| To: Cal Gary who wrote (94) | 10/28/2003 2:00:21 AM | | From: Cal Gary | | | | Daily aspirin use linked with pancreatic cancer
Tuesday, October 28, 2003 Posted: 0254 GMT (10:54 AM HKT)
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Women who take an aspirin a day -- which millions do to prevent heart attack and stroke as well as to treat headaches -- may raise their risk of getting deadly pancreatic cancer, U.S. researchers said Monday.
The surprising finding worried doctors, who say women will now have to talk seriously with their physicians about the risk of taking a daily aspirin.
Pancreatic cancer affects only 31,000 Americans a year, but it kills virtually all its victims within three years.
The study of 88,000 nurses found that those who took two or more aspirins a week for 20 years or more had a 58 percent higher risk of pancreatic cancer.
"Apart from smoking, this one of the few risk factors that have been identified for pancreatic cancer," Dr. Eva Schernhammer of Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, who led the study, told a news conference. "Initially we expected that aspirin would protect against pancreatic cancer, especially since its preventive role in colorectal cancer has been well documented. However, now it appears that we need to examine the relationship more thoroughly," Schernhammer added in a statement.
"This finding does not mean that women should no longer use aspirin. There are still important benefits to the drug; we also need other large cohort studies to confirm our finding before we can draw any conclusions."
Schernhammer and colleagues presented their findings to a meeting in Phoenix, Arizona, of the American Association for Cancer Research.
They studied 88,378 women taking part in a large and wide-ranging study of nurses and their health.
Over 18 years, 161 of the nurses developed pancreatic cancer.
Those who took 14 tablets or more per week had an 86 percent greater risk of pancreatic cancer than non-users. The nurses who took between six and 13 tablets had a 41 percent higher risk, while those who only took one to three aspirins a week had an 11 percent greater risk.
The women who took the most aspirin said they were taking it not to protect against heart disease, but because of headaches or other aches and pains.
Even with the increased risk, heart disease is a much greater threat to a woman's, or a man's, health. It is by far the biggest killer in the United States and other developed nations. The American Heart Association says cardiovascular disease killed more than 945,000 Americans in 2000.
Doctors do not clearly understand what causes pancreatic cancer, or what makes it so deadly. Obesity is another risk factor, but Schernhammer said her team's findings held regardless of a woman's weight, whether she smoked and whether she had diabetes.
Schernhammer noted that one study showed that regular aspirin use may cause pancreatitis -- an inflammation of the pancreas that can sometimes lead to pancreatic cancer.
"There is urgent need to settle the biologic reasons for pancreatic cancer," she said.
edition.cnn.com |
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| To: Cal Gary who wrote (95) | 1/12/2004 10:43:53 AM | | From: Claude Robitaille | | | | Lorus releases phase II GTI-2040 trial results
Lorus Therapeutics Inc LOR
Shares issued 171,517,340 Jan 9 close $1.06
Mon 12 Jan 2004 News Release
Ms. Grace Tse reports
LORUS THERAPEUTICS ANNOUNCES INTERIM CLINICAL RESULTS OF GTI-2040 IN
COMBINATION CHEMOTHERAPY FOR THE TREATMENT OF RENAL CELL CANCER
Lorus Therapeutics has released interim results from a recently conducted
exploratory phase II clinical trial of GTI-2040 in patients with advanced,
end-stage renal cell cancer in the United States. This trial was a
single-arm pilot study examining the safety and efficacy of GTI-2040 used
in combination with the anticancer agent capecitabine. To date, data have
been collected on 21 patients evaluable for tumour assessment. One patient
is still receiving treatment after eight months of therapy with GTI-2040
and capecitabine. Four additional patients will be accrued.
The majority of patients had failed two or more prior therapies before
entering the study, exhibited extensive metastases, and were representative
of a population with very poor prognostic outcome in renal cell cancer. In
the present clinical study, few treatment-related toxicities outside of
those already known to occur with the test drugs were observed. Unaudited
data analysis showed that more than half of the 21 evaluable patients in
this study exhibited disease stabilization, ranging up to eight months.
Tumour shrinkages of index tumours compared with baseline measurements were
observed in some patients. A full assessment of tumour responses will be
completed and a final independent review of results will occur following
conclusion of the study.
Lorus's objective is to further the clinical development of its lead
antisense drug, GTI-2040, in renal cell cancer with the intention of
progressing the drug into a definitive phase II/III registration program.
The drug would be studied in early stage rather than late stage renal cell
cancer in combination with a cytokine, as these are agents commonly used in
the first or second-line clinical setting. This decision also reflects
recent promising preclinical data, showing positive antitumour efficacy in
combination with cytokines like interleukin and interferon. Discussions
with leading clinical experts on the design of the investigation are under
way, but will likely include a pharmacokinetic and disease response
analysis of GTI-2040 in combination with a first-line approved therapy
versus first-line therapy alone, in previously untreated, newly diagnosed
patients.
"We are encouraged by initial clinical evidence in this single-arm trial of
disease stabilizations and tumour shrinkages in a heavily pretreated and
multiple-relapsed population," said Dr. Jim Wright, chief executive officer
of Lorus. "Lorus has decided to move development of GTI-2040 to a first or
second-line indication in renal cell cancer, rather than end-stage disease.
We believe this approach provides the greatest opportunity to demonstrate
the anticancer activity of GTI-2040 in renal cell cancer, and the potential
to enhance the commercial value of the drug."
Renal cell carcinoma is the most common type of kidney cancer with more
than 190,000 cases diagnosed annually across all countries. The majority of
patients are over the age of 40. More than 90,000 patients die annually
from this disease worldwide. The age-adjusted world incidence in renal cell
carcinoma has been increasing steadily at an annual rate of approximately 2
per cent. Advanced renal cell cancer is typically resistant to
chemotherapy, with reported response rates of less than 10 per cent.
Current treatments include the cytokines interferon, and interleukin-2,
however tumour response rates for these agents are low, in the range of 15
per cent.
WARNING: The company relies upon litigation protection for
"forward-looking" statements.
(c) Copyright 2004 Canjex Publishing Ltd. stockwatch.com
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| From: NRugg | 3/25/2010 1:30:00 PM | | | | | | Its been years since anyone posted on the stock. I still own it but think it has little prospect of ever being profitable for me.
Anyone else still following it?
Norman |
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