Fancy that

CBS reports that

Researchers in California and in Cambridge, England, are successfully training man's best friend to smell out one of his worst enemies.

Researchers say dogs can be more accurate than current cancer tests and represent a breakthrough in cancer detection.

In September, a leading medical journal in Britain, the BMI, gave its blessing. The journal published the results of the first ever meticulously controlled, double blind, peer-reviewed study on the subject, stating, “The results are unambiguous. Dogs can be trained to recognize and flag bladder cancer.”

Pete's Comments:

A friend in the USA is reported as saying that immediately after your dog starts to lick you a lot get yourself down for a CAT scan.

How appropriate! When it's raining it is raining cats and dogs!

Some information for those that need it

Oesophageal Cancer

In case people have not yet realised this, all of us who suffer from this disease had to learn about it, about treatments and about the odds of survival.

I welcome visitors to this web site and encourage people with similar illnesses to discuss their situation.

The Ivor Lewis Method

http://www.vh.org/adult/provider/surgery/EsophagealCarcinoma/12E.html

http://www.rcsed.ac.uk/journal/vol45_5/4550006.htm

http://www.vesalius.com/graphics/archive/archtn.asp?VID=773&nrVID=772

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=10075357&dopt=Abstract

Definitely NOT for the squeamish

P. S. you will need a medical dictionary for some of the words. After all my degrees I still have no idea what some of them mean.

One of the options for assisting people with this form of disease and its consequences is to have a place in which people can discuss their own situation, ask their questions and obtain information from others who are in the same boat.

There is such a site in the USA which is called the EC Café at

http://www.eccafe.org/

Within the ACT there is also a wonderful site which presents a one stop shop for cancer sufferers and this at:
http://www.hotkey.net.au/~string/listing.htm

Try it you will find it useful

There is NATIONAL AUSTRALIAN STUDY of Oesophageal Cancer underway

ASK YOUR DOCTOR about whether you can and/or should participate.

You can find out more at :

http://www.qimr.edu.au/research/labs/adeleg/

http://www.qimr.edu.au/research/labs/adeleg/barrets.html

and especially at:

http://www.acs.qimr.edu.au/menu/faq.html this URL providing information for participants!

http://www.acs.qimr.edu.au/menu/oes/index.html

In addition to the above, there is also information about clinical trials in the USA which can be located at:

http://www.nci.nih.gov/Search/SearchClinicalTrialsAdvanced.aspx

NOTE: To use this site it is necessary to have an idea of how to use a search engine and to know the stage of the disease that you are looking for.

Chemo Therapy

There is a web site in the UK that is helpful in providing information about chemo therapy substances:

http://www.cancerbacup.org.uk/Treatments/Chemotherapy/Individualchemotherapydrugs/

The specific site for 5FU is at:

http://www.cancerbacup.org.uk/Treatments/Chemotherapy/Individualchemotherapydrugs/Fluorouracil

I hope this is of assistance to people.

News for consideration

Reuters reports that: Selenomethionine May Protect Against Esophageal Cancer.
See the full article on this subject at:http://www.cancerpage.com/news/article.asp?id=8903

The Good and the Bad News

I am consistently amazed by the fact that I am still alive! After having been told the bad news - you have a few months to live, it has come as a pleasant surprise to find myself still alive and kicking. The bad news is that there are people I know and like who have not been as fortunate. Alas they have fallen victim to some form of cancer or other ailment well before what I would have thought of as their allotted time.

I have now been to a number of funerals and I can tell you they are really even more depressing when they are about someone who is both younger than I am and someone who until their demise was considered to be a darn sight healthier.

Whenever I have another appointment with the doctors or have to have another scan I am consistently frightened by the prospect of what the examinations will reveal. To some extent I guess I wish to be able to return to the days when I was pig ignorant and felt that the rest of my life would be filled with healthy and happy days - as all the earlier one's had been. Being aware of your mortality is on the one hand good news - as you can try and take as many precautions to maintain the state as possible and on the other, bad news as you no longer feel either willing or able to take the risks that would have been taken with impunity at an earlier life stage.

When will the pattern of life return to a sense of normality? I fear never! All my life prior to my diagnosis I lived in the fairy tale world of "and so they lived happily ever after". No longer is this possible. I guess what is possible is to regain sufficient equilibrium to not worry too much about either the happily or the ever after and just try and enjoy what time is left.