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    <recommendedItem id="20100101_19_440"
                     title="Soft Drinks Linked to Pancreatic Cancer Risk (CME/CE)"
                     score="0.013"
                     href="http://www.medpagetoday.com/HematologyOncology/OtherCancers/tb/18354?impressionId=1265806256610"
                     
      &lt;p&gt;Regular consumers of sugary soft drinks are at higher risk for pancreatic cancer than fruit juice drinkers or the general population, a new Singaporean study has found.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Chinese men and women living in Singapore who drank two or more soft drinks per week were 87% more likely to contract pancreatic cancer after the researchers adjusted for factors such as smoking (95% CI 1.10 to 3.15), according to the report published Feb. 8 in &lt;em&gt;Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers &amp;amp; Prevention.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;In this large prospective cohort of Chinese men and women in Singapore, those who reported regular soft drink consumption were at increased risk of pancreatic cancer when compared with those who largely abstained,&quot; Mark Pereira, PhD, of the School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota, and colleagues wrote. &quot;There was no association between consumption of juice and risk of pancreatic cancer.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;While pancreatic cancer is relatively rare, it is one of the most deadly cancers, with less than 5% of patients surviving five years after diagnosis. Although rates have generally plateaued in the U.S., they continue to climb in some Asian countries, including Singapore.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;This increase may reflect demographic and socioeconomic shifts as well as a transition towards a more westernized lifestyle and diet,&quot; the authors wrote.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Research has shown that insulin promotes pancreatic cancer cell growth, and some researchers think sugary foods could result in blood sugar and insulin fluctuations that expose the pancreas to high concentrations of insulin.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;While fruit juices contain sugar, soft drinks are the major sources of added sugar in the U.S. diet and major contributors to hyperglycemia and hyperinsulinemia.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Pereira and colleagues followed 60,524 men and women who enrolled in the Singapore Chinese Health Study between April 1993 and December 1998 and were followed for 14 years.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At enrollment, the participants completed a 146-question food frequency questionnaire, which contained three items related to soft drinks and juice. The questions asked the participants how much, if any, they drank of soft drinks such as Coca-Cola and 7-Up, orange juice, and other fruit and vegetable juices.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The dietary data was later cross-referenced with records from the Singapore Cancer Registry and the Singapore Registry of Births and Deaths, to determine which of the participants had died of pancreatic cancer and whether it might be related to their soft drink or juice consumption.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Overall, researchers found that 140 participants had contracted pancreatic cancer.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The results were largely consistent with three of four previous U.S. studies on the links between pancreatic cancer and soft drinks. Three of the U.S. studies found an association between soft drinks and cancer.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The author acknowledged that soft drink consumers are more likely than abstainers to participate in other unhealthy behaviors, including smoking and overeating, which makes it difficult to determine that soft drink consumption is an independent risk factor for pancreatic cancer.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;For instance, smokers in their study were at higher risk for pancreatic cancer. &quot;We could not rule out the possibility of residual confounding by factors associated with the habit of drinking soft drinks or other unascertained factors such as waist circumference,&quot; they wrote.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;They also noted that the study was limited in statistical power because pancreatic cancer is rare, which limited the sample size of cancer cases. &quot;Also, because we were unable to collect repeated dietary measurements in this study, we were unable to account for changes in consumption of soft drinks and juices,&quot; they wrote, &quot;especially when the diagnosis of diabetes occurred after the baseline interview.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt; &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;float:left;border-style:solid;border-width:1px;border-color:#8dabbc;font-family:arial;font-size:12px;background-color:#DBE9F2;padding:5px;&quot;&gt;&lt;p&gt;The study was funded by the National Cancer Institute.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The authors reported no financial conflicts of interest.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;clear:both;&quot;&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
    </recommendedItem>
    <recommendedItem id="20100101_19_234"
                     title="ASCO GI: Test May Spot Pancreatic Cancer Early"
                     score="-0.001"
                     href="http://www.medpagetoday.com/MeetingCoverage/ASCOGI/tb/18090?impressionId=1265806256610"
                     
      &lt;p&gt;ORLANDO -- A blood test for pancreatic cancer identified a majority of stage I tumors in a preliminary evaluation involving tumor specimens.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Based on detection of an antigen specific to pancreatic cancer, the assay had an overall sensitivity of 81%, ranging from 62% for stage I cancers to 91% for stage III/IV cancers.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The monoclonal antibody to the PAM4 antigen yielded false-positive results in just 5% of nonpancreatic cancer specimens, resulting in a specificity of 95%, as reported at a press briefing prior to the Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;PAM4 blood test is very specific for pancreatic cancer,&quot; said David Gold, PhD, of the Garden State Cancer Center in Belleville, N.J. &quot;If the assay is positive, there is a high positive diagnostic likelihood that the patient has pancreatic cancer.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In a separate presentation, the investigators showed that the monoclonal antibody, known as clivatuzumab, might have therapeutic potential as a delivery vehicle for anticancer agents.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Treatment with a radiolabeled version of the antibody led to partial responses in a fourth of patients with pancreatic cancer and to stable disease in another 45%.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The PAM4 mucin glycoprotein is expressed by 90% of pancreatic cancers, but not by normal tissue, other types of cancer, or in patients who have pancreatitis. As a result, PAM4 constitutes a unique biomarker useful for early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;Pancreatic cancer has a poor prognosis with an overall five-year survival of 2% to 3%,&quot; said Gold. &quot;However, early detection can substantially improve the prognosis, as five-year survival for stage I disease is 20%.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;To evaluate the diagnostic potential of the PAM4 enzyme immunoassay, investigators studied surgically resected tumor specimens from 68 patients with pancreatic cancer and normal tissue from 19 healthy volunteers.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The monoclonal antibody correctly identified 13 of 21 (62%) stage I cancers, 12 of 14 (86%) stage II cancers, and 30 of 33 (91%) stage III/IV cancers. The test incorrectly identified one of 19 normal-tissue specimens as cancer.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The study also showed a correlation between the serum level of PAM4 and the extent of pancreatic cancer, suggesting the test may inform on tumor stage in addition to its diagnostic capability, said Gold.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Overall, the tumor specimens were associated with a median serum PAM4 level of 9.85 U/mL. Median values increased from 4.53 U/mL for stage I disease to 10.39 U/mL for stage II disease to 13.37 U/mL for stage III/IV cancer.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In contrast, normal tissue specimens had a median serum value of 1.18 U/mL.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Interest in therapeutic applications of clivatuzumab arose from the observation that a single dose of 90Y-labeled antibody showed transient antitumor activity in advanced pancreatic cancer.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The finding led to a clinical trial wherein about two dozen patients with untreated, inoperable locally advanced or metastatic pancreatic cancer received four weekly doses of gemcitabine (Gemzar) plus 90Y-labeled clivatuzumab on weeks two through four.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The therapy led to partial responses in 23% of patients and stable disease in 45% for a total clinical benefit of 68%. The treatment was well tolerated, including few nonhematologic adverse events.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;float:left;border-style:solid;border-width:1px;border-color:#8dabbc;font-family:arial;font-size:12px;background-color:#DBE9F2;padding:5px;&quot;&gt;&lt;p&gt;One of the co-authors is employed in a leadership position at and has stock ownership in Immunomedics.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;clear:both;&quot;&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
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