Cancer
It is better to have loved and married, than surrendered to cancer
A 24-year-old dying cancer patient, who came to know that her disease is at an advanced stage recently at Chattogram Medical Centre, nevertheless married her boyfriend to fulfill her last wish.
The groom Mahmudul Hasan, 27, and bride Fahmida Kamal were in a relationship and set an example by completing the step of marriage instead of surrendering their love to cancer at a hospital recently, said Saifuddin Saki, former official of Chattogram City Corporation and also the grandfather of Fahmida.
The image of the bride and bridegroom, wearing traditional wedding dresses, went viral on social networking sites drawing the attention of the netizens.
READ: 5-litre can of soybean oil: The best gift a newly married couple could get
The bridegroom himself took the responsibility of his newly married wife and all medical expenses, drawing praise from different quarters.
Mahmudul, son of Azizul Haque of Chakaria in Cox’s Bazar district completed his MBA from North South University (NSU) while Fahmida obtained her BBA and MBA degrees from International Independent University (IIUB).
They met and fell in love during their university days.
In 2021, Fahmida was admitted to Dhaka Evercare Hospital and came to know that she has been suffering from cancer. Later, she went to India for treatment but the doctors informed her it was too late for them to do anything. She then returned home.
She has been undergoing treatment in Chattogram Medical Centre for the past two months, although there was no let up in the deterioration of her physical condition.
READ: School closure impact: over 3,000 girls married off in Bagerhat
During this period, Mahmudul asked for Fahmida;s hand in marriage from her family, and having crossed all obstacles they finally tied the knot on March 9, just like they had always wanted to.
And despite the tragic circumstances, they celebrated the occasion by cutting a cake and providing sweets at the hospital.
Childhood Cancer: Risk factors and causes of cancer in children
It is estimated that each year about 400 000 children and adolescents of 0-19 years old develop cancer. When cancer is diagnosed in a child, it is certainly an atrocious issue of serious tension for parents about their child’s health, treatment, and future. But most of us do not know what causes cancer in children. Continue reading this article to find out the most common causes of cancer in children.
Let’s check out first the types of cancer in children
Generally, types of childhood cancer are not the same as adult cancer. The most common childhood cancers are:
- Leukemia – begins in the bone marrow and spread via the bloodstream
- Brain and central nervous system tumors – gliomas and medulloblastoma
- neuroblastoma – is called a cancer of the nerve tissue and is generally found around the kidneys
- Lymphoma – begin in white blood cells (lymphocytes), usually in the lymph nodes and other lymph tissues
- Wilms’ tumor – known as a type of kidney cancer
- Bone cancer – osteosarcoma and Ewing sarcoma
- rhabdomyosarcoma – develop in muscle and connective tissue
- Retinoblastoma – is called the cancer of the retina
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The frequent causes of cancer in children
There are many causes of cancer. Modern Scientists believe that it is the interconnection of many characteristics together that produces cancer. The factors tangled might be environmental, genetic, or constitutional characteristics of the individuals.
Cancers in children often begin or happen in the stem cells that are capable of producing other types of synthesized cells that the body requires. Childhood cancer is usually caused by sporadic (happens by chance) cells.
Epithelial cells in adults generally become cancerous. These cells stroke the body cavity and overlap the body surface. Cancer occurs from environmental disclosure to these cells over a period of time. This adult cancer is sometimes referred to as received for this reason that leads to a threat to genetic child cancer. However, according to Tanya Watt, M.D., a pediatric oncologist at Children's Health℠ and Associate Professor at UT Southwestern, parents, children, or anybody’s is not responsible at all for developing cancer in children.
Read: Breast Cancer Prevention: How to Cut Your Risk?
Most Common Risk Factors of cancers
As stated above, cancers in adults have been linked with recurring exposures or risk factors. A risk factor is a thing or event that may increase people's chances of developing a disease. A risk factor does not surely cause the disease, but it may be the cause of making the body less resistant to it. Here as below, some most common mechanisms and risk factors are considered to come up with cancer:
Breast Cancer Prevention: How to Cut Your Risk?
Breast cancer is a common fear for most women. Almost everyone knows someone who is suffering or has suffered from its consequences. While breast cancer sounds worrisome, modern medical science offers excellent ways to treat it. Along with advanced effective treatments, there are also a couple of actions that can be taken in order to prevent breast cancer. Most of these tips are associated with lifestyle changes. Apart from risk factors like family history and age, most of these lifestyle habits can be formed to prevent breast cancer.
10 Breast Cancer Prevention Tips
Here are 10 tips for women to prevent the risks of breast cancer.
Maintaining healthy weight
Maintaining a Body Mass Index (BMI) that falls within the normal range is extremely important when it comes to breast cancer prevention. Especially older women who have hit menopause are at a risk of getting breast cancer. Therefore, it becomes imperative for women to maintain a healthy weight so that they can reduce its risk. Regular weight measurements to ensure that the weight falls within the normal BMI for an adult of 18.5- 24.9 is a necessity to avoid being obese as it will only increase its risk.
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Taking part in regular physical exercise
Research suggests that taking part in regular physical exercise can reduce the chances of breast cancer by 10 percent. Starting to work out at even a later stage of life can be helpful in this regard. A daily walk of 30 minutes or engaging in yoga or doing any kind of physical activity on a regular basis that makes the body sweat can aid in the prevention of breast cancer to a certain extent.
Eating healthy
Eating a healthy and balanced diet can lessen the risk of getting breast cancer. This balanced diet should be ideally recommended by a registered nutritionist according to the individual needs of a person.
HPL launches anti-cancer medicine in Bangladesh
Bangladesh-based Healthcare Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (HPL) and American Eli Lilly & Company on Friday launched Cyramza™ (ramucirumab injection, 10 mg/mL solution) in the country.
Cyramza™ is an anti-cancer medicine approved as a single agent or in combination with other agents for cancers arising from the stomach, lungs, liver, or large bowel that has spread to distant parts of the body.
Read: Rafe Sadnan Adel first Bangladeshi to join Board of World Ovarian Cancer Coalition
Top officials of HPL and Eli Lilly & Company launched the medicine at a programme at a city hotel, said a press release.
Speaking about the medicine’s benefits to patients, Luca Visini, MD of Eli Lilly and Company India, said, “Cancer impacts the lives of many people every year. We are pleased to bring to Bangladesh an option for the first-line treatment of people with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and second-line treatment for people living with the burden of gastric cancer.”
“We believe this will help us in moving several steps ahead in our collective goal to make lung and gastric cancer a less formidable challenge and a condition that can be managed,” he added.
Bhupati Kumar Roy, Executive Director Marketing, Healthcare Pharmaceuticals Ltd said they are committed to bringing specialised care to Bangladesh for people living with chronic conditions such as diabetes and cancer.
Read:‘Next big wave’: Radiation drugs track and kill cancer cells
“Cyramza will be marketed and distributed in Bangladesh by Healthcare Pharmaceuticals Ltd. to help alleviate the burden of cancer. The launch of Cyramza is an important step towards our continued focus on helping patients meet their treatment goals,” he said.
Cyramza™ is for use in cancers that are usually advanced or have spread despite other treatments. For most cancers, it is used in combination with other medicines.
Cyramza™ plus erlotinib is the first and only US FDA-approved anti-VEGFR/EGFR TKI combination therapy for EGFR-mutated metastatic NSCLC.
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Lilly is a global health care leader that unites caring with discovery to create medicines that make life better for people around the world.
Healthcare Pharmaceuticals Ltd. is one of the largest companies in the pharmaceutical industry in Bangladesh and a leading life science organisation.
Rafe Sadnan Adel first Bangladeshi to join Board of World Ovarian Cancer Coalition
Former journalist turned communications professional Rafe Sadnan Adel has been elected to serve the Board of Directors of the World Ovarian Cancer Coalition.
Adel will serve the position with the global coalition for the next three years starting July 1, 2021.
Read: Lung cancer on the rise in Bangladesh: Report
In 2014, the same year he lost his mother to ovarian cancer, Rafe Sadnan Adel launched the first-ever cancer-related Bangla website www.cancerbd.net (formerly cancerbd.com), offering cancer awareness-related information to all Bengali-speaking people.
The site covers everything from the type of cancer, to symptoms, diagnosis, and information on treatment centers, doctors and medicines fulfilling a previous unmet need in the country.
Cancerbd.net also hosts seminars, symposiums, webinars, media and social campaigns on cancer-related awareness.
During the covid-19 pandemic, the platform delivered food assistance several times to the people affected by cancer.
Elisabeth Baugh, Chair of World Ovarian Cancer Coalition, said, “As Chair, I am delighted to welcome Rafe Sadnan Adel to the Board of Directors. His significant skill and expertise as a communicator and patient advocate will be a huge asset and we are honored that he will be joining us in our mission to ensure that every woman diagnosed with ovarian cancer has the best chance of survival and best quality of life – no matter where they live.”
Welcoming Adel on board, Clara MacKay, CEO of the Coalition said, “Adel’s passion for patient advocacy resulting from the loss of his own mother to ovarian cancer combined with his exceptional communications credentials make him an excellent addition to the Coalition and we look forward to working with him to change the future of ovarian cancer, for all women.”
Read: Each division to get cancer hospital by 2022: Health Minister
Regarding this opportunity, Rafe Sadnan Adel, Founder Chairperson of Cancerbd.net said he was not able to save his mother from ovarian cancer and this nomination from the Coalition is a great opportunity for him to overcome this feeling of failure.
"I am grateful for this opportunity that will help me to work in creating awareness of ovarian cancer so that women across the globe, can enjoy the best quality of life. I am particularly keen to ensure that the needs of women from Asian countries are met. Working together in a coordinated and planned way, I believe the day will come when no women in the world will die from ovarian cancer. The day is not far from today. Let’s know about cancer, let’s live in peace.”
The current Board of the Coalition includes chair Elisabeth Baugh, CEO of Ovarian Cancer Canada; vice-chair Annwen Jones OBE, Chief Executive of Target Ovarian Cancer, Robin Cohen, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of US-based non-profit Sandy Rollman Ovarian Cancer Foundation; Jane Hill, CEO of Ovarian Cancer Australia; Eva Schumacher-Wulf, publisher and editor-in-chief of the German ovarian cancer magazine “Mamma Mia!”; Tammy Brown, a Partner in the audit practice in the Greater Toronto Area of KPMG in Canada, and Runcie C.W. Chidebe, executive director of Project PINK BLUE, a Nigerian cancer awareness organization.
‘Next big wave’: Radiation drugs track and kill cancer cells
Doctors are reporting improved survival in men with advanced prostate cancer from an experimental drug that delivers radiation directly to tumor cells.
Few such drugs are approved now, but the approach may become a new way to treat patients with other hard-to-reach or inoperable cancers.
The study tested an emerging class of medicine called radiopharmaceuticals, drugs that deliver radiation directly to cancer cells. The drug in this case is a molecule that contains two parts: a tracker and a cancer-killing payload.
Trillions of these molecules hunt down cancer cells, latching onto protein receptors on the cell membrane. The payload emits radiation, which hits the tumor cells within its range.
“You can treat tumors that you cannot see. Anywhere the drug can go, the drug can reach tumor cells,” said Dr. Frank Lin, who had no role in the study but heads a division at the National Cancer Institute that helps develop such medicine.
Results were released Thursday by the American Society of Clinical Oncology ahead of its annual meeting this weekend. The study was funded by Novartis, the drug’s maker, which plans to seek approvals in the United States and Europe later this year.
Also read: Scientist behind coronavirus shot says next target is cancer
When cancer is confined to the prostate, radiation can be beamed onto the body or implanted in pellets.
But those methods don’t work well in more advanced prostate cancer. About 43,000 men in the United States each year are diagnosed with prostate cancer that has spread and is no longer responding to hormone-blocking treatment.
The study tested a new way to get radiation treatment to such patients.
It involved 831 men with advanced prostate cancer. Two-thirds were given the radiation drug and the rest served as a comparison group. Patients got the drug through an IV every six weeks, up to six times.
After about two years, those who received the drug did better, on average. The cancer was kept at bay for nearly nine months compared to about three months for the others. Survival was better too — about 15 months versus 11 months.
The gain may not seem like much, but “these patients don’t have many options,” said ASCO president Dr. Lori Pierce, a cancer radiation specialist at the University of Michigan.
Radioactivity can reduce blood cell production, which can lead to anemia and clotting problems for patients. In the study, 53% of the patients had serious side effects compared to 38% of patients in the comparison group. Both groups were allowed to get other treatments.
Also read: Covid impact: Cancer deaths likely to rise in coming years, says WHO
The results pave the way for government approval and will boost interest in radiation drugs, Lin said.
Others already in use include Novartis’ Lutathera for a rare type of cancer of the stomach and gut.
And Bayer’s Xofigo is approved for men whose prostate cancer has spread to the bone but not elsewhere. Xofigo targets areas where the body is trying to repair bone loss from tumor damage, but it isn’t directly aimed at prostate cancer cells wherever they may be in the body.
Since the experimental drug targets tumor cells, “that would be a first for prostate cancer,” Lin said.
In the coming decade, such drugs “will be a major thrust of cancer research,” said Dr. Charles Kunos, who worked on standards for radiopharmaceutical research at the National Cancer Institute before leaving to join University of Kentucky’s Markey Cancer Center. “It will be the next big wave of therapeutic development.”
“There’s great potential” with drugs being tested for melanoma and breast, pancreatic and other cancers, said Dr. Mary-Ellen Taplin of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, who had no role in the study but reviewed the data.
As for prostate cancer, “it opens up a range of future strategies,” including at earlier stages of disease and alongside other treatments, said study leader Dr. Michael Morris of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York.
Quality of Central Police Hospital to be raised to international standards: IGP
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“Avoid alcohol to remain safe from liver cancer”
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Actor Abdul Kader diagnosed with stage IV cancer
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Heart disease leading cause of death globally for last 20 years: WHO
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