Pancreatic cancer will be second deadliest cancer in U.S. by 2030

Pancreatic cancer will become the second deadliest cancer in the United States by 2030 overtaking prostate cancer and breast cancer currently considered as the second deadliest cancer for men and women respectively, projections made by researchers from the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network in California and The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Texas show.

Lung cancer currently holds the top position as the most dangerous cancer in the U.S. and data from the research "Projecting Cancer Incidence and Deaths to 2030: The Unexpected Burden of Thyroid, Liver, and Pancreas Cancers in the United States" which was published in the American Association for Cancer Research journal Cancer Research on May 19 show that it will retain its position 16 years from now. Pancreatic cancer and liver cancer, however, will take the second and third top spots as deadliest forms of cancer by 2030 overtaking breast cancer, prostate cancer and colon cancer.

For their projection, the researchers took into account changes in the country's demographics such as the advancing age of the population, the availability of effective screening and prevention methods as well as the prevalence of risk factors such as certain diseases and smoking. The availability of better and advanced screening methods, for instance, is projected to reduce the number of prostate, breast and colorectal cancers incidences.

"Advances in screening, prevention, and treatment can change cancer incidence and/or death rates, but it will require a concerted effort by the research and healthcare communities now to effect a substantial change for the future," the researchers wrote.

The number of pancreatic cancer related deaths increases partly because of the advancing age of the population and the increasing prevalence of type 2 diabetes, which could occur when the pancreas has difficulty producing insulin for the body. The declining mortality rate of other types of cancer is also partly responsible to pancreatic cancer moving to the second deadliest spot.

While better detection methods are already available for prostate, breast and colorectal cancers, no effective screening methods are yet available to reliably detect pancreatic tumors and this results in most pancreatic cancer cases being detected only when the disease is already in the advanced stage when the odds for successful surgery and treatment are small.

"The projections for deaths from pancreatic and liver cancers are startling," said study author Lynn Matrisian, from the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network. "This study is a call to action to the scientific and clinical communities, as well as the population at large, to increase attention, awareness, and ultimately progress in the fight against pancreatic cancer."

Qiagen wins U.S. approval for test to accompany Amgen cancer drug

U.S. health regulators on Friday approved Qiagen NV's gene-testing kit to identify those colorectal cancer patients most likely to benefit from Amgen Inc's drug, Vectibix, Qiagen said.

In addition, the Food and Drug Administration expanded the approval of Vectibix to allow its use as a first-line, or initial, treatment for colon cancer in combination with the widely used FOLFOX chemotherapy regimen, Amgen said.

The expanded Vectibix approval is for patients who have a non-mutated, or wild type, KRAS gene after clinical trials demonstrated that those patients were most likely to be helped by the drug.

The FDA approval for the genetic test marks the third U.S. approval for a Qiagen companion diagnostic for use in combination with a specific drug, a key growth market for the German company.

Both approvals could pave the way for increased use of Vectibix, which has been largely a disappointment for Amgen. It means the drug can be used earlier in the disease and would be accompanied by a standarushdized diagnostic to help doctors pinpoint patients that would best respond to the medicine.

Amgen had $389 million in sales from Vectibix last year, $126 million of which came from U.S. sales.

Close to 40 percent of colorectal cancer patients have tumors with mutated forms of the KRAS gene, which make them poor candidates for Vectibix. The rest have the non-mutated, or wild, forms and stand a better chance of benefiting from the drug, which was approved in the United States in 2006.

(Reporting by Ludwig Burger in Frankfurt and Bill Berkrot in New York. Editing by Andre Grenon)

Viral Cancer Ad the Result of Makeup and Bald Cap

A little boy’s sick/healthy cancer photo has gone viral in the last several days, garnering headlines about the “striking” and “inspiring” transformation he underwent. But the magic of medicine depicted in the advertisement is actually the magic of makeup, a bald cap and Photoshop.

The “Proof of Life” ad featuring a boy identified only as “Noah,” an “actual patient” at the Children’s Cancer Center at University of Mississippi Health Care, is a reenactment of the boy’s story rather than real photos of his progress, as several publications wrongly assumed.

“They did the makeup and everything on him,” the boy’s mother, Christy Moudy, told ABCNews.com of the photo shoot, adding that the experience was positive but difficult for her. “It brought back so many memories. It was so heartbreaking.”


Noah Moudy really did battle cancer, but not when he was 7, which is how old he was when both photos were taken three years ago.

When Noah was 4 years old, he was diagnosed with an aggressive form of leukemia called acute myeloid leukemia, or AML, said Moudy, 38, of Petal, Mississippi. He underwent chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant about two years before the hospital asked him to participate in the ad.

Noah looked even worse when he was undergoing treatment than he did under the layers of makeup, Moudy said.

“During his transplant, oh my God, he was so skinny. Oh, it was horrible,” Moudy said. “After that, he was a champion.”

Now, Noah is 10 years old and has been cancer-free for five years, Moudy said. Her family loves to see the ad go viral, which she said happens about once a year.

“I don’t know if it’s the way they did the before and after of it, but it’s touched a lot of people,” she said. “It brought a lot of awareness.”

Although the ad made clear that Noah was diagnosed with cancer when he was 4 and “today, Noah is seven years old, living cancer free and dreaming,” it didn’t say that the photo was doctored to make him look sick.

“I suppose that the first response would be to cringe a little bit at that as being dishonest or not fully truthful, especially if there’s no caveat or small print that it’s a representation and not meant to depict reality,” said Dr. Matthew DeCamp, a professor at the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics.

Although DeCamp said he wasn’t aware of a specific code of ethics for hospital marketing, he said he would assume truthfulness would somehow be part of one.

Then again, he wondered whether photos of an actively sick child would actually be more exploitative than mocked-up photos, he said.

“I could at least imagine a scenario with a patient who is now very proud of what they just went through and wants to show people about it,” DeCamp said. “In a sense, wanting to normalize the experience of illness in a way that could be helpful to others.”

Jack Mazurak, a spokesman for Children’s Cancer Center at University of Mississippi Health Care, said some reports on the photo did not show it in the context of the full ad.

“This was part of an ad campaign centered on the concept of therapeutic success stories,” he told ABC News. “As the ad copy says, he was 4 when diagnosed and 7 when the campaign was created. ... Some of the media attention in the last few days -- social and traditional – didn’t include the ad copy.”

Double Mastectomy Often Not Needed, Study Finds

Many breast cancer patients who have their second breast removed as a precaution don't actually need the double mastectomy, a new study finds.

Researchers who evaluated more than 1,400 women with breast cancer found that nearly 7 out of 10 who underwent preventive removal of their healthy breast were not at high risk of cancer in the unaffected breast.

"What we found is that almost 70 percent did not have a clinical indication for it," said study researcher Sarah Hawley, an associate professor of internal medicine at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. The researchers defined a clinical indication as having the genetic mutation BRCA 1 or 2 or a strong family history of breast cancer, both of which raise breast cancer risk.

The dual procedure -- known as contralateral prophylactic mastectomy -- has increased markedly in recent years, even though experts suggest it only be considered in these high-risk cases.

Hawley and others believe fear of developing cancer in the healthy breast drives these decisions, and they suspect the fear is often out of proportion to the actual risk. The new study, published online May 21 in JAMA Surgery, suggests that is true.

Hawley's team evaluated 1,447 women who had been treated for breast cancer but had not had a recurrence. The women reported information to breast cancer registries from 2005 to 2007 and again from 2009 to 2010.

Nearly 19 percent said they strongly considered having the opposite unaffected breast removed, and about 8 percent actually had the procedure.

However, about 69 percent of those who had the double mastectomy had no major genetic or family risk factors for getting cancer in the other breast, Hawley found.

Those who chose the preventive mastectomy were more likely than others to express worry about cancer affecting the opposite breast.

Certain factors, including having an MRI test and higher education, also made the decision to remove the healthy breast more likely, Hawley found. MRIs often reveal areas that look suspicious, but turn out to be nothing. Even so, that can trigger worry, Hawley said.

The author of an editorial accompanying the study said some fear is healthy. "It's a reasonable thing to be fearful of recurrence," said Dr. Ann Partridge, a breast oncologist and director of the adult survivorship program at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.

"What you hope is that fear motivates them to comply with treatment," she said. "What you hope the fear doesn't do is cripple them."

She advises women to put the risk in perspective, which is not always easy. "The average risk of a new primary cancer in the opposite breast is about 2.5 percent over five years," she said. That risk can be halved with use of hormonal drugs, she added.

For women with risky genetic mutations, the likelihood of a new primary cancer in the opposite breast is 20 percent over the next five years, she said.

Making the decision is difficult, regardless of risk, Partridge said. "It's so stressful," she said. "There are many women who are making this decision in the throes of a diagnosis."

Talk over the risks and benefits with your doctors, she advises. If you're still unsure, she recommends taking the process step by step.

"Let the dust settle," she said. "Get the breast treated you need to get treated. You can always go back."

Health care professionals should take their patients' fears into account, Partridge believes. "We need to be aware of that anxiety, help women deal with it," she said. Treatment decisions should be driven by shared decision-making between a woman and her doctors, not by anxiety, she added.

Peaches pack fruit punch against cancer, experts say

PULLMAN, Wash. -- The peach is known as 'the fruit of calmness' in Hungary. In China, it is a symbol of good luck and longevity.

The peach's reputation may be more accurate than anyone previously realized. A Washington State University researcher is exploring the cancer-fighting potential of the fruit.

Her mother's breast cancer battle is one of the things that prompted food scientist Dr. Giuliana Noratto to look into the ways food might protect people's bodies. She found peaches are a shining example.

"Yes, I was surprised. Everybody was surprised, "said Noratto.

In a first-of-its kind study, published online in March in the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry, Noratto and her colleagues at Texas A&M University gave mice peach extract. They found it essentially caused the most aggressive cancer cells to commit suicide.

"Just by giving the mice the peach extract, the tumor didn't grow," Noratto added.

It also inhibited the spread of the disease to other parts of the body.

The study showed peaches with the most red contain more cancer-fighting compounds. Those particular compounds are not stable when heated, so Noratto said canned peaches do not pack the same cancer-fighting punch as the fresh fruit.

According to Noratto, people can get the same dose as the mice by eating two to three peaches, plums or nectarines a day, or with a dietary supplement of peach polyphenol extract powder.

Skip the bread while you're at it

The research also gives good reason to be picky in the bread and pasta aisle.

Noratto said white bread, for example, is not great for the heart.

Working with obese mice, she changed the source of carbohydrates in their diet from refined to whole wheat, while keeping the calories the same.

The mice eating whole wheat reduced their body fat, including the dangerous fat found in their hearts.

While she is still analyzing the data, Noratto said it appears eating whole wheat reduces the markers of inflammation related to heart disease.

Through all her food research, she is convinced all of us should be filling at least half of our plates with fruits and vegetables to prevent disease.

Promising cancer drug data helps AstraZeneca in Pfizer fight

The Pfizer logo is seen at their world headquarters in New York April 28, 2014. U.S. drugmaker Pfizer Inc approached Britain's AstraZeneca Plc two days ago to reignite a potential $100 billion takeover and was rebuffed, raising investor expectations it will have to increase its offer to close the deal.

REUTERS - New data showing an experimental AstraZeneca lung cancer drug shrank tumors in more than half of patients gave the British group fresh ammunition to argue that Pfizer's takeover offer undervalues it substantially.

Britain's second-biggest drugmaker said on Thursday the strong results were among a raft of recent updates that showed accelerating progress in its pipeline of experimental medicines.

AstraZeneca has rejected a $106 billion approach from U.S. rival Pfizer, arguing that it has a bright independent future due to its promising line-up of new drugs. Pfizer is widely expected to return with a sweetened offer in coming days.

"We continue to build our pipeline and we are encouraged by the progress in the development of key assets," Chief Executive Pascal Soriot said in a statement.

Its new lung cancer drug, known as AZD9291, targets a genetic mutation that helps tumors evade current treatments. AstraZeneca believes it could sell as much as $3 billion a year.

Results from an early-stage Phase I trial of the drug, released late on Wednesday, showed AZD9291 shrank tumors in 51 percent of patients. Tumors shrank in 64 percent of patients found to have the mutation, known as T790M, which develops in about half of lung cancers that become resistant to drugs known as epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitors.

Savvas Neophytou, an analyst at brokerage Panmure Gordon, said the results were impressive and "AstraZeneca’s management is right to be excited by the pipeline".

AstraZeneca shares were 0.8 percent higher in slightly lower London market by 1400 GMT.

EGFR drugs, such as Roche's Tarceva and AstraZeneca's own Iressa, are used to treat various solid tumor cancers with mutated or overactive EGFR. Around 15 percent of patients with non-small cell lung cancer, the most common form of the disease, have mutations in the EGFR gene.

But most of them will eventually become resistant to available EGFR inhibitors, said Dr Pasi Janne, professor of medicine at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School in Boston and the study's lead investigator.

"The issue of drug resistance has been the bane of chemotherapy treatment of cancer for decades," Dr Peter Yu, president-elect of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), said during a press conference.

$45 BLN SALES TARGET

AZD9291 is one of several new drugs flagged by AstraZeneca last week in a bid to convince investors of the strength of its experimental pipeline, which includes several innovative cancer drugs, as well as treatments for diabetes, asthma, rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis.

Overall, the British company forecasts these new products will help its sales rise 75 percent to $45 billion by 2023.

The Phase I trial for AZD9291, featured ahead of the annual ASCO meeting later this month, involved 199 patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer with EGFR mutations whose disease worsened despite treatment with a current EGFR drug.

The most common side effects seen in the trial included diarrhea and rash, but researchers said the level of toxicity was less severe than is seen with available EGFR inhibitors.

AstraZeneca is currently conducting a Phase 2 study of AZD9291 in patients with the T790M mutation at a daily dose of 80 milligram, which it said could enable accelerated regulatory filing in the second half of next year.

AZD9291 has been granted "breakthrough" status by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as a second-line therapy for non-small cell lung cancer. AstraZeneca will also study the drug as an initial treatment for eligible lung cancer patients.

Investors are keen to get a look at other cancer data from AstraZeneca due to be presented at the ASCO meeting.

The company's MEDI4736 has the potential to become one of the first in a new class of drugs known as anti-PDL1 treatments that fight cancer by boosting the immune system. It is initially being tested as a treatment for non-small cell lung cancer and AstraZeneca said data to date had shown "durable clinical activity and acceptable safety".

AstraZeneca has forecast potential peak sales for MEDI4736 of $6.5 billion, including combination therapies.

An AstraZeneca spokeswoman said updated data from trials of MEDI4736 will be presented at the conference at the end of May.

Data from another of the company's experimental cancer drugs, olaparib for ovarian cancer, will be featured at the ASCO meeting. AstraZeneca has forecast peak olaparib sales of $2 billion, compared with consensus analyst estimates of $1.5 billion to $3 billion.

It has also had encouraging results combining olaparib and another drug called cediranib.

(Editing by Tom Pfeiffer and Erica Billingham)

Samantha Harris Talks About Her Battle With Breast Cancer, Calls Giuliana Rancic Her "Soul Sister"

Samantha Harris is staying strong with a little help from her friends.

The former Dancing with the Stars host spoke with E! News about how Giuliana Rancic helped her through her difficult breast cancer diagnosis.

"Giuliana, you're like my soul sister now!" she said. "We talked on the phone with my husband on speaker for about an hour, just sharing her story and commiserating for a little bit.

"Giuliana and all of the women that I have come to talk to that are survivors have be tremendously supportive and generous and have guided me on this very scary and rocky road," the 40-year-old said.

The mother of two chose to take control of the illness and schedule a double mastectomy. She urges other women to always listen to their gut instincts.

"Go, get it checked! Don't take ‘I think it's fine' for an answer! Have a specialist look at it, someone who only looks at breasts every single day," she advised.

Of course, the Entertainment Tonight correspondent is most concerned with the well-being of her daughters with husband Michael Hess, and she is determined to remain tough for them.

"It's going to be a really crappy, rocky road to go through surgery and go through recovery, but I'm strong and I've got two little ones, who are just three and six, who need to see mama be as strong and powerful as I can be. And I will be and I have been, not only for me, but for them."

Study: Everyday chemicals that may increase breast cancer risk

The link between toxic chemicals and breast cancer has largely been ignored, said study author Julia Brody, executive director at Silent Spring Institute.

--Gasoline and chemicals formed by combustion from vehicles, lawn equipment, smoking and charred food are among the largest sources of mammary carcinogens in the environment.

Ruthann A. Rudel, Janet M. Ackerman and Julia Green Brody of the Silent Spring Institute and Kathleen R. Attfield of Harvard School of Public Health identified the highest priority chemicals to target for breast cancer prevention.

"Every woman in America has been exposed to chemicals that may increase her risk of getting breast cancer. Unfortunately, the link between toxic chemicals and breast cancer has largely been ignored," study author Julia Brody, executive director at Silent Spring Institute, said in a statement.

    "Reducing chemical exposures could save many, many women's lives. When you talk to people about breast cancer prevention, chemical exposure often isn't even on their radar. Studies that address toxic chemical exposure account for just a drop in the bucket of money spent on breast cancer."


The study found other mammary carcinogens included:

-- Solvents, such as methylene chloride and other halogenated organic solvents used in spot removers, specialty cleaners and industrial degreasers.

-- Pharmaceutical hormones such as hormone replacement therapy; certain flame retardants used in furniture; a chemical used in stain-resistant textiles and non-stick coatings; and styrene found in tobacco smoke and also used to make Styrofoam.

-- Drinking water. It can contain mammary carcinogens, such disinfection by-products or solvents.

The findings were published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.

Cancer sufferer Stephen Sutton back in hospital with "breathing difficulties" (cancer)

A petition calling for the teenager to be knighted both for his charity work has attracted 31,300 signatures

Terminally ill teenager Stephen Sutton has been re-admitted to hospital days after celebrating raising more than £3 million for a cancer charity.

Stephen Sutton today told supporters on Facebook he was back in hospital after developing "breathing difficulties" last night.

The 19-year-old has collected more than £3.22 million for the Teenage Cancer Trust since posting a picture of himself in hospital in April with a goodbye message when he believed he was at death's door.

However, the inspirational young man made what he described as "a miraculous recovery", coughing up a tumour, and after successful surgery was well enough to be discharged from Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital on May 2.

But commenting today on his Facebook page - which has 750,000 likes - he told supporters he was again posting from his hospital bed.

He said: "Unfortunately today I've ended up back in hospital. I had some breathing difficulties starting last night and after going to A&E have been admitted back to a ward for monitoring.

"I've still got the cough, then quite quickly developed a wheeze in my breathing and breathlessness upon any physical exertion.

"There's no immediate panic and I'm currently quite stable - I have been put on nebulisers and other meds which are currently helping my symptoms hugely."

He added: "The doctors think there may be something restricting my airway again, they're not sure exactly what yet though (tumour regrowth, infection, inflammation, are all potential reasons mentioned), but are currently discussing the possibilities and my scan results to decide what to do next."

Over the weekend, a petition at change.org calling for Mr Sutton to be knighted both for his charity work and efforts to raise awareness about cancer had attracted 31,300 signatures.

Mr Sutton good-humouredly described his re-admission to hospital as "very inconvenient".

"I had a few cool things planned to attend today, then tomorrow was due to appear on the telly on BBC Breakfast News," he added.

"I understand my health is the obvious priority though and have had to cancel.

"Fingers crossed the issue will be resolved and that I'll be out of hospital soon - I'll keep you all updated with how I'm getting on."

The teenager, who is from Burntwood in Staffordshire, was diagnosed with bowel cancer when he was 15. Despite treatment the tumours spread, with doctors telling him the disease was terminal in 2012.

His story has attracted support from celebrities including comedians Jason Manford, Russell Brand and Stephen Fry, and the music mogul Simon Cowell.

He had been working through a 46-point bucket-list but recently said it had "now taken a bit of a back seat" so he could concentrate on helping and motivating others.

The teenager recently led a successful attempt to break the world record for the number of people making a heart-shaped hand gesture, setting a new benchmark of 554.

Mom dies of rare cancer found when she had twins (cancer)

A military mom whose rare form of cancer was discovered when she gave birth to twins has died, after two months of battling the illness and attracting a devoted online following.

Jenna Hinman, 26, succumbed on Monday to a placental cancer that doctors found when she gave birth to Azlynn and Kinleigh on March 3, ABC News reports. The girls were delivered 30 weeks' premature (at 3 pounds, 6 ounces, and 2 pounds 9 ounces, respectively) and stayed in intensive care for 6 weeks, but are fine today.

For Jenna, the battle was far more severe.

Doctors had to invent treatments because Hinman's stage 3 choriocarcinoma—which originates in fast-growing placental tissue—is incredibly rare, the Post-Standard reports.

Hinman was placed in a medically induced coma and given chemotherapy, but while her cancer count fell, she stayed in critical condition and eventually died of complications from pneumonia.

"She's probably the most kind-hearted person I ever met," said her husband, Army Sgt. Brandon Hinman, back in March. "She would go out of her way for anyone, give them the shirt off her back."

The outpouring has been tremendous, as thousands sent messages and donated money: "Many cried at Monday's news that Jenna had died," wrote the Post-Standard in an editorial.

How cancer drugs doubled to $10,000 per month

For cancer patients, life can be full of worry, pain and the stress of needing to take time off from a job. On top of that, many are struggling with a huge jump in the average price tag for branded oncology treatments, which have doubled to $10,000 per month in just a decade. During the same period, the consumer price index has increased by 23 percent.

That jump is contributing to a surge in global spending on oncology treatments, which reached a whopping $91 billion last year, according to a new report from the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics. The U.S. is the largest segment of that market, with American patients and their insurers paying $37.2 billion for oncology treatments in 2013.

The high cost of some new cancer drugs has raised ethical questions, as more than 100 cancer specialists last year wrote in a commentary that drug prices of $100,000 or more for treatments could be viewed as profiteering and may be causing financial harm to patients.

Some insured patients in the U.S. may be on the hook for covering 20 percent of their drug payments, no small matter when the monthly price for a prostate cancer treatment called Provenge is more than $71,000, according to the IMS study.

The study also found that patients were less likely to persist with treatment as the costs climbed. Even copays that were as low as $30 to $90 appeared to affect how long patients took their medication, with the fall-off in treatment more pronounced as copays got higher, the IMS study found.

"The evidence of patients stopping their therapy due to high out-of-pocket costs is alarming," Murray Aitken, executive director of the IMS Institute, said in an email to CBS MoneyWatch. "Fortunately there are patient assistance programs and other mechanisms available to help patients with this issue."

While that might be the case, other research has shown that cancer can deal a heavy financial blow to household finances. Cancer patients are more than two times as likely to file for bankruptcy compared with Americans without a cancer diagnosis, researchers from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle wrote in a 2013 study.

Prices are also higher in the U.S. than in Europe, where medications are as much as 38 percent lower, the IMS study found. "In the U.S., there are very minimal, if any, discounts," the report noted.

Of course, cancer medications aren't the only ones seeing huge price increases. Dozens of brand-name drugs have doubled in price since 2007, Bloomberg News reported last week. Pharmaceutical companies are introducing new drugs at sky-high rates, such as Gilead Sciences' (GILD) new hepatitis C treatment Sovaldi, which costs $1,000 per day.

One reason for the introduction of new drugs at extremely high prices is that drugmakers are trying to recoup losses as older drugs lose their patent protections. But that means some patients are paying more for treatment, while others who rely on generics or less specialized medication have seen their costs decline.

Still, the IMS study highlighted a few bright spots. Among them: Cancer survival rates are climbing, with 20 percent of the improvement due to advances in treatment.

Faith Drives A Father To Create A Test For Childhood Cancer

When Bryan and Elizabeth Shaw learned that their son Noah had a potentially deadly eye cancer, like a lot of people they turned to their religious faith the help sustain them. But faith is also impelling Bryan Shaw to create software to detect eye cancer in other children as soon after birth as possible.

The Shaws are Christians, and their faith is extremely important to them. When they were at their bleakest, "Bryan would pull out the Psalms and say, 'This is how King David suffered in the Psalms and we're going through this," says Elizabeth. "This is God's plan for our family and we just have to walk through it and trust in God."

But their passionate faith in God was also a source of concern for Bryan Shaw. "What causes people's faith to be damaged," he told me, "is when bad things happen to them and they think, 'Oh, there can't be a God, because if there was, he wouldn't have done this bad thing to me.' "

There's no doubt a bad thing happened to Shaw's family. At four months of age, Noah was diagnosed with a rare form of eye cancer called . Children with the disease form tumors at the back of their eyeballs. Children like Noah with the inherited form retinoblastoma start to form tumors before they're even born.

Bryan says his faith wasn't shaken by Noah's illness. "I believe there is no bad thing done to you," he says. "It may seem bad in the short term, it may seem bad in this life, but it's not bad. It happened for a reason. You may not figure it out in this life, but if you can, you're even more blessed."

But he worried that Noah might have trouble understanding that. "When he gets older and he can think for himself, I don't want him to get mad at God, or stop believing that there is a God," Bryan says. So he was determined to find ways to prevent that from happening. He hopes the early detection software will do the trick.

The technique has shown that it is possible to detect the signs of retinoblastoma as early as 12 days after birth. Bryan hopes to prove that such early detection will mean fewer children will lose an eye to the disease, as Noah did.

"I want my son to believe that what happened to him happened to him for a reason," says Shaw. "And if I can make good come from this bad stuff that happened to my son, and I can show him when he grows, I know it's going to strengthen his faith."

The Shaws were determined not to let another one of their children suffer from retinoblastoma. So to prevent that, they chose to have a second child using in vitro fertilization. That way they could screen the resulting embryos and only implant the ones that did not carry the damaged copy of the RB1 gene.

Some Christians are uncomfortable with this because it can mean discarding viable embryos. The Shaws continue to struggle with this dilemma too, but favor the belief that God gave them a tool to prevent retinoblastoma.

In any event, baby Samuel won't face the health problems that afflicted his older brother.