Recent
research led by University College London has identified a cancer signature in
DNA changes apparent in blood tests. These signal a possibly fatal breast
cancer symptom up to one year earlier than current medical diagnosis techniques
which may still test negative in current breast screening.
“This
may enable individualised treatment, which could even begin in the absence of
radiological evidence in the breast,’ UCL’s Professor Martin Widschwendler, who
co-authored the study, has stated.
Such early detection and consequent early hormone treatment could mean a
difference between life and death. It would also eliminate the possibility of
over-diagnosis and subsequent debilitating treatment of slow growing but benign
tumours that are frequently detected in mammography screening.
Further study and trials are necessary before this early detection
process can be made available on the NHS or in USA.
Latest statistics show that 1 in 8 women in
UK and USA will be diagnosed with breast cancer at sometime in their lifetime. Breast
and lung cancers are, in fact, the foremost cause of female cancer death in
these countries.
The
incidence of breast and lung cancer is in fact increasing, thanks to the growth and ageing of the population, together with
an increasing prevalence of risk factors associated with economic growth and
urbanisation, such as smoking, obesity, diet, and physical inactivity.
As with all
cancers, the risk of developing breast, (or other), cancer depends on a number
of factors that are possibly outside your immediate control.
You
can however eliminate the breast cancer risk by cutting alcohol out altogether,
or at least down to the national guidelines, to ensure that you are not one of
the 12,000 new cases of cancer in UK each year caused by alcohol, which include
cancers of the mouth, throat, larynx, oesophagus, breast, live and bowel.
Post-menopausal women who are overweight or obese are also at increased
breast cancer risk. Since both alcohol
and obesity significantly increase the risk factor for a large number of
cancers for both sexes at any age, you can do yourself a big favour if you
over-indulge on the booze and/or are overweight by changing your lifestyle.
1.
Cut
down on the booze!
2. Change your diet to lose weight!
3. Get out and stretch those
legs!
Ian MacWatt
Further
Reading
Methylation patterns in serum DNA for
early identification of disseminated breast cancer. Report on the UCL Study.
Lung cancer and breast cancer; the
leading cause of female cancer death in developed countries.
Cancer Prevention
Obesity and Cancer
Alcohol and Health.
Nature
Alcohol damages DNA and increases cancer risk
Alcohol damages DNA and increases cancer risk
Filed March 2018 Caring Cancer Trust
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