August 26, 2009
Claims of a "breast cancer cure in 2 years" are misleading
There were dramatic headlines in the papers this week claiming a “Breast cancer breakthrough”, with “Scientists ‘close to breast cancer cure’” or even “Two years from developing ‘potential cure’ for breast cancer”.
It almost seems too good to be true – and it is. The headlines have come from a paper describing laboratory-based research that is still a long way from the clinic, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
There’s no doubt that the findings in the paper are interesting and potentially important, but we feel that headlines touting that “millions of lives could be saved” by an imminent “cure for breast cancer” are excessive and give false hope to patients and their families.
This research isn’t about clinical trials of new drugs, or even about the development and testing of a new drug – it looks at fundamental cancer biology – the sort of foundations that such future developments are eventually built on.
In their paper, the researchers studied tiny molecules called microRNAs (miRNAs – for more background see this previous post), which help to control the activity levels of genes within cells. They discovered that particular miRNAs can, under certain conditions, switch off the oestrogen receptor, a key player in the development of breast cancer. And, in turn, shutting down the oestrogen receptor also shuts down production of the miRNAs themselves – the sort of feedback loop that’s quite common in biological systems.
This research helps us to understand more about the complex molecular circuitry inside our cells, and about some of the molecules we could try to target in order to develop new treatments.
But it’s a very long way from being a treatment for breast cancer – as we’ll see.
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Breast, Cancer Treatment, Cancer in the news, Science, Scientific papers | 
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Posted by Kat Arney
August 17, 2009
The US healthcare system is being reformed
It’s often said that where the US goes, we Brits will follow – and that’s certainly been true over the last week or so.
America is in the middle of a lengthy, bitter and at times bizarre debate, as President Obama tries to reform the US healthcare system. And as the debate has spilled over into the British media, focus has fixed on the relative pros and cons of our NHS.
As well as becoming the focus of newspaper columns and radio phone-ins, the debate has also set the internet alight, with commentators on both sides feeling compelled to ‘have their say’, as exemplified on social microblogging site Twitter.
Given that both the US and the UK economies are in recession, and both countries are facing spiralling healthcare costs as their populations age, it’s absolutely right that we have a proper and informed debate about how best to provide healthcare.
Cancer is a key area of concern for healthcare providers, not least because alongside demographic and economic problems, new-generation cancer treatments tend to be more expensive than their forerunners.
But over the last week, facts and figures about UK cancer care have been taken out of context on several occasions, and used to make questionable points about the NHS. So let’s set the record straight.
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Breast, Cancer in the news, Prostate, Statistics | 
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Posted by Henry Scowcroft
July 10, 2009
Danish researchers say that mammograms lead to unneccessary cancer treatment
Breast cancer screening is back in the headlines following the publication of a new paper in the British Medical Journal.
The paper was written by Danish researchers who have previously published work critical of the way women are given information about the balance of risks and benefits. They believe that women aren’t given sufficient information on the possible risks; and that these risks are underestimated.
Their new analysis suggests that as many as a third of women who receive treatment for breast cancer following screening, are treated unnecessarily as their cancer may not have gone on to cause them any harm.
This is a controversial finding. Previous estimates had put the figure much lower – as low as one in twenty. But what do other experts make of the new figures?
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Breast, Early detection, Screening | 
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Posted by Henry Scowcroft
June 17, 2009
Women from some backgrounds may be less likely to go for screening
Cancer screening saves lives. Thousands of lives every year, in fact.
We know that it can help spot cancer earlier, when it’s more likely that treatment will be successful. And cervical screening can actually help to prevent cancer from developing in the first place. But is everyone benefiting equally from the screening services we have?
A study published in the British Medical Journal this week says ‘no’.
In the past, we haven’t really had good information about the backgrounds of people going for screening, which meant that we didn’t know whether there were any inequalities in screening uptake. And since we didn’t know about them, we couldn’t do anything to try to reduce them.
So researchers from Oxford University, including Cancer Research UK’s Professor Valerie Beral, have piggybacked on a Government survey to ask more than 3,000 women about whether they had attended breast or cervical screening.
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Posted by Jess Harris
May 2, 2009
Who will benefit from aspirin's cancer-preventing powers?
The humble over-the-counter drug aspirin hit the headlines this week, after the publication of a report led by a Cancer Research UK-funded scientist.
The researchers gathered together all the available evidence on cancer prevention, and concluded that there wasn’t enough evidence to make strong recommendations, particularly on aspirin dosage. But there was certainly a suggestion that taking aspirin in your forties could help prevent cancer later in life.
But how realistic is this? Should we all be popping aspirin as soon as we hit the big four-oh? Or do the risks outweigh the benefits?
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Posted by Kat Arney
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