Blow for industry as government backs WHO data and vows to cut additives in ham and cured sausages
French health authorities say they have confirmed a link between nitrates added to processed meat and colon cancer, dealing a blow to the country’s prized ham and cured sausage industry.
The national food safety body Anses said its study of data published on the subject supported similar conclusions in 2015 from the World Health Organization (WHO).
Continue reading...Trial will take treatments from Portsmouth to St Mary’s hospital and health service plans similar drops elsewhere in England
The NHS plans to use drones to fly chemotherapy drugs to cancer patients in England to avoid the need for long journeys to collect them.
The devices will transport doses from Portsmouth to the Isle of Wight in a trial that, if successful, will lead to drones being used for similar drops elsewhere.
Continue reading...NHS chief says James’s last message to public to ‘check your poo’ is life-saving
There was a tenfold increase in people checking bowel cancer symptoms online immediately after the death of Dame Deborah James, the NHS has said.
More than 23,000 visits were paid to NHS websites for bowel cancer on Wednesday, compared with 2,000 the previous day.
Continue reading...The presenter of the BBC podcast You, Me And The Big C ‘saved many lives’ and raised millions of pounds for cancer research
Dame Deborah James has been hailed as an “inspiration” and an “extraordinary campaigner” of “unbelievable tenacity” as tributes poured in for the podcaster and cancer campaigner, who has died at the age of 40.
The mother-of-two had been receiving end-of-life care since May at her parents’ home in Woking, Surrey, after stopping active treatment for the disease. In her final weeks, the presenter of the BBC podcast You, Me And The Big C raised millions of pounds for research and was made a dame for her “tireless” work improving awareness.
Continue reading...Former health secretary says he has now recovered as he prepares to take part in Race for Life charity run
The former health secretary Jeremy Hunt has revealed he had cancer and has since recovered.
The Conservative MP said he would be taking part in a 5km race to raise money for cancer charities after the disease affected some of his relatives “very dramatically” and he experienced a “minor" one” himself.
Continue reading...Friends of Nigel Stonehouse, 58, who has kidney and lung cancer, seek help with costs of transporting him to his final festival
The friends of a terminally ill man have launched a fundraising campaign to help him attend the Glastonbury festival next week.
Nigel Stonehouse, 58, from Hartlepool, was recently diagnosed with kidney cancer, which has now spread to his lungs. After receiving the terminal diagnosis, his friends wanted to fulfil his “dying wish” of attending the festival for a final time.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Patients tell of screening and surgery they believe they didn’t need, and the effect this has had on their lives
When Jenny* had a mastectomy after being diagnosed with breast cancer, she believed the major surgery to remove her breast, although traumatic, had saved her life.
She described feeling “rage” when at a follow-up appointment three years later, she said to her surgeon, “I would probably be dead by now” if she had not received the surgery, to which he replied: “Probably not.”
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Continue reading...Campaigner says death is ‘life’s last taboo’ and that she hopes talking about may bring comfort to others
Deborah James has said she is angry at the fact she is terminally ill, and scared of dying.
The campaigner, 40, who was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2016 and has documented her experiences since on social media, revealed that in the weeks since moving to end-of-life care she keeps “shouting at people and pushing them away”.
Continue reading...Doctors call for international help as Ethiopia civil war leaves terminally ill being treated with paracetamol in Mekelle hospital
Doctors caring for cancer patients at the main hospital in Tigray say they have only two chemotherapy drugs left in date and are treating terminally ill people with expired medication and paracetamol. Eighteen months of war have left the sickest in society suffering agonising deaths, they say.
For the first time in 11 months, doctors at the Ayder referral hospital in Mekelle took receipt of an oral chemotherapy drug earlier this month as part of an airlift by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Until then, they had had only one, Doxorubicin, still in date.
Continue reading...Nice approves Keytruda, which with chemotherapy can lengthen survival of women with triple negative breast cancer
Women with advanced breast cancer in England will be able to benefit from a new type of immunotherapy on the NHS after a U-turn by the medicines watchdog.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) has overturned its draft rejection of Keytruda (pembrolizumab) and said women in England can take the drug in combination with chemotherapy.
Continue reading...Duke of Cambridge makes personal visit after ‘Bowelbabe’ told supporters she was receiving end-of-life care for her condition
The Duke of Cambridge has presented podcast host Deborah James with a damehood at her family home after her Cancer Research fundraising initiative passed the £5m mark in just five days.
James, 40, known online as Bowelbabe after campaigning to raise awareness of bowel cancer, launched the JustGiving page on Monday after revealing she was receiving end-of-life care for the condition.
Continue reading...Presenter of BBC podcast You, Me And The Big C said on social media she did not know ‘how long I’ve got left’
The podcaster Deborah James has said she “cannot thank people enough” as a fundraiser for cancer research raised over £2m since she announced she had been moved to hospice at home care.
In a post on Monday, James, who has terminal bowel cancer, told followers on social media that she did not know “how long I’ve got left”.
Continue reading...Experts call on ministers to tackle chronic staff shortages, with delays worsened by pandemic
Tens of thousands of patients are still waiting to start cancer treatment in England due to disruption during the pandemic, according to NHS figures, as medical charities called on the government to tackle chronic staff shortages in the health service.
Following a dramatic slump in cancer referrals in 2020, the number of people being investigated for the disease bounced back in the past year, data from NHS England and NHS Improvement show, rising from 2.4 million to a record 2.66 million.
Continue reading...Macmillan survey suggests hundreds of thousands of people with cancer struggling to make ends meet
Hundreds of thousands of cancer patients are putting their lives at risk by cutting back on meals, heating and other essentials as a result of the cost of living crisis, a charity has said.
Macmillan Cancer Support said it was “hugely concerning” that large numbers of people living with the disease were having to resort to drastic cost-cutting measures to make ends meet.
Continue reading...Scientists don’t yet know if the microbes are causative, but if proven it could save thousands of lives
Scientists have discovered bacteria linked to aggressive prostate cancer in work hailed as a potential revolution for the prevention and treatment of the most deadly form of the disease.
Researchers led by the University of East Anglia performed sophisticated genetic analyses on the urine and prostate tissue of more than 600 men with and without prostate cancer and found five species of bacteria linked to rapid progression of the disease.
Continue reading...Bristol study finds that for every five extra BMI units a woman’s risk of endometrial cancer increases by 88%
Lifelong excess weight may almost double a woman’s risk of developing womb cancer, research suggests.
Scientists and doctors have known for some time that being overweight or obese increases the risk of the disease. About one in three cases in the UK (34%) are linked to excess weight.
Continue reading...Australia’s skin cancer rate rising in over 50s, but ‘declining quite steeply’ among younger age groups
New cases of melanoma are set to increase by 50% globally by 2040, with a 68% increase in deaths, according to new research.
An international team of researchers have analysed the global burden of melanoma, which accounts for approximately one in five skin cancers. Data from the International Agency for Research on Cancer estimated that there were 325,000 new melanoma cases and 57,000 deaths in 2020.
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Continue reading...According to documents, Cape played down dangers and lobbied for warning labels to be tempered
One of the UK’s biggest manufacturers of asbestos and the industry bodies that it co-founded historically withheld information on risks posed by the carcinogenic material, playing down the dangers while lobbying the government for product warnings to be tempered, according to documents released after a lengthy court battle.
A lawyer who acted for the Asbestos Victims Support Groups Forum UK in its fight to obtain the documents about Cape compared its behaviour to the tobacco industry’s former refusal to admit evidence of harms from smoking while its own research showed the opposite.
Continue reading...Medics unable to keep babies alive, says doctor, as Ethiopia’s civil war creates desperate shortages of drugs, oxygen, fuel and food
People in Tigray are dying due to a lack of oxygen and medicines, a doctor at the region’s largest hospital has said, as medics struggle to care for the sick amid frequent electricity blackouts and fuel shortages.
As the 16-month conflict between Tigrayan forces and Ethiopian government forces drags on, the isolated northern region of 5.5 million people continues to suffer under what the UN has called a de facto blockade.
Continue reading...Half an hour a week of activities such as gardening, sit-ups or yoga could help reduce the risk of dying from any cause by a fifth
Half an hour of muscle strengthening activity such as lifting weights, push-ups or heavy gardening each week could help reduce the risk of dying from any cause by as much as a fifth, according to a new global analysis of studies conducted over three decades.
Health guidelines recommend muscle strengthening activities, primarily because of the benefits for musculoskeletal health. Previous research has indicated a link to a lower risk of death, but until now experts did not know what the optimal “dose” might be.
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