American society of clinical oncology (ASCO)

http://www.asco.org/

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Anything a fellow oncologist needs to know about a good practice, and anything a med student who is eager to learn more, hopes to find.

Blood donation in Canada

http://www.blood.ca/centreapps/internet/uw_v502_mainengine.nsf/page/Home


Blood donation in Canada

-Why should I donate?

Millions of people everyday need blood transfusions, in case of an accident, an illness, or anythng else, they need someone like you to care enough to help and donate your blood, because you might just save a person's life.

-Who Needs Blood?

Approximately every minute of every day, someone in Canada needs blood. In fact, according to a recent poll, 52 per cent of Canadians say they, or a family member, have needed blood or blood products for surgery or for medical treatment.
The good news is that one blood donation - in just one hour - can save a life.

(One unit of blood is the equivalent to one donation)

 

 

-Can I donate?

 

 

Basic Eligibility

Please note that this information is subject to change. Final eligibility determination rests with the screening staff at the donor clinic.
Identification
Identification with full name and signature, or full name and photograph required.
Age
To donate, you must be at least 17 years of age, in general good health, and feeling well on the day of your donation. If you have never donated before and have had your 61st birthday, or if you are between the ages of 67 and 71, and have not donated within the last two years, you must be assessed by a physician who must fill out and sign the following letter. You must also meet the other standard requirements for donation. To find out more, please call us at 1 888 2 DONATE.
Letter to the Attending Physician (Please bring the completed letter with you to the clinic when you next come in to donate)
Weight
At least 50 kg (110 lb). Are you between the ages of 17 and 23? Visit our Eligibility Calculator or call 1 888 2 DONATE for additional criteria.
Frequency of Donation
Minimum interval between blood donations is 56 days.
Health
In general good health and feeling well. You should have had something to eat and adequate sleep. You must also meet hemoglobin (iron) requirements (test done at clinic).
Screening
At the time of donation, you will be asked a number of questions to determine your eligibility. For example:

If You Have: You Must Wait Before Donating:

• Had dental treatment (extractions, fillings, cleaning, restoration)
• For cleaning or filling: until the day after treatment
• For extraction, root canal or dental surgery: 72 hours provided there is full recovery
• A cold, flu or sore throat
• Full recovery
• Had ear or body piercing or tattooing
• 6 months

Donating blood does not put you at risk of disease. All needles are sterile, used only once and discarded. The usual blood collection - a "unit" - is about half a litre, or one pint. Your body soon replaces all the blood you donate.
Stem Cells
To be eligible to join the Canadian Blood Services OneMatch Stem Cell and Marrow Network, you must:

• Be between 17 and 35 years of age
• Meet certain health-related criteria
• Fall between certain height and weight levels

For more information please call 1 888 2 DONATE (1-888-236-6283).


-Donor Questionnaire

What is the Record of Donation?

The Record of Donation is a form that captures all relevant information about you and your donation, and follows you from the registration process, through screening to giving blood. It includes a confidential questionnaire that helps determine if you are eligible to give blood. After donation, it then travels with the unit of blood and sample through testing, processing and final use. What You Must Know Before filling out the donor questionnaire we ask you to read the What You Must Know to Give Blood, or the What You Must Know to Give Plasma or Platelets brochure. The brochure information will help you understand what to expect during your donation and includes some details on post-donation care. You should also read the What Happens to Your Donation brochure to learn how your blood may be used after donation.

Record of Donation form

Completing Your Questionnaire

Help us make the most of your time and donation! When you come in to donate blood, be sure to complete your Record of Donation by shading in the boxes on the form for questions one through 13. Shading instead of ticking the boxes has shown to reduce incomplete questionnaires. For safety reasons, incomplete questionnaires may result in a donation not being used. Thank you for your cooperation!

Have you wondered why we ask all these questions Every Time ?
Click on the poster below to find out.

Impact on Your Eligibility

An affirmative response to any of the Record of Donation questions does not necessarily mean that you are ineligible to donate. Once you have responded in writing to questions one through 13, a trained health professional will determine your eligibility during a confidential one-on-one interview with you at the blood donor clinic.

Information Recorded on the Record of Donation

• Your donor identification and address



• Your blood type, preferred language, and number of previous donations



• Results of physical tests including hemoglobin, blood pressure, and temperature



• Indication of how the unit will be processed



• Indications of which employees served you



• Your answers to questions on health and certain high-risk activities



• Comments by screening employee



• Confidential Unit Exclusion (CUE) label


• Deferral codes, if applicable



• Relevant details of the venepuncture and bleed time



• Unit labelling information



• Your signature, confirming your informed consent to use the blood collected and that you have answered all questions truthfully.

For more information about the Record of Donation, please speak to a nurse at your local blood donor clinic, or call 1 888 2 DONATE
(1 888 236-6283) and ask to speak with a member of our medical staff.


-What can I donate?

Types of Donations

Canadian Blood Services is responsible for recruiting blood and bone marrow donors, as well as collecting blood, plasma, and platelets at 41 permanent collection sites and more than 19,000 donor clinics annually.

Canadian Blood Services collects whole blood. Whole blood is comprised of red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets and plasma. Some donations are held and transfused as whole blood, others are processed to separate red blood cells and plasma.

All whole blood donations undergo leukoreduction, a process whereby white blood cells are removed. White blood cells often carry viruses and bacteria that can be detrimental to the recovery of the recipient.

Some donors donate plasma through a process called plasmapheresis. The donor’s blood is processed through an apheresis machine that extracts only the plasma and returns the rest of the blood to the donor. Plasma may be transfused into a patient or further processed into other products.
Platelets can be donated through a process called plateletpheresis.

 The donor’s blood is processed through an apheresis machine, much like in a plasma donation. In this case, only the platelets are collected and the rest of the blood is returned to the donor.

All main Canadian Blood Services donor clinics have a plateletpheresis program. Because the plateletpheresis programs differ from location to location, if you are interested in becoming a platelet donor, please call 1 888 2 DONATE (1 888 236-6283) during regular business hours and select option "1" from the automated voice system to speak to a member of our medical staff.

In managing the OneMatch Stem Cell and Marrow Network, Canadian Blood Services also collects blood samples for donors who wish to join. Canadian Blood Services records the specific proteins that make an individual’s stem cells unique. This information is used to match donors with patients who need stem cell transplants.
Would you like to become a donor?

-Blood

Every minute of every day, someone in Canada needs blood. Much of the blood that is transfused every year is done under emergency or trauma situations. In Canada, hundreds of thousands of people each year receive blood components or blood products following accidents, during surgery or for cancer treatments, burn therapy, hemophilia and other blood-related diseases.

• The average amount of blood in one person is five litres or 10.5 pints
• There are approximately 450 ml of blood in a unit
• On average, 4.6 units of blood are required per patient
• In 2004/2005 Canadian Blood Services collected approximately 850,000 units of whole blood

ASH: American Society of Hematology

http://www.hematology.org/

Everything you needto know about Hematology!
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For students an professionals.

A Call for Safer Drugs for Kids

Many of the medicines children take have never been proved safe and effective for them. A new law will help change that

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Image: LAUREN BURKE Getty Images

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Parents assume that when a pediatrician prescribes a drug for their child, that drug has been tested and proven safe and effective. If only it were so. Only half of the medicines doctors prescribe to patients 18 and younger have been through the same rigorous trials as those drugs prescribed to adults. The other half are given off-label—that is, in circumstances for which they were never properly vetted, putting children at risk for overdoses, side effects and long-term health problems. For newborns, that fraction rises to 90 percent. In July the U.S. Congress gave the Food and Drug Administration new authority to compel companies to test their products for kids. The law should improve the situation, but it has worrying gaps.

As biologists have come to appreciate, drug metabolism is one of the many ways in which kids are not just small adults. When doctors downsize an adult dosage to suit a child's weight or body surface area, a drug can prove ineffective or harmful. Infants have immature livers and kidneys, so even a seemingly small dose of medicine can build up quickly in their bodies. As children mature, their organs can develop faster than their body size, so they need to take disproportionately more of the drug. For example, some recent pediatric clinical trials have found that the asthma medication albuterol does not work for children younger than four when taken through an inhaler. The seizure drug gabapentin (Neurontin) requires higher-than-expected doses for children under five.

The reason that drug companies neglect their youngest customers is simple. Children make up a small fraction of the world's drug recipients, so developing and testing new medicines for them is rarely worthwhile from a business perspective. Pediatric trials are especially expensive and complex, in part because of the difficulty of finding enough patients to enroll in them.

Congress began to address the issue in 1997, and its latest legislation, known as the FDA Safety and Innovation Act, strengthens those earlier efforts. The law requires pediatric studies for certain drugs and provides incentives to test others, such as a six-month patent extension. In addition, the law requires better advance planning of pediatric studies, improves the transparency of data and makes special provisions for newborns. The American Academy of Pediatrics praised the law: “The bill ensures that children will have a permanent seat at the table for drug research and development.”

Still, the law leaves many children vulnerable. It does little for youngsters with cancer, who rely disproportionately on undocumented drugs. Earlier this year Genentech won FDA approval for the skin cancer drug vismodegib, which intervenes in the same molecular process thought to be involved in a childhood brain tumor, yet the company was under no obligation to test the drug in younger patients. Congress needs to close this loophole, and in the meantime the FDA should continue to work closely with pharmaceutical companies and pediatric oncologists to find new ways of identifying and testing promising cancer medicines in children.

Another problem is that doctors are worryingly in the dark about the long-term health effects of pediatric drugs. Young people take medications for asthma, diabetes,arthritis and many other chronic conditions, yet rarely are side effects recorded and followed up on. In its February report “Safe and Effective Medicines for Children,” the Institute of Medicine recommended that the FDA make greater use of its authority to require long-term safety studies when it approves a product for pediatric use.

That said, the FDA Safety and Innovation Act is an important achievement. Children's medications are safer now than at any time in history, and many doctors and children's health advocates are so elated by the act's passage that they are reluctant to talk about what still needs to be done. But now is not the time to let up on our drive to make drugs safe for all our citizens. We hope this legislative victory will breed even more success.

Fun facts about brain Tumours

1. The mostcommon brain tumorsare cancers from other parts of the body (e.g. lung, breast, colon or prostate) that spreads to the brain.

2. Primary brain tumors originate in the brain and there are over 126 such tumors listed by WHO.

3.Glioma is the commonest primary brain tumour and originates from supporting brain cells that are called glial cells and 50% of all brain tumors begin as benign tumors.

4. Another brain tumour called ‘Astrocytomas’ are so named because their cells look like stars ; the word ‘astro’ in Latin means "star".

5. A primary brain tumour usually is restricted to brain and does not spread to other organs. If brain death occurs in these patients,it is possible to donate their organs.

6. In most instances the cause of brain tumor is not known and they do not discriminate among gender, class or ethnicity.

7. Each year approximately200,000 people in the United Statesare diagnosed with metastatic or primary brain tumor.

8. Commonsymptomsof a brain tumor include headaches, seizures, personality changes, eye weakness, nausea or vomiting, speech disturbances, memory loss.

9. The survival from brain tumor at five years is approximately 30%.

10. Brain tumors can be treated by surgery, radiation therapy, stereotactic   

radiotherapy, chemotherapy or by using these in combination. The most important issue when treating these patients, besides trying to cure them, is to ensure that the quality of life is not compromised.

1. Brain cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide. Regrettably, the exact cause of brain cancer is unknown.
2. Brain cancer is popularly referred to as brain tumour. Brain tumours are cancerous cells from other parts of the body (e.g. lung, breast, stomach etc.) that spread to the brain.
3. WHO has listed around 126 primary brain cancers that develop in the brain. According to the American Brain Tumour Association, around 3,59,000 people in the US live with primary brain cancer.
4. Common symptoms of all forms of brain cancer include headaches, seizures, personality changes, eye weakness, nausea or vomiting, anxiety, speech disturbances, memory loss etc.
5. Males have higher risk of developing brain cancer than females, but glioma, the commonest primary brain cancer, occurs more in women than men.
6. Europeans have elevated chances of developing brain cancer compared with people of other ethnicities.
7. A primary brain cancer limits itself to brain and does not spread to other organs. A patient, who dies because of primary brain cancer, can possibly donate his or her organs.
8. Glioblastoma, meningioma and oligodendroglioma are different types of brain cancer that are often found in adults.  Oligodendroglioma have cells shaped like fried eggs. Another type of brain cancer called ‘Astrocytomas’ has cells that look like stars.
9. Metastatic brain cancer (that spreads from other parts of the body to the brain) is the most common type of brain cancer.
10. Brain cancer is not common among young people. Middle-aged people or people aged 65 have the risk of developing brain cancer.
11. Your cell phone emits radioactive waves, which is a potential cause of brain cancer.
12. According to the American Brain Tumour Association, all types of brain cancers are treatable, if caught early. There are around 130 types of brain cancer and therefore, are difficult to diagnose.
13. Standard treatment of brain cancer includes chemotherapy, radiation therapy and brain surgery.

Blood Fun Facts

Is blood thicker than water?  Blood is about twice as thick as water, thanks to all the cells and other bits that float in it. How long does it take a drop of blood to travel away from the heart and back again?  Roughly 20 to 60 seconds. Why are red blood cells shaped like breath-mint disks with a dent in the middle?  The breath-mint design allows cells to twist through capillaries, the tiniest blood vessels. A sphere or cube is less flexible and might get stuck. Also, the dents in the cells add to the surface area, allowing more oxygen and carbon dioxide to pass in and out of the cell. Why do mosquitos feed on blood?  Adult mosquitos actually eat the nectar of flowers. But mosquito babies need protein, not sugar, to grow. So their mothers feed on blood. Bloodsucking mosquito moms find you by sensing your body heat and breath. Then, with their proboscis, they drill a hole through your skin, into a capillary. Their saliva keeps the blood from clotting while they drink. Is all blood red?  No. Crabs have blue blood. Their blood contains copper instead of iron. Earthworms and leeches have green blood - the green comes from an iron substance called chlorocruorin. Many invertebrates, such as starfish, have clear or yellowish blood. How much blood is in your body?  Blood makes up about 10 percent of your body weight. Weigh yourself and divide your weight by 12 - that answer is about how many pints of blood your body has - adults usually have roughly 10 to 15 pints. A newborn baby has about one half pint or one cup of blood.

Could shark cartilage help cure cancer?

Sharks have been swimming in the Earth's oceans for about 400 million years. They predate humans, dinosaurs and just about anything that walks, crawls or swims. The average shark lives to be about 25, and it's believed that some sharks can live up to 100 years or more. This places them next to the whale as one of the longest-living sea creatures. The fact that they have such a long lifespan has prompted a great deal of research into the secret to their longevity.

Sharks have been studied closely for more than 100 years, mainly because of their low likelihood of contracting disease. Fish with bones have a pretty high rate of growing tumors. For a long time, scientists believed that sharks were immune to cancer and tumors. So what makes sharks different? They don't have bones. Their skeleton is made up entirely of cartilage. This is one reason that shark teeth are collectible -- it's the only fossil you can find from dead sharks. Their cartilage dissolves over time, and nothing is left but the hard-enameled teeth. Many researchers think that this cartilage holds the secret to the cure for some human medical conditions -- namely cancer.

The shark-cartilage industry is booming, to say the least -- some statistics place earnings at about $25 million per year [source:McGraw Hill]. Most of this money comes from the sale of over-the-counter supplements and vitamins containing shark cartilage. You can walk into any health supplement store or browse the Internet and find dozens of shark-cartilage products. It's typically sold in powdered form or packaged in an oral capsule. It's estimated that 100 million sharks are killed every year by humans. We can't know for sure how many are killed for their cartilage, but the vast amounts of shark products on the market give us a pretty good idea.

But could sharks really help cure disease? And can they aid in the fight against cancer? We'll get to the bottom of these questions on the following page

A fisherman cuts the fins off of a shark at the fish market in Abobodoume. The fins of the shark are dried and then exported to Asian countries, notably China and Japan.

Kambou Sia/Getty Images

Shark Cartilage

It was once believed that sharks didn't get cancer. Recent studies, including one conducted by Johns Hopkins University, have disproved those clai­ms. Hopkins professor Gary Ostrander and his research team found 40 cases of tumors in sharks and other elasmobranchs-- sea creatures with skeletons made of cartilage instead of bones. Proponents of using shark cartilage for human medication claim that it helps prevent something called angiogenisis. This is when a tumor continues to grow because of the formation of new blood vessels.

That sharks can and do get cancer makes it clear that ingesting their cartilage in a health-food supplement won't cure the disease in humans. To verify this, researchers have undertaken specific studies on the effects of shark cartilage in cancer patients. Studies on mice and on humans in 1998 and 2005 found that taking an oral shark-cartilage supplement had no effect on cancerous tumors. Results indicated that it didn't prevent the spread of cancer to other organs either. The study also found that taking the supplements led to some gastrointestinal side effects like diarrhea, nausea and vomiting. Shark cartilage also contains mercury, something doctors warn against because of its negative effects on the brain and kidneys.

But that hasn't stopped people from taking it. The media is quick to jump on a "miracle cancer cure" and did just that in 1993 when a "60 Minutes" episode featured a book that touted the use of the cartilage, titled "Sharks Don't Get Cancer." Professor Ostrander characterized the book's research as "overextensions" of some early experiments with shark cartilage.

Ostrander acknowledges that shark cartilage could help fight tumors if the key elements of the cartilage were isolated and administered to the tumor itself -- but a lot of research needs to take place first in order to determine any positive correlations. So while shark-cartilage supplements won't cure cancer, there may be some things we can learn by studying the predator.

Some of this research is already being performed at the Mote Marine Laboratory's Center for Shark Research in Sarasota, Fla., with the help of Clemson and South Florida Universities. Sharks have a tremendous resistance to disease, and much of the Mote laboratory research is centered on their immune system.

Most animals produce disease-fighting cells in their bone marrow. There's a delay from the time the disease appears to when the cells are produced and sent out to fight the disease. Since sharks have no bones, they produce immune cells mainly in their spleen and thymus. The Mote research indicates that because of this, the shark's immune cells are more readily available in the bloodstream and the lag time is eliminated. Their antibodies are also the smallest in the animal kingdom and are more able to penetrate tissue and get to the disease faster.

Although there may not be any evidence to suggest that ingesting shark products can have an effect on our own immune systems, we may be able to learn more about how immune cells behave by studying sharks.

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