It’s hard to talk about cancer, but being open about my mastectomy has given me strength
I’ve had a double mastectomy. I don’t find it straightforward to spell or to pronounce, but it’s the term I find easiest to use when I tell people what has happened to me. I just can’t put it in plain English, and say exactly what the surgeons did. This may change, but it seems too painful to me, and I worry about the people listening.

Generally, since I was diagnosed with breast cancer last summer I have tried to avoid couching things in terms that may be unclear. Years of writing articles on complicated financial products and schemes in my roles on the Guardian’s Money and Investigations desks have conditioned me to avoid jargon.

I like to get to the point and use language that is accessible, rather than words that exclude people, and in the main I have taken this approach to my illness… (Continue to full article)

The Nutrient That Cancer Cells Crave
Arginine is an amino acid naturally produced by our bodies and plentiful in the fish, meat, and nuts that we eat. But as recent research in Science Advances reveals, arginine is an essential nutrient for cancer cells too. And starving them of it could potentially render tumors more vulnerable to the body’s natural immune response.

Researchers from Sohail Tavazoie’s Laboratory of Systems Cancer Biology found that in a variety of human cancers, this amino acid becomes limited, prompting these cells to seek a clever genetic workaround: when arginine levels drop, they manipulate proteins at their disposal to more efficiently take up arginine and other amino acids. And remarkably, in a bid to keep growing, they induce mutations that reduce their reliance on it.

“It’s like if you had a Lego set, and you’re trying to build a fancy model plane, and you run out of the right bricks… (Continue to full article)

400 patients were wrongly informed they might have cancer, biotech company says
A cancer test company incorrectly informed around 400 patients that they may have developed cancer, a company said, after there was a software issue with its telemedicine provider.

Grail Inc, an American biotechnology company, developed an early-detection blood test called Galleri, created to identify more than 50 types of cancer before symptoms appear, per Reuters.

According to an internal company document seen by the Financial Times, 408 patients were erroneously sent letters saying the test had detected a sign in their blood potentially indicating cancer… (Continue to full article)

The One-a-Day Vitamin That Slashed Death From Cancer
Approximately 35% of adults in the United States have a vitamin D deficiency according to some reports. But it may actually be lower…

Part of the reason is that most doctors don’t test patient levels unless asked, and many insurances won’t cover vitamin D testing like they do other blood panels. So, often, we rely on studies that focus on specific groups to understand the true depth of vitamin deficiencies.

In one such study among nursing home residents, vitamin D deficiency was as high as 60 percent, and in a general hospital ward where patients for various reasons were admitted, 57 percent were found to be deficient. Another study found two-thirds of young adults living in Boston were vitamin D insufficient at winter’s end.

Where do you think your vitamin D levels stand? And why does it matter??? (Continue to full article)

I felt run down for months and thought it was just the flu, but when I went to the doctor they told me I had cancer
The 20-year-old had been struggling ‘with the flu’ for a few months before she went to the doctor and was diagnosed with a late-stage blood cancer.

The otherwise ‘perfectly healthy’ young woman struggled with the symptoms in the months leading up to her devastating Hodgkin’s Lymphoma diagnosis.

Olivia explained her symptoms began in October 2022 when she started to feel fatigued and rundown. She had lower backpain and a lingering cough she thought would eventually go away.

She also had a small lump above her left collarbone which was painful to touch.

Eventually when she couldn’t shake off the uncomfortable symptoms, the young Melbourne woman went to her GP for answers.

I’m only 20 – here are the signs I missed…… (Continue to full article)

I had colon cancer at 27
Oplopanax elatus, commonly known as nakai, is an herb native to northern China A woman who was diagnosed with stage three colon cancer at age 27 has revealed her early warning signs — amid a mystery uptick in cases in younger adults.

Vanessa Mendico, now 29, described herself as a ‘super fit’ person who exercised five or six times a week, ate healthily, didn’t smoke and only rarely drank alcohol.

But the youth worker, who lives in Australia, became concerned after specs of blood started to appear in her feces in February last year.

These are the symptoms to watch out for… (Continue to full article)

Breakthrough in treating one of the deadliest blood cancers
‘Remarkably effective’ new immunotherapy can slow disease’s progress by 74 per cent

A new type of immunotherapy can significantly slow the progression of one of the most deadly cancers by three-quarters, a study has found.

Experts found the CAR-T therapy ‘remarkably effective’ for treating patients with multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer that develops from cells in the bone marrow.

Trials found the drug, which goes by the brand name Carvykti, slowed disease progression by 74 per cent in patients who had become resistant to other medication… (Continue to full article)