Health Info about Cancer

[Doz]

Thank you Rory

I have told my Wife and she says Thank you my Angel

[RMRanger]

You're so very welcome. :)

[Doz]

Rory thank you for all the info you send me.

I hope and pray we hear your Clean on Jan 31, 2011

[RMRanger]

It's been my pleasure buddy. :)

[Doz]

Thank you Rory for the info

When you see the love of your life hurting from having skin and muscle removed. You understand real fast what life is about.

Source Link:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38854884/ns/health-cancer/


New treatment for advanced melanoma shrinks tumors
Drug reduced tumors in 80 percent of patients, study says, but effect may be fleeting


BOSTON — An experimental targeted cancer drug shrank advanced melanoma tumors in 81 percent of patients with the deadly and hard-to-treat cancer, doctors said Wednesday.

The findings were part of an early phase study used to determine the best dose of the experimental drug PLX4032, now in late-stage clinical trials. It is designed to target tumor cells with a mutation in a gene called BRAF. The drug is made by Roche and privately held Plexxikon.

In two patients, tumors went away completely. In 24 others, the tumors shrank by more than 30 percent, the team reported in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The team said 81 percent of 32 patients with a BRAF mutation showed complete or partial shrinkage of their tumors.

"We can see the improvement in patients and it's happening quite rapidly, within a week or two of starting treatment," Dr. Keith Flaherty of the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston said in a telephone interview.

"For patients without symptoms, the hope is that it delays the time it takes for them to develop symptoms, and we have some belief that that is happening as we speak," said Flaherty, who worked on the study.

But the effect appears to be fleeting.


In all but two cases, where the cancer has stayed away for at least a year, the benefits have been temporary, typically lasting about six months, Flaherty said.

The hope is that the drug can be combined with other treatments to produce a long-lasting effect, comparable to the AIDS cocktail that maintains the health of many people with HIV, he said.

Preliminary findings with the new drug were reported in September 2009, but the data from more patients have been added, boosting confidence in its prospects.Tumors shrank at all sites where the tumor had spread, including the bone, liver and small bowel.

Cancer-causing mutations in the BRAF gene occur in 50 percent to 60 percent of melanoma patients.

Second drug
Researchers are eager to test the drug with Bristol-Myers Squibb's experimental drug ipilimumab, the first treatment shown to extend lives of patients with advanced melanoma.

In June, researchers reported that more than 20 percent of patients with advanced melanoma were alive two years after treatment with ipilimumab — compared with a usual nine months.

Ipilimumab or "ipi" is a monoclonal antibody, an engineered version of a human protein that targets CTLA-4, a molecule that acts like a brake on the immune system.

"The data provided by Flaherty and colleagues represent a major advance in the treatment of metastatic melanoma," Keiran Smalley and Dr. Vernon Sondak of Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute in Tampa, Florida, said in a commentary in the same journal.

Side effects included rash, fatigue, joint pain and a high risk of a different type of skin cancer known as cutaneous squamous-cell carcinoma. Of 87 patients enrolled in both stages, 18 developed such tumors, which are easier to treat.

The BRAF mutation is also found in about 8 percent of solid tumors, suggesting the drug might be effective in other forms of cancer.

Melanoma is the most aggressive form of skin cancer, affecting 160,000 people worldwide each year. When melanoma has spread, conventional chemotherapy is typically effective only in 10 percent to 20 percent of the cases.

[Doz]

More info on drugs for Melanoma

Source link:

http://www.webmd.com/melanoma-skin-c...anced-melanoma

[RMRanger]

You're welcome Doz, any info can be helpful for ya i think. :)

[Doz]

My Wife is having a hard time with the pain, its been 8 days since the surgery.
The Nurse told her it would take 6 weeks to heal
Wife is very determine to get her life back to normal

I told her to not rush the healing process.

You have to be a good Husband and take over many duties the wife has done for years.

She can not drive because of the left arm pain to move it.

I told her I am her slave for what ever needs to be done.

[RMRanger]

Be careful on that slave part buddy....tsk tsk...hahahahahahahaha

[Doz]

We go back to Moffit Jan 31
The Doctor will tell us what they found.

We are praying for good news.

Wife is doing better each day, but is still dealing with much pain and discomfort.

There is burning under her left arm from where they removed the lymph nodes.
She has been reading on the Melanoma chat board that everyone has had the burning.

To help

Get Wash cloth and soak it in very hot water.
Then put the hot wash cloth under the surgery arm.
You will not want to touch it at first, but then the soothing kicks in

When they remove Lymph nodes it damages nerves and is why the pain and burning feeling is happening. Doctor say this is normal.


Please pass on the Hot Wash Cloth info to help others.

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