Brief citations of stuff in the news pertaining to CRC:

"Aspirin's ability to protect against CRC may depend on inflammatory pathways"....gist of which is that of the three inflammatory factors/blood biomarkers analyzed--C-reactive protein(CRP), interleukin-6 (IL-6) and soluble tumor necrosis factor receptor-2 (sTNFR-2), it was only the last mentioned that showed benefits of aspirin taking.........physorg.com

"Good Cholesterol May Cut Colon Cancer Risk":....researchers "found that those withthe highest levels of HDL cholesterol and another blood fat called apolipoproteinA (apoA) had the least chance of developing colon cancer but no impact was seen on rectal cancer......" medlineplus

"Conventional PET scans create imagesby detecting gamma rays produced by radioisotopes that are injected into the body..........Improved lesion detection was observed in the TOF PET scans........" from "TOF (time-of-flight)PET Images Compared to PET images....." in medicalnewstoday.com


Trial for SYM044 which is claimed to be more effective than cetuximab and panitumumab......also at medicalnewstoday......."Symphogen receives US patent on lead cancer compound Sym004"

Again, those with KRAS may want to read this and/or bring copy to onc:"Anti-DLL4 Inhibits Growth and Reduces.........." at http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/71/5/1520.abstract

and for another technical article on liver mets, see:http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/71/5/1989.abstract

From England: "New bowel cancer evidence supports calls for routine DNA damage repair test", at physorg.com and "Critical step towards DNA test to detect early bowel cancer." at healthcanal.com


Some other things to ask onc about, from my readings (Tho I don't understand exactly what I'm writing here, what follows, tthat is:):

a)LEF-1 (lymphoid enhancer factor-1)in primary CRC a prognostic factor for poor survival and increased risk for liver mets

b)LPS (lipopolysaccharides) may promote liver mets

c)Occult tumor burden independently predicted prognosis in node-negative CRC


Knowledge, in and of itself is meaningless, unless acted upon (PRAXIS)

PS: CDC reports 11.7 million cancer survivors in US in 2007 (once diagnosed, you're a survivor),up from 9.8 million in 2001 and from 3 million in 1971, with CRC survivors comprising the third largest group of cancer types at 10%, behind breast and prrostate survivors.......