If you suffer from allergies, take heart: Researchers say you may be less likely to develop a tough-to-treat brain cancer, possibly because your immune system is on high alert.

It's not clear how this knowledge might improve prevention or treatment of brain cancer, but the study's lead author said the findings pave the way for further research.

"We need to do more studies to really get at that underlying mechanism. Then we might be able to do things that would influence people who might have a higher risk or may have a family history," said Bridget J. McCarthy, a research associate professor of epidemiology at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

The lesions studied are known as gliomas, the most common type of adult brain tumor. They account for more than half of the 18,000-plus malignant brain tumors diagnosed in the United States every year, according to the U.S. National Cancer Institute.

Gliomas -- which led to the death of Sen. Edward Kennedy -- often cause death within months, despite surgery or treatment with chemotherapy or radiation.

Researchers have published conflicting studies about whether people with allergies and autoimmune disorders (which cause the immune system to attack the body) have a lower risk of developing the tumors, McCarthy said. "We wanted to look at the spectrum and see if we found the association with any type of allergy," McCarthy explained.

In the study, published Feb. 7 in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, McCarthy and colleagues examined surveys filled out by 419 patients with gliomas and 612 cancer-free patients from North Carolina and Illinois. All of the patients were asked if they had doctor-diagnosed allergies -- seasonal, medication, food, pet or any other -- and whether they took antihistamines.

The researchers found that patients with both high- and low-grade tumors were more likely to report no allergies than the other patients. And the more allergies someone had, the lower their odds of having gliomas. Antihistamine use didn't affect the results, the authors said.

However, the study didn't specify exactly how much more likely it is that an allergy-free person will develop a glioma compared to someone who has allergies.

What might allergies -- or the lack of them -- have to do with brain tumors? McCarthy said overactive immune systems may cause allergies and also allow people to fight off cancer. Figuring out what to do about this is the tough question.

"Obviously, it's not like allergies are a modifiable risk factor," she said. "You can't tell people to go out and develop allergies. That's not going to happen. And you can't tell people with allergies that, 'You're doing a good thing, and don't try to get rid of them.'"

The study doesn't prove a cause and effect -- that allergies directly lower the risk of brain tumor. It only shows a possible connection, one that doesn't sway Dr. Eugene S. Flamm, chairman of the department of neurosurgery at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City.

Flamm said the study is small and draws conclusions "far beyond the observational data."

"As the authors point out, there are several conflicting reports in the literature, and this paper does not resolve the issue in any way," Flamm said.

One reason for the conflicting reports, the authors said, was that "allergy" was defined differently in various studies -- sometimes broadly and sometimes narrowly, as in seasonal allergies alone. Further studies are essential, they said.

Over 40,000 cases of cancer in children are being reported in India every year, experts said here Sunday, adding that only a fraction of them manage to receive proper treatment.

'The number of cases of childhood cancer is increasing in India. Of the 40,000 that is reported, only 20-30 percent manage to get proper treatment,' senior consultant pediatric oncologist at the Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute Gauri Kapoor said at the institute's 10th annual conference here.

'Unlike cancer in adults, childhood cancers have a higher cure rate. But, this is only possible if the cancer is diagnosed at the right stage and the child is given right mode of treatment,' added Kapoor.

The common cancers among children are acute lymphoblastic leukemia or blood cancer, germ cell tumour, brain tumour and liver and kidney cancer, among others.

The annual conference saw participation from over 100 experts from the All Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Tata Memorial hospital in Mumbai, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in the US, and various other hospitals from across the world.

The three-day conference culminated in a 'walk on awareness of childhood cancer' in the central Delhi area Sunday that saw nearly 2,000 people participate.

'The idea is to spread awareness on children who have survived the battle of cancer. Once they grow up, they are made to face discrimination due to the existent stigma in the society,' additional secretary of the Indian Cancer Society Jyotsna Govil told IANS.

'The cure rate for childhood cancer is high and we must make an effort to make life easy for these children who have won the battle,' added Govil.

The conference also included an interactive workshop of 25 cancer survivors and doctors.

'The need is to develop more on dedicated pediatric oncology units that are equipped with adequate infrastructure and are viable to the masses,' said Kapoor.

Researchers at Barcelona's Hospital Clinic said they were able to reduce the level of the virus in infected patients using a personalised treatment that they hope could eventually replace expensive antiretroviral drug treatment currently used to keep it at bay.

Twenty-four people with Aids took part in a clinical trial and after 24 weeks the majority had shown a "significant" decrease in their viral load, the hospital said, although it cautioned that it is still not enough as a treatment.

"This decrease was very significant is some of them but in no case did the virus become undetectable," the hospital statement said.

"However this is a very important improvement with respect to previous initiatives where with a similar vaccine there was a modest response in 30 percent of the treated patients. No therapeutic vaccine has achieved up to now the same level of response as in this study."

The vaccine was made from each person's own dendritic cells, a special type of cell that is a key regulator of the immune system. The cells were extracted and "reeducated" to attack the virus using samples of HIV also taken from individual patients.

The adjusted cells were then injected back into them in three stages, two weeks apart.

At 3,000 Euros (2,500 pounds) the new treatment is significantly less expensive than antiretrovirals which cost an estimated 8,000 Euros a year (6,800 pounds) and must be taken daily and for life.

The results of the clinical trial were announced Tuesday and published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases.

An estimated 33.3 million people worldwide have the HIV virus that causes Aids, according to the United Nations Aids agency UNAIDS.

Since the beginning of the epidemic in the 1980s, more than 60 million people have been infected with HIV and nearly 30 million have died of HIV-related causes.

Deborah Jack, Chief Executive of the National AIDS Trust, said: "This was an extremely small scale study so it's important to recognise that there is a long way to go before drawing any conclusions from this research.

"However, as HIV treatment has evolved hugely over the past ten years, we always welcome new research which sheds new light on effective treatment options for people living with HIV."

Lisa Power, Policy Director at HIV and sexual health charity Terrence Higgins Trust, said: "Therapeutic vaccines are an exciting area of research. Current drug treatment is good at keeping HIV in check, but as people with HIV now routinely live well into old age, the lifetime cost of treatment can be high. An effective therapeutic vaccine could not only be less expensive, but people living with HIV might find it easier to manage.

"This trial is a step in the right direction, but until we find a vaccine that controls the virus as well as antiretroviral treatment does, we're not there yet. This research give us a good idea of where to concentrate efforts in the future."

Basic gene profiling to single out the gene responsible for causing cancer and curing the disease now possible at select labs

Cancer treatment in the city is set to get personal in nature.

In a bid to improve the efficacy of cancer treatment, city doctors are now opting for gene profiling technique, which allows for identifying the gene responsible for the cancerous growth.


By isolating the gene, the doctors will not only be able to predict the growth of the cancer but also be able to devise a personalised treatment for you.

"From the available diagnostic tests, at times it becomes difficult for the doctors to distinguish the type of cancerous tumour. With gene expression profiling the doctor can actually detect the exact type of cancer," said Dr Mukesh Desai, haematologist, BJ Wadia Hospital for Children, Parel.

"Once the nature of the cancer is understood a specific treatment which best suits the patient can be selected from various treatments," he added.

Terming it a personalised cancer treatment, Dr Suresh Advani, chief oncologist of Jaslok Hospital, said, "The course of treatment can be selected by understanding the nature of tumour, whether it is aggressively spreading or not.

For instance, usually people who land up at my clinic and are diagnosed with stage one breast cancer have to undergo chemotherapy."

"But, with gene profiling, we can avoid chemotherapy in many cases as drugs might work better," he added.

Conventionally, medicos follow a group-specific treatment applicable to cancers of varied nature, but with gene profiling, there is an element of individual care.

No chemo

According to medical literature, there are reversible side effects of chemotherapy like hair loss, nausea, vomiting, weakness, and a lowered immunity, which can be avoided with the help of the new technique.

"To avoid the side effects and reduce the burden of various unnecessary drugs which take a toll on the human body, it is good to have a personalised treatment," said Dr Advani, adding that such basic tests cost anywhere between Rs 10,000 to Rs 50,000.

Currently a few private laboratories are equipped to do basic gene profiling but advanced testing is yet not possible in the country, say experts.

Dr Anil Heroor, onco-surgeon at Fortis Hospital, said, "The advanced 21-type gene testing is yet not available in the country.

But we can send samples from those patients who can afford it to the US for testing. Going by the scientific trials, the profiling helps doctors select a specific treatment, doing more good to the patient at large."

Researchers delving into the relationship between sleep and memory found that when we doze our brain prunes out unimportant memories but enhances those that need to be retrieved and are relevant to complete a task in the future.

Though, the human brain encodes and stores daily experiences in the form of memory, this information is quickly erased.

Lead author of the study, Dr. Jan Born of the University of Lubeck in Germany stated, "Our results show that memory consolidation during sleep indeed involves a basic selection process that determines which of the many pieces of the day's information is sent to long-term storage.

"Our findings also indicate that information relevant for future demands is selected foremost for storage."

Study details
In a bid to determine how the brain decides which memories to retain and which to forget, the researchers conducted study.

For the purpose of the study, they recruited 191 volunteers for a couple of experiments to test their memory retrieval.

The study subjects were split into two groups. The first was asked to memorize 40 pairs of words while the second group had to match photos of animals and objects.

Half of participants in both groups were told they would be re-tested within 10 hours on the material they had learned while the remaining were told to expect another task later.

During the 10-hour interval some members of both the groups were allowed to sleep.

Findings of the study
The researchers found that people who slept performed better when re-tested. However, the volunteers who went to sleep anticipating a test post the nap exhibited a better memory recall.

They remembered 12 percent more words as opposed to those who were not expecting a test.

The brain waves of the volunteers were also monitored by electroencephalograms (EEG) while they slept.

The study found that the participants who were aware that they would be tested displayed an increase in brain activity during deep or "slow wave" sleep that is known to be linked to memory consolidation.

Dr Gilles Einstein, an expert in memory at Furman University stated, "These results suggest that sleep is critical to this memory enhancement.

"This benefit extends to both declarative memories (memory for a road detour) and procedural memories (memory for a new dance step)."

The findings were reported in the 'Journal of Neuroscience.'