Hi Everybody,

Its that time of year again, leaves falling, nights drawing in and Richard and Vicky pestering you for sponsorship money. Unfortunately this year I am going it alone as Vicky is recovering from an operation she had this week.

Thank you to everyone who sponsored us last year, as a group (120 of us from the office supplies trade) we raised over £62,000 with your kind donations for The Institute of Cancer Research (UK based).

The research breakthroughs made by the ICR have positively effected thousands of people and their familes and they are behind the most recent prostrate cancer treatment developments. See below for more details. It must be a huge lift to those suffering from the disease and their families.

As many of you may know my family has had more than its fair share of cancer over the last few years. My dad in particular had a radical stem cell treatment that would not have been available a few years back which has put his Myeloma cancer into remission.  There was further good news just this year of a new Myeloma drug treatment being released on the NHS.

Anyway that's my motivation for getting my butt up 2959 feet of Bowfell in the Lake District on Friday 13th November. It should be a breeze after going to our friend Wendy's spinning classes. She really has missed her calling as a dominatrix!!!!  

Now as I always leave things to the last minute and the climb is on Friday PLEASE sponser me !!!!!!

Vicky says she doesn't mind if you want to sponsor her to eat gingerbread in Grasmere's coffee shop whilst waiting for me to return! 

Love

Rich

 

Prostate Cancer Drug Abiraterone Shows Impressive New Research Results

26 May 2009 - The groundbreaking cancer drug abiraterone provides significant benefit for up to two-thirds of men with advanced and aggressive prostate cancer, according to a study published online in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

The drug, discovered at The Institute of Cancer Research, made headlines in July 2008 when the first UK Phase I clinical trial reported significant shrinkage of patients’ tumours and reduction in pain. The Phase I/II study, reporting on 54 patients, confirmed the Phase I results. In addition, ICR scientists have worked out how to delay drug resistance and developed a test to identify the men most likely to benefit from abiraterone.

“Our latest study also shows that by combining abiraterone with a steroid treatment when abiraterone stops working, we can reverse resistance and extend the response to this treatment by another 12 months,” lead researcher Dr Gert Attard says. “We have also noticed that the majority of patients who had very significant shrinkage of their tumours had an abnormality of a gene called ERG that was probably driving their cancer. We have developed a test for this ERG gene so we can identify the men most likely to benefit from abiraterone.”

Abiraterone has now moved into Phase III prostate cancer trials at more than 150 hospitals across the world, in one of the largest ever trials for end-stage prostate cancer