person. she had taken previous vacations to come visit afghanistan. >> sad news. ivan, we appreciate you hopping in front of the camera to give us that update. we are going to check in with you for more details on that. british aid worker has been killed during a rescue attempt. more details at the top of the hour on that as we continue with live news on cnn saturday morning. now, we're going to hand it over to sanjay gupta m.d. welcome to the program. first up, something we don't get to say too much on the show. a breakthrough on brain cancer, the deadliest form. the treatment that uses the body's own immune system to fight the tumor. the war in afghanistan. i have been out there several times and seen the enormous toll physical and mental. startling figures to share.

also this week's medical mystery. something we do every night could be making us gain weight. i'll tell you about it. let's get started. doctors may have unlocked a big secret which would help patients with the deadliest form of brain cancer. i's called glioblastoma. about 10,000 new kaszs in the united states every year. it's the same type of cancer that took the life of senator ted kennedy. there's a new vaccine out there that nearly doubled the survival time. double. think about that. it's extra time. it's what the patient you are about to meet, every patient, really, is fighting for. >> you volunteered to do a spinal tap today for us? >> yes. >> she's bracing for another painful procedure.

she's got cancer. brain cancer. a killer tumor called glioblastoma. gbm. this is typically thought of as the worst type of tumor, why? >> because left untreated, the patient succumbs to it. >> survival is barely a year if left untreated. here at the brain tumor center, karen found hope, an experimental vaccine. there's a futuristic name, cdx 110. it uses the bodies own immune system to attack tumor cells. it won't work on all tumor patients, just the one that is make one particular protein. in those patients, it goes off like a smart bomb. now, she gets a shot, a painful one, every month.

look at the results. we were able to pay her another visit, a full year later. remember, most patients don't live that long. >> it's been a year and a half. as long as the vaccine works, then i'll be getting monthly shots. when it doesn't work, then i'm in trouble. >> dr. john sampson helped develop it. >> what can we say about the vaccine now. in terms of educating people. >> we are careful not to overpromise what somebody can deliver. it's still an experimental stage. patients are living two to three times longer with the vaccine. >> the results made public in june were less dramatic. on average, compared to regular therapy, it nearly doubled survival time, as much as six years in some cases with no signs of returning cancer. >> i want to take a second to show you how it works in the

brain. you are looking at a glioblastoma in the brain. what's so interesting is in a certain percentage, they have a protein unique to this tumor. you can treat the immean system like you see here and go in like a smart bomb and attack the cancer. you are training your body's own immune system to fight a tumor. we are seeing great results. the average survival 14 months. with this treatment, closer to two years. it's almost double. 18 patients were studied. the results are so promising. some patients lived five and over six years. they are strong with no sign of returning cancer. they are early studies, to be fair, but there's hope more studies will prove treatment is going to be more viable. one of the cancers people talk

about, breast cancer. there's new guidelines, they sparked controversy as you know. they sparked confusion. is it worth it to get a mammogram and at what age? i'll answer the viewer question in the ask the doctor segment. meet a man that inspires us all. i'll explain that. [ female announcer ] imagine the possibilities with stelara® for adults. stelara® helps control moderate or severe plaque psoriasis with 4 doses a year, after 2 starter doses. in a medical study, 7 out of 10 stelara® patients saw at least 75% clearer skin at 12 weeks.

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we are back with sgmd. it's breast cancer awareness month. we have lots of questions about breast cancer screening. a blogger says this, is it worth it to get a mammogram? we have lots of questions along these lines. it's a good question. it's a confusingish shy. most agree getting a mammogram watches cancer. this is a screening tool with limitations. it's not perfect. a tumor can be missed. some thing that is get picked up can lead to a biopsy and turn out not to be cancer. a lot of groups agree, despite

the limitations a mammogram is an effective screening tool and women's lives can be saved if found early and treated early. there's been a lot of controversy over this and we have covered it about when a woman should start getting a mammogram. the acs and comprehensive network recommend a woman get it annually beginning at age 40. that's the number you should tuck away. if you have a history of breast cancer, get screened earlier. again, the confusion. i don't want to overestimate or under estimate this, but there's been confusion in the past. there's no question a better screening test is necessary, but i want you to have the best information we have right now. we have a new series that we are loving. it's called the human factor. we get to introduce you to

remarkable people that i find inspiring. in learning their stories we learn remarkable things. this week, i'm going to introduce you to a fellow neurosurgeon and tell you about his path to medicine that is different than anybody you have ever met. this is dr. alfre frfredo hinoj. they call him dr. q. the scans are up. hopkins, one of the finest hospitals in the worlds. >> this is my room. they build this specifically for our service. >> at 42, dr. q is at the top of his game. life wasn't always like this. in fact, it's been a long journey from his hometown in mexico. he started working at the age of 5 as his family's gas station.

he grew up poor. in 1987 he headed north to the border. >> there was one choice i knew i had to make. i jump the fence. i climbed the fence between mexico and the united states at age 19. >> his first job? pulling weeds in california's central valley. >> i remember, i tell you, my hands the hands that now do brain surgery, right around that time, they had scars everywhere from pulling weeds. they were bloody. >> this trailer was his home. he knew he could do better. he worked at the railroad. he got money to go to school. he got a scholarship from california berkeley. from there, he went to harvard medical school. >> did you ever think, i don't belong here? >> many times. i think that's what has kept me

on the top of my game. in medical school, i remember thinking wow, look at my classmates. you have some that train at the best prep schools in the country, from the most distinguished families in the united states from tradition of education and there was me who barely had an education, but i was eager to learn. i had, i always knew that i had something that others didn't have. that was that fire in my belly that keeps me going. there is my girl right there. >> the fire still burns today. he takes out brain tumors and does research he hopes will lead to better treatments. >> do you sit around, you and your wife and pinch yourselves? your wife saw you from being a migrant farm worker to here. >> we think about it. i feel blessed. when i walk out of the operating room and i give the patients the

news that everything went well in surgery and they hug me, it's the most rewarding moment that i can think of. >> just an amazing doctor. an inspiring person and an amazing story. dr. q, thanks for sharing with us, if you are watching. war is taking its toll on our troops. i'm going to tell you about the struggle to keep them mentally healthy. that's next on sgmd. fiber one chewy bar. how'd you do that? do what? you made it taste like chocolate. it has 35% of your daily value of fiber. tasty fiber, that's a good one! ok, umm...read her mind. [ male announcer ] fiber one chewy bars. [ male announcer ] you're at the age where you don't get thrown by curve balls. ♪ this is the age of knowing how to get things done.

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america's longest running war has taken the severe toll on the physical and meantal health of our troops. i spent a lot of time on the front lines in afghanistan and iraq. i have seen the devastating effects of the war. the one thing we have talked a lot about are the suicides when they come back. there's so much they are dealing with. as the war progressed, the mental wounds is one of the things you cannot ignore at any level. if you take a look at the numbers, i think they are the most striking. may attention to these.

in 2009, u.s. troops hospitalized for mental health issues than physical injuries. take a look at that. it should say a lot to anybody that looks at those numbers. it's worse for those serving multiple tours. if you are redpreployed the rat goes up. officials are taking notice. joining me is tom tarantino, an iraq veteran. thanks for joining us. >> thanks for having me, sanjay. people referred to it as the elephant in the room talking about mental health issues. i know for a long time, they thought about mental health issues as a disorder as opposed to an injury. the thinking is starting to change now. the suicide rates, tom, are so

disheartening they are creeping above civilian rates. why do you think the numbers continue to rise and do you think it's a problem that can be addressed? >> it can be addressed. it's a symptom of a force that's breaking. it's a force that's stressed to the point where things are starting to go wrong. i think we are starting to see that the top brackets at the pentagon are understanding these issues. i believe they understand these issues. the problem is, it's not getting down to the sergeants, the lieutenants and captains on the line day-to-day with their troopers. if we can bring that type of awareness to the line leaders, they can get the troopers back into the fight. >> it's not filtering down, so to speak, does it result in stigma or is it people don't want to bring up the issues because the people on the front lines aren't adequately

addressing it? >> you mentioned the elephant in the room. stigma is, if you really want to talk about it. people are afraid to see treatment. why? they might look weak to their buddies. we have to change the culture, not just in the military, but in society as a whole to look at post-traumatic stress and brain injury as injuries not disorders. i tell troopers if you got shot in the chest, you are not going to walk around with a bullet hole in the chest. you go to the doctor, get treated, heal and get back in the fikt. we have to change that so people look at mental health injuries like that. >> the stigma is a concern, not only among troops, but among the civilian population as well. what does make that change? how do you change that culture? i'm a doctor asking you this. i have seen it for 20 years. do you have ideas or have you seen anything that works? >> there are things that we can

do within the military community. first of all, education, education, education. the army is starting to train mental health resiliency throughout the life cycle of education for sergeants and off fers. they need to make that a regular part of your professional development as you progress through your career. i fought to get mandatory health screenings for everybody returning from iraq and afghanistan. we think the early and frequent screenings could save more lives than all the money armored vehicles can provide. here we are a year later and we can't get enough mental health professionals to meet the need. ft. hood, up to 4,000 mental health visits in a month. most hospitals can't match that. we have heard this referred to

as an emergency situation, the idea of mental health injuries. i'm using the word injury specific here. have you seen progress being made? >> yeah. i mean, the reality is we are in a better place today than two or three years ago. the defense center for excellence for brain injury and mental health has done an excellent job of really trying to get smart on the issues for the military. these are issues the military frankly ignored for the last 50 years. we have the national intrepid center for the excellence. we have a physical place that is part recovery -- recovery lab and think tank on where we could do the big think on these issues and solve some of these problems not just for this generation but for the next generation and the generations after that. >> you know, you think about what it's going to look like 10, 15 years from now for people who did not receive adequate treatment. you and i are talking about this in 2010, but this is affecting people for a long time to come. thanks for being a measured and

important voice on this. and we're going to keep talking about it, as well. thanks for joining us. >> thank you, sanjay. appreciate it. >> and we'll be right back. raspberry cheesecake... ...yeah, every night its something different. oh yeah yeah...she always keeps them in the house. no no no, i've actually lost weight... i just have a high metabolism or something... ...lucky. [ wife ] babe... ♪ umm, i gotta go. [ female announcer ] over 30 delicious flavors at around 100 calories each. yoplait, it is so good. indulge in yoplait light's two new flavors. triple berry torte and black forest cake.

you know, you probably heard the term super foods quite a bit. sounds like something that's going to promise you a lot. but what can you or what should you expect from these foods? i decided to go take a look for myself. you've probably seen the list. super foods, the ten foods you should eat every single day. what is it about super foods? what makings them so super? can they protect you? or do they prevent you in some way from getting sick? let's take a look. come on.

hey, ann. >> hi, sanjay. >> thank you for meeting us. >> thank you for having me. >> i see you're hanging out by the fruit, the berries. what would you say is sort of the ideal super food? and why? >> blueberries are definitely the ideal super food. and it's because of their dark, rich color. ask that means it's got a lot more antioxidants in it. and it's really great for memory, also for eye health and might help lower bad cholesterol. >> definitely put berries on the list of super foods. leafy greens is what we talk about all the time. what about leafy greens? >> the dark green color lets you know, again, it's got a lot of nunts nutrients in it. >> what makes a food super? >> what we call a nutrient-dense food. it's going to do a whole lot more for you with less calories expended. >> can it erase some of my other bad eating habits? >> if you start replacing it, it can help.

but if you're going to be loading it down with other enhealthy foods, it's not the best choice but at least you've got them on the plate. >> can they act like medicines in the sense they can decrease inflammati inflammation, your cholesterol, things like that. >> there are studies that show some of these foods can do that, but also part of our lifestyle that we want to get, as well. >> sweet potatoes i know are on your list. >> yes, they're great. the center for science and public interest calls these one of the healthiest vegetables you can eat and that's because they're so packed with nutrients. there's vitamin a in there, also vitamin e for our skin. >> fish is, i know, very much on your list. >> the fatty cold water fish that have the omega 3 fatty acids, which is the good fat that helps fight inflammation. and those are salmon, tuna, all fish with great omega 3s in them. >> you may think, i don't have a market like that in my backyard.

that's a good point. a lot of people don't have that. but you can get a lot of those same foods frozen and get a lot of benefits. get them canned and get the benefits. keep in mind, though, you need to eat the super foods with a healthy diet in general. you know what? even try to get a little exercise every now and then. speaking of healthy, this week's medical mystery. if you're trying to lose weight, will your sleeping habits hurt you or help you? [ male announcer ] this is steven, a busy man. his day starts with his arthritis pain. that's breakfast with two pills. the morning is over, it's time for two more pills. the day marches on, back to more pills. and when he's finally home... but hang on; just two aleve can keep arthritis pain away all day with fewer pills than tylenol. this is steven, who chose aleve and 2 pills for a day free of pain. and get the all day pain relief of aleve in liquid gels.

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we're back with sgmd. you may be trying your best to eat right and exercise, but you're still not losing weight. something i hear all the time. that brings us to our medical mystery of the week. could it have something to do with your sleep? a new study suggests that lack of sleep could throw off your weight loss goals. maybe this is something you've already known. but researchers think they have figured out why. ten people, small study, they were considered overweight or obese, put in a controlled environment for two weeks. gave them food, vitamins, and they had them participate in the same activities. six of the dieters got to sleep 8 1/2 hours and four slept 5 1/2 hours. dieters who got more sleep longer they actually lost 55% more body fat than dieters who slept less. so what's the connection? what did researchers sort of stumble upon? they think that people who don't sleep enough may produce more of the hormone known as the hunger hormone. it makes you hungry. causes fat retention, as well.