Thursday, 27 November 2014

Me aged 15...

We all met at York station on 9th May, 1967 to catch the Harrogate train. Such different backgrounds, such very different people. Could we have guessed what the next 47 years would bring?
Made my day to get this from Gary, hope we get a good turnout at the reunion next year.

Still trying to trace…

Edwin Dear (Southampton)
Gerard Vincent (Croesyceiliog)
Graham Hopper (Kent)
Gordon Lee (Sunderland)

If any of you happen to Google your names and end up here, please e-mail me at dansencier@yahoo.co.uk
Don't be afraid if you've come out as gay, bi-sexual or some other weird stuff, it couldn't be stranger than the lot we've got! Get in touch, please.

Wednesday, 26 November 2014

70,000 hits and growing fast….

Before the end of this week, the blog will clock over the 70,000 hits mark!
Over 2,000,000 words and followed in countries all around the world…
Who do I know in Turkey?

Some posts more popular than others… The 'Angel of Death' still in front, but hey, if she hadn't refused to meet me, maybe the blog would have never started!

I keep getting badgered by Google to allow adverts on, but I choose to keep it clean of that stuff. It's a pleasure to keep it going knowing that so many follow. I often wonder what the very last posting will be! But for now, on this glorious summer day in South Africa, thank you all wherever you are for dropping in so often, and making my day!

Tuesday, 25 November 2014

New drug research for advanced prostate cancer...

Early results from drug trial reveal promising findings in men with advanced prostate cancer

05 Nov 2014
In - Research | Prostate cancer in the media

Yesterday at the NCRI (National Cancer Research Institute) cancer conference, Professor Johann De Bono revealed exciting new results from a clinical trial he’s leading for men with advanced prostate cancer. The trial, funded in part by Prostate Cancer UK and the Movember Foundation, is investigating the use of a drug called olaparib in men with advanced prostate cancer.

Olaparib is one of a class of drugs called PARP inhibitors. It is already licensed for use and very effective in treating ovarian cancer. PARP inhibitors work by cancelling out the effect of mutations in the genes responsible for repairing DNA when it gets damaged. In normal cells, damaged DNA is quickly repaired. But when the genes responsible for repairing the broken DNA are mutated, this damage goes unchecked. This can lead to errors in the DNA which can eventually cause cancer. PARP inhibitors work by killing cells with damaged DNA, so preventing tumour growth.

We already know that inheriting mutations in DNA damage repair genes, for example BRCA1 or BRCA2, can increase a man’s risk of developing advanced prostate cancer. But new research has shown that mutations in these genes can still develop over the course of advanced disease in men who didn’t inherit them. (This research also featured in a Prostate Cancer UK sponsored session at the NCRI cancer conference this week led by as discussed by Professor Karen Knudsen.)

That’s why Professor de Bono and his team at the Institute of Cancer Research and the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust are testing olaparib in men without inherited mutations in DNA damage repair genes in a clinical trial called TO-PARP. So far the results have been positive, with some patients with advanced, aggressive prostate cancer having an impressive response to the drug.

"Finding existing drugs that will work for prostate cancer alongside searching for new ones will speed up the process of getting treatment to the men who need it."

And new research published by Dr Gerhardt Attard, a colleague of Professor De Bono at the Institute of Cancer Research, has enabled researchers to take this trial even further. Thanks to Dr Attard’s team, it’s now possible for the researchers to test for mutations in DNA damage repair genes throughout the course of the disease. This means treatments like PARP inhibitors can be targeted to those patients who are most likely to respond, at the earliest possible time.

These are still very early results, so it’s too soon to say for certain that these treatments will definitely be beneficial, but it’s really exciting to see clinical trials investigating new uses for drugs that we already know work well for other cancer types. Finding existing drugs that will work for prostate cancer alongside searching for new ones will speed up the process of getting treatment to the men who need it enormously. And not a moment too soon.

Tags: Finding answers, Treatment

Sunday, 23 November 2014

Prostate Cancer for beginners...

- Photo © A.D.A.M. — Basic Male Anatomy. Photo © A.D.A.M.

Prostate Cancer Basics

Whether you or someone you know has been recently diagnosed with prostate cancer or you are simply interested in learning more about this important disease, there are three key questions that need to be answered.

What Is the Prostate?

The prostate is a small, walnut-sized gland that exists only in men. It is situated just below the bladder and just in front of the rectum in the lower pelvis.

The bladder acts as a storage area for urine. When the bladder is emptied, the urine travels through a thin tube called the urethra to the penis and then out. The very beginning of the urethra as it leaves the bladder passes directly through the prostate. This fact accounts for why so many men with either prostate cancer or BPH (benign prostatic hyperplasia) develop trouble urinating. As the prostate enlarges, the urethra is pinched off, leaving a smaller tube to carry urine from the bladder to outside the body.

The prostate’s primary function is to produce much of the fluid that makes up semen. Semen acts to protect sperm as it makes its way out of the body.

The prostate is present from before birth and grows in response to male hormones such as testosterone. Blocking the production or effects of these hormones is one of the primary treatment options for prostate cancer.

What Is Cancer?

Cancer is most simply explained as cells in a certain part of the body that have started to grow in an out-of-control and unregulated fashion.

The human body is made up of billions of tiny units called cells. These are the smallest structures in the body that can be considered to be living. They can only be seen under high-powered microscopes. Cells normally go through a life cycle of growth, division, and death. When this occurs in an orderly fashion, cells are created and die in roughly equal numbers. They also normally stay confined to the area of the body in which they were meant to be.

Unfortunately, certain cells sometimes begin to multiply much faster than they die. When this happens, these abnormal cells squeeze out nearby normal cells. These abnormal cancerous cells can also spread outside of their original site in the body and spread to other areas. When cancer from one body site has spread to other areas of the body, the cancer can be said to have “metastasized". This is always an unfortunate occurrence as cancer that has spread is much harder to treat in general.

A cancer is named after its original site in the body. For example, prostate cancer, even if it were to spread to the bones or to the colon would still be called prostate cancer and not bone or colon cancer. This would more appropriately be called “prostate cancer with metastasis to the bone.”

All types of cancer are different. For example, prostate cancer is very different from lung cancer. The two are caused by different factors, diagnosed in different ways, and treated differently. Regardless of the type of cancer, the underlying problem is the unregulated and abnormal growth of the cells in that part of the body.

What Is Prostate Cancer?

Since cancer is the uncontrolled and abnormal growth of cells in a certain area of the body, prostate cancer is simply the uncontrolled and abnormal growth of cells in the prostate.

Some men have BPH (benign prostatic hyperplasia). This is often confused with prostate cancer. With BPH, prostate cells multiply faster than they should. This causes the prostate to enlarge and the patient to develop difficulty urinating. With prostate cancer, the cells not only multiply faster, but also behave abnormally by spreading outside of the prostate if not caught in time. BPH is not cancer, but can show some of the same symptoms.

The prostate is made up of many different types of cells. The gland cells (those cells that actually work to produce the fluid that is released into the semen) however, are nearly always the cells that become cancerous. The technical medical term for cancer that arises from gland cells is adenocarcinoma. Thus, the technical term for prostate cancer is prostate (or prostatic) adenocarcinoma.

Early detection, prompt diagnosis, and effective treatment are the mainstays of good prostate cancer care.

Saturday, 22 November 2014

Many thanks to my friend Chaz Dowie, for this 'Movember' contribution...

Tuesday, 11 November 2014

My daughter diagnosed her own brain tumour after being turned away by numerous doctors...

A hard hitting but great comment to my blog on Monday 10th November, from my lovely daughter Lucienne, who eventually 'self diagnosed' her own brain tumour, after doctors and specialists that she went to for help, repeatedly turned her away...

"The sad thing is it happens all over the world Dad, to people with all types of conditions! Take me for example.. 5/6 GPs told me I was 'unlucky, depressed or paranoid' and 'over using the internet and believing it blindly' .. Turned out I was right though didn't it!

But I watched it wreck my body for 5/6 years before even one GP would listen to me, believe I did 'have a rare illness being caused by a brain tumour' .. Heck.. I had to move to London to find that!

Fact is, I think we have generations of doctors who graduated with second rate grades, possibly just to appease their parents & what was expected of them, they have no bedside manner whatsoever, no 'caring calling' bringing them into their careers, probably more so financially and status driven. They then go on (with their 60% knowledge Uni pass rates) to tell us that we aren't qualified to have an opinion. That my medical education, if not stamped by a university, is simply inadmissible, & probably just pure hypochondria.

I for one am disgusted, not at the NHS, but at the audacity of these narrow minded individuals who still seem to live in this 'God complex' where their word is gold, & you are a brainless idiot who is incapable of reading medical research papers, and studying the same information as they have.. News flash, In the case of a GP, that's not hard. Most of them have only heard of rare illnesses in passing at Uni (how many years ago??!) or maybe if you're lucky it was focused on for a few weeks/months? Well guess what.. I spent 6 years reading about one rare illness, & it's studies, & it's biochemistry, from reputable sources, so I think that qualifies me just a little bit to have an opinion. And at least request to be heard, and to have a blood test run which costs peanuts!

Don't get me wrong, we still have some great GPs out there. But it's a dying race, and by the looks of it, along with the NHS."

Scientists have discovered a new treatment that could halt the progression of prostate cancer...

The SRPK1 (serine arginine protein kinase-1) molecule plays a key role in angiogenesis - the process through which tumours are able to develop blood vessels in order to obtain the nutrients they need to grow.

Angiogenesis is regulated by the signal protein VEGF (vascular endothelial growth factor). This protein comes in two forms, which can either activate or inhibit the growth of blood vessels.

The form that VEGF takes depends on how the gene is controlled by a cellular process called "alternative splicing".

Dr Sebastian Oltean, the study’s co-author from the University of Bristol’s School of Physiology and Pharmacology, said: "We reasoned that inhibition of SRPK1 activity could stop cancer progression.

"Indeed, we show in this paper that if we decrease SRPK1 levels in prostate cancer cells, or in tumours grafted into mice, we are able to switch VEGF splicing and therefore inhibit tumour vasculature and growth."

When the scientists analysed samples of human prostate cancer they found that SRPK1 increases as the cancer gets more aggressive.

However, in experiments carried out on mice they discovered that the tumours decreased in size when drugs known as Sphinx compounds were injected three times a week.

Professor David Bates, co-author from the University of Nottingham’s Division of Cancer and Stem Cells, said: "Our results point to a novel way of treating prostate cancer patients and may have wider implications to be used in several types of cancers."

This study was funded by Prostate Cancer UK, the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and Richard Bright VEGF Research Trust.

Dr Matthew Hobbs, deputy director of research at Prostate Cancer UK, said: "There’s no denying that there are too few treatment options for the 40,000 men that face a diagnosis of prostate cancer every year in the UK - especially for those with advanced disease. Prostate cancer continues to kill over 10,000 men annually and there is an urgent need for new treatments if we are to significantly reduce this figure.

"Although it’s early days, each finding like this represents a crucial block in building up our understanding of what can slow down and stop the progression of prostate cancer. This understanding will give us the foundations needed to develop new targeted treatments for those men in desperate need."

The findings are published in the journal Oncogene.

Many thanks to Chaz Dowie for submitting this article.

Scientists have developed a promising treatment for prostate cancer by starving tumours of their blood supply.

Very hopeful article submitted by my daughter Sasha today...

British researchers say the new approach could be tested in patients within two years, potentially giving them the ability to stop cancers growing and spreading.

The scientists made the breakthrough after discovered a molecule which plays a key role in aggressive prostate cancer.

Crucially, the academics from Bristol and Nottingham universities have already worked out how to neutralise the dangerous molecule.

The new approach could be tested in patients within two years, potentially giving them the ability to stop cancers growing and spreading. The prostate is pictured in orange, containing a small tumour

The treatment, delivered by an injection, has already been shown to halt the growth of prostate tumours in mice.

And scientists are confident the procedure can be replicated in humans, with a British firm investigating how to turn it into a clinical treatment.

The findings, published yesterday in the Oncogene medical journal, rests on the investigation of a molecule called SRPK1.

The scientists found that the molecule enables the tumour to form new blood vessels.

Tumours need a supply of nutrient-enriched blood to survive, grow and spread.

Stopping the production of new blood vessels prevents cancer cells from multiplying, they found. Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men, accounting for a quarter of all male cancers.

Twenty per cent of patients die within five years of receiving a prostate cancer diagnosis, with few treatments available to doctors.

Shrinking tumours by cutting off blood supply is an approach that has already been shown to work in colorectal cancer - but until now scientists had struggled to find a way to do the same thing in prostate tumour.

The study leaders are now investigating whether the same molecular target will work in other tumours - with potential that the drug could be used to treat a range of diseases.

PROSTATE CARE IS FAILING HALF OF NHS PATIENTS, REPORT CLAIMS

The NHS is still failing to deliver the best diagnosis and treatment to thousands of men with prostate cancer, says the first national audit of services.

It shows a ‘worryingly vast variation’ in access to advanced MRI scanning and the latest radiotherapy techniques.

Half of all men with the disease do not receive all the support services they should in hospitals, the National Prostate Cancer Audit found.

Four out of five radiation centres in England do not offer brachytherapy – which uses radioactive seeds planted inside the prostate and can help half of men retain their sex lives.

The service is not provided at a single centre in Labour-run Wales.

Prostate cancer is the commonest cancer in men.

In the UK, more than 41,000 are diagnosed each year leading to around 10,000 deaths annually.

Survival rates in the UK are below the European average and research into the disease lags a decade behind that for other cancers, say critics.

The scientists made the discovery by analysing samples of human prostate cancer, observing that SRPK1 increases as the cancer got more aggressive.

In experiments on mice, they found that injecting an inhibitor drug called Sphinx three times a week, stopped the molecule from working and the tumour growth halted.

Study author Dr Sebastian Oltean, of Bristol University, said: ‘We reasoned that inhibition of SRPK1 activity could stop cancer progression.

‘Indeed, we show in this paper that if we decrease SRPK1 levels in prostate cancer cells, or in tumours grafted into mice, we are able to inhibit tumour vasculature and growth.’

He said: ‘This is a completely new area and could form a completely new class of drugs. Tumours all need blood to survive and grow, to differing degrees depending on the type.

‘If this is show to work in clinical trials it could be used to inhibit all kinds of cancers.’

Biotech company Exonate, a spin-out drug development firm from the University of Nottingham, is looking at developing SRPK1 inhibitors as treatments for other diseases with abnormal vessel development.

They think sight problems where blood vessel development is key - such as age-related macular de-generation - could also benefit from the same approach.

Study co-author Professor David Bates, from Nottingham, said: ‘Our results point to a novel way of treating prostate cancer patients and may have wider implications to be used in several types of cancers.’

Dr Matthew Hobbs, deputy director of research at Prostate Cancer UK, which helped fund the study, said: ‘There’s no denying that there are too few treatment options for the 40,000 men that face a diagnosis of prostate cancer every year in the UK – especially for those with advanced disease.

‘Prostate cancer continues to kill over 10,000 men annually and there is an urgent need for new treatments if we are to significantly reduce this figure.

The treatment, delivered by an injection, has already been shown to halt the growth of prostate tumours in mice.

‘Although it’s early days, each finding like this represents a crucial block in building up our understanding of what can slow down and stop the progression of prostate cancer. This understanding will give us the foundations needed to develop new targeted treatments for those men in desperate need.’

The lack of treatments for men with prostate cancer is exacerbated by the fact the NHS is not using all those available to them, a report on cancer services revealed yesterday.

The National Prostate Cancer Audit showed a ‘worryingly vast variation’ in access to advanced MRI scanning and the latest radiotherapy techniques.

Half of all men with the disease do not receive all the support services they should in NHS hospitals,

And four out of five radiation centres in England do not offer brachytherapy – which uses radioactive seeds planted inside the prostate and can help half of men retain their sex lives after treatment.