WVU Doctor Works to Reduce Cancer Burden in Africa

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WVU Doctor Works to Reduce Cancer Burden in Africa

MORGANTOWN, W.Va., June 12 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In 2010, cancer will be

the single leading cause of death worldwide, overtaking chronic illnesses such

as heart disease and stroke. Already cancer causes more deaths than HIV/AIDS,

tuberculosis and malaria combined. Almost three-quarters of new cases will occur

in developing countries, with more than a million cases in sub-Saharan Africa by

2020, according to World Health Organization projections.

Scot Remick, M.D., director of the Babb Randolph Cancer Center at West

Virginia University, is leading U.S. efforts to help prepare for the growing

cancer burden in Third World nations. He heads the International Working Group

of the National Cancer Institute's AIDS Malignancy Consortium, which has been

instrumental in training doctors and building clinical trials for AIDS-related

diseases in Uganda and Kenya.

" Most people don't realize that by 2010 cancer will be the single greatest cause

of mortality worldwide, " said Remick after returning from the May-June meeting

of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, where he chaired an education

session on the topic. " Anywhere from 15 to 20 percent of cancers are due to

transmissible causes, and healthcare professionals in the industrialized world

are likely to underestimate the role of infectious agents -- even though they

constitute a significant burden. "

Transmissible causes include viruses such as Epstein-Barr virus, human

immunodeficiency virus (HIV), Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C viruses, and the human

papillomavirus. Viruses may hit the developing world particularly hard, but

rising rates of obesity and tobacco use are a factor, too.

" You're beginning to see Western influences on lifestyle, and this is creating

impact on the cancer rate, " Remick said.

Remick and an international team of researchers have just published results of

the first clinical trial of its type in Africa -- a low-dose chemotherapy

regimen for people with AIDS-related non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. The trial showed

dramatic results -- a 6 percent mortality rate, compared with an expected 20

percent to 66 percent rate in the Kenyan and Ugandan populations studied.

The research team chose a low-dose chemotherapy regimen because it's vital that

cancer therapies in sub-Saharan Africa be less myelotoxic -- or damaging to bone

marrow -- than conventional treatment plans. Money, means and blood products may

not exist in resource-challenged countries to counteract chemotherapy's

potentially destructive effects on bone marrow.

Remick, senior researcher on the study published in the current issue of the

Journal of Clinical Oncology, said the clinical trial represents a dozen years

of work. Partners in the project are Case Western Reserve University in Ohio,

Ohio State University, the Uganda Cancer Institute and Kenyatta National

Hospital as well as medical schools in Uganda and Kenya.

The AIDS Malignancy Consortium will be promoting measures such as vaccination

and other strategies aimed at preventing cancer as well as screening programs to

encourage early diagnosis. Development of more low-dose chemotherapy trials is

also on the agenda.

" The hope is that, as things will evolve, our efforts will be less about

awareness and advocacy and more about action, " Remick said.

This news release was issued on behalf of Newswise. For more information,

visit http://www.newswise.com.

SOURCE West Virginia University Health Sciences Center