No Stomach for Cancer | Be Strong Hearted

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Archive for March, 2009

Kia Kaha

Posted by Karen Chelcun Schreiber On March - 21 - 2009

By Ryan Gay
Kernersville News, NC
March 2009
lisa-foster-england

The stomach is an organ many people take for granted, not really thinking about how much it helps the body. Except in instances of allergies or diets we don’t really have to concern ourselves with what we eat or when we eat.

There is simply a familiar pang in our abdomen that tells us our body needs to eat.

For one local woman, keeping her body fueled is not that easy.

Due to a genetic mutation that caused two stomach cancers, Lisa Foster England had to have her stomach removed.

Just over a decade ago, a scientist in New Zealand was studying an aboriginal people known as the Maori and discovered a mutation that greatly increases the risk of a deadly stomach cancer that is hard to detect.

The official name of the gene is cadherin 1, type 1, E-cadherin (epithelial), more commonly known as CDH1. Read the rest of this entry »

Families, Genetics, News

Lily’s Cookies

Posted by Karen Chelcun Schreiber On March - 14 - 2009

lily-cookieslily-gregMy name is Lily and I’m in 4th grade. I would like to tell you about my cookie project. I wanted to help with stomach cancer research after I heard that our family friend, Mr. Greg, had stomach cancer. My mom and I thought of ways to help. Then I came up with an idea, “Since I make fabulous homemade chocolate chip cookies, maybe I could make people a dozen cookies in exchange for a ten dollar donation to the Chelcun Family Stomach Cancer Foundation?” So far I’ve raised $410 dollars for the foundation. My plan is to keep making cookies as long as there is stomach cancer. By the way Kia Kaha means “Be strong hearted” which is the motto for the foundation.

Someone You Should Know: Lily Beyer Article & Video
January 2009

Fundraising, News

Erin’s Gift Family Forum Notice

Posted by Karen Chelcun Schreiber On March - 12 - 2009

Notice from Erin’s Gift regarding a Family Forum in Canada:

Add your name to the list of parties interested in attending a HDGC Family Forum. Plans are tentatively in the works for a forum in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada for families affected by HDGC to be held within the next 3-5 years. The forum will include guest speakers such as Dr. David Huntsman. Please add your name to the contact list if you wish to receive further information as it develops.
March 2009

Families, Get Involved, Notices

No Stomach For Food - Or Cancer

Posted by Karen Chelcun Schreiber On March - 8 - 2009

By David Wahlberg
Wisconsin State Journal
March 2009

Karen and Sons

She never gets hungry. Regular meals make her sick. She can’t eat and drink at the same time.

Karen Chelcun Schreiber has no stomach.

It’s not that her stomach is mostly bypassed like after weight-loss surgery. She has no stomach at all. She had the bean-shaped organ removed last summer.

Read the article in its entirety  . . .  No Stomach For Food - Or Cancer

Families, Genetics, News

You’re Having WHAT? About Total Gastrectomy

Posted by Karen Chelcun Schreiber On March - 2 - 2009

Prophylactic Total Gastrectomy (Preventive Complete Removal of Stomach)

Hereditary Diffuse Gastric Cancer (HDGC) is the type of gastric cancer caused by a mutation in the CDH1 gene. Because it is nearly impossible to detect at an early stage, the recommended procedure to prevent the development of this cancer in CDH1 gene mutation carriers is prophylactic total gastrectomy. The reconstruction is referred to as a Roux-en-y.

The Surgery

The diagrams below show the anatomy before and after reconstruction. Read the rest of this entry »

Front, Gastrectomy

Going Under the Knife to Head Off Cancer

Posted by Karen Chelcun Schreiber On March - 2 - 2009

By Radha Chitale
ABC News Medical Unit
March 2009

brian-greg

Prophylactic Surgery One Option for Those at Risk of Cancer

 

Few wouldn’t balk at the idea of prophylactic surgery — the removal a healthy organ or gland that shows no sign of cancer in order to prevent cancer from developing in that organ or gland.

 

Brian Chelcun with his father, Greg, in 2007. Brian had a prophylactic operation to remove his stomach two weeks ago, soon after his father died of stomach cancer on February 8th.

(WCVB)

In other words, prophylactic surgery involves cutting from the body a perfectly fine organ.

Or a ticking time bomb.

Or a perfectly fine organ.

And that is the dilemma facing a segment of the population who, due to family history, genetics or personal medical history, are saddled with a higher risk of cancer than the rest of the population and may have to take drastic steps to prevent a disease that kills over half a million Americans each year.

But Brian Chelcun, 26, never wavered for a moment.

“I was seeing my dad go through the effects of having stage IV stomach cancer,” said Brian, whose father died Feb. 8 of the disease. Chelcun was released from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston last week after a gastrectomy to remove his stomach.

“Here’s a chance to avoid going through something that is so hard, and difficult to cure,” he said. Read the rest of this entry »

Families, Genetics, News

Dr. Parry J. Guilford on the broader implications of HDGC research

Posted by Karen Chelcun Schreiber On March - 1 - 2009

I think the broader implications of HDGC research are that the small, very early cancers found in the stomachs of HDGC families are rarely seen in the general population (because they are too small to be seen by endoscopy and are asymptomatic).  By analysing them we get a unique opportunity to observe the earliest stages of gastric cancer development (which affects >800,000 new people/yr worldwide).   

This provides a better understanding of the mechanisms by which the environment triggers cancer development and an opportunity to test and develop new agents for the prevention of many cancer types.

 

Regards, Parry

Assoc. Prof. Parry Guilford is a Principal Investigator in the Cancer Genetics Laboratory, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand, and the Research Director of Pacific Edge Biotechnology Ltd. He completed his MSc at Otago in 1983, and his PhD at Cambridge University in 1989.  His research interests include the genetics of inherited cancers, in particular gastric cancer, and the application of gene expression analysis to the diagnosis and management of cancer.

Front, Hereditary Diffuse Gastric Cancer, Research
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