WASHINGTON (AP) – A special type of CT scan can detect lung cancer early enough to save lives, announced Thursday the National Cancer Institute, the first evidence that a screening test can help combat one of the Cancer most lethal variants.

At stake are controversial multislice spiral CT, where a rotating scanner checks the lungs at various angles to detect tumors when they are half the size of which can detect a regular chest x-ray. Some studies have suggested that early detection is useful, while other studies concluded that it could be too damaging to detect benign tumors.

The experiment in the United States covered for 53,000 smokers or former smokers to try to settle the debate. Found 20% fewer deaths from lung cancer among those who were viewed with spiral CT than among those who were examined with chest radiographs, the institute said on Thursday, a difference so significant that it ended the study early.

The actual number of deaths averted was rather modest: 354 died in the spiral CT group in the eight-year study compared with 442 in the group of radiographs.

The institute said it is not clear that all smokers should get the scans, which are not without risk.

The best advice for preventing lung cancer is to quit smoking, said institute director Dr. Harold Varmus.

Anyway, “a validated approach that can reduce cancer mortality by 20% has the potential to save a significant number of people from the ravages of this disease,” he said.

In the United States are diagnosed 200,000 new cases of cancer each year and the disease kills 159,000 each year. Is usually diagnosed at an advanced stage of development, and the average five-year survival is only 15%.

Many smokers have sought to undergo spiral CT, although the American Cancer Society has not recommended the test, citing lack of firm evidence of their effectiveness, and most insurance does not cover the cost of 300 to 400 dollars.

These scans involve risks: cancer often confused with any old infection or a benign lump, leading to unnecessary biopsies or surgery which in turn can cause a collapsed lung, infection or other problems.

The Institute continues to collect data on false alarm and other risks of the study.

Nor is it clear that the study results are applicable to all smokers. The experiment recruited subjects from 55 to 74 who were or had been heavy smokers and underwent annual CT for three years.

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Treatment Vaccines see how to make your own body immune system recognize and kill cancer cells. endothelin blockers are a new type of drug treatment that works by preventing prostate cancer cells to grow.

Many people may have heard that Vitamin D is being used in the treatment of prostate cancer but this therapy in the very early experimental stage and nowhere near to be used in the clinic as a cancer treatment. Vitamin D has been reported to block receptors on prostate cancer cells thereby slowing their growth rate but there is NO clinical evidence that this is actually the case. Some researchers claim that the active form of Vitamin D slows prostate cancer growth but this has not been tested only in mice and other small animals.

Beta-sitosterol is a herbal medicine that people have started to associate with prostate cancer treatment. This natural plant fats appear to have been proven effective for the treatment of enlarged prostate but not necessarily prostate cancer. According to research to help Beta-sitosterol POSSIBLE to prevent prostate cancer but this has not been clinically proven yet.

The best medicine is found so far is docetaxel, a new type of chemotherapy drug. This has the side effects include hair loss, nausea and the risk of infection. Doctors are now looking to see if docetaxel will work better in combination with other drugs.

A study conducted on women has discovered the secret behind the turmeric, curcumin is able to prevent the risk of cancer in postmenopausal women who have undergone treatment with hormone replacement, positioning and an excellent natural agent prevent cancer.

Previous studies have shown that estrogen with progestin in hormone replacement therapy could increase the risk of developing tumors in women who had passed menopause. However, curcumin was shown to have a preventive action of this problem in animals, allowing to speculate whether the same applies to the human body.

Research is not only remarkable for highlighting the importance of turmeric to prevent tumor development, but also have prevented the occurrence of morphological abnormalities in the mammary glands of these women.

But a new study has shown a possible answer: the spice turmeric. This Indian spice popular use seems to reduce the risk of this cancer.

That was the conclusion of a group of researchers at the University of Missouri. They found that turmeric may reduce the risk of breast cancer after receiving hormone replacement therapy.

About 6 million women in the United States, rely on hormonal replacement therapy to treat symptoms of menopause. This progestin exposure predisposes to a large number of post-menopausal women develop breast cancer. The results of this study show that these women could take to protect themselves from risk turmeric.

Had they thought that a species could do such a thing? No … I really do not. But do not complain, welcome!

How is it treated?
* Surgical excision, if possible, is the preferred technique because it allows to remove the tumor in its entirety and make a subsequent histological study to determine if the edges of the surgical specimen are free. A variant of this technique is Mohs microsurgery, which is performed histological study of the piece on the operative act itself so as to determine whether or not it is necessary to continue to expand the margins of excision, is a technique used primarily when affect areas involved such as the eyelids. It is probably the treatment of choice in the forms sclerodermiform.
* Curettage and electrocoagulation: This technique is removal by curette, based on the greater friability of the tumor relative to healthy skin. Subsequently, the treated area is electrocoagulation to remove debris. The drawback of this technique is unable to confirm the total removal.
* Cryosurgery (liquid nitrogen) can be used in small lesions, but does not allow histological confirmation or determine if excision has been complete.
* Radiation therapy: Their primary indications are elderly, large lesions, when surgical treatment fails or if it’s difficult.
* Topical cytotoxic agents: 5-fluorouracil can be used only in the treatment of superficial basal cell carcinoma.
* Laser: This is a difficult treatment availability and does not allow histological control. So although it should not be a treatment of choice may be used in selected cases, as the Gorlin syndrome. CO2 can be used or photodynamic therapy.
* Imiquimod: This emerging drug was initially approved for the treatment of genital warts. It has an immunomodulatory effect by stimulating the immune response of the individual in charge of eliminating viral injury. There are also several studies that prove antitumor action. It has been recently approved in Europe for use in the treatment of superficial and nodular basal cell carcinomas of small size. The disadvantages are that we have focused on histological control of the removal of the tumor and its high irritant.

Forecast
The prognosis of basal cell carcinoma is excellent. Although metastases are described as being outstanding. But we must not forget that the protracted course without treatment of basal cell carcinoma may have important consequences secondary to their local destructive power, especially if it affects areas like the inner canthus of the eye, ear, orbit, and so on. Keep in mind the fact that approximately 40% of patients with basal cell carcinoma presented a new lesion in the subsequent 5-10 years.

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Basal cell carcinoma is characterized by very heterogeneous from a clinical standpoint, which can sometimes make diagnosis difficult. Its most common location is on the face. It has a slow growing and painless, although as noted earlier, the evolution can produce invasion and destruction of adjacent structures.

The most common presentation is as pearly papule with teleangiectasia on its surface, which tends to be localized in the medial canthus, nose, or forehead. Corresponds to 95% of basal cell carcinomas. In the evolution may ulcerate in the center of the lesion, although the edges remain pearly papules features. In some cases the ulceration occurs early and massive way, then called ulcus Rodens, a less frequent but more aggressive.

Other clinical forms are:
* Basal Cell Carcinoma sclerodermatous: Board shiny smooth, flat and sometimes depressed slightly ill-defined borders resembling morphea. Sometimes we can see the look on their margins teleangiectasia pearl and typical of this tumor. Characteristically, the growth in depth of these lesions over the limits that we see clinically.
* Superficial Basal Cell Carcinoma: a raised red plaque with scaly surface, which is typically located in the trunk. Sometimes it can appear as multiple lesions in this case being generally related to previous exposure to arsenic.
* All clinical forms of basal cell carcinoma can appear as pigmented lesions, making it difficult differential diagnosis with melanoma.

Diagnosis and differential diagnosis
Preliminary diagnosis is clinical basal cell carcinoma. It is essential to know the existence of other types of presentation in addition to the characteristic pearly papule. Definitive diagnosis is by histological confirmation by biopsy.

The differential diagnosis of basal cell carcinoma is wide due to the diverse clinical manifestations. Arises mainly with the following entities:
* Actinic Keratosis
* Seborrheic Keratosis
* Tumors of skin appendages
* Giant Melanocytic
* Melanoma
* Bowen’s Disease
* Squamous cell carcinoma

It should deal with cases where the disease is active, ie who has anemia or thrombopenia resistant, lymphadenopathy massive or rapid growth, constitutional symptoms or lymphocytosis rapidly progressive.

Patients who are in stage 0 of Rai, the prognosis is very good, they are not usually given any treatment because there is no cure.

These patients often have more than 60 years and what they usually do is carefully monitored. More than half of them live, at least ten years after diagnosis of the disease.

For stages I and II, intermediate risk, no treatment is required immediately if there are no symptoms. When symptoms associated with the disease, use of chemotherapy with chlorambucil or cyclophosphamide, is usually given along with prednisone.

Other medications used are similar to purines, such as fludarabine, which are drugs that interfere with DNA synthesis, producing a selective decrease of T cells and therefore a severe immunosuppression. This medicine, in chronic lymphocytic leukemia, get referrals full or partial in 50% of cases.

If the only symptoms are a swollen spleen or a lymph node radiation therapy is used in low doses as a spot treatment. Also to splenomegaly, another option is to remove the spleen.

For stage IV or high risk, are used chemotherapeutic drugs mentioned above. If there is lymph node involvement, damaged several zones lymph node can be performed radiation therapy throughout the body.

In patients younger than 50 years with aggressive disease can be treated with a high dose chemotherapy and radiotherapy of the whole body followed by a bone marrow transplant. The average survival of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia risk is two years from diagnosis.

As the disease progresses, we see the presence of lymphadenopathy and organomegaly to increase as greater the number of lymphocytes.

You also have other symptoms caused by the decrease in the number of other blood cells such as red blood cells and platelets.

The anemia does not occur in the first stage of the disease, but when the bone is affected by the invasion of lymphocytes, there is a decrease of red blood cells. Anemia produces pallor, fatigue, shortness of breath and tachycardia.

Sometimes bleeding is shown by the decrease in platelets. They are serious when the platelet count is below 10,000 per ml and will not happen if the decline is not very intense (50,000 per ml).

It may not be reached to produce a large hemorrhage and that lack of platelets occurs only bruising, bleeding gums or nosebleeds mild.

Infections may occur because, although there are many lymphocytes, do not perform the tasks of defending properly. The typical cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia are reduced in size.

The alterations will determine the diagnosis:

The hemogram abnormalities consist of a lymphocytosis or increased numbers of lymphocytes per 000 ml 10000-100. 90% of these cells are small with scant cytoplasm and condensed chromatin.

The surface markers show a proliferation of B cells displaying a marker T.

Inmunoglubolinas expression on the cell surface is weak.
The most common biochemical change is the decrease of IgG for hypogammaglobulinemia.

In advanced stages, 50% of patients may have karyotype abnormalities.

For the diagnosis does not require an analysis of the bone marrow but it gives an idea of prognosis.