31. Breast Cancer Diagnosis Breakthrough

     

         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

GenomeMedicine

     Methylation patterns in serum DNA for early identification of disseminated breast cancer. Report on the UCL Study.

Science Daily 

     Lung cancer and breast cancer; the leading cause of female cancer death in developed countries.                                                                                        

World Cancer Research Fund

     Cancer Prevention

Stop Cancer

     Obesity and Cancer

BBC Online News

     Alcohol and Health.

Nature
     Alcohol damages DNA and increases cancer risk

Filed March 2018 Caring Cancer Trust

27. Cancer Prevention and Obesity

     

           With the passing of each month the importance of healthy diet, lifestyle and         exercise in Cancer Prevention becomes more evident.  Recent studies in USA           have shown that unhealthy lifestyle factors are responsible for over 70% of a           number of different Cancers diagnosed; cancers that could well have been                 prevented by an improved Stop Cancer diet, a healthy lifestyle and adequate             exercise.   

     We all know the danger of lung cancer from smoking, but most are ignorant of the risk of throat cancer from alcohol excess, or obesity .

     Recent World Health Organisation statistics for the EU show that 40-50% of men and 25-35% of women are overweight thanks to poor diet and sedentary habits, and some 50% of these are obese. In USA the figures are worse: 68% of adults are overweight and 33.8% obese.   In UK, one in five children aged 10 are now considered obese   Obesity is now a major causation factor or risk elevation for a considerable number of cancers. Indeed obesity looks set to overtake smoking as the major cause of cancer.                                                       

    The list of cancers that can be caused from obesity is daunting: cervical; colorectal; endometrial, (lining of the uterus); oesophagus, (gullet); hepatocellular, (subtype of liver cancer); gallbladder; kidney; malignant melanoma; post-menopausal breast cancer; non-Hodgkinson’s Lymphom, thyroid cancer.                      The present parlous state of the NHS in the UK, together with the US President’s desire to slash federal funding for Medicare, Medicaid and the US Institute of National Health, make the reduction of obesity ever more crucial in primary cancer prevention as well as in cancerous growth and metastasis, (development of secondary malignant tumour growths at a distance from a primary cancer site).         

     In addition to essential weight loss and a healthy lifestyle in cancer prevention, there are a number of plant-based foods that have nutrients, which appear in studies to have cancer-preventive properties as well as inhibiting cancer growth and metastasis. Unlike sugar, which feeds sucrose-loving cancer tumours, they help to starve and eliminate cancer cells and the growth of blood cells that tumours feed on. Their phytochemical interferes with the cellular communication that triggers inflammation and stimulates the emergence and progression of cancer tumours in the body.  In effect they become biological response modifiers, changing the way the body works.          

      While all the nutrients shown below can be taken as (sometimes expensive) supplements, they are present in the sort of fresh organic vegetables, fruits, fish and dairy products that can be found in healthy eating such as the Mediterranean Diet.

 Ursolic Acid.   Present in apples, basil, bilberries, cranberries, elderflower, peppermint, rosemary, lavender, oregano, thyme, hawthorn, prunes.

        Vitamin D.   Present in wild caught, (as opposed to farmed)  fatty fish   like salmon,             free range eggs, whole milk, Sunlight. Cooking reduces vitamin D by 30%.

        Curcumin.     Present in turmeric root.

           Sulforaphane.  Present in many cruciferous vegetables such as  cauliflower, brussels            sprouts, cabbage, kale, kohlrabi, turnip, radish, watercress.

           Quercentin.   Present in onions, capers, blackberries, dark cherries, cocoa, kale,              apples.

           Apigenin.   Present in fresh grapefruit, onions, oranges, parsley, chamomile tea.

           Luteolin. Present in green peppers, celery, chamomile tea.

           Anthraquinones.  Present in rhubarb,

                                                                                                   Ian MacWatt                        

Further Reading

          The Association between obesity and cancer

          Frugal Chemoprevention