The Colon Club

Countdown to the Ongoing News Thread has begun.
May all YOUR news be GOOD.

For many of us, be it due to our busy schedules or our demanding treatment and surgeries, we can so easily miss out on a story that we could have/should have seen.

So, here you have it, an ONGOING News Thread where everyone can and probably should consider posting any news stories they deem important, RATHER than adding them to the general support topic thread, where they will clutter up and at times bury important posts for advice and support from fellow CRC members and family.

Please try to post THE LINK TO THE NEWS STORY ONLY to avoid any issues with re-posting copyrighted material.

Just click on the POST REPLY BUTTON
COPY FROM THE NEWS STORY THE LINK TO THE STORY
PASTE the link in the body of the post
COPY FROM THE NEWS STORY THE TITLE UNDER THE LINK
PASTE the title in SUBJECT box

Good health and happiness to all.

garbovatwin

Yet again, we thank you for all your work in keeping us up to date with recent events !
We have made this topic a "sticky" to keep it where everyone will know where to find it.

Once the year ends, we let the old News Topic float back down the page.
Previous ONGOING News Topics can be found here 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010

ALL Members please note that although garbovatwin has authored much of this topic... it is definitely for all members to use, so please keep it active, as instructed in the previous posting.

Best wishes to everyone for 2021

CRguy

As each state in the U.S. is in charge of its own vaccine roll out, we've put together the following table to help you get information on what's happening in your state:
Who Can Get Vaccinated Against COVID-19 and Where — By State

Many supplements and natural or other alternative treatments are being promoted to prevent or treat coronavirus (COVID-19). None have been proven to work, but some have potential benefit. Here's what you need to know, and we've grouped these approaches in the following categories:

When compared with chemotherapy, patients with microsatellite-instability high/mismatch repair deficient metastatic colorectal cancer saw significant improvement in progression-free survival with the frontline use of pembrolizumab monotherapy, while demonstrating superior safety.

Thousands of routine cancer screenings... were delayed during the early months of the pandemic and it isn't clear yet how long it will take the healthcare system to catch up.

A novel imaging technology was cleared by the FDA to detect polyps with neoplastic potential during conduct of colonoscopy that aligns with pathological assessment with greater than 90% predictive ability.

For years, Shelby Sherritt was known as the “cancer girl”.

“All my friends were like ‘Oh, she’s going through treatments’ or ‘That’s the girl from high school that got cancer’,” she says.

“For so long I thought that my narrative was going to be ‘the 20-year-old cancer survivor’, that’s who she is.”

Sherritt had been featured in videos about young people going through cancer, she had written about her story, and she always assumed if she became well known it would be for that.

Now hundreds of thousands of people are following her online, but much to her surprise it has nothing to do with cancer. Instead, Sherritt has become internet famous for reviving the 70s craze of slip casting pottery.

The COVID-19 pandemic will consume significant health care resources. Given the concerns for rapidly increasing infection rates in the United States, impending staffing shortages, and the potential for resource reallocation, we rapidly reevaluated our rectal cancer practice policies during this public health emergency. Before the pandemic, we commonly used total neoadjuvant therapy with a strong preference for long-course chemoradiation. In the setting of the ongoing pandemic, we now mandate short-course radiation therapy (SCRT). Despite multiple randomized trials demonstrating no difference in locoregional recurrence, distant recurrence, or overall survival between SCRT and long-course chemoradiation, the adaptation of SCRT in the United States has been low given concerns for less tumor downstaging and increased toxicity. In the setting of the ongoing and likely prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, we feel that these concerns must be reevaluated, because SCRT presents a well-validated alternative that will allow us to meet the needs of a greater number of potentially curable patients at a time when resources are severely and acutely constrained.

Abstract

PURPOSE
Despite reported widespread use of dietary supplements during cancer treatment, few empirical data with regard to their safety or efficacy exist. Because of concerns that some supplements, particularly antioxidants, could reduce the cytotoxicity of chemotherapy, we conducted a prospective study ancillary to a therapeutic trial to evaluate associations between supplement use and breast cancer outcomes.

METHODS
Patients with breast cancer randomly assigned to an intergroup metronomic trial of cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, and paclitaxel were queried on their use of supplements at registration and during treatment (n =1,134). Cox proportional hazards regression adjusting for clinical and lifestyle variables was used. Recurrence and survival were indexed at 6 months after enrollment using a landmark approach.

RESULTS
There were indications that use of any antioxidant supplement (vitamins A, C, and E; carotenoids; coenzyme Q10) both before and during treatment was associated with an increased hazard of recurrence (adjusted hazard ratio [adjHR], 1.41; 95% CI, 0.98 to 2.04; P = .06) and, to a lesser extent, death (adjHR, 1.40; 95% CI, 0.90 to 2.18; P = .14). Relationships with individual antioxidants were weaker perhaps because of small numbers. For nonantioxidants, vitamin B12 use both before and during chemotherapy was significantly associated with poorer disease-free survival (adjHR, 1.83; 95% CI, 1.15 to 2.92; P < .01) and overall survival (adjHR, 2.04; 95% CI, 1.22 to 3.40; P < .01). Use of iron during chemotherapy was significantly associated with recurrence (adjHR, 1.79; 95% CI, 1.20 to 2.67; P < .01) as was use both before and during treatment (adjHR, 1.91; 95% CI, 0.98 to 3.70; P = .06). Results were similar for overall survival. Multivitamin use was not associated with survival outcomes.

CONCLUSION
Associations between survival outcomes and use of antioxidant and other dietary supplements both before and during chemotherapy are consistent with recommendations for caution among patients when considering the use of supplements, other than a multivitamin, during chemotherapy.

''I Suffered From Strange GI Symptoms For Years Until I Was Finally Diagnosed With Colon Cancer At 35'
Here's what I want the Black community to know.

Candace Henley, Colondar Model, Miss June 2010

USPTO awards patent for combination use of modified citrus pectin (MCP) and Honokiol extract, with potential to inhibit growth of numerous types of cancer