According to new analysis conducted by Thomson Reuters, One in eight people with advanced cancer turned down recommended care because of the cost. Moreover, among patients with incomes under $40,000, one in four in advanced stages of the disease refused treatment. For example, of late-stage colon cancer patients, 12% spent more than $25,000 out of pocket, according to the survey, in which 1,767 people answered an online questionnaire. The analysis’ findings are similar to a 2006 study in Cancer, which found that cost caused more than 20% of all cancer survivors — not just those with advanced cases — to delay or miss needed care.

Experts say the signs of stress are everywhere:

• Nearly 20% of Americans have problems paying their medical bills, according to a report in September from the Center for Studying Health System Change.

• One in four cancer patients or their families said they used up all or most of their savings to pay for treatment, according to a 2006 survey of nearly 1,000 survivors and their families by USA TODAY, the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health.

• One in 10 in that survey said they were unable to pay for basic necessities, such as food, heat and housing.

Even though there are great advancements in cancer treatment, the advancements come at a high cost. As costs rise, insurers are shifting a greater share to patients, says Neal Meropol of Philadelphia's Fox-Chase Cancer Center. Many plans now require patients to pay for 20% of their health care and costs don’t seem to be going down anytime soon.

Jean S. Kutner, M.D., of the University of Colorado, and colleagues reported in the Sept. 16 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine, that Massage therapy afforded patients with advanced cancer immediate relief of pain and improvement in mood. But relief was short-lived, according to the report.

The single-blind study compared massage therapy with simple-touch therapy. It included 380 adults with advanced cancer (stages III or IV), 90% in hospice care, with moderate-to-severe pain. The patients were enrolled from November 2003 through October 2006. Massage therapy, was provided by licensed therapists, and consisted of six 30-minute sessions over two weeks with at least 24 hours between treatment sessions. The intervention included gentle, smooth, gliding strokes (effleurage), squeezing, rolling, and kneading of muscles (petrissage), and trigger-point release using finger pressure at painful areas to break cycles of spasm and pain.

Simple-touch therapy, given to the control group, consisted of placement of both hands on the patient for three minutes at each of a variety of locations. Pressure was light and consistent, with no side-to-side hand movement. Providers had no past body or energy work experience. Sessions lasted for 30 minutes over two weeks.

Primary outcomes were immediate change in pain (as measured by the Memorial Pain Assessment Card) and sustained change, measured using the Brief Pain Inventory (BPI). Secondary outcomes were immediate change in mood, 60-second heart and respiratory rates and sustained change in quality of life, symptom distress, and analgesic medication use.

The generalizability to all patients with advanced cancer is uncertain. The study patients were English-speaking adults with an estimated life expectancy of three weeks or longer who could participate. Furthermore, the researchers noted, the differential beneficial effect of massage therapy over simple touch was not conclusive without a usual-care control group. However, their findings, they said, support offering massage for immediate symptom relief. They also noted that, considering the potential therapeutic benefits of attention and simple touch, the simple-touch therapy could be provided by family members or hospice volunteers, as an adjunct to usual care.

A drug used to treat high cholesterol is now being administered to help fight tumors.  The treatment, lovastatin, is part of a new trial in which it stopped or eradicated tumors in 80% of patients.

Lovastatin was introduced in 1980 to fight lipids and lower cholesterol.  In early studies, researchers noticed a strange side effect: the drug killed cancer cells in laboratory trials.  In order to safely administer the drug, researchers have had to combine lovastatin with other treatment plans.  According to NeoPlas Innovation Director of Research Dr. Stephen Cantrell, "When we have administered a precisely timed regimen of low-dose interferon with lovastatin, tumors have begun regressing, sometimes within just a few weeks."

The lovastatin regimen is expected to fight a number of malignancies, including mesothelioma.  The drug's initial trial occurred in 2000; a patient who then had stage 4 melanoma remains disease-free today.

Unlike chemotherapy, lovastatin's most commonly reported side effect is fatigue.  Patients will not experience nausea, hair loss, vomiting, or immune system suppression.  For the full press release on lovastatin, click here.

For information on clinical trials and studies, visit the MesoRC page here.

A new cancer treatment with promising results for patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma may also be the key to fighting other forms of cancer.

The treatment boosts the strength of the patient's immune system by interacting with T cells, which in turn fight the cancerous cells in the body.  The drug, Blinatumomab, was administered in small daily doses.  Giving a patient as little as 0.005mg of Blinatumomab per day eliminated some cancerous cells in the blood, and tumours shrank or disappeared completely with 0.015mg.

Four out of 38 trial participants were left disease-free after the study.  One of the patients has survived over a year without any signs of the cancer.

Because the drug worked by interacting with the immune system, there is belief that the treatment can work for other, and perhaps any, form of cancer.  Chief Clinician of Cancer Research UK Peter Johnson said, "These exciting preliminary results come from using them to harness the body's own immune responses in a new way. Although the side effects need to be monitored carefully we hope that this type of treatment will prove to be effective in larger trials in the future."

For the full article, click here.

In 2003, Congress passed the Medicare Modernization Act.  Under this bill, doctors receive less compensation for giving patients chemotherapy.  Following the passage of the Act, some officials were concerned that the new legislation would reduce the availability and quality of chemotherapy.

A new study out of Duke University School of Medicine, however, has confirmed that the Act has not affected cancer care.  Researchers found no evidence that Medicare patients had to travel any further or search any harder for oncologists willing to administer chemotherapy.

Dr. Kevin Schulman, who led the study, said, "The Medicare Modernization Act took issue with the fact that oncologists were often reimbursed too much -- sometimes as much as three times what they had paid -- for the chemotherapy drugs they were giving their patients."  Under the Act, doctors saw their reimbursements fall.

Dr. Schulman continued, "The concern was that patient care would suffer if doctors had to close their practices or scale back, making it necessary for patients to travel farther or go to inpatient facilities for treatment. Our study showed that this, in fact, has not yet occurred."

To read more, click here.