Alexandre Chan, PharmD, MPH is a chair and professor of clinical pharmacy at University of California, Irvine (UCI). He is affiliated with the UCI Chao Family Comprehensive cancer Center as well as the National cancer Centre Singapore. Dr. Chan has worked with people with cancer for almost 20 years, and he has conducted a wide array of research in supportive care, toxicities management, and cancer survivorship. Quinton (Ding Quan) Ng, BS (Pharm)(Hons), is a PhD Candidate at UCI and a registered pharmacist from Singapore. Mr. Ng’s research expertise spans across domains of epidemiology, biostatistics, and biomarker analysis, with a primary focus in treating and preventing adverse health outcomes in people with cancer. You can follow Dr. Chan and Mr. Ng on X, formerly known as Twitter. View disclosure information for Dr. Chan. Mr. Ng has no relationships to disclose.

Over the past decade, the use of electronic cigarettes, also called e-cigarettes or vaporizers, has become a popular substitute for tobacco products in people looking to quit smoking. You may hear the use of e-cigarettes more commonly referred to as “vaping.” However, there is a growing amount of research to suggest that e-cigarettes contain many harmful substances, including chemicals that can cause cancer. In one study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), it was found that almost all the e-cigarettes sold within the United States during the study contained nicotine.

Vaping has become especially common among young people, as flavored e-cigarettes and strong marketing tactics have been used to make vaping more appealing to teens and young adults. This could be problematic, as one survey showed that teenaged e-cigarette users were 2 times more likely to smoke tobacco cigarettes compared to those who had never used e-cigarettes. These are worrisome trends as e-cigarettes continue to gain tremendous popularity, particularly among younger people.

It is important to know that e-cigarettes are not currently approved by regulatory authorities, including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), as a method to help people stop smoking. Even more importantly, questions regarding the long-term health problems of vaping in people with cancer and survivors remain unanswered at this time. If you are using or considering using e-cigarettes during cancer or survivorship, it is important to talk with your health care team about how vaping could affect your overall health.

What are the negative health effects of vaping?

There is a common belief that e-cigarettes are safer than traditional cigarettes, but it’s important to know that studies involving the long-term use of e-cigarettes have shown that they can negatively impact brain and heart health. E-cigarette vapor also contains many harmful chemicals that are released during the heating of the liquid propylene glycol or glycerin, which are commonly used to dissolve the active nicotine ingredient found in vaping products. Nicotine in e-cigarettes may also negatively impact brain development and lead to addiction in children, teens, and young adults.

As e-cigarettes are a fairly new phenomenon, our knowledge on their long-term health effects is relatively lacking at this time. Human studies with follow-up periods longer than 5 years are needed to better understand how e-cigarette use may impact the health of people with cancer and survivors. In fact, the American Society of Clinical oncology and the American Association for cancer Research have called for more research to be done on e-cigarette products, including around their potential health impacts.

Regardless, because of the toxic substances found in e-cigarettes, people with cancer and survivors should talk with their health care team about avoiding using e-cigarettes as a quitting-smoking tool or as a remedy to reduce stress or improve attention, thinking, or memory problems until more is known about the effects of e-cigarette usage.

What does the research say about vaping and cancer?

Many people with cancer may turn to using e-cigarettes because they think it could help them stop smoking. In one study published in Psychooncology, people with cancer expressed their preference for e-cigarettes over nicotine replacement therapy as a treatment for quitting smoking. However, over 70% of people with cancer who used e-cigarettes reported that they did not inform their cancer care provider that they used e-cigarettes.

Several other studies have evaluated the patterns of e-cigarette usage among cancer survivors. One study analyzed data of more than 8,000 cancer survivors from the National Health Interview Survey (2014–2018) and observed more e-cigarette usage among cancer survivors identifying as White compared to other racial and ethnic groups. Other studies have also observed that e-cigarettes are often used together with conventional cigarettes.

We recently studied the relationship between adverse health behaviors, including vaping, and cognitive problems in young adult childhood cancer survivors, which was published in JCO oncology Practice. Cognitive problems can include trouble with thinking, paying attention, and remembering things. Our study included 1,106 young adults who had survived childhood cancer who were ages 15 to 39 when they entered the study and were at least 5 years out from their cancer diagnosis. We observed that the use of e-cigarettes was 2 times higher among survivors with self-reported cognitive impairment compared to other survivors. Those cognitively impaired survivors were also found to have poorer physical and mental health. Although the exact reasons for vaping were not captured in the study, we speculated that these survivors were vaping for stress relief, smoking cessation, and potentially to seek improvement of short-term alertness and concentration.

Ultimately, it is important to always talk with your health care team before using e-cigarettes so they can help address any questions you may have around vaping.

What should people with cancer and survivors know about using vaping to help quit smoking?

For people with cancer and survivors who have quit smoking traditional cigarettes and are using e-cigarettes solely for smoking cessation, they should consider seeking the help of a pharmacist. Many community pharmacies provide smoking cessation services and can help redirect them to other evidence-based methods to stop smoking, including nicotine replacement therapies and medications such as varenicline (Chantix) and bupropion (Wellbutrin, Zyban). Talk with your health care team for a referral to a pharmacist who can help with smoking cessation.

Research is also currently ongoing to evaluate new strategies for improving the effectiveness of quitting smoking approaches, including individualized health educational programs, peer navigators, and mobile health applications to help people stick with their plans to quit.

Your pharmacist can work closely with you to personalize a quitting smoking plan that is best suited for your needs and lifestyle. Even if you are thinking about quitting but you are not fully ready, your pharmacist is still a great resource to turn to as you navigate this decision.

As fall approaches, children, teens and their families prepare for the upcoming school year. Getting new school supplies is on many families’ minds and can be especially difficult for families coping with cancer.

Now in its eighth year, cancerCare for Kids’ Back-to-School Program provides backpacks full of new school supplies for students affected by cancer in pre-K through 12th grade throughout New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. cancerCare’s social workers and facilities team worked to pack and ship age-appropriate school supplies, including books, calculators, notebooks, folders, pens, pencils and art supplies, to 223 students from 98 families.

cancerCare’s Back-to-School program allows families impacted by cancer to spend time with their loved ones and prepare for the upcoming school year without worrying about the money and time it takes to get new school supplies.

One parent shared, “I wish you could have seen my kids’ faces when they opened the boxes! They were all so excited with everything.”

“Each item is appropriate for each of our children’s age and will really go to good use,” said another parent. “You took a big load off of us not having to think of preparing the kids for the new school year!”

“The supplies in the backpack were exactly on the kids’ supply list for school,” another parent added. “Not having to go out and look for supplies also gives me extra time with my family. As you can imagine, time with a loved one diagnosed with cancer is priceless.”

cancerCare for Kids’ Back-to-School Program is open to children and teens diagnosed with cancer, who have a loved one diagnosed with cancer or who have lost a loved one to cancer and who reside in New York, New Jersey or Connecticut.

Thank you to all of our supporters and dedicated staff who make our Back-to-School Program and all of our free services possible!

Learn more about cancerCare for Kids and how we help children, teens and families affected by cancer. You can also call our Hopeline at 800-813-HOPE (4673) to speak with an oncology social worker or email cckids@cancercare.org with questions.

A new editorial paper titled “Potential repurposing of DPP4 inhibitors for target therapy resistance in renal cell carcinoma” has been published in Oncotarget.

In their new editorial, researchers Kuniko Horie and Satoshi Inoue from Saitama Medical University and Tokyo Metropolitan Institute for Geriatrics and Gerontology discuss renal cell carcinoma (RCC)—a major adult kidney cancer, which is often incidentally discovered as an asymptomatic disease on imaging in the developed countries.

RCC has the most fatal disease among urological cancers, as a recent 5-year relative survival rate in the U.S. (2009–2015) is less than 80%. While RCC is known as a cancer resistant to chemo- and radiotherapies, the prognosis of RCC has been remarkably improved after the clinical application of tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) and immunotherapy.

The rationale for the efficacy of TKIs in RCC is mainly based on the angiogenetic status, particularly in clear cell RCC (ccRCC) that is the most common type of RCC (70–75% of RCC), in which the loss of function mutation of Von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) tumor suppressor gene activates hypoxia inducible factor (HIF) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) pathways.

The first-line TKIs that predominantly target VEGF receptor (VEGFR) and platelet-derived growth factor receptor (PDGFR) (e.g., sunitinib and sorafenib) have been clinically used since late 2000s, and the second-line TKIs such as cabozantinib, which targets more receptor tyrosine kinases including MET and TAM kinases as well as VEGFR, have been further applied to the treatment of advanced RCC since early 2010s in which the first-line TKIs are ineffective.

“In our recent study, we established a panel of patient-derived ccRCC spheroid cultures with the enhancement of cancer stemness gene signature including DPP4. Focusing on TKI sunitinib sensitivity, we demonstrated that DPP4 inhibition increased sunitinib efficacy in DPP4-high RCC spheroids and DPP4 was upregulated in sunitinib-resistant RCC cells,” the researchers explain.

Provided by
Impact Journals LLC

There are now many more days, where I feel like giving up on fighting the cancer culture in this country. SimPal is incredibly busy and I can feel the change we are making daily. In my early days I could see some wins for people affected by cancer. But not now! Politicians, totally disinterested. NHS England fighting with it’s own people. Individuals, inside or out of the service, with next to no chance of making a difference on their own now. I’m totally bored with most large charities, bringing up the same issues, I’ve seen more than 10 years ago, and still begging for more money. Even though they are continuing on the circle of failure.

cancer casts a long, dark shadow over the UK today. As incidence rates continue to rise, our overburdened health system struggles to keep pace. Years of neglect have left cancer care fragmented, underfunded and woefully unprepared. Unless we urgently prioritize reform, this burgeoning crisis threatens to eclipse all other concerns.

Already, outcomes lag far behind other nations. The UK has the lowest cancer survival rates among comparable Western countries. And the gap is only widening, with progress stalled for a decade as European neighbours surge ahead. Despite pouring billions into cutting-edge research, we fail where it matters most – aiding those currently battling the disease.

Behind the statistics lie real people betrayed. Patients denied swift access to ground breaking innovations. Families shattered when timely treatment could have made all the difference. And an exhausted, demoralized workforce battling valiantly against the odds. Without recognition of these urgent human costs, cancer will continue its insidious spread through society.

Why has it come to this? Firstly, while research breakthroughs provide hope, many now languish unused. Rigid barriers prevent rapid translation into clinical practice. Patients most in need are last to benefit, as proven treatments gather dust awaiting formal approval. We must find faster pathways to get innovations where they matter most – into hospitals and clinics across the nation.

Secondly, early diagnosis remains a key stumbling block. GPs face ever-growing demands, leaving little time to suspect cancer amidst a 10-minute appointment. Public awareness campaigns can encourage vigilance for warning signs. But we also need systematic changes – better diagnostic equipment in local practices, prompt specialist referral processes, and strategies to identify those at highest risk. The difference between Stage one and Stage three cancer, is the difference between life and death.

Workforce shortages also hamper efforts, with chronic understaffing now the status quo. Vital posts sit vacant for months, patient loads grow untenable, and staff burnout fuels an exodus from the cancer field. Without Valuing those providing care, we cannot hope to retain them.

Finally, and most critically, years of austerity have left services emaciated. Budgets tighten, equipment ages, and rising need outpaces capacity. Patients now wait months where weeks once sufficed. The system creaks under unsustainable strain – a superficial bandage on a gaping wound.

What will continued disregard for these realities entail? Projections forecast a 63% rise in cancer cases over the next two decades. Our cancer infrastructure is already bursting at the seams. Without urgent investment in staff, equipment and facilities, this influx of new cases will trigger total collapse.

Rising demand will extend delays even further as exhausted resources are stretched beyond breaking point. Patients will have outcomes decided the day they receive their cancer diagnosis – not by tumour biology but by postcode and luck in timing.

Ultimately, the real victims are not statistics but human beings. Sons and daughters, partners and parents, valued members of every community. Behind every percentage are shattered lives and devastated families. If outcomes worsen, hundreds of thousands more will lose loved ones each year.

We stand at a crossroads today. Further neglect and underfunding set society on a path toward tragedy on an unprecedented scale. Only through collective action can we alter course – championing reform, embracing innovation, investing in clinical care, and making cancer the priority it deserves to be. The time has come to step out of the shadow.

With comprehensive modernization, improved prevention and early diagnosis, the UK can still deliver world-leading cancer care to meet this growing threat. But the hour is late, and the storm is nearing. We must come together, stand up and say enough – no more lip service, no more half measures. The time for change is now.

I haven’t come this far to turn back now! The odds for me to survive were dreadful, but here I am. I will continue to fight, for future generations who deserve better. Not being stuck on life limiting waiting lists, dying whilst waiting for care. As always, these are my opinions, based on personal experiences. Please feel free to share your own, below.

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