WEDNESDAY, July 9 (HealthDay News)-- A new Swedish study reports that two in five widowers were never told their wives' cancer was incurable until she was near death, if they were told at all.

"Our findings suggest that there is room for improvement in the level of communication between health-care providers and the husbands of women with advanced cancer," study author Dr. Hanna Dahlstrand, an oncology resident and researcher at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, said in a American Society of Clinical Oncology news release.

The study, expected to be published online July 10 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, surveyed almost 700 Swedish men whose wives died of breast, ovarian or colon cancer in 2000 or 2001.

Eighty-six percent of the surveyed widowers said next-of-kin should be told immediately if a spouse's cancer is incurable. This included the 71 percent of the men who did not recall being told this information about their own wives.

Of those who were told that their wife's cancer was incurable, 79 percent received the news from the doctor.

Dahlstrand advised cancer patients and their families to clearly tell their physicians that they want more information about disease and prognosis. She also said doctors should ask patients and family members how much information they want to receive.

More information

The American Cancer Society has more about preparing patients, family and friends to deal with cancer  .

TUESDAY, July 8 (HealthDay News) -- Blood letting to reduce levels of iron in men with peripheral arterial disease may reduce their chance of developing cancer, according to a new study.

Lower levels of iron in the blood have previously been linked with a lower cancer incidence in observational studies.

The results were based on a randomized controlled trial of men with peripheral arterial disease lead by the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in White River Junction, Vt. According to the findings, published in the July 8 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, participants who underwent phlebotomy were 37 percent less likely to develop cancer over four-plus years of follow-up than those who didn't have their blood drawn for iron removal.

The findings were consistent with previous studies done on animals.

The researchers suspect that iron kick starts the production of free radicals that damage cellular components, including DNA, leading to cancer development.

"Findings from this study support the hypothesis that ambient levels of body iron stores represented by the serum ferritin level are associated with cancer risk and that lowering iron levels reduces cancer risk," the authors wrote.

An accompanying editorial in the journal noted, however, that the trial was not designed to investigate cancer incidence, and the results should "be interpreted with caution."

More information

The Iron Disorders Institute has more about adequate iron levels  .

THURSDAY, July 3 (HealthDay News) -- Frequent sexual intercourse may cut down on a man's chances of developing erectile dysfunction, Finnish researchers report.

"This is the same as any other part of the body. It's what we in vascular surgery refer to as the 'use it or lose it' concept," said Dr. Hossein Sadeghi-Nejad, an associate professor of urology at UMDNJ New Jersey Medical School Hackensack University Medical Center. "Sexual activity will promote maintenance of normal erectile function down the line."

The report was published in the July issue of The American Journal of Medicine.

In the study, led by Dr. Juha Koskimaki, from Tampere University Hospital's Department of Urology, researchers collected data on 989 Finnish men aged 55 to 75 years old.

The researchers found that men who said they had sexual intercourse less than once a week had twice the risk of developing erectile dysfunction, compared with men reporting having sexual intercourse once a week.

Among men who had sexual intercourse less than once a week, there were 79 cases of erectile dysfunction per 1,000 men. That number dropped to 32 cases per 1,000 among men who said they had sexual intercourse once a week, and it dropped even further, to 16 per 1,000, among men who said they had sexual intercourse three or more times a week, the researchers reported.

The frequency of morning erections was not associated with the incidence of moderate erectile dysfunction, the researchers noted.

However, the development of complete erectile dysfunction could be predicted from the frequency of morning erections. Among men with less than one morning erection a week, the risk of developing erectile dysfunction was 2.5-fold greater than among men who had two to three morning erections per week.

"Regular intercourse has an important role in preserving erectile function among elderly men, whereas morning erection does not exert a similar effect," Koskimaki said in a statement. "Continued sexual activity decreases the incidence of erectile dysfunction in direct proportion to coital frequency."

Sadeghi-Nejad said there is a scientific basis for this finding, and it also has implications for rehabilitation of patients after prostate cancer treatment.

"What is very hot these days is what we can do to rehabilitate people who develop erection problems after prostate cancer surgery or radiation therapy," Sadeghi-Nejad said. "Anything you can do to increase oxygenation in the penis will help get patients back to normal."

If one can naturally engage in behaviors that increase blood flow to the penis, it will have a positive effect in preventing erectile dysfunction, Sadeghi-Nejad said.

Sadeghi-Nejad noted that the study only addressed intercourse, and not masturbation. "This is essentially the same concept," Sadeghi-Nejad said. "Anything you can do to bring blood to the penis is beneficial," he added.

More information

For more about sexual dysfunction, visit the U.S. National Library of Medicine.