Tag: Breast cancer

Genetic profiling may identify patients with breast cancer who can safely omit radiation therapy after breast-conserving surgery

Newswise — SAN ANTONIO – Patients with invasive breast cancer who had low scores on an investigational gene molecular signature had similar rates of local recurrence whether or not they received adjuvant radiation therapy after breast-conserving surgery, according to results of a meta-analysis presented at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, held December 6-10, 2022.

Patients with breast cancer who undergo breast-conserving surgery are recommended to receive adjuvant radiation therapy to reduce the risk of local recurrence. “However, many patients will not experience a local recurrence even without radiation therapy,” said Per Karlsson, MD, a professor of oncology at the Sahlgrenska Comprehensive Cancer Center and the University of Gothenburg in Sweden.

“Currently, we do not have any reliable predictive classifiers to identify patients who might be able to skip radiation therapy,” he added. “Since radiation therapy can be associated with problematic side effects in some patients, it is of clinical importance to identify those patients for whom radiation therapy can be safely omitted.”

In this study, Karlsson and colleagues evaluated the predictive potential of POLAR (Profile for the Omission of Local Adjuvant Radiotherapy), an investigational 16-gene molecular signature that was developed based on gene expression differences between patients with and without local recurrence after breast-conserving surgery. Genes included in the signature have known roles in cellular proliferation and the immune response.

The researchers performed a meta-analysis of 623 patients with lymph node-negative, estrogen receptor-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer who were enrolled in one of three randomized clinical trials examining the efficacy of breast-conserving surgery with and without local breast radiation therapy. The clinical trials included in the meta-analysis were the Swedish SweBCG91RT trial, the Scottish Conservation Trial (SCT), and a trial from the Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH) in Canada. Among the 623 patients in the meta-analysis, 354 were from SweBCG91RT, 137 from SCT, and 132 from the PMH trial.

To evaluate the predictive capability of POLAR, the researchers analyzed gene expression in patient breast tumor samples to assign each patient a POLAR score; they then examined the impact of radiation therapy for patients with high and low POLAR scores. Among the 429 patients with high POLAR scores, those who received adjuvant radiation therapy after breast-conserving surgery had a 63 percent reduction of local recurrence compared with those who did not receive adjuvant radiation therapy, suggesting that adjuvant radiation therapy was beneficial for these patients.

In contrast, for the 194 patients with low POLAR scores, there was no significant difference in local recurrence rate between those who received adjuvant radiation therapy and those who did not. After 10 years, 5 percent of patients who received radiation therapy experienced a local recurrence, compared with 7 percent of those who did not receive radiation therapy.

“In a patient-level meta-analysis of three independent randomized clinical trials, the POLAR gene profile successfully predicted which patients would and would not benefit from local radiation therapy, thereby identifying a group of breast cancer patients where radiation therapy may be safely omitted after breast-conserving surgery,” summarized Karlsson.

“Although only a minority of patients experience severe side effects to breast radiation, this adds up to a fair number of patients once you consider how prevalent breast cancer is,” he added. “The POLAR gene profile may, therefore, help mitigate toxicities and improve quality of life for many patients.” Karlsson noted that the POLAR gene profile will need further validation and additional streamlining before it could be used in the clinic.

Future research from Karlsson and colleagues will examine whether the POLAR gene profile can also identify patients who could safely avoid regional radiation therapy, which is associated with more severe toxicities than local radiation therapy.

A limitation of the study is its retrospective design. Additionally, the POLAR gene profile was developed using samples from patients who did not receive currently available endocrine therapies; however, validation trials included patients who received such therapies.

The study was supported by funds from the Swedish Cancer Society, the Swedish Research Council, the King Gustaf V Jubilee Clinic Foundation, the ALF Agreement of the Swedish government, PFS Genomics, and Exact Sciences.

Karlsson has pending patents with and receives royalties from Exact Sciences and PreludeDX.

American Association for Cancer Research (AACR)

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December 9, 2022
Gene Test Might Help Some Breast Cancer Patients Skip Radiation After Lumpectomy

By Denise Mann

HealthDay Reporter

FRIDAY, Dec. 9, 2022 (HealthDay News) — A new genetic test may help determine which people with breast cancer can safely skip radiation after breast-conserving surgery to remove their tumor.

Individuals with invasive breast cancer who had low scores on an investigational gene panel were just as likely to experience a recurrence if they received radiation therapy after breast-conserving surgery or not, Swedish researchers report.

As it stands, people with this type of breast cancer typically have surgery to remove the cancer followed by radiation, to reduce the risk that their breast cancer will return in the same spot.

“For the first time, a genetic screening test can predict which patients can omit radiation,” said study author Dr. Per Karlsson. He is a professor of oncology at the Sahlgrenska Comprehensive Cancer Center and the University of Gothenburg in Sweden.

More research is needed before this gene test is ready for prime time, Karlsson said.

“We will confirm the findings in new cohorts, and we will also start prospective trials to be sure that this is correct, but it looks really promising,” he added.

For the study, researchers evaluated the predictive power of POLAR (Profile for the Omission of Local Adjuvant Radiotherapy), a 16-gene panel that was developed based on differences between people with and without local recurrence following breast-conserving surgery.

The study included 623 people from three trials whose cancer had not spread to their lymph nodes. Their breast cancers were also estrogen receptor-positive and HER2-negative. Their tumors were analyzed after surgery to see which genes were expressed.

Each person received a POLAR score based on this analysis, and then the researchers looked at the benefits of radiation therapy among those people with high and low scores.

The main finding? People with a high POLAR score can benefit from radiation therapy, while those with lower scores can likely skip it, the study findings showed.

People with high POLAR scores who received radiation therapy after breast-conserving surgery had a 63% lower risk of local recurrence compared with those who didn’t receive radiation. By contrast, there was no difference in recurrence rates seen among people with low POLAR scores, regardless of whether they received radiation or not. After 10 years, 5% of people with low scores who received radiation had a local recurrence, compared with 7% of those who didn’t, the investigators found.

It’s a win anytime a person can avoid radiation without risking a cancer recurrence, Karlsson said. “There are side effects for a small percentage of people, and if in the future we can omit radiation for some patients, it will be good for the quality of life,” he noted.

Besides being time-consuming, radiation may cause fatigue as well as skin side effects such as rashes, pain, redness and swelling.

The findings were scheduled for presentation Friday at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. Research presented at medical meetings should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Breast cancer experts who reviewed the new study agreed that doctors are entering a new era in the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer.

This type of genetic profiling of breast tumors is the future, said Dr. Julia Smith, a medical oncologist at NYU Langone Perlmutter Cancer Center in New York City. “We are trying to minimize the number of treatments that we are giving in certain subgroups based on molecular and genetic profiles of their cancer.”

This study helps define a subgroup of people who may not need radiation, she said.

“People with this type of breast cancer tend to do well to begin with,” Smith noted. “We need a larger group of women who we can follow for a longer time as people with these types of breast cancer usually don’t recur until more than 10 to 15 years later.”

Doctors don’t want to overtreat people, agreed Dr. Katherina Zabicki Calvillo, a breast surgeon and founder of New England Breast and Wellness in Wellesley, Mass. “We are really focusing on getting the best outcomes for patients with minimal toxicity and risk,” she said.

“It can be safe to omit radiation in certain populations. Although well-tolerated, radiation still has untoward side effects and affects the quality of life and return to work,” Calvillo explained. There may also be cost savings, she noted.

Calling the new study “interesting and important,” Dr. Marisa Weiss said the results can help tailor treatment recommendations about radiation. She is the chief medical officer and founder of Breastcancer.org in Ardmore, Pa.

“The POLAR 16-gene genomic test seems very promising in Swedish women,” Weiss said. “It will be important to test its validity in the much more heterogenous population within the U.S. before we can apply it to diverse populations with confidence.”

More information

Breastcancer.org offers more on the genetic profiling of breast cancers.

SOURCES: Per Karlsson, MD, professor, oncology, Sahlgrenska Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Gothenburg, Sweden; Julia Smith, MD, medical oncologist, NYU Langone Perlmutter Cancer Center, New York City; Katherina Zabicki Calvillo, MD, founder, New England Breast and Wellness, Wellesley, Mass.; Marisa Weiss, MD, chief medical officer, founder, Breastcancer.org, Ardmore, Pa.; presentation, San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, Dec. 9, 2022

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December 9, 2022
Could This Computer Help You Beat Cancer?

Nov. 22, 2022 – The 1960s marked the arrival of computers in medicine. Expensive, cumbersome hunks of plastic and metal that could (maybe) get test results to a doctor faster. The 1980s saw the first real difference-making functions computers could offer – clinical, financial, administrative – and in 1991, the Institute of Medicine published the first manifesto on what electronic health records could (and would) be.

Since then, we’ve seen computer breakthroughs across all areas of medicine, with artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and telemedicine brought to the fore. But something else is brewing that not a lot of people know about yet: Quantum computing, a completely new type of computing that has already begun to advance everything from drug development and disease identification to the security of electronic records.

“Think of it as transitioning from getting light through fire and candles and now having electricity, and there’s a light bulb that is lighting it all,” says Lara Jehi, MD, Cleveland Clinic’s chief research information officer.

What Is Quantum Computing?

Classical computers (aka binary computers), which are the foundation of today’s devices, including artificial intelligence and machine learning, work by using information known as bits. These appear as 0 or 1 (sometimes defined as off/on or false/true).

Quantum computers, on the other hand, use quantum bits known as qubits. And yes, the definition of “quantum” – as in: very, very small – applies.

International Business Machines, more commonly known as IBM, is currently leading this new tech. A common misconception about quantum computers is that they are “a next evolution of computers that will get faster,” says Frederik Flöther, PhD, life sciences and health care lead with IBM Quantum Industry Consulting. Instead, he wants us to look at quantum computing as something completely new “because it is fundamentally a different hardware, a different software, not just an evolution of the same.”

How does it work differently from existing computers? Quantum computing deals in nature. Therefore, qubits have to be based on the natural world. What does that mean? Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman was famously quoted as saying, “Nature isn’t classical, dammit, and if you want to make a simulation of nature, you’d better make it quantum mechanical, and by golly it’s a wonderful problem, because it doesn’t look so easy.”

Nature, says Jehi, doesn’t work in black and white or fit into boxes.

“We have to convert it to zeros and ones because that’s what computers speak,” she explains. But quantum computing uses the principles of quantum mechanics. “It’s exactly how nature works, because it is based on the fundamental unit of everything in nature, which is atomic structure.”

Very, very small indeed. And that’s why quantum computing could be game-changing tech in medicine.

“Quantum computers can be used to represent a bunch of different solutions to a problem all at the same time, and then collapse down to the optimal solution, the one that actually works,” says Tony Uttley, president and chief operating officer with Quantinuum, a collaboration between Cambridge Quantum and Honeywell Quantum Solutions that is working to drive the future of quantum computing. “And the reason it does that is because of some fabulous properties of quantum physics.”

Establishing a Quantum Computing Beachhead

Scientists around the globe are studying quantum computers and looking into how they can harness this technology to make some big gains in the medical world.

IBM has created the IBM Quantum Network and is partnering with different organizations, from startups to Fortune 500 companies, to develop and test technology in various settings. One of these partnerships with the Cleveland Clinic is set to establish the “Discovery Accelerator,” focused on advancing health care through high-performance computing on the hybrid cloud, quantum computing technologies, and artificial intelligence.

Many people around the country are now using this technology on existing computers by tapping into the cloud, but with limited qubit access. IBM has researchers in places like Germany and Japan working on quantum computers and will be installing the country’s first of IBM’s next-generation 1,000+ qubit quantum systems on the Cleveland Clinic campus, which they are planning to use to help further investigate quantum computing’s many predicted benefits.

But what are those benefits?

Drug Discovery and Development

Quantum chemistry is one main area quantum computing is poised to help.

“The immediate application of that would be in drug discovery,” says Jehi. When scientists make drugs, they sit in a lab and develop different chemical formulas for what might constitute that drug.

“But for us to really know if it’s going to work, we need to be able to imagine how that chemical composition will translate into a structure,” she says.

Even in their most powerful form, today’s supercomputers are slow in their ability to change this chemical formula on paper to a simulation of what the chemical compound will look like. And in many cases, they can’t do this type of analysis.

“So, we end up making the drugs without knowing exactly how they’re going to look, which is not really the optimal way of creating a drug you expect to work” explains Jehi. “It’s a waste of time creating compounds that aren’t going to have any effect.”

Quantum computers will allow researchers to create and see these molecular structures and know how they bind and interact with the human body. In effect, they’ll know if a potential drug will work before ever having to physically make it.

Because of its differences from classic computing, quantum computers are not limited in their ability to simulate how different compounds can appear. Being able to simulate the compounds that drugs are made of can lead to a faster discovery of medications to treat a wide range of conditions.

Disease Analysis

Eventually, this technology could assist with disease analysis, working on a molecular level to allow computers/AI to contemplate, for example, cancer molecules and gain a deeper understanding of how they function.

Jehi says quantum computing can also be used to study things like chronic illnesses. These are conditions that people must live with and manage, and how a person is feeling in this instance can vary day-to-day, based on things like what a person is eating, the weather, or medications they are taking.

“There are so many different possibilities for what could change a patient’s trajectory in one way versus another,” says Jehi.

She stresses that if we have a group of patients, and we’ve captured everything that’s happened to them along their disease journey, it’s very challenging to mimic what that group looks like, and then study the effects of these different interventions on it using traditional computing.

“It just gets way too complicated, and the computers that we have can’t keep up with analyzing the effects of the different possibilities. It gets jumbled up,” Jehi says.

But quantum computing can offer quantum machine learning, meaning you use this special quantum ability to handle different simulations and different possibilities.

Cleveland Clinic, for instance, is looking at how some patients who undergo general surgeries have heart complications after their procedures.

“It would be transformative if we could identify ahead of time who is at highest risk of having a heart attack after surgery, as so we could take care of those people better,” she says.

The clinic’s current data set includes records for 450,000 patients, and current AI/machine learning makes sifting through this very slow and complex. The clinic is using machine learning approaches to create a synthetic data set, a smaller group that is a replica of the much larger one. Quantum technology could improve and speed this analysis to produce models that better perform.

Disease Detection

“Imagine you go get a CT scan,” says Uttley. “There are already AI solutions that you can run that set of images through and ask, ‘Does this look like something that would be cancer?’” This existing technology, he explains, works well on things that are typical and have been identified before, because that’s how machine learning works. If AI has seen something 100,000 times, it can often find something else that looks like it.

But today’s classical computers aren’t equipped to identify something unfamiliar. “Those are places where quantum computers can be much better at thinking of images and being able to say, ‘I can detect rare cancers or rare conditions that you don’t have a huge library of things that look like that,’” Uttley says.

This is also where researchers can use a quantum computer to be able to figure out what things could look like.

“The beauty of quantum computing is that it is a bias formation in quantum physics, this more probabilistic design. And so you can take advantage of that probabilistic design to help them think about this,” Uttley says.

How Far Out Are We?

Uttley says we’re in an emergent era of quantum computing. Quantum computers exist and that’s a big deal, but a lot of this technology is still in fairly early stages.

“It’s a little bit like we’re at the beginning of the internet and saying, how are things going to play out,” he explains.

Right now, companies like Quantinuum are striving to perform computations on both a quantum and classic computer, compare the results, and say, “We’re getting the same answer.”

“So, this is the era where we’re able to build trust and say these quantum computers are actually working correctly,” Uttley explains.

In the future, he says, we can possibly imagine something like a quantum MRI that is able to understand your body in a way that transmits that data to a quantum computer to detect what’s wrong, and be able to tell the difference between cancerous and non-cancerous. That will allow faster treatments and tailoring them to specific patient populations.

“What we’re doing today might seem slightly less sexy than that, but is maybe even equally important,” says Uttley.

This is using quantum computers to make the best encryption keys that can be made. The medical community, which is already using quantum computing to execute this, is excited about this being a better means of keeping patient data as secure as possible.

In June, Quantinuum launched InQuanto, which is quantum computing software that is allowing computational chemists, who, until now, only had classical computers at their fingertips. The move created an opportunity to start thinking about the problems that they worked on and what they would do with a quantum computer. As quantum computers become higher-performing over the years, Uttley says the software will go from tasks like isolating one molecule to solving larger problems.

“That will happen over this next decade, where I think we’ll see the first kind of real use cases come out in the next likely 2 to 3 years,” he says. For now, this technology will likely be used in tandem with classical computers.

Uttley says that progress in the quantum world and medicine will continue to grow at a slow and steady pace, and in years to come, we’ll likely see things start to click and then eventually, this to take off “full force.”

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November 22, 2022
A Swimsuit Model Shares Her Mastectomy Scar

Oct. 28, 2022 – Kelly Crump never expected to be a model in this year’s Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, and she definitely never thought she would be the first-ever cancer patient to show a mastectomy scar in its pages.

Her path to that photo was an act of perseverance. Urged by one of her friends, Crump, who spent her career working as a manager in the fashion industry, first submitted online photos to the magazine’s editors in 2020.

“I took bikini photos in my back garden – in the snow,” says Crump, who was diagnosed with stage III invasive breast cancer 5 years ago at age 38 after finding a lump in the under part of her left breast, where the breast met her ribs.

After a lumpectomy, she learned that her tumor was HER2 hormone-positive. She was going to start chemotherapy right away, but she and her husband wanted to do an in-vitro fertilization cycle first. In January 2018, she began chemotherapy.

When she went to have her chemo port removed in May 2018, a nurse sent her for a PET scan. That’s when her health care providers discovered that she had grown a new 5-centimeter tumor in the same breast.

“The best option at that point for me was a mastectomy – a preventive on the right and a mastectomy on the left,” she says, adding that she then did seven more rounds of chemo before learning in 2019 that the cancer had spread to lymph nodes in her neck, spine, her 12th rib, and nodes in her armpit. She is currently living with a diagnosis of stage IV metastatic breast cancer.

And, while she wasn’t picked to model in the magazine that first year, she remained undaunted and reached out to the editorial team again the next year.

This time, she became a finalist, was chosen to model in the magazine and, within a week, she flew to the SI shoot in the Dominican Republic.

That’s when a particular bathing suit – and an idea – came to Crump, now 42.

“One day we were doing a fitting, and I picked out a blue-and-yellow suit with the colors of the Ukraine flag,” she says. “My face lit up because of the colors, and also because I saw that it was a one-breast suit.”

What happened next happened organically.

“The editor and I started talking about my port scar, and she asked if I felt comfortable showing it,” she says. “I’m very open about all of my scars, so I told her I had no issue showing that scar as well as my mastectomy scar.”

Two days later, she was on set in that suit, the first in Sports Illustrated to ever show a mastectomy scar.

“This moment felt like something handed to me by something bigger than me,” she says. “Everything was the way I wanted to show it, and it was the best way to share my message that you can feel sexy – even after the trauma of breast cancer and reconstruction.”

Since then, Crump, who spends her days working as a cancer and wellness coach, says she has gotten lots of positive feedback from other women, which helps her stay positive, despite the challenges of daily life with cancer and the fact that she goes for chemotherapy IVs every 21 days.

“Every day, I get messages from women saying things like, ‘I haven’t felt good about myself and my scar since my surgery,’ ‘you’ve made me rethink how I feel about myself,’ and ‘I haven’t taken my shirt off in front of my husband since my surgery, and now I will,’” she says. “I never dreamed of being in SI and saying, ‘I want to stand there and show my mastectomy scar and feel proud of it.’ I could have been in a lot of different photos, but I did this for everybody else. That was what was so powerful.”

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October 31, 2022
Campaign for Safe Cosmetics Publishes First-Ever List of Top Non-Toxic Black-Owned Beauty Brands & Product Database

Press Release
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Oct 18, 2022 06:00 EDT

SAN FRANCISCO, October 18, 2022 (Newswire.com)
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The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics (CSC)’s new List of Top Non-Toxic Black-Owned Beauty Brands features entrepreneurs making safer beauty products for Black women, free of the toxic ingredients linked to breast cancer and health concerns that disproportionately impact Black women. This project brings health equity to the forefront by providing a database of clean beauty products to help Black women and girls live their healthiest lives and prevent breast cancer. CSC’s Top Non-Toxic Black Beauty Brands 2022 > CSC’s Non-Toxic Black Beauty Product Database >

Released during Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the Non-Toxic Black Beauty Project focuses specifically on supporting Black women’s health because Black women face the highest breast cancer mortality rate of any racial or ethnic group in America. Beauty products marketed to Black women often contain the most toxic cosmetics ingredients, including chemicals linked to cancer. In fact, Black women who regularly dye their hair have a 60% increased risk of breast cancer, and those who use chemical hair straighteners are 30% more likely to develop the disease. By uplifting leading non-toxic Black-owned beauty brands and connecting Black women with products they can trust, CSC aims to combat toxic health disparities to help prevent breast cancer and other diseases.

The 80 small and medium-sized businesses who made the list raise the bar for ingredient safety and lead the movement to address the injustice of Black beauty by selling products free of CSC’s 241 “Do Not Use” Red List Chemicals of Concern in Cosmetics. CSC vetted all 700+ products included in the first-ever searchable database for safety and verified them to be free of harmful chemicals linked to health concerns like cancer, diabetes, early puberty, endometriosis, infertility, maternal health, pregnancy complications, and uterine fibroids.

“We are thrilled to announce the launch of our searchable database of non-toxic Black beauty products,” said Janet Nudelman, Director of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, a program of Breast Cancer Prevention Partners. “These leading Black entrepreneurs are making safer beauty products that won’t harm the health of Black women and girls. We hope that more companies will follow their lead and grow the clean Black beauty industry by selling non-toxic beauty and personal care products that Black women can trust.”

As Black women purchase and use more beauty products per capita than any other demographic, spending more than $7.5 billion dollars on beauty products a year and nine times more on hair products than the average consumer, toxic exposure from beauty products is of particular concern.

By eliminating toxic ingredients that negatively impact Black women, these companies have made a significant commitment to protecting their customers’ health and well-being. They are also helping to reduce the disproportionate toxic burden that Black women face from unsafe chemicals in beauty and other consumer products they use, which can help prevent the development of chronic diseases like breast and ovarian cancer.

The Non-Toxic Black Beauty Project is guided by an Advisory Committee made up of leading non-profit organizations and scientists working to improve Black women’s health. This project represents the first comprehensive effort to generate a list of chemicals of concern in Black beauty products that should be avoided by consumers, cosmetic manufacturers, and retailers.

For a list of scientific findings referenced in this release, visit: www.safecosmetics.org/black-beauty-project/.

Source: The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics

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October 18, 2022
Fayetteville cancer survivor still fundraising to help others

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. (WTVD) — A Fayetteville woman is rising above her own cancer diagnosis and thriving with her annual fundraiser for the disease.

ABC11 spoke with Gladys Hill in 2019 when she was diagnosed with DCIS and leading her Light Up Fayetteville Pink Campaign. Now in her fifth year of the campaign, Hill sells pink light bulbs to raise money to help pay for breast cancer screenings at the Cape Fear Valley Health Cancer Center. She urges others to get their mammograms and ultrasounds and to take advantage of early detection.

“Every woman should have screening even if she doesn’t have any money,” Hill said. “Your screening is very important. And if you can, donate $5. That’s helping someone else that’s less fortunate.”

Hill has already raised $6,000 through her campaign this month. She is trying to raise $10,000 before it’s finished. Residents and local businesses all across Fayetteville have been donating to the cause, but she’s also been receiving contributions from as far as New York and Pennsylvania.

“Somehow, everybody’s been affected by breast cancer. Either a friend, a family member, cousin, aunt, uncle. Somebody’s been affected by cancer. So people will willingly give because they know they’re helping someone else,” she said.

Hill knows the importance of screenings firsthand. Early detection helped protect her when she was diagnosed with DCIS. On Thursday, Hill said her health is doing much better now that she’s been cancer free for three years.

“When they caught mine, it would stay zero. And I didn’t have to do chemotherapy,” she said. “I chose to do 16 days of radiation as a precaution.”

Hill is asking donors to post pictures of their lightbulbs on her Facebook page. She has just 100 out of 800 lightbulbs left. If she reaches her $10,000 goal, she said she will get a tattoo of a small ribbon.

“I’m not a tattoo person but for breast cancer, I’ll do it,” she said. “Yes, I will do it for $10,000.”

Anyone looking for more info can visit the Light up Fayetteville Pink Facebook page.

Copyright © 2022 WTVD-TV. All Rights Reserved.

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October 16, 2022
Henderson Co. breast cancer survivor shares story, helps inform Spanish-speaking community

Breast cancer survivor shares story, helps inform Spanish-speaking community

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October 12, 2022
High School Researcher Finds Mechanism That May Prevent Metastatic Cancer

KENNESAW, Ga., January 31, 2022 (Newswire.com)
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At the Cobb-Paulding Science Fair this past Saturday, Stephen Litt, a 12^th grade student enrolled in the Kennesaw Mountain High School Academy of Mathematics, Science and Technology (Magnet program), exhibited his Phase VII research which demonstrates how an antioxidant in green tea may prevent cancer from spreading and therefore be classified as metastatic. This is based upon evidence that the antioxidant, EGCG, binds to a protein responsible for cancer becoming more aggressive and spreading. Stephen is no stranger to science fairs and has been competing since first grade and has been focused on his cancer research since sixth grade.

At the fair, Litt earned the Top Overall Project designation and a coveted spot as a finalist at the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) for a third time during his High School career. ISEF is to be held in Atlanta, Georgia from May 7-13, 2022 at the Georgia World Congress Center. ISEF, a program of Society for Science & the Public, is the world’s largest international pre-college science competition.

The research started when Litt was in Middle School and used planarian worms as a model for cancer treatment. Subsequently, Litt was able to work with human breast and cervical cancer cells and prove that EGCG killed the cancer cells without harm to normal human epithelial cells. Over the past two years, Litt decided to delve into the molecular level to determine how EGCG may be keeping cancer at bay.

Today, millions of students worldwide compete each year in local and school-sponsored science fairs; the winners of these events go on to participate in affiliated regional and state fairs from which the best win the opportunity to attend Regeneron ISEF.

Regeneron ISEF unites these top young scientific minds, showcasing their talents on an international stage, where doctoral level scientists review and judge their work.

For more information, visit: https://egcg.home.blog

Press Contact: Ron Abrams, rona@crystalflex.com

Source: Cobb-Paulding Science

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January 31, 2022
Lady M New York Announces Breast Cancer Awareness Month Campaign

Lady M New York donates 100% of proceeds from Pink Éclair sales and joins The American Cancer Society’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk for Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Press Release
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updated: Oct 2, 2019

NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES, October 2, 2019 (Newswire.com)
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Breast Cancer Awareness is a cause Lady M New York holds near and dear. Lady M has been a strong supporter of breast cancer research and is raising even more awareness and involvement for 2019.

For the month of October, Lady M will bring back the beloved Pink Éclairs ($6 each). One-hundred percent of proceeds from Pink Éclair sales go directly to The American Cancer Society’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk. Lady M has raised nearly $25,000 from Pink Éclair sales in the past two years and aims to raise even more this October. Pink Éclairs are handmade by Lady M pastry chefs, featuring golden choux pastry, strawberry custard cream, and baby pink chocolate glaze. Pink Éclairs are available exclusively at Lady M’s New York, California, and Boston boutiques for October. Boutiques will be outfitted with pink flowers and Lady M employees will wear pink pins. Lady M aims to bring breast cancer awareness to all boutique guests.

On Oct. 20, 2019, Lady M partners with American Cancer Society for the Making Strides of Central Park walk. Check-in for the walk begins at 7:30 a.m. at West 66th Street and Central Park West (Tavern on the Green). The walk is a leisurely four miles, and participants are encouraged to sign up for the Lady M New York team. There is no cost to participate, though donations to Making Strides are welcome. Lady M will also host a tent at the Survivor Village to serve bite-size Mille Crepes cakes. Support an important cause and enjoy cake!

How can Lady M fans participate? Visit Lady M’s Pink for A Cause page to learn more and 1) Purchase Pink Éclairs (available at all Lady M U.S. boutiques from Oct. 1-31, 2019). 2) Join our Lady M New York team for the Making Strides of Central Park Walk on Oct. 20, 2019. 3) Donate directly online.

About Lady M New York:
Lady M New York is an NYC cake brand with 40 boutiques worldwide. Created in 2001 and helmed by CEO Ken Romaniszyn, Lady M is known as the original creator of Mille Crepes. Lady M marries classic French techniques with Japanese sensibilities to develop creations that are a touch sweet and perfect for all occasions. Indulge in a world of cakes and confections at www .ladym.com

### MEDIA ONLY CONTACT:
Kaiyi Chu | Head of Growth
press@ladym.com

Source: Lady M New York

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October 2, 2019
HalloweenCostumes.com Partners With the American Cancer Society for Hope is the Best Halloween Treat

Press Release
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updated: Oct 2, 2019

NORTH MANKATO, Minn., October 2, 2019 (Newswire.com)
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HalloweenCostumes.com creates and inspires unforgettable Halloween memories, year after year. That’s why this October, HalloweenCostumes.com is partnering with the American Cancer Society to help change lives across the country.

“October is such an important month for cancer awareness,” said, Blaine Mauldin, Community Development Manager, American Cancer Society. “And this year with our new partnership, we are especially looking forward to launching this initiative with HalloweenCostumes.com and having an even greater impact in the fight against cancer.”

From September 30 through October 30, HalloweenCostumes.com will donate 20% of their proceeds from shoppers who visit HalloweenCostumes.com/hope, to the America Cancer Society. With roughly 70% of Americans planning to celebrate Halloween this year, the online Halloween retailer hopes this campaign will make a large impact.

“Nearly one-in-three lives are affected by cancer, which makes this hit home for many of our team members,” Mark Bietz, Chief Marketing Officer, said. “Our campaign, Hope is the Best Halloween Treat, is an opportunity for us to remember the lives we’ve lost, help those affected today, and come together in the fight against cancer.”

The American Cancer Society is also partnering with Twitch streamers for their Gamers vs. Cancer initiative. During the month of October, HalloweenCostumes.com will donate costumes to 25 individual streamers involved in the initiative, who raise over $5,000 in donations.

John Gillick, Twitch gamer and acute lymphocytic leukemia survivor, attributes gaming to be an activity that helped him get through his cancer which made his involvement in this initiative seamless.

“During my weekly game, I could put cancer out of my head as much as possible and enjoy myself,” Gillick said. “That helped me as much as medication. Gaming was one of the things I attribute to helping me get through cancer, so why not use it to help others get through cancer?”

For more info on Hope is the Best Halloween Treat, visit: HalloweenCostumes.com/hope

For more info on Gamers vs Cancer, contact: gamersvscancer@cancer.org

The American Cancer Society does not endorse any product or service.

About HalloweenCostumes.com:

Located in North Mankato, MN, HalloweenCostumes.com is a family-owned and operated business. What began as a small business operating out of a garage a couple of months a year, has turned into a globally-recognized online retailer with over 175 year-round employees and thousands of seasonal employees in less than a decade. The company ships to over 150 countries in the world year-round and is the largest costume producer in the world. For more information, please contact ross.smith@halloweencostumes.com

Media Contact:
Ross Hewett-Smith
Phone: 507-386-0207
Email: ross.smith@halloweencostumes.com

Source: HalloweenCostumes.com

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October 2, 2019
Hygiene Products to Support Immune Health Made Available Free to Cancer Patients Courtesy of Cancer Horizons and Avadim Technologies

Press Release
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updated: Oct 24, 2017

SALT LAKE CITY, October 24, 2017 (Newswire.com)
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Cancer Horizons, the premier online portal exclusively for cancer patients, announced today that it has formed an alliance with Avadim Technologies, maker of topical hygiene product Theraworx, to distribute free product to cancer patients in the United States. Available through the Cancer Horizons website, a 2-oz. bottle of Avadim’s Theraworx Hygiene Spray free of charge (shipping included), on a first-come, first-served basis, while supplies last.

Cancer Horizons launched its Compassionate Cancer Patient Resources™ program this fall with Lexli Hand and Body Lotion. The program was designed to provide numerous product and service options available to cancer patients at no cost to them. The addition of Theraworx to the program created to support the health and wellness of cancer patients is exciting. The product is dedicated to hygiene and is natural selection for the ambitious giveaway program for patients enduring the fight against cancer.

Theraworx is an easy to use, non-toxic spray that provides total cleansing without having to touch or wipe an area. In technical terms – the spray works to support the natural antimicrobial action of the skin, allowing the skin to do its job in preventing water loss and avoiding dryness, all while being safe for use around mucous membranes, including the Perineum and the face. Cancer patients can use the hygiene spray around port or to cleanse hands, face, or around a wound.

“We are thrilled with the long-term commitment from Theraworx to the Cancer Horizons community, 1000’s will be impacted for good by their generosity,” said Steve Hansen, managing partner of Cancer Horizons.

Avadim Technologies and Cancer Horizons have agreed to a 6-month alliance to distribute a limited number of Theraworx bottles to patients across the United States.

“Avadim means to serve. Being able to support cancer patients with a product that can help support their immune health during a difficult fight, is an honor for Avadim Technologies. Giving back is such a big piece of our company, and we are honored to join forces with Cancer Horizons to do so,” stated Steve Woody, CEO.

For more information to order Theraworx free of charge, go to Free Cancer Product Giveaway.

About Avadim Technologies Inc.:

Based in Asheville, North Carolina, Avadim Technologies, Inc. is the Bionome Life Science company. Avadim’s patented platform technology drives the company’s development and marketing of topical, low pH, microbiome-compliant formulations which address multiple applications in both clinical patient care and consumer health. Our innovative approaches to neuromuscular health and performance, and to multiple skin-related patient care challenges, are safe, non-centrally acting, and cost-effective, and are changing markets and improving lives. Visit www.TheraworxProtect.com.

About Cancer Horizons:

Pendulum International LLC, dba Cancer Horizons, founded in 2016, is rapidly becoming one of the premier sites on the web dedicated exclusively to helping meet the unique needs of cancer patients, their families and caregivers. The company recognizes that victims of cancer and their families, whose lives and family dynamic are forever altered, remain a geographically dispersed, isolated and under-served demographic and often do not know where to turn for the services and products they need. Cancer Horizons provides information and product choices to lessen the impact of harsh economic realities faced by millions affected by cancer, and a network of support among those engaged in the fight of their lives. For more information about Cancer Horizons, visit CancerHorizons.com.

For further information contact:

Steven Hansen, Managing Partner
Cancer Horizons
6925 S. Union Park Center, #550
Midvale, Utah 84047
Phone: 801-501-7500

Email: media@cancerhorizons.com

Source: Cancer Horizons

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October 24, 2017