Colon Cancer

LOS ANGELES - Millions of people have endured a colonoscopy, believing the dreaded exam may help keep them from dying of colon cancer. For the first time, a major study offers clear evidence that it does. Removing precancerous growths spotted during the test can cut the risk of dying from colon cancer in half, the study suggests. Doctors have long assumed a benefit, but research hasn't shown before that removing polyps would improve survival - the key measure of any cancer screening's worth.

Less than four months ago, a group of Baltimore researchers announced a genetic mutation had been found that increased the risk of colon cancer for some Jewish people. The finding sent people seeking genetic testing. But now findings by researchers at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia suggest that the mutated gene by itself does not increase colon-cancer risk. The researchers conclude in today's issue of Cancer Research that widespread screening for the gene "is likely to be excessive.

In the wake of the mixed results from the most ambitious, definitive study of postmenopausal women's health ever conducted, what's a woman to do? That's the question now that the federally funded Women's Health Initiative has wrapped up. It took 15 years, $725 million, 40 medical centers, and the steadfast participation of 161,000 American women ages 50 to 79. The WHI set out to test strategies touted as ways women could ward off cancer, heart disease, osteoporosis and Alzheimer's disease - "the major causes of death, disability and frailty in older women of all races.

AS A PHYSICIAN who specializes in digestive health, I'm concerned that too few people are getting screened for colon cancer. Screening rates remain low, even though Medicare, Medicaid and many private plans pay for tests. Colon cancer is the No. 2 cancer killer in the U.S. It's estimated that over 8,000 new cases were diagnosed in Pennsylvania in 2007, with over 2,700 deaths. Despite these numbers, this is one of the most preventable cancers, curable if detected early. Early detection and intervention can reduce deaths by up to 90 percent.

More than 3,000 lives could be saved each year if a new form of chemotherapy for colon cancer patients is used, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and the National Cancer Institute said yesterday. In two studies involving 1,704 cancer patients, including about 100 from the Philadelphia area, researchers found that death rates could be reduced 10 percent to 15 percent if two drugs were given after surgery. The National Cancer Institute sent out a special announcement to 36,000 physicians and cancer researchers urging them to adopt the new treatment, if possible.

Tammy Faye Messner has colon cancer that required emergency surgery this week. A lawyer for her husband, Roe Messner - sentenced Wednesday to 27 months in jail for bankruptcy fraud - said: ". . . They hoped it had not spread. I think they found that it has. And she will be undergoing very aggressive chemotherapy and radiation therapy over the next six to eight weeks. " The development accounts for the absence of Messner, former wife of televangelist Jim Bakker, at the Wednesday sentencing.

Scientists announced a major advance yesterday in the race to find the cause of the most common form of inherited colon cancer, a disease that threatens one out of every 200 Americans. Two international teams of researchers reported finding a second gene associated with the disease, less than four months after the same teams discovered the first such gene. Probably within a year, they said, the findings should lead to a diagnostic test that can tell people whether they are at risk for the disease.

The Holy Grail of colorectal cancer prevention - a reliable screening test that users don't dread and avoid - appears to be getting close. A novel test that detects telltale DNA markers in stool samples correctly identified 85 percent of colon cancers, 64 percent of significant precancerous polyps, and 90 percent of healthy samples, researchers announced Thursday in Philadelphia at a conference held by the American Association for Cancer Research....

In what researchers say is a major advance in cancer treatment, a new drug regimen has been found to cut the death rate of a common form of colon cancer by one-third, scientists at 10 medical centers will report today. The findings mean that 8,000 to 10,000 lives could be saved each year if patients take a combination of the two drugs after surgery, said John S. Macdonald, director of Temple University's Cancer Center and one of 12 authors of the study published in today's issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.

The Today show will take celebrity health-care advocacy to a new arena tomorrow when its popular host, Katie Couric, invites viewers to share her colonoscopy, a screening test for cancer. It's a procedure few people want to talk about, much less undergo - and that, said Jeff Zucker, executive producer of the NBC morning show, is precisely the point. "We're showing it to demonstrate that there's no reason people should be scared," Zucker said. "We try to do it with tremendous sensitivity.

NICOLA TASOFF and Jamie Adams-Ford are teachers and friends. Despite their hectic schedules, they find time to run. On Sunday, the South Jersey residents will take in the morning sights in the 33rd annual Blue Cross Broad Street Run. Tasoff is the "veteran" Broad Streeter: This will be her second 10-mile jaunt down Broad Street. Adams-Ford is making her Broad Street debut. Tasoff's advice for her friend is "just enjoy it and take it easy. It's a little breathtaking at first to be surrounded by so many people.

Barbara Erie Deiter Drill, 59, formerly of Richboro, Bucks County, died Thursday, April 19, at Baptist Medical Center/South in Jacksonville, Fla., of colon cancer. A graduate of Abington High School, Mrs. Drill was licensed as a certified public accountant in Florida and Pennsylvania after graduating with a master's degree in business management from Central Michigan University. At the time of her death, she was director of finance for ElderSource and had more than 20 years of experience preparing financial statements and tax returns for clients.

NEWARK, N.J. - Rep. Donald Payne was a modest man who favored quiet persuasion over bombast, qualities that did not detract from his effectiveness as an advocate for the most vulnerable in the United States and abroad, friends and colleagues recalled at his funeral Wednesday. Former President Bill Clinton called Payne, who died last week of colon cancer at age 77, "a dear friend" who "made me a better president" for his humanitarian efforts in Africa and elsewhere. A who's who of current and former politicians attended Payne's funeral at Metropolitan Baptist Church, a place the 12-term congressman returned to often during his years in office.

TRENTON - U.S. Rep. Donald Payne, 77, a Democrat known for his work on human rights and on behalf of the poor and the first black congressional member from New Jersey, died Tuesday at St. Barnabas Hospital in Livingston, said his brother, William. The 12-term member of the House had announced in February that he was undergoing treatment for colon cancer and would continue to represent his district. He was flown back home to New Jersey on Friday from Georgetown University Hospital as his health took a turn for the worse.

SGT. STEVE Little Jr.'s voice was filled with the kind of pride befitting a United States Marine. But then, the 24-year-old son of the late former WBA super middleweight champion always sounds that way when speaking about his father, who was only 34 when he died of colon cancer on Jan. 30, 2000, leaving behind a grieving wife and six children. "Obviously, I wasn't around, or was very young, when he was boxing," Steve Jr. said of his dad, whose professional career spanned from 1983 to '98. "But from what I've heard from people who knew him then, and seen for myself on DVDs of his fights I was able to obtain, he was a real technician in the ring.

LOS ANGELES - Millions of people have endured a colonoscopy, believing the dreaded exam may help keep them from dying of colon cancer. For the first time, a major study offers clear evidence that it does. Removing precancerous growths spotted during the test can halve the risk of dying from colon cancer in half, the study suggests. Doctors have long assumed a benefit, but research hadn't shown before that removing polyps would improve survival - the key measure of any cancer screening's worth.

ST. LOUIS - For a lot of people, weathering the winter is no fun. Cold temperatures. Shorter days. More colds and flu. Weathering it all with cancer is worse. Before Jerry Miller was diagnosed with Stage 3B colon cancer last summer, he walked pretty much everywhere, year-round. And he loved it. "My car was stolen 12 years ago, and I never bothered to replace it," said Miller, 44, of St. Louis. Not anymore. In addition to fatigue and weakness, chemotherapy has wreaked havoc on his immune system and caused extreme cold sensitivity in his hands, feet and other parts of his body.

UCLA junior outside hitter Rachael Kidder had 15 kills as the Bruins swept four-time and defending national champion Penn State in the NCAA regional semifinals Friday in Lexington, Ky., to end the Nittany Lions' record 26-game postseason winning streak. Aiyana Whitney had 12 kills for the eighth-seeded Nittany Lions in the 25-20, 25-22, 25-21 loss. Kelly Reeves had 11 kills, while senior sweeper Lainey Gera led the ninth-seeded Bruins (27-6) with 15 digs.

MADISON, WIS. - Soviet dictator Josef Stalin's daughter, whose 1967 defection to the West during the Cold War embarrassed the ruling communists and made her a best-selling author, has died. She was 85. Lana Peters - who was known internationally by her previous name, Svetlana Alliluyeva - died of colon cancer Nov. 22 in Wisconsin, where she lived off and on' the Richland County Coroner said. The defection came at a high personal cost. She left two children behind in Russia and she was never close to either again.