ShAARP Session: Observations from AARP

Results tagged “cancer” from ShAARP Session

Oct '09 24

ShaarpWriter | 7:22 PM | 0 Comments

From Jodi Lipson

AARP members planning to celebrate their last night in Las Vegas at one of the city's 5-star steakhouses were urged to reconsider in a session entitled "Forget What You Hear in the News: Learn the Latest Scientific Findings on Diet and Cancer."


Dr. Arthur Schatzkin of the National Cancer Institute at the National Institute for Health presneted results from a study co-sponsored by AARP and the NIH -- the largest study ever of the impact of diet on the health of people 50 and older.


The size of the research--AARP had to rent a warehouse to store the half a million questionnaires--is allowing the researchers tease out, say, whether obesity might impact esophageal cancer (yes) and brain cancer (more so if you're obese when you were 18 and under). And the results leave no doubt: consumption of red meat increases all sorts of cancer.


On the good news side: the study confirms that 5 hours of vigorous exercise a week will extend your life-- with whole grain foods, fruits, vegetables, and the Mediterranean diet reducing the risk of cancer.

Jun '09 17

David Goldstein | 10:24 AM | 0 Comments

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LiveSTRONG just announced a new campaign which aims to reach out to Spanish-Speaking Hispanic cancer survivors, along with their families and caregivers. Their updated Spanish website has a ton of information and tools which can be valuable to Spanish-Speaking Latinos who are struggling with cancer. If you or someone you love has been touched by cancer, make sure to check out the site!

Jun '09 1

David Goldstein | 11:34 AM | 0 Comments

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While it's far too early to say for sure, the latest studies seem to indicate that the efforts to treat cancer through vaccination have taken a big leap forward over the weekend. New studies show that researchers may have found the key to creating a vaccine that would enable the body's own immune system to attack and slow the growth of some cancers. Such a vaccine could reduce some of the powerful side-effects patients suffer from with current treatment methods such a chemo and radiation. Patients diagnosed with several types of cancer reported extended times between relapse when using the vaccine as compared to patients who didn't use it.

This news does not mean that any sort of cure has been created, however it does show a big first step in an area where scientists have struggled to make progress for years.

Nov '08 21

Alejandra Owens | 3:09 PM | 1 Comments

This is crazy. New findings on brain cancer has been a huge deal for leading researchers in the field over the last couple of years, and AARP and Dr. Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa give us a peek into why exactly this is so important.

Dr. Quiñones heads the Brain Tumor Center at the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center in Baltimore, where he works on research behind the theory that stem cells adult stem cells act as triggers for brain cancer, yet also act have an "uncanny ability to repair damage to their DNA and are therefore able to withstand standard radiation and chemotherapy treatments." This, in turn, allows the treatment to do its work. Quiñones says:

"We were once taught that brain cells die and can't be replaced . . . We now know that the mammalian brain has the ability to regenerate through adult neural stem cells. What we are exploring--and this is the great leap--is whether normal neural stem cells can lose their ability to self-regulate and become dangerous stem cells that create tumors. We are just beginning to understand this link between stem cells and cancer . . . We have to prove that brain cancer stem cells exist. But I think the potential here is real."

But stem cells might not only cause cancer in the brain; new studies are finding that breast, prostate, colon, pancreas, lung and other types of cancer may grow from adult stem cells. Check out the whole article here.

Oct '08 27

Alejandra Owens | 10:24 AM | 1 Comments

This isn't good. According to a new study in North Carolina, only about half of older Medicaid recipients are receiving screening tests for colorectal, breast and cervical cancer. Being the largest provider of health insurance for minority populations, all older recipients should be getting the recommended screenings for folks their age.

C. Annette DuBard, M.D., M.P.H., of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, Raleigh, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research, led the study. Because Medicaid recipients are covered for cancer screenings under Medicaid, she found that this is the primary reason why the screenings weren't actually happening:

"Lack of a screening recommendation by the physician, rather than patient refusal of recommended tests, accounted for most instances of screening delinquency . . . Efforts to increase cancer screening rates among Medicaid recipients must address patient, physician and organizational barriers to the routine identification and delivery of preventive services."

While this research was only done in North Carolina, can we predict that the same is happening for the rest of the Medicaid recipients in the country?