea of what foods you should avoid to reduce your risk of cancer, such as red and processed meats, 'fast' or processed foods, alcohol, and sugary drinks."

Johanna Lampe

However, the piece says, "knowing what to at isn't always straightforward," according to Johanna Lampe, a cancer prevention researcher at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle.

One problem, Lampe says, is that many nutrition studies rely on people to accurately remember what they consumed up to a year ago. Another is that it's tricky to understand how single foods may influence your health when they're part of a larger diet.

The Times story also quotes Nigel Brockton, vice president of research at the American Institute for Cancer Research in Washington, D.C., as saying that although no single food can prevent cancer on its own, following a healthy diet does seem to reduce the risk.

Campo's article lists foods "that experts say are worth adding to your plate." They include broccoli "and its cruciferous cousins" — such as brussels spouts, cauliflower, and cabbage; tomatoes and tomato-based products; black and kidney beans as well as other types of legumes such as chickpeas, dry peas, and lentils; nuts, especially walnuts; strawberries, blueberries, cranberries, pomegranates, and black raspberries; and garlic.

More information on disease prevention ideas can be found in Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer, a VitalityPress book that I, Woody Weingarten, aimed at male caregivers.

Columnist suggests three strategies that could possibly reduce your risk of contracting cancer

By employing three strategies, you may reduce your cancer risk. 

That, at least, is the opinion of Dr. Jerry Saliman, whose Senior Life column in an earlier-this-month edition of j. the Jewish News of Northern California, focused on those strategies — being on the lookout, catching symptoms early, and paying attention to risky behavioral factors.

Dr. Jerry Saliman

Regarding the first strategy, Saliman writes that unfortunately only four types of cancer screening have received a high-level record recommendation from a U.S. task force: colon, lung, breast, and cervix.

As to the second line of reasoning, the columnist, a Bay Area physician who retired from Kaiser South San Francisco after a 30-year career and now is a volunteer internist at Samaritan House Medical Clinic in San Mateo, suggests that "by catching cancer early, the survival rates may be four times higher compared with later-stage detection."

Saliman adds, about the last strategy, that the American Cancer Society's prevention studies have been crucial in detailing risk factors — including, in the 1950s, being the first to identify smoking as a major reason for cancer. The ACS has since, via its ongoing research, "found that older age and smoking have the highest relative risk for developing any cancer for both men and women."

Additional risks for men, his column says, "are family history of cancer, red meat consumption, alcohol intake, and physical inactivity."

More information on risks can be found in Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer, a VitalityPress book that I, Woody Weingarten, aimed at male caregivers.

University of California San Francisco study examines trans prostate cancer risk for first time

A first-of-its-kind study by UCSF researchers finds that transgender women face an increased risk of prostate cancer.

According to a story by Erin Allday in the San Francisco Chronicle a while back, the peril is "small but meaningful."

The article also cautions that "traditional screening tools may not work well for them, especially if they're taking estrogen for gender-affirming care."

The study, published in the journal JAMA last Saturday, is the first in the United States to look at prostate cancer in transgender women., who were born with male sex organs. The Chronicle story indicates that transgender people are "underrepresented in medical research and…experience worse outcomes than cisgender parents for all kinds of health issues."

Stephen Freedland

Allday's piece quotes Dr. Stephen Freedland, an author of the paper and a urologist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, to the effect that "there's a misperception, both by patients and clinicians, the because these are women — they identify as women, they look like women — you don't necessarily think you should check for prostate cancer."

The story also quotes Dr. Farnoosh Nik-Ahd, a University of California San Francisco urologist and the lead author of the paper, as saying, "We're still very much at the beginning of how best to care for this population — and it's a population nation that will probably increase, in terms of the number of people owning identifying as transgender."

Allday's article notes that transgenders "remain a highly vulnerable population, a situation potentially made worse with anti-trans legislation being pushed across the United States that could further limit health care access."

Transgender people, who "are thought to make up less than 1% of the [general] population," the story continues, "have been mostly left out of large studies of all kinds of health issues."

More information about prostate research can be found in Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer, a VitalityPress book that I, Woody Weingarten, aimed at male caregivers.

Younger women are now getting lung cancer at higher rates than men, new study ascertains

According to a story by Dani Blum in editions of The New York Times a few days ago, younger women are now getting lung cancer at higher rates than men — despite an overall drop in the rates of new cases over the last several decades.

The Times piece cites a new study by the American Cancer Society noting that "lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer death in the United States" and that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention "estimates that, nationwide, around 197,000 are diagnosed with the disease each year."

Ahmedin Jemal

Blum's story quotes Ahmedin Jemal, an author on the study and senior vice president of surveillance and health equity science at the ACS, as indicating that cigarette smoking "remains the leading cause of lung cancer, and while there have been widespread efforts to reduce smoking, women have generally been slower to successfully quit."

Regardless, "about 15 to 20 percent of lung cancer cases in women are among those who have never smoked," Jamal reportedly added.

He suggested that those women may have been exposed to second-hand smoke.

Dr. Jyoti Patel, medical director of thoracic oncology of the Lurie Cancer Center at Northwestern Medicine, also believes that, according to the story, "women might metabolize carcinogens differently from the way men do."

Furthermore, Blum's piece says, Dr. Patrick Forde, an associate profession of oncology at Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, thinks that "air pollution has been linked to lung cancer and it's possible that women could be particularly susceptible to it, for reasons researchers are still working to understand."

The story also contends that ultimately there is no clear-cut explanations for the disparities. "The differences are really not obvious," Dr. Humberto Chi, a pulmonary median doctor at the Cleveland Clinic is quoted. "This is definitely an area for future studies."

Additional information regarding a multiplicity of cancers can be found in Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer, a VitalityPress book that I, Woody Weingarten, aimed at male caregivers. 

Saving sperm can overcome infertility in men who get testicular cancer, Mayo Clinic doc says

Should men diagnosed with testicular cancer worry about having children in the future? Yes, says a doctor at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

Dr. Bradley C. Leibovich

Bradley C. Leibovich, MD, a urologic oncologist there and the medical director of the Center for Digital Health, notes that "the first thing we do with men that are interested in preserving fertility is talk about sperm banking."

One side effect of chemotherapy, radiation and other cancer treatments can definitely be infertility, Leibovich told Jason Howland of the Mayo Clinic News Network online a while back, so saving the sperm should be a priority before starting treatment.

Another concern is "lower levels of testosterone, a hormone produced primarily in the testicles," the News Network story says.

The article also quotes Leibovich as saying, "Most men have normal testosterone levels with just one testicle. For men that do wind up with a lower level of testosterone, it's really easy to replace." 

The piece then says that under the "guidance of a healthcare professional, testosterone replacement therapy, in the form of injections, pills, patches or gels, can restore normal testosterone levels in men."

In an earlier story in the News Network also written by Howland, it's noted that "the disease is not common. Just 1 in 250 men will develop testicular cancer at some point in their lifetime, according to the American Caner Society. Most of those cases are in young and middle-aged men."

Leibovich explains that "we like men to do monthly testicular self-examinations. Because if you find that testicular cancer early, the amount of treatment people need to get that cure is significantly less." 

More information about dealing with side effects of treatments can be found in Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer, a VitalityPress book that I, Woody Weingarten, aimed at male caregivers.

Actively monitoring prostate cancer can be safe alternative to surgery or radiation, study says

Good news has been released for men seeking to avoid prostate cancer treatment-related sexual and incontinence problems.

According to an Associated Press story by Carla K. Johnson a while back, it appears that most men can hold off on treatments because actively monitoring the disease is a safe alternative to surgery or radiation.

Dr. Stacy Loeb

Long-term evidence supporting that conclusion was confirmed, the piece notes, by Dr. Stacy Loeb, prostate cancer specialist at NYU Langone Health who was not involved in the research. 

It has long been known that most prostate cancer grows very slowly.

The story quotes Loeb as saying that a recent study's findings indicate that "there was no difference in prostate mortality at 15 years" between those who had surgery to remove tumors, those who had radiation treatment, and those who monitored.

The survival rate for all three groups was 97% — "also very good news," Loeb says.

Results of the study, funded by Britain's National Institute for Health and Care Research, were published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The lead author of the study, Dr. Freddie Hamdy of the University of Oxford, was quoted to the effect that men diagnosed with localized prostate cancer should "consider carefully the possible benefits and harms caused by the treatment options" — and not rush their decisions or panic, despite the fact that a small number of men with high-risk or more advanced disease do need urgent treatments.

Dr. Freddie Hamdy

Researchers, Johnson's story says, "followed more than 1,600 U.K. men who agreed to be randomly assigned to get surgery, radiation, or active monitoring."

The study began on 1999, a time when monitoring practices were not as good as now (when MRI imaging and gene tests can be employed before informed decisions are made). 

"We have more ways now to help catch that the disease is progressing before it spreads," the AP story quoted Loeb as saying.

More information about the multiple facets of research can be found in Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer, a VitalityPress book that I, Woody Weingarten, aimed at male caregivers.

Hereditary cancers are problem for males as well as for females, says head of genetic risk program

Breast cancer is not just a female problem. It strikes 2,500 men in the United States every year and kills about 500 of them.

Dr. Robert Sidlow

Those statistics come from Dr. Robert Sidlow, director of the Male BRCA Genetic Risk Program at New York's Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, in a recent Jewish Telegraphic Agency story by Larry Luxner.

Ashkenazi Jews, those of Eastern European descent, are particularly susceptible to the perils caused by a BRCA mutation that elevates the risk to men "not only of breast cancer, but also of melanoma and prostate, ovarian and pancreatic cancer," the article says.

Hundreds "of other mutations in the BRCA gene are just as dangerous, but they're not specific to Ashkenazim," Sidlow is quoted as saying.

The story notes that about "1 in 40 Ashkenazi Jews… carries the harmful mutation, compared to about 1 in 400 in the general population."

Roughly 1-2% of men "with the BRCA1 mutation and 6-7% of men with the BRCA2 mutation will develop cancer by age 80," Sidlow contends.

Luxner's piece also quotes Elana Silver, CEO of Sharsheret (Hebrew for "chain"), to the effect that "it's crucial that men with a family history of cancer undergo genetic counseling screening — via a standard blood or saliva sample — for BRCA and other hereditary cancer mutations."

Adds Silver, "This is not only a women's issue. Family history is so important. When a man shares his family history with his doctor, he may not realize that he should mention that his mother had breast cancer or his sister had ovarian cancer, as these are not general 'men's diseases.' They are not aware that these cancers could mean that they themselves are at increased risk for cancer and that they can pass on these mutations to the next generation."

Sidlow notes that "most men are pretty happy to enroll income kind of surveillance program once they get over the initial shock" of being a mutation carrier.

Luxner's story indicates that there are various precautions they can take for themselves and their children where the BRCA gene is concerned — as well as such mutations as ATM, TP53, CHEK2, and PALB2. They can "monitor their own health more closely, they can encourage their children to test to see if they are carriers and, for any future children, to take steps to prevent the mutated genes from being passed down. For example, couples can conceive via in vitro fertilization, or IVF, and then test the embryo before implantation to ensure that only those unaffected by the genetic mutation are implanted."

Much more information on BRCA1 an BRCA2 can be found in Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer, a VitalityPress book that I, Woody Weingarten, its author, aimed at male caregivers.