By Lauren Pecorino
There is a tendency to complain about policies when writing blogs, but I think it is time to commend the British campaigns and innovations in treatment. They have proven to be some of the best in the world and have had a major impact in the fight against cancer.
One of the best British campaigns is against cervical cancer. Getting personally posted invitations to attend your next PAP screening, supported by pamphlets of information, is something few women ignore. Those who try to ignore these invitations are rightly and relentlessly bombarded with regular reminders.
And, with the knowledge that a sexually transmitted virus, Human Papilloma Virus (HPV), is responsible for all cases of cervical cancer, the UK implemented a national school-based HPV vaccination programme that has proven to yield high uptake. By 2009, 70 percent of 12-13 year olds in the UK were fully vaccinated. These results are admirable compared to the results of alternative on-demand provisions offered by other countries including the USA. Note that the vaccine is recommended for early teens as it is a preventative vaccine and not a therapeutic vaccine, and must be administered before the initiation of sexual activity for it to be effective. The vaccine prevents about 70% of cervical cancers caused by two specific strains of HPV. PAP screening is still important to catch cases that are not prevented by the vaccine. An added bonus of this campaign is that the same vaccine also protects against some head, neck, and anal cancers caused by HPV infections.
Another great British effort is towards the prevention of lung cancer. The anti-smoking adverts have been haunting, especially the most recent one released by the UK Department of Health that shows a tumor growing on a cigarette. It is brilliant. I wish I had designed it. The advert strikingly conveys the message that if you saw the damage smoking causes, you would not smoke. The percentage of male cigarette smokers have fallen from 55% in 1970 to 21% in 2010 and a decreasing number of deaths due to lung cancer has followed this trend.
Click here to view the embedded video.
The UK is also a model of good practice in that it is the only country in the world which has a network of free ‘stop-smoking’ services, recently supported by specialized training for National Health Service Stop Smoking practitioners.
We can help the national campaign at a personal level by being more opinionated and outspoken when it comes to letting those around us know that smoking is harmful and “uncool”- especially among the young. We must ensure the message is passed down to new generations.
Finally, the UK is at the leading edge in using stem cells to help replace organs damaged by cancer. Tracheal transplants using tracheal scaffolds from cadavers seeded with the patient’s own stem cells have been used to replace damaged tissue for patients with tracheal cancer. Currently scientists at University College London are developing very similar procedures to grow a new nose for a patient who had lost their nose to cancer. These innovative approaches are the result of a continuously open, well-supported but regulated stem cell research policy, not yet seen in the USA.
Well done Great Britain!
Lauren Pecorino received her PhD from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in Cell and Developmental Biology. She crossed the Atlantic to carry out a postdoctoral tenure at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, London. She is a Principal Lecturer at the University of Greenwich where teaches Cancer Biology and Therapeutics. The teaching of this course motivated her to write The Molecular Biology of Cancer: Mechanisms, Targets, and Therapeutics, now in its second edition. Feedback on the textbook posted on Amazon from a cancer patient drove her to write a book on cancer for a wider audience: Why Millions Survive Cancer: the Successes of Science.
Read a World Cancer Day Q&A with Lauren Pecorino.
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On World Cancer Day 2012, we speak with Dr Lauren Pecorino, author of Why Millions Survive Cancer: the Successes of Science, to learn the latest in the field of cancer research. – Nicola
There are so many myths about cancer that it is sometimes difficult to understand exactly what it is. Can you briefly explain how cancer develops?
Cancer is a disease of the human genome. Many agents that cause cancer cause permanent changes to your genes. These permanent changes are called mutations. Cancer is usually caused by the accumulation of mutations over time. This is why cancer risk increases with age. The altered genes may produce faulty proteins that lead to abnormal cell growth and this appears as a tumour. Cancer is characterized by abnormal cell growth and the ability of tumour cells to spread throughout the body. It is this second characteristic, called metastasis that is the most difficult aspect to treat.
It is said that cancer now affects one in three people over a lifetime. What’s the latest progress in the field of cancer research?
There has been tremendous progress in the field of cancer management. The good news is that trends in death rates are decreasing for many cancers though that is not to say for all cancers. There are millions of cancer survivors who have had their diagnosis ten or more years ago. Many people are now living with cancer. Conventional treatments such as surgical procedures have been refined and new drugs that target tumour-specific molecules have proved efficient and promises less side effects.
In addition, we are learning to make lifestyle choices that science has shown reduces cancer risk — the most obvious being not smoking. We also have cancer screening programmes that can catch cancer early and even prevent cancer by treating pre-cancerous growths. The latest means for preventing a specific type of cancer is a cancer vaccine. Interestingly the vaccine designed to prevent cervical cancer vaccine also prevents several other cancers caused by the human papilloma virus such as some head and neck cancers.
What do you see as the priorities for future cancer research? Where will the next great advances be?
I see four main priorites for future cancer research.
1 – To develop better and less invasive diagnostics so that we can detect cancer earlier. It is well-known that catching cancer earlier gives a better outcome or prognosis.
2 – To expand our understanding of the individual molecular differences between tumors and to be able to fully practice personalized medicine which allows a better match between a patient and a drug. This understanding will need to be supported by technology that allows a patient’s tumour DNA to be sequenced (similar to the methods used for the Human Genome Project).
3 – To understand if we can turn a cancer cell back into a normal cell. This may sound strange but lessons from stem cells and cloning tell us that changing one cell type into another is possible.
4 – To better understand metastasis and how we can better treat it. The spreading of cancer cells throughout the body is the most difficult aspect of treating
The news of the passing of Evelyn Lauder, crusader for breast cancer awareness, on November 12 brought feelings of sadness for me and many in my family. Indeed, any family member of a survivor of cancer was probably affected by the news of Lauder’s death. Her pink ribbon campaign is as ubiquitous as air itself. Her tireless efforts to raise cancer awareness is admirable and appreciated.
Below Dr. Lauren Pecorino, author of Why Millions Survive Cancer, comments on Lauder’s influence and offers some hope for those diagnosed, or know someone close who has been diagnosed with cancer. – Purdy, Publicity
By Lauren Pecorino
Cancer is managed throughout the world by teams of people, most notably those made up of doctors, nurses, hospice workers and scientists. But it took one powerful and astute businesswoman to use a successful marketing campaign to raise awareness of breast health around the world.
In 1992, Evelyn Lauder, daughter-in-law of Estee Lauder, along with Alexandra Penny, former Editor of SELF magazine, created the pink ribbon as a symbol of breast health. To date, the Estee Lauder Companies’ Breast Cancer Awareness (BCA) Campaign has given away more than 100 million pink ribbons and millions of informational brochures at its cosmetic counters around the world. The designation of October as Breast Cancer Awareness Month by politicians was a tribute to the success of her campaign.
In 2000, the BCA broadened its ‘Pink’ awareness campaign and began illuminating historic landmarks such as the Empire State Building, Niagara Falls, the Tower of London, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and the Tokyo Tower with pink lights to raise awareness on a highly visible scale. English actress and Estee’ Lauder spokeswoman Elizabeth Hurley worked with Evelyn Lauder on breast cancer awareness since the mid-1990s. Together they traveled the world to raise awareness of the importance of breast health and early cancer detection.
Back in 1993, Evelyn Lauder founded the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF) as an independent, not-for-profit organization dedicated to funding innovative clinical and translational research. The BCRF has raised hundreds of millions of dollars and supports scientists across the USA, Canada, Europe, the Middle East, and Australia.
And as recently as 2009, the money raised from the sale of ribbons and related items helped Lauder establish the Evelyn H. Lauder Breast Center at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. In so many ways, Evelyn Lauder contributed greatly to the progress we have seen in our fight against breast cancer.
The progress in our fight against breast cancer has been impressive over the last few decades and has resulted in a decreasing trend in mortality. In addition to better awareness, advances have been seen in screening participation, methods of surgery, new treatments, and quality of life. Participation of women in the USA over 40 years old in having a mammogram within the last two years is about 67%. Although different individual studies have reported different values, a re-examination of a mass of previous trials by experts commissioned by the World Health Organization has estimated that the reduction in mortality from breast cancer due to screening is about 35%. Advances in surgery include lumpectomy versus mastectomy and the use of robotics for more precise removal of tumor tissue.
Although tamoxifen has been a successful drug used for decades, newer alternatives such as aromatase inh
By Lauren Pecorino
The statement "cancer is personal" can have several meanings. The fact that cancer affects one in three people over their lifetimes means that it is a disease that will hit close to home for everyone. Everyone will have family or friends that will be affected and loved ones will become cancer patients. Cancer is personal. Luckily, we are living in a new age when cancer patients are more likely than ever to be cancer survivors. There are 28 million cancer survivors in the world today. Out of approximately 12 million cancer survivors in the United States, 4.7 million received their diagnosis at least ten years ago. The good news that everyone should know is that there is progress in cancer management.
