What: ‘Caring For The Caregiver’ Program
When: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, June 28
Where: Stabile Research Building at Moffitt Cancer Center, 12902 Magnolia Drive (Tampa, Florida)

Moffitt Cancer Center’s ‘Caring For The Caregiver’ Program is a free education and support program for family cancer caregivers which will be facilitated by Moffitt professionals: Miriam Innocenti (clinical social worker), Jill Blair (nurse practitioner) and Heather Bell (registered dietitian) — and is open to anyone caring for a cancer patient.

Important notes: Light breakfast and lunch are provided. Registration begins at 9:30 a.m. the day of the program. Reservations are required. Please call 1-888-MOFFITT (1-888-663-3488) by June 24.

[Thanks a lot to Patricia Kim of Moffitt for the hat tip.]

For the Moffitt Cancer Center’s Department of Nutrition and their Dietitians, March is a month-long celebration of National Nutrition Month.

Together with the other medical disciplines, Dietitians help in providing quality care and comprehensive medical nutrition therapy, including:

• Prevention and treatment of malnutrition
• Counseling on diet and cancer prevention
• Counseling on dietary supplements
• Provision of tube-feeding recommendations
• Food safety guidance for patients with decreased immunity

The month-long observance of nutrition is geared towards Moffitt patients and employees.

Spot Moffitt dietitians wearing pink on March 10, Registered Dietitian Day. Registered dietitians have degrees in nutrition, dietetics, public health or related fields, and most have a master’s degree. They must complete supervised training and pass a Commission on Dietetic Registration exam.

“When you need food and nutrition information based on fact or need to know how a healthy diet improves health and fights disease, rely on qualified professionals in the field,” says Kathy Allen, M.A., R.D., LD/N and manager of Nutritional Therapy at Moffitt. “They are able to separate facts from fads and translate nutrition science into information you can use.”

Patients can find information on healthy eating and foods that can help fight cancer on March 14 and 28 in the Moffitt Clinic Building atrium. There will be games and giveaways.

Source: Moffitt Cancer Center PR

[hat tip: Patricia Kim of Moffitt]

The Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida is seeking patients who have primary liver cancer (hepatocellular carcinoma) that has spread to other organs or is too advanced to be treated by surgery and must have had prior chemotherapy treatments.

The said patients are being recruited by Moffitt for the phase II study of the oral medication AZD6244 — an experimental anti-cancer drug that may stop the growth of cancer cells and is designed to block the pathway of a protein called MEK (important for cell survival).

According to Dr. Chris R. Garrett, principal investigator with Moffitt’s Gastrointestinal Oncology program:

“There’s no cure for advanced liver cancer that’s not amenable to surgery. We’re looking for a novel therapy to improve the outcome for patients with the disease.”

The said trial - also being conducted at Emory University, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Vanderbilt University and VCU Massey Cancer Center - is sponsored by The National Cancer Institute.

If you qualify as a participant or you someone who does, you can call clinical research nurse Tiffany Campos at (813) 745-8358.

Source: Moffitt Cancer Center

We know how green tea has become popular for its anti-cancer ingredients.

Now, Moffitt Cancer Center is looking for volunteers/participants in a green tea study:

Moffitt Cancer Center is looking to recruit and treat 240 men and evaluate safety and effectiveness of Polyphenon E, a drug developed from green tea, in preventing the progression of early signs of prostate cancer.

The goal is to also assess if Polyphenon E reduces urinary tract symptoms that men experience with this condition.

The following male participants are needed:

• between the ages of 30 and 80
• have had a biopsy-proven high-grade prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia (HGPIN)
• have no prior history of other cancers (other than nonmelanoma skin cancer)
• have no history of liver disease
• have the ability to take the study drug and comply with scheduled monthly visits for one year

Find more details from the Moffitt Cancer Center.

Pancreatic cancer or cancer of the pancreas doesn’t normally show signs or symptoms until it is too late – making it the fourth leading cause of cancer deaths in the U.S.

November is Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month.

Moffitt Cancer Center’s Gastrointestinal Oncology Program has an early detection and screening program for pancreatic cancer. This program is the only one of its kind in the Southeast, says Dr. Mokenge P. Malafa, head of the division of Gastrointestinal Oncology. Moffitt doctors and researchers are recruiting for this program and several other innovative clinical trials in pancreatic cancer.

Dr. Jason Klapman, an endoscopic oncologist at Moffitt, is the principal investigator of this screening trial targeting patients at high risk of developing pancreatic cancer. Once participants are identified, an endoscopic ultrasound is used to detect the early stages of cancer. Patients are studied for five years.

The patients eligible for this early detection trial have a very strong family history of pancreatic cancer or a genetic syndrome linked with pancreatic cancer .This patient population represents about 10 percent of patients with pancreatic cancer. Moffitt doctors hope this screening clinical trial will make a difference in the diagnosis and treatment of the disease.

Find more details from Moffitt Cancer Center.

[Hat tip to Patricia Kim of Moffitt Cancer Center]

Researchers at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute are testing a new drug – sulindac – to evaluate its potential in reversing the smoking-related damages to the lungs in order to lower the risk of getting lung cancer.

Previous studies have shown that sulindac has been beneficial in preventing the development of pre-cancerous polyps in the colon.

Now, doctors at Moffitt would like to see of the drug will work similarly on the lung’s cells. They’ve opened a new clinical trial are looking for the following patient population:

• people between 45 and 79 years old who have smoked at least one pack of cigarettes a day for 30 years
• current and former smokers who have changes in their sputum, or cells coughed from the lungs, that demonstrate changes caused by years of smoking
• former smokers who have no history of lung cancer or those with stage 1 non-small cell lung cancer that was removed at least one year prior to the screening exam

If you think you qualify and interested in participating in the said trial, you may call Moffitt Cancer Center at (813) 745-3685.

Read the full report.