It is important to question your physician about the prescriptions you are given. Most doctors will talk to you about the medication prescribed, but it is still important that you know what you're taking and ask appropriate questions.

• Know the name of the drug. This will enable you to look up information about the drug on your own. It will also enable you to discuss the drug with your doctor or another doctor for a second opinion.
• What is the purpose of the drug? This information will help you to know and understand what this drug is supposed to do and will let you know if the treatment is actually working.
• What are the side effects? It is helpful to be aware of the most common side effects. All drugs have some side effects. Information about side effects can be obtained by asking your doctor or pharmacist or consulting a reliable reference.

I watched ABC's Primetime: Family Secrets on Tuesday night. Correspondent Cynthia McFadden went behind the scenes with actor and famous Baldwin brother Daniel as he trudged his way through a Malibu drug rehab experience. It wasn't his first help-seeking trip -- at one point in his life, he went to rehab six times in four years.

It's a disease, this whole addiction thing, say experts who believe addicts harbor a genetic predisposition for their bad habits. Baldwin agrees. And he calls this ninth stint in rehab his chemotherapy. He needs it, he says, to beat his disease.

McFadden asked Baldwin if his comparison of addiction to cancer wasn't a bit off target. Isn't choice part of the addiction equation, she inquired. "No," he responded. His disease will be with him for the rest of his life, he explained. It's no different really than if he was battling cancer.

I'm not sure about this. I see the genetic argument. I understand addictive personalities. I know it must be hard to kick addiction. But I don't know if I'd put it in the same category as cancer -- because addicts can elect to get help and it can work. Even though nearly 80 percent of those who complete rehab programs go back to using, it's possible to come out clean. Research shows it takes 90 days for the brain to rid itself of this "disease." Research shows there may never be a true cure for cancer.

So I'm just not sure about Baldwin's "chemotherapy." What about you?

Limits are being placed on profits doctors can make on some cancer drugs, causing oncologists to search for new income. Some fear these physicians may resort to prescribing additional treatments for some patients. Not just any treatments, though -- just the ones with the best reimbursements.

Until 2005, Medicare paid a markup of 20 to 100 percent for many cancer drugs. In 2005, Congress changed the reimbursement system to pay physicians just six percent more than the average price for a given treatment. This decrease has made it difficult for small practices to break even on cancer drug purchases because the purchases are not large enough to receive rebates or discounts from drug manufacturers.

According to a recent New York Times article, some oncologists have attempted to increase profits by performing chemotherapy more often, ordering more diagnostic scans, and by putting pressure on patients to make out-of-pocket drug co-payments.

Say it isn't so.

Five new cancer treatments are in the works and could be available for use as early as 2010, thanks to GlaxoSmithKline, PLC, the world's second largest drug company.

The drugs will treat a range of different cancers -- one will be cervical cancer -- and are known as cervarix, pazopanib, promacta, rezonic, and ofatumumab.

"Over the next three years, GSK will make a difference to millions of patients facing cancer," said Glaxo's head of research and development, Moncef Slaoui.

Glaxo's most recent cancer drug is Tykerb, an oral breast cancer treatment launched in March.

Prescription weight-loss drug Xenical hit drugstore shelves on Friday with a new name -- Alli (pronounced: "Al-eye") and with a new non-prescription strength. The newly-named drug is to be more effective with less unpleasureable side effects. Still, there's a problem surrounding this drug, regardless of its name. It's thought to cause colon cancer.

The nonprofit group Public Citizen says Alli, made by GlaxoSmithKline, has been shown in mice studies to cause pre-cancerous lesions in the colon. Since there are no long-term studies on humans, this group believes the FDA should not have approved the drug for non-prescription use. It's not clear whether or not the pre-cancerous spots will lead to colon cancer but the mere suggestion that it might is enough, says a Public Citizen spokesperson.

"What we do know is that these lesions occur much more frequently in people who do get colon cancer," he said. "Why do we recommend that everyone get a colonscopy at the age of 50? Because you pick up on these polyps when you do one. And, even though not all of the polyps are pre-cancerous, no (doctor) does a colonscopy without removing every single polyp that is found. And you do this because you know if you don't, it greatly increases the chances of getting cancer."

New cancer drug Torisol was approved on Wednesday by the FDA for use with renal cell carcinoma, an advanced form of kidney cancer.

Torisol, also known as temsirolimus, is an enzyme inhibitor made by Wyeth Pharmaceuticals and has shown promise for prolonging patient survival. It's the third kidney cancer drug approved in the past 18 months -- the other two are Nexavar, intended to delay disease progression, and Sutent, for tumor size reduction.

Many kidney cancer patients are cured by surgery. About 35 percent of patients, however, experience a recurrence or a spread of the disease. Until just recently, there were no effective drugs to control these issues. Now there are several -- and Torisol is the one showing modest improvement in survival for patients with the most advanced tumors. Further study will indicate whether or not the drug is useful for patients with less extensive metastatic disease.

The Food an Drug Administration is not going to grant a priority review to GlaxoSmithKline's experimental cancer vaccine Cervarix. Adding pressure is recent controversy surrounding its diabetes drug Avandia.

Cervarix will now have to go through a standard 10-month review, instead of going the fast-track route. GlaxoSmithKline is defending its diabetes drug after a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine said that those taking the drug are at greater risks of heart attacks.

GlaxoSmithKline expects to market the drug Cervarix in the United States sometime in 2008.

Gardasil, a vaccine against four types of the human papillomarivus (HPV), may reduce the risk of cancers of the vagina and vulva in addition to reducing the risk of cervical cancer.

The HPV virus can lead to precancerous or cancerous changes to the cervix, vagina, penis and anus. Researchers combined information from three clinical trials to evaluate the effectiveness of Gardasil on the risk of precancerous changes to the vulva and vagina.

The study found that among women who had not been infected with the HPV virus, Gardasil was 100 percent effective against precancerous changes to the vulva or vagina. Among those that had been infected with a certain strain of the HPV virus, Gardasil was 71 percent effective. Gardasil was 49 percent effective against all precancerous changes to the vulva or vagina.

The researchers concluded "With time, such vaccination could result in reduced rates of HPV-related vulval and vaginal cancers".

Drugs currently in trials for obesity and diabetes may soon be fast-tracked for use in the fight against breast cancer. Typically, it takes many years to research and develop new drugs. But these already-developed drugs, if successful, could reach the market much quicker.

The drugs, believed to work by blocking the enzyme PTP1B, could help breast cancer patients because the enzyme is found in high levels in about 40 percent of these patients.

Studies on mice show blocking production of the enzyme significantly slowed tumor development. In some cases, it stopped the spread of the cancer and it might even stop some tumors from forming.

Ovarian cancer clinical trial to test the drug Phenoxodiol was a post I did back in November of 2006.

Its back in the news again saying that so far the studies have shown Phenoxodiol to have an excellent safety profile, with few patients experiencing side effects.

New studies are also being done to help explain the mechanism by which Phenoxodiol induces cancer cell death. This drug interacts with a tumor specific protein and blocks cancerous cells from dividing, causing it to die.

Phenoxodiol also has showed some promise of restoring drug sensitivity in patients that have become resistant to treatment. The OVATURE trial that was discussed in my November post should have results out within 18 months.

On Tuesday, researchers announced that a three-drug cocktail may help women with HER2-positive breast cancer better than any other drug used on its own. About one quarter of women with breast cancer make up this HER2 category.

Tests on mice revealed using the three drugs along with breast cancer drug tamoxifen helped wipe out tumors altogether. And the tumors did not come back. This is the first time mice were cured of a very aggressive human breast tumor. Incidentally, when a single drug was used, tumors returned within several weeks.

The three wonder drugs used in this study -- all are monoclonal antibodies that precisely target certain aspects of tumors -- are the experimental drug pertuzumab; trastuzumab, also known as Herceptin; and gefitinib, or Iressa.

Published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, this study supports the notion that HER2-positive tumors eventually become resistant to one drug and attacking them on several fronts seems to work better.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins discovered that a drug commonly used to treat toenail fungus could block angiogenesis, blood vessels that feed a tumor.

The drug, itraconazole, is FDA approved for human use, which may fast-track its availability as an anti-cancer drug.

If you are interested in reading more about Angiogenesis and cancer growth you can read my post back in July.

The researchers at this point have yet to determine exactly how itraconazole works to stop vessel growth.

New hope may be an injection away for patients living with glioma, a terminal brain cancer that comes with a life expectancy of about 25 weeks post-diagnosis.

A new vaccine called Vitaspen is made by using tissue extracted from each person's cancerous tumor. The tissue is used as a unique footprint for the vaccine that targets destructive tumor tissue while sparing healthy tissue in the same region.

Vitaspen is only in the first stage of clinical human trials, but researchers are pleased with the promise of the new drug -- particularly the benefits trial participants are gaining form the treatment. They have reported no adverse side effects, and the drug has increased the overall survival rate.

Results of stage one trials will determine if the drug warrants stage two testing.

A new study of mice implanted with human breast cancer cells shows the spread of the disease to the lungs -- a common metastasis site -- is caused by the abnormal activation of four specific genes working together.

The study, published in the journal Nature, indicates that shutting off the genes one by one can slow the growth and spread of this cancer. But turning off all four at one time almost completely stops the process. In mice anyway.

These genes are no strangers to researchers who have known for some time about their existence and functions. They just know more about them now.

The four genes work together at every step of the metastatic process to allow a breast tumor to develop blood vessels, let tumor cells enter the vessel walls and lungs, and permit them to pass out of the lung vessels and resume growth. New analysis shows that blocking these genes significantly reduces the tangle of blood vessels, making it harder for cancer cells to escape.

Researchers, who say the four genes are among 18 they associate with breast cancer metastasis, report that one implication of this study is clear: combined use of drug therapy may be more effective at inhibiting the activity of multiple gene targets.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has something important to say about the sugar substitute aspartame.

Think about this:

Italian researchers concluded in 2005 that aspartame causes cancer. But Laura Tarantino of the FDA Office of Food Additive Safety concludes after a review of the study data that the low-calorie sweetener is not a carcinogen.

A similar review by the FDA's European counterpart agrees. There is no evidence this substance, used for 25 years to sweeten soda, gum, dairy products, and some medications, causes cancer.

Italian researchers say they will release their latest aspartame study results on Monday.