Below are recent stories in the news about the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute and the UPMC Cancer Centers. The links listed will take you to the original media articles. If you are unable to access an article, please email Courtney McCrimmon at mccrimmoncp@upmc.edu for a copy of the story.
Cancer Compassion StudyCNN.com, November 5, 2009 — A new study conducted by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute gives us insight on what cancer patients want from their doctors.
Prostate and Breast Cancer Screenings MisunderstoodPittsburgh Post Gazette, November 4, 2009 — While breast and prostate cancer screenings have often drawn controversy, a new study raises questions about whether their benefits are being exaggerated because some of the most aggressive tumors are being missed.
An article in the Oct. 21 Journal of the American Medical Association challenged the validity of previous studies that claim screening significantly reduces the number of deaths in those two cancers. In turn, a New York Times story reported that day that the American Cancer Society is considering adding cautions to its guidelines on cancer screening and its benefits.
...Change is ahead, according to Dr. Nancy E. Davidson, director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, who said the JAMA report illustrates the need for breast cancer and prostate cancer screening now, but better screening in the future.
Battling Cancer, Canadian Mom Comes to Pittsburgh for HelpThe Pittsburgh Channel.com, November 4, 2009 — Kaleena Hudon, a 25-year-old Canadian stricken with cancer, is in Pittsburgh for a grueling procedure that she hopes will help save her life and allow her new daughter to know her.
Hudon said the only procedure that may help in her fight was pioneered at the Hillman Cancer Center in Shadyside and is not offered in Canada.
"This is a life-threatening disease. This is a disease, which unchecked, is likely to take her life," said Dr. John Kirkwood, director of the Melanoma Center at the Hillman Cancer Center.
Jane Citron's Cookbook Fights CancerPittsburgh Post Gazette, October 29, 2009 — Jane Citron is a big culinary figure, too.
Over the three decades she was teaching cooking and writing about food for the Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Pittsburgh Magazine, many students and readers asked her for a collection of recipes. But she didn't start putting one together until just before she died of colon cancer in 2006 at age 73.
Now her family has edited and published them as "Living to Cook." Proceeds from the release party and from sales of the cookbook ($26.95) will be donated to the Jane and Carl Citron Endowed Chair in Colon Cancer at the University of Pittsburgh and the UPMC Cancer Centers Patient Assistance Fund.
UPMC Urologist Pushing For Early Prostate Cancer ScreeningsWTAE / ABC, October 19, 2009 — Dr. Joel Nelson, a UPMC urologist, is aggressively lobbying for screening at a younger age.
Lung cancer turns retired judge into advocate for researchPittsburgh Post Gazette Oct 19, 2009 — ...He is grateful that it seems to have wiped out the last of three tumors that doctors found in his left lung last year. He is grateful that a screening program he was part of at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute caught his cancer early.
Less Women Getting MammogramsKDKA.com, October 1, 2009 — Dr. Julies Sumkin, Chief of Radiology at Magee-Women's Hospital of UPMC, talks about the importance of mammograms and why trends show that the number of women getting them is going down.
Charting the Path
from Infection to CancerNCI Cancer Bulletin, September 22, 2009 — The molecular chain of events leading to an infection-induced cancer is similar to the process by which noninfectious cancers develop, said Dr. Patrick Moore, who directs the Molecular Virology Program at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute. "The same tumor-suppressor signaling pathways that are mutated in noninfectious cancers are also inactivated by viruses," said Dr. Moore. "Indeed, it was through research on viral causes of cancer that we learned much of what we now know about cancer-causing genes and tumor-suppressor signaling pathways."
Golf Outing Raises Pancreatic Cancer AwarenessKDKA.com, September 17, 2009 — Karen Fortey Balk, the host of the 3rd Annual Golf Outing, and Dr. Jim Moser of the UPMC Pancreatic Cancer Center, talk about the golf event that is raising awareness of pancreatic cancer.
Adam Frey is grappling with his toughest foe, and holding his ownSports Illustrated, September, 2009 — ... He is now on his fifth different kind of regimen; three of them have been experimental, either in the prodigious doses of chemo he was given or the combination of drugs that were used. "Whatever happens with Adam, he has been immensely helpful to other patients," says Dr. Leonard Appleman, an oncologist who supervises Adam's treatment at the Hillman Cancer Center in Pittsburgh.
Pancreatic Cancer Advances Made in Pittsburgh RegionWTAE / ABC, Wednesday, August 26, 2009 — Interviews with Drs. Zeh and Moser on new surgical treatments available at UPMC Cancer Centers.
UPMC Hopeful For Brain Cancer Clinical TrialsWTAE / ABC, Wednesday, August 26, 2009 — UPMC's Neuro-Oncology program is currently working on six clinical trials and looking for participants, including a trial that uses a device called NovaCure.
Pittsburgh institute seeks more participants in clinical trialsPittsburgh Tribune-Review, Monday, August 22, 2009 — Six months into her role heading the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, Dr. Nancy E. Davidson says one of her goals is to increase participation in clinical trials, a key element in improving cancer treatment options.
Melanoma specialist Dr. John Kirkwood speaks on a new study highlighting the risks of tanning bedsThe Pittsburgh Channel and KDKA, Thursday, July 30, 2009 — Featured video on: WTAE (ABC) and KDKA (CBS).
New vaccine may help treat pancreatic cancer.Pittsburgh Post Gazette, Monday, July 27, 2009 — Rev. Stollings' survival may also be attributable to an experimental vaccine developed by UPMC researcher Olivera Finn that he took as part of his treatment.
Jai Pausch: Learning to live after the 'Last Lecture'Pittsburgh Post Gazette, Sunday, July 26, 2009 — Jai Pausch no longer wakes up every morning with a knot in her chest. She can now turn off the burglar alarm at night, no longer so afraid to be the only adult at home.
And her three young children have started to adjust to their father's absence, although they still grieve for him and miss him.
A year ago yesterday, her husband, Randy Pausch, the Carnegie Mellon University computer science professor who inspired millions with his last lecture, died from pancreatic cancer.
Excela Health plans capital improvementPittsburgh Business Times, Tuesday, July 14, 2009 — Along with the emergency department, capital projects include purchase of a digital mammography unit, radiation oncology equipment for the Arnold Palmer Pavilion, a joint program with UPMC Cancer Centers, and electronic health records gear, Curry said.
Lung cancer patient takes aggressive tackPittsburgh Post-Gazette, Monday, June 22, 2009 — As a lung cancer patient, Ann Dudurich is both typical and rare. The 49-year-old Unity woman never smoked, and that puts her in the fastest growing group of lung cancer patients in the nation. About 15 percent of people with lung cancer have never used tobacco, and women make up two-thirds of that group.
Her tumor was only a half-inch across. But Dr. Joel Greenberger, a cancer specialist at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, said that even when doctors find tumors tinier than that, current scanning technology can miss 100 million cancer cells that are still in the patient's body.
Does lung cancer get short shrift?Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Sunday, June 21, 2009 — Despite the growing number of nonsmokers who get the disease, though, lung cancer researchers and activists have no doubt that the public’s attitudes about smoking play a major role in the neglect of this major killer.
Lung cancer “seems to be the focus of everyone’s blame-the-victim mentality,” says Dr. Jill Siegfried, a lung cancer scientist at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute. “You can take another disease like heart disease that is equally caused by smoking, and nobody would say, ‘Don’t develop stents or bypasses.’
“For some reason, lung cancer seems to shoulder all the burden for our smoking-related guilt.”
Local cancer, heart studies to beginPittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 15, 2009 — The University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute and Allegheny General Hospital’s heart center are enrolling patients for new research studies, each announced today.
The UPCI has joined the Western Pennsylvania Cancer Institute and a group of cancer centers in Europe and Israel for a phase III study assessing the safety and success of using a derivative of umbilical stem cells to treat blood cancers, including leukemia and lymphoma. It is called the ExCell research study.
Setting the standard: UPMC may be a model for health care efficiencyPittsburgh Business Times, Friday, May 29, 2009 — Dr. Peter Ellis advocates a simple approach in figuring out which medical treatments work best and cost least: Get doctors involved early in the decision-making. A government panel won;t do as well.
In 2004, Ellis, associate chief medical officer, and Dr. Stanley Marks, chief medical officer, both at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s Cancer Centers, spearheaded development of clinical pathways, a series of clinically proven guidelines that UPMC doctors can follow to treat cancer.
She’ll race back to lab to look for cancer curePittsburgh Post-Gazette, May 09, 2009, — On Mother’s Day, Dr. Shannon Puhalla will pack her 2-year-old twins into their stroller and walk with them in the 17th annual Susan G. Komen Pittsburgh Race for the Cure to help raise money for cancer research and mammograms for low-income women.
Chemotherapy Superior to New Drug for Early Breast CancerStandard treatment prolonged survival in older women, study finds
Forbes.com, May 13, 2009 – Older women with early-stage breast cancer do better after standard chemotherapy than they do with the oral drug capecitabine (Xeloda), a new study finds.
"After three years, 85 percent of people who received chemotherapy were doing well, and 68 percent of people who received capecitabine were doing well," said lead researcher Dr. Hyman Muss, a professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Dr. Nancy Davidson, director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, thinks that the results of this study confirm the benefit of chemotherapy for treating women with early-stage breast cancer.
