Proton therapy for cancer significantly reduces risk of severe side effects as against traditional radiation

Proton therapy, as it turns out, has fewer side effects on cancer patients when compared to the traditional radiation treatment. While the cure rates of both the treatment methods are almost similar, radiation leads to much more frequent unplanned hospitalisations, says a recent study.

This study, conducted by the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, analysed if the cancer patients going through radiation therapy alongside chemo faced severe side effects in a span of 90 days.

In its findings, proton therapy, when used as a replacement to radiation, proved to be effective in slashing cancer treatment-related side effects by almost two-thirds. The study is an expanded analysis of the largest review of its kind that got published in JAMA Oncology.

"This is exciting because it shows that proton therapy offers a way for us to reduce the serious side effects of chemo-radiation and improve patient health and wellbeing without sacrificing the effectiveness of the therapy," said the study's lead author Brian Baumann, MD, an adjunct assistant professor of Radiation Oncology at Penn and an assistant professor of Radiation Oncology at Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis.

Proton therapy has a few key differences from traditional photon radiation. Photon radiation typically uses multiple X-ray beams to deliver radiation to the tumor target but unavoidably deposits radiation in the normal tissues beyond the target, potentially damaging those tissues as the beam exits the body.

Proton therapy is an FDA-approved alternative radiation treatment that directs positively charged protons at the tumor. They deposit the bulk of the radiation dose to the target with almost no residual radiation delivered beyond the target, reducing damage to surrounding healthy tissue and potentially reducing side effects.

For this study, researchers evaluated side effects including pain or difficulty swallowing, difficulty breathing, nausea, or diarrhea, among others. Researchers focused on grade-three effects or higher, defined as side effects severe enough for patients to be hospitalised.

They evaluated data on 1,483 cancer patients receiving radiation and chemotherapy at the same time. Of these, 391 patients received proton therapy, while 1,092 underwent photon treatment.

All patients had non-metastatic cancer and were undergoing treatment intended to be curative. Patients with brain cancer, head and neck cancer, lung cancer, gastrointestinal cancer, and gynecologic cancer treated with concurrent chemo-radiation were included.

The primary outcome was whether or not patients experienced adverse side effects that were grade-three or higher within 90 days of treatment. In the proton group, only 11.5 per cent of patients (45) did, compared to 27.6 per cent of patients (301) in the photon group.

Weighted analysis of both patient groups, which controlled for other factors that may have led to differences between the patient groups, found that the relative risk of severe toxicity was two-thirds lower for proton patients compared to photon patients.

"We know from our clinical experience that proton therapy can have this benefit, but even we did not expect the effect to be this sizeable," said senior author James Metz, MD, chair of Radiation Oncology, leader of the Roberts Proton Therapy Center at Penn, and a member of Penn's Abramson Cancer Center.

Importantly, overall survival and disease-free survival were similar between the two groups, suggesting that the reduction in toxicity seen with proton therapy did not come at the cost of reduced effectiveness.

Researchers say these results hint at the promise of proton therapy as a way to deliver intensified systemic therapy and/or higher dose radiation therapy more safely, which could improve survival outcomes. In fact, data showed that while older patients with more comorbidities were more likely to receive proton therapy, they experienced fewer side effects.

"This tells us proton therapy may allow older patients to receive the most effective combined treatments, and that older, sicker patients can more safely be included in clinical trials that use proton therapy," Baumann said.

While researchers say further research is needed, they point out that this study is the best information we have so far as randomised controlled trials continue to prove difficult to complete. 

this is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.     
https://gscrochetdesigns.blogspot.com. one can see my crochet creations  
https://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com. feel free to view for easy, simple and healthy recipes    
https://kneereplacement-stickclub.blogspot.com. for info on knee replacement 

 

Researchers develop cheaper method to identify aggressive tumours

In a recent study conducted by the researchers at Karolinska Institute in Sweden, a new cheap method has been developed that can identify highly heterogeneous tumours which can become very aggressive in future and therefore needs to be treated more aggressively.

A common feature of cancer cells is alterations in the number of copies in which each chromosome or gene is present in the genome - a phenomenon known as copy number alterations or CNAs. Within the same tumour, cells belonging to different anatomical parts of the tumour may carry different CNAs. Tumours with many CNAs are typically very aggressive and tend to reform more often, even after harsh treatments.

The Bienko-Crosetto Laboratory at Karolinska Institute and Science for Life Laboratory in Sweden have developed a new genomic method, named CUTseq, which can assess the amount and type of CNAs in many different parts of the same tumour, at a much lower cost than existing technologies.
 
A senior researcher at the Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, said, "I expect that CUTseq will find many useful applications in cancer diagnostics. Multi-region tumour sequencing is going to be increasingly used in the diagnostic setting, in order to identify patients with highly heterogeneous tumours that need to be treated more aggressively. I believe that our method can play a leading role here."

The method works with DNA extracted from multiple biopsies and even from very small portions of thin tissue sections - the type of sample that pathologists commonly rely on to make a diagnosis of cancer under the microscope.

By tagging the DNA extracted from multiple regions of the same tumour sample with unique molecular barcodes, a comprehensive picture of the heterogeneity of CNAs in a tumour can be obtained with a single sequencing experiment.

Applications of CUTseq are not only limited to cancer diagnostics, according to the researchers behind the new method.

"For example, CUTseq could be used as a platform for cell line authentication and to monitor genome stability in large cell line repositories and biobanks," said a senior researcher at the same department. "It could also be applied in ecology, as an alternative to other reduced representation genome sequencing methods, such as RAD-seq, to assess biodiversity in a cost-effective way," the researcher added.  

this is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.   
https://gscrochetdesigns.blogspot.com. one can see my crochet creations  
https://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com. feel free to view for easy, simple and healthy recipes    
https://kneereplacement-stickclub.blogspot.com. for info on knee replacement             

Childhood trauma increases the chance of delivering baby early in life and outside of marriage

While childhood trauma is known to have poor impact on a woman’s midlife health, a new study has uncovered the reason behind it and found that these females are more likely to have their first child both earlier in life and outside of marriage – factors associated with poorer health later in life.

These results suggest that early trauma – such as the death of a parent, physical abuse or emotional neglect – may affect young people’s decision-making in ways that they can’t entirely control.

“It’s easy to tell teens that they shouldn’t have kids before marriage, but the message won’t be effective if they haven’t developed the capacity to do that because of the trauma they experienced in childhood,” said lead author.

Previous research has shown that childhood trauma is strongly associated with multiple health risks, including cancer, diabetes, stroke and early death, she said.

Much of this work has focused on how early adversity may have biological and neurological effects that would lead to worse health throughout life.

“But there hasn’t been any attention given to how childhood adversity may affect social and developmental processes in adolescence and young adulthood – factors that we know are also strong predictors of later health,” she added.

One of those factors in women is the timing and context of first birth.

Data for this study came from the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, which includes a representative sample of people who were aged 14 to 22 in 1979.

Participants were interviewed every year through 1994 and once every two years since. The final sample for this study included 3,278 women.

Each participant reported whether she experienced one or more of six adverse childhood experiences before age 18: emotional neglect, physical abuse, alcoholism in the home, mental illness in the home, death of a biological parent and parental absence.

The researchers examined data on how old each participant was when she first gave birth and whether she was married, cohabiting or neither. Finally, participants rated their health at or near age 40.

Findings showed that each additional childhood trauma experienced by the participants was associated with earlier age at first birth and a greater probability for a first birth during adolescence or young adulthood compared to later (age 25 to 39).

In addition, each additional trauma was associated with a 24 per cent increase in the probability of being unmarried and not cohabiting at first birth compared to the likelihood that they were married when their first child was born.

Researchers then conducted statistical tests that showed early and non-marital births were a key reason why children who experienced trauma were more likely to report poorer health at midlife.
“Childhood trauma leads to social and biological risks that lead to early and non-marital birth which can lead to health problems later in life,” she explained.

She added “when people experience traumas early in life, they are less likely to make those positive choices.

this is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.   
https://gscrochetdesigns.blogspot.com. one can see my crochet creations 
https://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com. feel free to view for easy, simple and healthy recipes    
https://kneereplacement-stickclub.blogspot.com. for info on knee replacement        

Observing cells' eating habits may aid cancer diagnosis

A recent research has found that if we observe what cells eat, then it may be possible to diagnose and treat diseases such as cancer. In the study published in a journal, scientists have developed a new imaging technology to visualise what cells eat. The team has designed chemical probes that light up when they attach to specific molecules that cells eat, such as glucose. Researchers used microscopes to watch cells eating glucose inside live zebrafish embryos, which are transparent and easy to observe. They found the technique also worked with human cells growing in the lab.

The team said their approach could easily be adapted to look at other molecules that are important for health and disease. All cells rely on glucose and other molecules for their survival. If a cell's eating habits change, it can be a warning sign of disease. Researchers said that the new technology could help detect tiny changes in cells' eating habits inside the body's tissues, making it easier to spot diseases sooner.

Doctors could also use the technology to monitor how patients are responding to treatment, by tracking the molecules that are eaten by healthy and diseased cells. "We have very few methods to measure what cells eat to produce energy, which is what we know as cell metabolism. Our technology allows us to detect multiple metabolites simultaneously and in live cells, by simply using microscopes," Dr. said.

"This is a very important advance to understand the metabolism of diseased cells and we hope it will help develop better therapies," he added.  

THIS IS ONLY FOR INFORMATION, ALWAYS CONSULT YOU PHYSICIAN BEFORE HAVING ANY PARTICULAR FOOD/ MEDICATION/EXERCISE/OTHER REMEDIES.                                    PS- THOSE INTERESTED IN RECIPES ARE FREE TO  VIEW MY BLOG-                                                                                           https://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com/                                                                                                                                                         FOR INFO ABOUT KNEE REPLACEMENT, YOU CAN VIEW MY BLOG-                                                  https:// kneereplacement-stickclub.blogspot.com/           

                   FOR CROCHET DESIGNS                                                                                                                                                                                                  https://gscrochetdesigns.blogspot.com

8 causes of preterm labour you ought to know

A full term pregnancy is usually considered to be around 39 weeks or 40 weeks of gestation. If the labour pains start anytime soon or before the 37th week of pregnancy, it is termed as a preterm labour or premature labour. Often a preterm labour leads to early childbirth or premature delivery. However, in some rare cases, with adequate medical assistance and proper treatment, the symptoms of preterm labour can be countered for the delivery to happen on the expected date too.

‘In almost 50 per cent of preterm labour and delivery the exact reason for the same cannot be identified. Still there are a few parameters that can serve to be the warning signs or probable causes for the same,’ says a consultant obstetrician and gynecologist, SDD Hospital, Navi Mumbai. Here are a few probable causes that could lead to preterm labour.

Chorioamnionitis
This is a condition where the fetal membranes of the uterus get inflamed due to bacterial invasion. Vaginal infection during pregnancy is common, but there are times when the bacteria from the vagina can reach the uterus and disrupt the normalcy of the womb. ‘This condition is one of the most common causes of preterm labour that in most cases leads to premature birth of the baby,’ informs a Dr.

Infections
With low immunity during pregnancy, infections are a common occurrence and a threat to a healthy pregnancy. This is because when a woman acquires an infection there are certain substances that are released in the body that initiates contraction of the uterus and leads to preterm labour. The most common form of infections that leads to the same are as follows,

• Urinary tract infection: Now a urinary tract infection can happen at any place in the urinary tract that starts from the kidneys and ends in the urethra, a short tube that carries the urine out of the body. ‘An UTI infection has the strongest association with preterm labour and premature delivery,’ says Dr Sinha. Here are more signs and symptoms that could imply you are in labour.
• Vaginal infections: There can be a number of causes that could give rise to a vaginal infection during pregnancy that in turn can give rise to symptoms of preterm labour. Some of the common vaginal infections that are thought to be responsible for the same are trichomoniasis, bacterial vaginosis, streptococcal infection, Chlamydia.

Placental abnormalities:
Placental abnormalities are also thought to be a probable cause of preterm labour. Some common problems of the placenta that could lead to preterm labour are as follows,

• Low lying placenta: If an expectant mother is diagnosed with a low-lying placenta or placenta previa, it is said that she might run a higher risk of experiencing early labour. However, in most cases if the condition is detected early it can be managed effectively and lead to a timely delivery.
• Placenta abruption: In this condition the placenta separates itself from the wall of the uterus before completing the required period of gestation and induces early labour. This is a serious medical condition which can lead to vaginal bleeding and might necessitate an emergency C-section. However, in some cases proper bed rest and treatment can help one cope and deliver on the expected due date too.

Cervical incompetence
At times, one’s cervix or the opening of the uterus might dilate before the baby turns full-term. This happens when a woman suffers from cervical incompetence. Usually an ultrasound during the early days of pregnancy can detect the condition. If neglected premature dilation can lead to breaking of the water bag and lead to premature delivery. 

Multiple pregnancies
Mothers carrying twins or triplets are at a higher risk of delivering prematurely because the extra weight of the fetuses exert excess pressure on the uterus that lead to preterm labour before the pregnancy reaches its full-term.

Excess amniotic fluid
When in the womb, the baby floats in the amniotic fluid which protects and nurtures the fetus. But too much or too less of the same can lead to labour complications. Excess amniotic fluid in the womb can at times lead to over-distention of the womb and set contractions early. Most of the time with this kind of condition there is an increased association of birth defects in the prematurely born baby.  

Lifestyle conditions
Maternal health is of utmost importance to ensure a healthy pregnancy and optimal fetal health. However, certain lifestyle conditions suffered by the mother like chronic hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, severe anemia can lead to preterm labour. In most cases, conditions can be controlled to avoid any unfortunate events related to labour. Apart from that, continuous smoking and regular intake of alcohol can again put one at the risk of the same.

Fetal abnormalities
Certain health condition of the fetus can also be responsible for preterm labour, at times. Conditions like neural tube defects, metabolic disorder or any congenital defects can lead to the same.   
In case you are at the risk of suffering a premature labour, watch for the symptoms of labour closely. Reach for the doctor on time to get necessary medical help. 

THIS IS ONLY FOR INFORMATION, ALWAYS CONSULT YOU PHYSICIAN BEFORE HAVING ANY PARTICULAR FOOD/ MEDICATION/EXERCISE/OTHER REMEDIES.    

PS- THOSE INTERESTED IN RECIPES ARE FREE TO VIEW MY BLOG-                      
HTTP:GSEASYRECIPES.BLOGSPOT.COM/

FOR INFO ABOUT KNEE REPLACEMENT, YOU CAN VIEW MY BLOG-                                                        

HTTP://KNEE REPLACEMENT-STICK CLUB.BLOGSPOT.COM/
FOR CROCHET DESIGNS
HTTP://MY CROCHET CREATIONS.BLOGSPOT.COM

Two or more headaches in a week warrant a doctor's visit

It has come to light that people take the effects of headache very lightly.

According to a study by a primary-care physician , people's first instinct is to simply pop a paracetamol, drink water, and carry on with the day. 

However, the Dr. has urged people to be more wary of headaches as multiple headaches could be a sign of something far more serious than simply an exhausting or disturbing day.

The Dr. found that a shocking number of people tend to ignore their headaches, bear the pain and simply grin, despite knowing how debilitating it could be.

He urged people to pay closer attention as frequent headaches could indicate that an individual is suffering from conditions such as brain tumours or aneurysms.

The Dr. was quoted as saying, "You don't want people to overreact, but you also don't want them to under-react".

According to doctors, there are three common types of headaches- tension headaches, sinus headaches, and migraines.

Noting, how frequently a person tends to be struck down by a headache is another key. Frequency could also indicate the severity to seek medical advice.

The Dr. pointed that if a person has more than two headaches a week for longer than a fortnight, then it is of utmost importance to get checked by a doctor.

By analyzing and noting down the frequency of headaches, people might be able to pinpoint their triggers.

It could include things like specific food or drink, being on your period, an insufficient amount of sleep, insufficient water intake and such.

Also, pinpointing the exact point of origin of your headache could come in handy for the assessment.

The Dr. explained that tension headaches start at the back of your head and radiate up and over the crown.

Sinus headaches, according to him, usually affect the face around eyes. Addition of nausea and blind spots to a splitting headache attribute to migraines.

Other symptoms, such as nausea, numbness, and memory problems, which we often tend to ignore could point towards some serious underlying condition.

THIS IS ONLY FOR INFORMATION, ALWAYS CONSULT YOU PHYSICIAN BEFORE HAVING ANY PARTICULAR FOOD/ MEDICATION/EXERCISE/OTHER REMEDIES.    

PS- THOSE INTERESTED IN RECIPES ARE FREE TO VIEW MY BLOG-                      
HTTP:GSEASYRECIPES.BLOGSPOT.COM/

FOR INFO ABOUT KNEE REPLACEMENT, YOU CAN VIEW MY BLOG-                                                        

HTTP://KNEE REPLACEMENT-STICK CLUB.BLOGSPOT.COM/
FOR CROCHET DESIGNS
HTTP://MY CROCHET CREATIONS.BLOGSPOT.COM