Cancer - November 2012 Archives

Diabetic patients with ovarian cancer who took the drug metformin for their diabetes had a better survival rate than patients who did not take it. When Mayo ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. - November 29, 2012.  Diabetic patients with ovarian cancer who took the drug metformin for their diabetes had a better survival rate than patients who did not take it, a study headed by Mayo Clinic shows. The findings, published early online in the journal Cancer, may play an important role for researchers as they study the use of existing medications to treat different or new diseases. Metformin is a widely prescribed drug to treat diabetes, and previous research by others has shown its promise for other cancers. The Mayo-led study adds ovarian cancer to the list. Researchers compared the survival of 61 patients with ovarian cancer taking metformin and 178 patients who were not taking metformin. Sixty-seven percent of the patients who took metformin were surviving after five years, compared with 47 percent of those who did not take the medication. When the researchers analyzed factors such as the patients' body mass index, the severity of the cancer, type of chemotherapy and quality of surgery, they found that patients taking metformin were nearly four times likelier to survive, compared with those not taking the medication. "Our study demonstrated improved survival in women with ovarian cancer that were taking metformin," says co-author Sanjeev Kumar, M.B.B.S., a Mayo Clinic gynecologic oncology fellow. "The results are encouraging, but as with any retrospective study, many factors cannot be controlled for us to say if there is a direct cause and effect. Rather, this is further human evidence for a potential beneficial effect of a commonly used drug which is relatively safe in humans. These findings should provide impetus for prospective clinical trials in ovarian cancer."

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Mayo Clinic has received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval to produce and administer Choline C 11 Injection an imaging agent used during a positron emission tomography (PET) scan to help detect sites of recurrent prostate cancer. Mayo Clinic is the first, and currently only, institution in North America approved to produce this imaging agent. VIDEO ALERT: Video interviews and animation are available for journalists to download on the Mayo Clinic News Network. Choline C 11 Injection is a radioactive form of the vitamin choline. Clinicians inject a small amount of the agent into a patient's vein and then use a PET scanner and computer to make detailed pictures of areas where the agent collects. Since cancer cells take up more Choline C 11 than do normal cells, the pictures can be used to help find areas of possible cancer in the body when bone scintigraphy, computerized tomography or magnetic resonance imaging is non-informative. Once a site is identified, a biopsy and pathologic examination can verify whether prostate cancer has recurred. Evaluating men for prostate cancer recurrence has long been a major challenge; physicians have had to wait until a patient's prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels rose to values between 20-30 ng/mL to identify sites of recurrent prostate cancer. "This technology is a game changer," says Eugene Kwon, M.D., a urologist at Mayo Clinic. "In stark contrast to conventional imaging, PET imaging with Choline C 11 Injection can help identify sites of recurrence for tissue sampling and examination when a patient's PSA level reaches 2 ng/mL — months or even years earlier than before. This technology also allows us to pinpoint the locations of recurrent cancer more accurately and permits us to develop more effective treatment strategies."

Each year about 90,000 men seek treatment for recurrent prostate cancer, and evaluating them for recurrence is a major challenge. Physicians have to wait until a patient’s ...

Breast Cancer Can Cause Symptoms Other Than Breast Lump November 2, 2012 Dear Mayo Clinic: Other than a lump in the breast, are ...