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

                                                                              

22. Cancer treatment through Immunotherapy

Photo: MedicineNet.com

    Laboratory research into the genetic makeup of cancer tumours is showing the possibility of a new approach to a treatment that delivers potent therapies specifically tailored to individual patients.

    Science Magazine has published an article on the work of an international team of research scientists from Harvard, MIT and University College London. They found that even as cancer tumours grow and spread around the body, they carry with them a number of biological protein “flags” that the immune system could be primed to attack.

    Because these flags are found only on cancer cells, they could provide unique targets for possible new therapies. Such therapies would draw on the power of the immune system to recognise the protein flags and destroy the cancer cells with a precision attack.

    A major obstacle to this type treatment is that tumours manage to switch off the cells of the immune system. Many laboratories across the globe are now learning how to combat this by reactivating the immune system to destroy the cancer.

    I asked Dr. Ian Hampson, Professor  in Viral Oncology at the University of Manchester Institute of Cancer Studies, to comment on such an approach which, if successful, could revolutionise cancer treatment.

Ian MacWatt

Dr. Ian Hampson writes: 

    The problem is that this type of precision attack therapy relies on the isolation of immune cells from every individual patient’s tumour. These are then grown in the laboratory to provide large numbers of cells and they can also even be genetically altered so that they target the tumour more effectively. Finally they are transfused back into the patient where they attack and destroy the cancer.

    To illustrate, it is well known that cells from one person cannot be transfused into another who is not tissue type compatible. This is why immune cells from one patient’s tumour cannot be used to treat another.  In order to get round this problem scientists are working to engineer immune cells which can be used to target tumours in any person regardless of tissue type; a sort of group ‘O’ universal donor immune cell which could then be modified to target many types of tumour in different people.

    This would mean that large stocks of such cells could be produced and stored for use whenever needed to treat different patients, which would vastly reduce the cost of this type of therapy.  

    It is very clear that this approach will provide precision weapons to fight cancer which are far less damaging to the patient than blanket chemotherapy, which not only destroys the cancer cells but can also damage the patient’s immune system.  However, if this new approach sounds expensive, that’s because it is, although there may be some light at the end of this long tunnel.