These girls were all smiles and prepared to strike a pose!

On Wednesday, December 16th the Tackle Cancer Foundation sponsored a special red carpet movie screening, with the Lollipop Theater Network, for the movie Dolphin Tale.  The event was for children being treated for cancer at Medical City Children’s Hospital.

Kimberly with one of the families Tackle Cancer Foundation has helped

It was so nice to be able to do something special for the kids.  They were provided with a movie poster, activity book and t-shirt as well as popcorn, of course!!!

Kids and their families leaving the theater.

Doctors and scientists say Bachmann’s comments risk further reducing already low take-up rates for vaccine in US

Fears that America’s already weak HPV vaccine programme will be critically undermined by a political row has increased as campaigners, academics and doctors lined up to condemn the politicising of a public health issue.

The controversy was ignited by Republican presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann, who claimed that the vaccine against human papillomavirus, which can cause cervical cancer, was a “very dangerous drug” that could lead to “mental retardation”.

That claim immediately drew a barrage of criticism from the medical profession and even from Bachmann sympathisers on the right, forcing her to backtrack slightly. She told a conservative talkshow: “I have no idea. I am not a doctor, I’m not a scientist, I’m not a physician. All I was doing is reporting what this woman told me at the debate.”

But doctors and scientists say that her remarks risk further reducing the already low take-up rates for the vaccine, as more parents will be convinced to reject the vaccine for their daughters.

Professor Gregory Zimet, co-leader of the cancer control programme at Indiana University, said of Bachmann’s comments: “People will say there’s no evidence for it and that is true, there is no evidence. But I would go further: Bachmann is absolutely wrong.”

He added: “Part of the issue will be how long the discussion is prominent in the news. If this is brought up every time the Republican candidates have a debate, if misinformation is repeatedly expressed and covered nationally, it can have a negative effect.”

The uptake of the vaccine has already suffered a major backlash in the US in response to what some critics viewed as an overly aggressive marketing strategy and anxiety from the religious right that the vaccine would promote sexual promiscuity among young girls.

The American Academy of Pediatrics, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Family Physicians all recommend that girls receive the HPV vaccine at the of age 11 or 12, before they begin having sex.

According to the CDC, around 49 percent of girls aged 13 to 17 received one dose of the vaccine in 2010, but only 32 percent received all three doses.

“From the public health point of view that is inadequate,” said Zimet. “When you have a vaccine that likely prevents around 70% of cervical cancers, but fewer than half of girls are receiving all three doses, the ultimate effect is dampened.”

In the US, around 6m people a year become infected with HPV, and some 4000 women die of cervical cancer each year.

Bachmann had focused on the HPV virus to attack her rival in the Republican nomination race, Texas governor Rick Perry, over his decision to issue an executive order requiring girls in the state to have HPV vaccines. She also suggested that he may have made the order in return for political donations from Merck, the manufacturer of the Gardasil, the vaccine used in the US.

Both allegations drew political blood, and Perry found himself on the back foot before the otherwise largely supportive Tea Party audience suspicious of “big government” intrusion on individual liberties.

But Bachmann appears to have badly overplayed her hand by then telling NBC television: “I will tell you that I had a mother last night come up to me here in Tampa, Florida, after the debate. She told me that her little daughter took that vaccine, that injection, and she suffered from mental retardation thereafter,” said Bachmann. “It can have very dangerous side effects.”

Although offering the vaccine at such an early age is sometimes controversial, its effectiveness and safety have not been a political issue in the US.

Dr Marion Burton, the president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, hit back at Bachmann.

“The American Academy of Pediatrics would like to correct false statements made in the Republican presidential campaign that HPV vaccine is dangerous and can cause mental retardation. There is absolutely no scientific validity to this statement. Since the vaccine has been introduced, more than 35m doses have been administered, and it has an excellent safety record,” Burton said.

The Institute of Medicine, which advises the government, last month found the HPV vaccine to be safe.

But while there is absolutely no evidence to suggest that the vaccine is dangerous, there are some questions over the efficacy of Gardasil, the version of the vaccine used in the US.

Clinical trials show that Gardasil is highly effective against two strains of the HPV virus that together account for around 70% of cervical cancers. The vaccine works best in young people who have never had an HPV infection.

In countries with popular cervical cancer screening programmes, vaccination with Gardasil can reduce the number of abnormal smear test results by around 20%.

“That means sparing women from the psychological trauma and gynaecological procedures that arise from an abnormal result,” said Anne Szarewski, a cervical cancer expert at the medical charity Cancer Research UK.

But questions remain over the value of Gardasil in preventing cases of actual cervical cancer where cervical screening programmes are widely subscribed to, said Diane Harper, a Professor of Medicine at the University of Missouri in Kansas City, who led the clinical trials of Gardasil and its main competitor, Cevarix, manufactured by GSK.

Smear test programmes that look for precancerous changes to cells in the cervix caused by the virus have reduced the incidence of cervical cancer in the US to around eight in 100,000 women.

“The very best you could achieve with Gardasil alone would be 14 cases per 100,000 women. So in an overall population, Gardasil is never going to prevent more cervical cancers than you are already preventing with a screening programme,” Harper told the Guardian.

Another concern centres on how long the vaccine lasts. If a woman who received the jab was protected for only five years, any infection and resulting cancer would only be delayed until the immunity wore off.

Gardasil targets two strains of the HPV vaccine, while Cevarix is designed to protect against five strains. Mathematical models of Cevarix suggest the vaccine should protect against the virus for 30 years.

Bachmann’s claims also drew criticism on the right.

Yuval Levin, a former domestic policy advisor to George Bush’s administration and former chief of staff of the President’s Council on Bioethics, called Bachmann’s assertions “preposterously ill-informed” and “profoundly irresponsible”.

“Baseless assertions to the contrary about various vaccines have for years been piling needless guilt upon the parents of children with autism and other disorders, and driving other parents away from vaccinating their children against diseases that could do them great harm. A presidential candidate should not be engaging in such harmful nonsense,” he said in the conservative National Review Online.

Even the popular rightwing radio talk show host, Rush Limbaugh, said that Bachmann “may have jumped the shark” – an idiom generally used to mean having gone too far – by linking the HPV vaccine to mental retardation.

Limbaugh said that Bachmann appeared undercut her initial success in wounding Perry over the HPV issue by shifting the focus to her own credibility with her claims about the vaccine’s safety.

“She scored the points and should have left it there,” said Limbaugh.

]]> http://tacklecancerfoundation.org/2011/09/michele-bachmann-hpv-row-prompts-fears-for-vaccine-programme-in-us/feed/ 0 http://tacklecancerfoundation.org/2011/09/sequential-treatment-using-velcade-and-thalidomide-is-effective-in-high-risk-multiple-myeloma-patients/ http://tacklecancerfoundation.org/2011/09/sequential-treatment-using-velcade-and-thalidomide-is-effective-in-high-risk-multiple-myeloma-patients/#comments Wed, 14 Sep 2011 16:05:59 +0000 Gavin McStay http://www.myelomabeacon.com/?p=12305 Newly diagnosed, high-risk multiple myeloma patients can be effectively treated with sequential therapy, according to the results of a recent Phase 2 study.  Participants in this study initially received a combination of Velcade, Doxil, and dexamethasone followed by a combination…

Your face could appear on mobile bicycle billboards circling the UN and in our New York Times ad delivered to Heads of State in their morning paper.

From the moment they wake…

Listen to LIVESTRONG CEO Doug Ulman talk about how the UN Summit on Non Communicable Diseases meeting will change the face of global health.

There will be several…

The folks at Summit Entertainment contacted LIVESTRONG about their new movie “50/50″ that premiered this week. 50/50 is an original story about friendship, love, survival and finding humor in unlikely…

I read a recent study from a group of Harvard researchers who wanted to determine what foods and/or beverages are most likely to cause that slow and steady weight gain that many of us see over time as we get older – those things we eat or drink that may contribute to the number on our scale inching up ever so slightly year after year.

Interestingly enough, what topped the list were potato chips, potatoes (especially french fries), sugar-sweetened beverages and processed meats (think hot dogs).  And that got me thinking about my kids and what they eat at school.

A Front in the War on Childhood Obesity

The nutritional quality of foods and beverages in schools has been a hot debate for quite some time, largely driven by trends in childhood obesity in this country. About 17% of US kids today are obese.

While kids eat plenty of foods outside of school, the foods and beverages available at schools are an important consideration because of the time our kids spend in school.  It’s been estimated that for some children, 50% of the calories they eat in a day are from school meals.

It’s been exciting to see innovative, kid-approved initiatives that are helping to reduce the calories, sugar, sodium, and fat in school meals – initiatives that are bringing salad bars to schools and getting local chefs to work with students to create new and healthier menu options that taste great, for example. Also exciting is recent legislation that is strengthening nutrition standards for all foods and beverages sold in schools.

But let’s face it – there are still a lot of chips, french fries, sodas, and hot dogs to be found.  I’m fine with my kids having those things occasionally, but I for sure don’t want them having them every day.

Easy Ideas Kids Will Actually Eat

So I pack a lot of school lunches and snacks. And like many people, I’m regularly trying to come up with a variety of healthy options – things that my kids will actually eat, that they won’t get bored with, and that can survive (from a food safety perspective) with insulated lunch bags, freezer packs, and/or a thermos. My kids think I’m a nerd, but I have some ‘guiding principles’ I go by:

• There will always be at least one fruit and one vegetable
• The grains are mostly whole grains
• Proteins tend to be lean and/or sources of healthy fats
• Dairy products (and peanut butter, for that matter) are low in added sugar.

Here are some of my standbys that I mix and match:

Easy ‘entrées’

• String cheese or cheese cubes and whole grain crackers
• Hummus and whole wheat pita bread
• Leftover grilled or baked chicken strips with honey mustard for dipping
• Any kind of leftovers, heated and put in a thermos (chili, spaghetti, stir-fry, soup, etc)
• High-fiber, low-sugar cereal, eaten with milk from school. (Look for cereals with at least 3 grams of fiber and less than 8 grams of sugar per serving).

Sandwiches and wraps

• Whole wheat tortillas smeared with low-fat refried beans (or filled with black beans and/or leftover rice, if I have some), with salsa for dipping
• Whole wheat tortilla with turkey, cheese, and apple or avocado slices
• Peanut or almond butter sandwich on whole grain bread with banana slices or raisins

Fruits, vegetables and salads

• Whole fruit or fruit slices (dipped in lemon juice to prevent them from turning brown)

• Single portion-sized cups of unsweetened apple sauce or fruit packed in its own juice, without added sugar
• Carrots, pepper strips and celery sticks (sometimes with ranch dressing to dip)
• Edamame (soy beans) and sweet cherry tomatoes
• Celery sticks stuffed with peanut butter and sprinkled with raisins or other dried fruit (cranberries, blueberries)
• Colorful salad greens topped with a variety of cut up vegetables and sometimes dried fruit. Depending on what else I pack, I may also add a protein source, like hard-boiled egg slices, leftover rotisserie chicken, chickpeas or nuts. (I either pack dressing in a container on the side, or put it in the bottom of the salad container and have them shake it to spread the dressing around).

Other “sides” and snacks

• Individual serving-sized packages of low-fat, low-sugar yogurt (look for no more than 20 grams of sugar per 6 ounces; about 12 grams of that is naturally-occurring sugar found in dairy products)
• Baked tortilla chips and salsa
• Trail mix made with cereals, nuts, pretzels, dried fruit, or raisins

Healthy drinks

• Freeze small bottles of water to help keep your child well hydrated and his/her lunch cool.
• If you pack juice, make sure it’s 100% juice (freeze these also to help keep the lunch cool).

Reversing a Troubling Trend

Now the reality is, some days and nights are crazier than others and I may not have – or take! – the time to pack lunches. If there are days when my kids do end up eating hot dogs, pizza, or the like at school, I pay extra attention to be sure their breakfast, dinner, and after-school snacks on those days focus on healthy choices.

Back to that study about foods and beverages that may be contributing to weight gain among adults. Chips, french fries, sodas, hot dogs, bologna and other processed meats are foods that a lot of kids eat on a regular basis.

What we eat isn’t the only factor involved in weight control — how much we eat and how active we are critical. Research suggests that obese kids are likely to become obese adults, putting them at risk of developing cancer, heart disease and diabetes. Indeed, it’s been suggested that this generation of youth will live shorter and less healthy lifespans than their parents. But that doesn’t have to be. We can turn this childhood obesity epidemic around.

And this time of year – the back-to-school time of year – is a great time to be thinking about that. Starting with our kids’ lunchboxes.

What about you? What healthy choices do you put in your kids’ lunchboxes that they love to eat?

I read a recent study from a group of Harvard researchers who wanted to determine what foods and/or beverages are most likely to cause that slow and steady weight gain that many of us see over time as we get older – those things we eat or drink that may contribute to the number on our scale inching up ever so slightly year after year.

Interestingly enough, what topped the list were potato chips, potatoes (especially french fries), sugar-sweetened beverages and processed meats (think hot dogs).  And that got me thinking about my kids and what they eat at school.

A Front in the War on Childhood Obesity

The nutritional quality of foods and beverages in schools has been a hot debate for quite some time, largely driven by trends in childhood obesity in this country. About 17% of US kids today are obese.

While kids eat plenty of foods outside of school, the foods and beverages available at schools are an important consideration because of the time our kids spend in school.  It’s been estimated that for some children, 50% of the calories they eat in a day are from school meals.

It’s been exciting to see innovative, kid-approved initiatives that are helping to reduce the calories, sugar, sodium, and fat in school meals – initiatives that are bringing salad bars to schools and getting local chefs to work with students to create new and healthier menu options that taste great, for example. Also exciting is recent legislation that is strengthening nutrition standards for all foods and beverages sold in schools.

But let’s face it – there are still a lot of chips, french fries, sodas, and hot dogs to be found.  I’m fine with my kids having those things occasionally, but I for sure don’t want them having them every day.

Easy Ideas Kids Will Actually Eat

So I pack a lot of school lunches and snacks. And like many people, I’m regularly trying to come up with a variety of healthy options – things that my kids will actually eat, that they won’t get bored with, and that can survive (from a food safety perspective) with insulated lunch bags, freezer packs, and/or a thermos. My kids think I’m a nerd, but I have some ‘guiding principles’ I go by:

• There will always be at least one fruit and one vegetable
• The grains are mostly whole grains
• Proteins tend to be lean and/or sources of healthy fats
• Dairy products (and peanut butter, for that matter), are low in added sugar.

Here are some of my standbys that I mix and match:

Easy ‘entrées’

• String cheese or cheese cubes and whole grain crackers
• Hummus and whole wheat pita bread
• Leftover grilled or baked chicken strips with honey mustard for dipping
• Any kind of leftovers, heated and put in a thermos (chili, spaghetti, stir-fry, soup, etc)
• High-fiber, low-sugar cereal, eaten with milk from school. (Look for cereals with at least 3 grams of fiber and less than 8 grams of sugar per serving).

Sandwiches and wraps

• Whole wheat tortillas smeared with low-fat refried beans (or filled with black beans and/or leftover rice, if I have some), with salsa for dipping
• Whole wheat tortilla with turkey, cheese, and apple or avocado slices
• Peanut or almond butter sandwich on whole grain bread with banana slices or raisins

Fruits, vegetables and salads

• Whole fruit or fruit slices (dipped in lemon juice to prevent them from turning brown)

• Single portion-sized cups of unsweetened apple sauce or fruit packed in its own juice, without added sugar
• Carrots, pepper strips and celery sticks (sometimes with ranch dressing to dip)
• Edamame (soy beans) and sweet cherry tomatoes
• Celery sticks stuffed with peanut butter and sprinkled with raisins or other dried fruit (cranberries, blueberries)
• Colorful salad greens topped with a variety of cut up vegetables and sometimes dried fruit. Depending on what else I pack, I may also add a protein source, like hard-boiled egg slices, leftover rotisserie chicken, chickpeas or nuts. (I either pack dressing in a container on the side, or put it in the bottom of the salad container and have them shake it to spread the dressing around).

Other “sides” and snacks

• Individual serving-sized packages of low-fat, low-sugar yogurt (look for no more than 20 grams of sugar per 6 ounces; about 12 grams of that is naturally-occurring sugar found in dairy products)
• Baked tortilla chips and salsa
• Trail mix made with cereals, nuts, pretzels, dried fruit, or raisins

Healthy drinks

• Freeze small bottles of water to help keep your child well hydrated and his/her lunch cool.
• If you pack juice, make sure it’s 100% juice (freeze these also to help keep the lunch cool)

Reversing a Troubling Trend

Now the reality is, some days and nights are crazier than others and I may not have – or take! – the time to pack lunches. If there are days when my kids do end up eating hot dogs, pizza, or the like at school, I pay extra attention to be sure their breakfast, dinner, and after-school snacks on those days focus on healthy choices.

Back to that study about foods and beverages that may be contributing to weight gain among adults. Chips, french fries, sodas, hot dogs, bologna and other processed meats are foods that a lot of kids eat on a regular basis.

What we eat isn’t the only factor involved in weight control — how much we eat and how active we are critical. Research suggests that obese kids are likely to become obese adults, putting them at risk of developing cancer, heart disease and diabetes. Indeed, it’s been suggested that this generation of youth will live shorter and less healthy lifespans than their parents. But that doesn’t have to be. We can turn this childhood obesity epidemic around.

And this time of year – the back-to-school time of year – is a great time to be thinking about that. Starting with our kids’ lunchboxes.

What about you? What healthy choices do you put in your kids’ lunchboxes that they love to eat?