Doctors at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden are pioneering a new treatment for breast cancer which kills breast cancer cells by heating them up. The procedure uses a targeted electrical current to heat tumours to 70-90c, under local anaesthetic. The treatment can take as little as 10 minutes. Hyperthermia as a way of killing cancer cells was developed several decades ago after scientists noted that sometimes when cancer patients developed a fever their cancer went into remission. Hyperthermia treatment may be full body, or localised. The use of localised hyperthermia is called Ablation. We have a full report on our web site (www.canceractive.com)
At CANCERactive we have been almost a lone voice over the past 8 years in supporting a similar localised Ablation (HIFU) for Prostate cancer. With HIFU, ultrasound is used to heat solid tumours and ’melt them away’. An overnight stay in hospital is all that is required. Although there has been huge resistance to HIFU in the traditional UK cancer establishment, a recent report in icon magazine about the work of Professor Mark Emberton in London should now convince patients of its effectiveness in treating solid, localised tumours with minimal fuss, and minimal side-effects. Ablation is also used around the world for cancers in the kidneys, bone and liver, where they are solid and non-metastasised.
The new treatment for breast cancer has been used successfully by doctors on over 80 patients. Three separate studies have now shown the therapy to be safe and effective. All patients having the treatment have been monitored for two years to date and none has had a recurrence. The treatment is known as Preferential Radio-Frequency Ablation. Dr Karin Leifland, the radiologist overseeing the research, says the technology could become an alternative to surgery for women with early stage breast cancer.
According to Leifland, ’It is like boiling an egg’. The tumour is heated to such an extent that the cancer cells are killed off, while leaving the surrounding tissue unharmed. The treatment is suitable mainly for women with tumours which are smaller than 2?cm and are contained in a single lump. There is no pain or scar afterwards and within minutes of the treatment, women can leave the hospital and go home or back to work. It is also much cheaper than surgically removing a lump.
Within five years, this could be a mainstream treatment. The actual treatment is not expensive, although the scanning required to check women afterwards particularly MRI scans which are needed because they give much greater detail than other types of scans are costly. However, it is still a cheaper option than surgery as the woman does not need to stay in hospital overnight or have a general anaesthetic.
Eating flaxseed could help protect patients from the damaging effects of radiotherapy on healthy cells. A report in BioMed Central on 24 June 2011 shows that dietary flaxseed can protect against the harmful effects of radiation. The cancer studied was small cell lung cancer, or ED-SCLC. The study was conducted by the Pearlman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and used mice. Not only did flaxseed reduce radiation damage, but it was shown to repair damage after radiotherapy ceased. A clinical trial on humans is now proposed. The Flaxseed-fed mice survived doses of radiation that killed the control group.
Amongst other benefits, flaxseed is known to help oxygenate the blood through its short-chain omega-3 content.
According to researchers from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, radio-therapy patients who take probiotics prior to treatment may experience less intestinal damage. The research, published in the online journal Gut, looked at the effects of radiation on mice. Those who had been given a probiotic mix that included Lactobacillus rhamnosus before exposure, were protected against radioactive damage in their intestines.
Dr. William F. Stenson and colleague Dr. Nicholas V. Costrini stated "If the epithelium breaks down as the result of radiation, the bacteria that normally reside in the intestine can be released, travel through the body and cause serious problems such as sepsis,"
Bone drug potential with Breast Cancer AIs
Many women with oestrogen-driven breast cancer are given Aromatase Inhibitors at some stage in their treatment. Unfortunately these can cause bone fragility. A new study, published online in CANCER, has found that an osteoporosis bone drug, zoledronic acid protects against the bone-damaging side effects.
Adam Brufsky, MD, PhD, of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, and his colleagues conducted the research over a five-year period.
"This study shows that bone loss from aromatase inhibitors can be prevented long term with a safe and effective drug that prevents osteoporosis," said Dr. Brufsky.
Breast Cancer Gene Treatment
Most Breast cancers are hormone driven. But about 70 per cent of hard to treat breast cancers (and about one third of all breast cancers) show no response to hormones or existing treatments. Researchers at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Massachusetts, used small, disruptive, snippets of genetic material to examine what can turn on and off genes. (Nature July 2011)
Researchers found that a gene - PHGDH -was highly active, far more than usual, in the 70 per cent of tumours which did not respond to hormone therapies.
Over expression of the gene results in the chemistry of a cancerous cell changing and is involved in the production of an amino acid - serine.
Next step is to develop a drug that interferes with this gene.
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Breast Chemotherapy shown to cause brain damage again
We have run previous studies in Cancer Watch showing this, so this study on breast cancer published in Archives of Neurology comes as no real surprise. In this study, researchers from Stamford University Medical School followed 25 breast cancer patients who had had chemotherapy treatment comparing them with 19 breast cancer patients who had surgery and other treatments and 18 healthy women.
All were asked to solve problems, sort cards and other mental tasks. Their brains were simultaneously monitored using Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging. The 25 who had had chemo made more errors in the problems and the MRI scans showed reduced activity in areas of the brain responsible for working memory, cognitive control, monitoring and planning. This gives credence to the many women who have complained to their doctors in the past about ’foggy thinking’ after chemo.
The lead researcher Shelli Kesler said: ’This is a huge validation for these women who are telling their doctors ’something is wrong with me.’’
Doctors have hitherto been quite dismissive when patients have complained of foggy thinking in extreme cases there has been loss of vision, hearing and even dementia. Kesler added: ’This shows that when a patient reports she’s struggling with these types of problems, there’s a good chance there has been a brain change.’
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Avastin approval for breast cancer revoked in the USA
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has announced it will revoke the approval of Avastin for breast cancer, citing a lack of evidence that the benefits outweigh the risks. We have covered the story before in Cancer Watch: Avastin was approved for metastatic breast cancer in February 2008 but the makers were told more research was needed. "Unfortunately the additional studies failed to confirm Avastin’s initial promise," FDA Commissioner Dr. Margaret Hamburg said today.
The additional studies, carried out by Avastin maker Genentech, found only a small effect on tumor growth and no evidence that patients lived longer than they would taking standard chemotherapy. Because the drug can cause severe high blood pressure, bleeding, heart failure and perforations in the nose, stomach and intestines, an FDA advisory panel in June recommended revoking its approval. (ABC News)
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New Canadian guidelines agree with CANCERactive views on mammogram screening
New Canadian Health guidelines state that clinical breast examinations are no longer routinely recommended for women at average risk of breast cancer. A recent analysis conducted a special task force and chaired by Dr Marcello Tonelli, a professor at the University of Alberta’s Department of Medicine, in Edmonton warned that there was potential for harm from over-diagnosis and unnecessary biopsy, particularly for younger women. The task force also found that routine mammography, self-examinations and MRIs had no significant benefit for women aged
40 to 49.
’We’re trying to reframe this set of guidelines away from a prescriptive approach, which makes a one-size-fits-all recommendation for women based on their age, and change it into a discussion between a woman and her doctor about the potential risks, about the potential benefits, and allow each woman to make a decision that’s right for her," said Dr. Tonelli. In the UK women are screened every three years, in the USA it can be every year. Now Canada is adopting the three year approach.
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US experts conclude breast MRI’s may be a waste of money
Monica Morrow and her colleagues from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York have recently thoroughly reviewed all research from the past ten years and concluded that there is very little evidence breast MRI scans benefit the vast majority of women. Nor is there even evidence that breast MRIs are effective at helping direct breast-conserving surgery. Their findings were published in The Lancet.
The new study did indicate breast MRI can be valuable in screening women at very high genetic risk for breast cancer. However the team concluded that ’while breast MRI can identify tumors missed by mammograms and ultrasound in women at risk of breast cancer due to a known gene mutation or their family history, little is known about whether or not this improved detection has any impact on survival’.
There is no evidence also that surgery improves because of expensive MRI scans ’The available data does not support the idea that MRI improves patient selection for breast-conserving surgery or that it increases the likelihood of obtaining negative margins [no cancer cells found in margins of resection at the initial surgical excision.’
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New Prostate Treatment Trial stopped early on success
Doctors at London’s Royal Marsden Hospital have trialled a new and powerful alpha radiation drug and found that prostate cancer patients lived longer experiencing less pain and side effects. The drug trial of 922 people has been so successful it has been stopped early.
Lead researcher Dr Chris Parker described developments as "a significant step forward", while Cancer Research UK said it was a very important and promising discovery.
Radiation has been used to treat tumours for many years aiming to damage the genetic code inside cancerous cells. "Alpha particles are the big, bulky, bruisers of the radiation world. Dr Parker told the BBC: ".. more damaging. It takes one, two, three hits to kill a cancer cell compared with thousands of hits for beta particles."
Alpha particles also do less damage to surrounding tissue. He added:
"They have such a tiny range, a few millionths of a metre. So we can be sure that the damage is being done where it should be."
In 90% of patients with advanced prostate cancer, the cancer has spread to the bone. No successful orthodox treatments exist. The alpha particles from radium-223 chloride, act like calcium and stick to bone. Half of the patients were given the radium-223 chloride drug alongside traditional chemotherapy, while the other patients received chemotherapy and a dummy pill.
The death rate was 30% lower in the group taking radium-223. Those patients survived for 14 months on average compared to 11 months in the dummy group.
The trial was abandoned as "it would have been unethical not to offer the active treatment to those taking placebo", said Dr Parker.
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Prostate ’vaccine’ may hold future hope
On the CANCERactive web site we have extensive coverage of ’Virotherapy’ where supposedly harmless viruses are used as carriers for messages and drugs that can target cancer cells, while leaving healthy cells unharmed. Now researchers in Leeds and at the Mayo Clinic, in the US, have broken up ’chunks of DNA’ from healthy prostate cells and inserted them into a virus.
After injecting the virus with the prostate genes into mice, their immune systems produce antigens to fight off the attack. Those same antigens then also fight the cancer cells in the prostate elsewhere in the body. Result an immunotherapy that cures cancer. Although this trial was very successful, the researchers concluded that treatment for humans was quite a long way away.
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Cancer becoming an ever younger disease
New data, which makes a mockery of officialdom’s view that cancer is an old person’s disease with rates rising in line with an aging population, has emerged.
The risk of developing cancer in your middle age has now risen by more than a third since 1980. Breast cancer rates increased by 50 per cent. And prostate cancer rates grew a whopping 6 fold in middle aged men! (Ed: As usual, the report from Cancer Research UK, bumbles on about better screening, lifestyle factors such as obesity, and promises more and better treatments. Why is it only CANCERactive that talks about the significant environmental causes of cancer and the need for the precautionary principle to be adopted by Government and Health bodies alike? We want a more rigorous control on known carcinogens at state level from BPA to formaldehyde - in everyday products, proper warnings on labels and real cancer prevention education. This study comes at the same time other experts are warning that the cost of treatments will become untenable. The UK cancer programme continues to look in the wrong direction. Where, oh where, is a there a serious concern over cancer prevention. Ultimately, our children will be the biggest losers.)
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Lockerbie bomber’s Prostate cancer drug now available in UK
The drug that, al-Megrahi, the one man convicted of the Lockerbie bomb has been taking for a couple of years, has finally become available in the UK, even though it was ’invented’ here. Abiraterone acetate in research, extends life by an average of 4 months in advanced cases of prostate cancer it costs about $5,000 per month. NICE has yet to rule how widely available the drug will be on the NHS.
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Genistein can lower PSA levels in prostate cancer
A double-blind trial study published in a September issue of Nutrition and Cancer by researchers from Oslo University Hospital, reports that 30 mgs of synthetic genistein a day reduces PSA levels in just a few weeks. All the patients had localized prostate cancer. Apart from the beneficial effects with the cancer, serum cholesterol levels fell too.
The scientists said that these levels of genistein could easily be produced by consuming more pulses and soy in the diet.
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Potential drugs for brain tumours may have easier ride
Cornell University have been studying just how compounds might cross the blood-brain barrier. While a number of natural compounds do so, others, toxic compounds and most drugs, do not. Now they have discovered that a natural compound in all of us, adenosine, opens up the blood brain barrier and in combination with adenosine could allow prohibited drugs a free ride.
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Patients with advanced skin cancer could benefit from a new drug called Vemurafenib, the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in Chicago has heard. The drug works by acting on a faulty gene, BRAF, found in half of terminally ill patients whose cancer has spread to other organs. BRAF is also found in other cancers.
The ’designer’ drug was tested on a group of 675 patients with advanced melanoma and appears to give patients a greater chance of surviving longer than ordinary chemotherapy. Nell Barrie from Cancer Research UK says it is a "very exciting" development.
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Melanoma skin cancer increases not correct
A new study in the British Journal of Dermatology (over a period from 1991 to 2004) shows that, whilst there were nearly 4,000 cases of melanoma, with an annual increase of 9.39 to 13.91 cases per 100,000 per year, the increased incidence was almost entirely due to minimal, stage 1 disease. ’There was no change in the combined incidence of the other stages of the disease, and the overall mortality only increased from 2.16 to 2.54 cases per 100,000 per year We therefore conclude that the large increase in reported incidence is likely to be due to diagnostic drift, which classifies benign lesions as stage 1 melanoma.’
The report goes on to look at the stage 1 lesions and concludes most have nothing to do with sun damage.
(Ed: In other words, people are being diagnosed with melanoma even when they have a minimal, often non-cancerous lesion. The researchers called these extra cases ’an artifact’! They also added that the majority of lesions do not correspond with sites damaged by the sun. As we told people in our Safe Sun campaign launch 18 months ago, most of the ’sun causes melanoma/skin cancer scaremongering is just junk science. Melanoma patients have low vitamin D levels implying a lack of sunshine; they have higher oestrogen levels, for example because they take the contraceptive pill; and there are chemicals in some sun creams that are known to be photoactive carcinogens and oestrogen mimics (xenoestrogens). It is time to sort out the mythology once and for all).
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Can mistletoe be more than a complementary therapy?
The Fifth International Mistletoe Symposium (Germany) reviewed Mistletoe as a first line of treatment against cancer. Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, metastatic pancreatic adenocarcinoma and sarcomas were all covered. Two of the largest-ever cohort studies on mistletoe have now been initiated in Europe. One study will test mistletoe extract on pancreatic cancer in 400 patients; the other will test it on colorectal cancer in 800 patients.
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Current screening for ovarian cancer doesn’t deliver
Two types of screening test are under investigation for ovarian cancer: A blood test looking for high levels of a chemical associated with the cancer, and an ultrasound test which looks directly for abnormalities. However in a US study by the University of Utah, which ran from 1993 to 2010, and used both tests in combination, with women given the blood test once a year for the first six years, then annual ultrasound examinations for the remaining four years, there was no difference in death rates when compared with an equivalent unscreened group of women.
40,000 US women were checked annually over this period (Journal of the American Medical Association).
Cancer Research UK said it was seeking new methods to detect the cancer.
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Cancer cells use chemical to spread
Scientists have shown how cancer cells fire off from a tumour to spread around the body. While some seem to open corridors inside the tumour for their exit, others force their way out. Both processes seem to be controlled by a protein chemical, designated JAK. Scientists are now working on ways to block JAK and thus prevent metastases. (Cancer Research UK)
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Stress hormones cause breast cancer to spread; beta-blockers may help
A research study presented at the European Conference on breast cancer concluded that stress played an important part in causing cancers to spread via hormone changes. The study also showed that people taking beta-blockers for heart problems had less cancer death rates. The conclusion was that beta-blockers may block cancer spreading stress hormones.
Dr Des Powe, from Queen’s Medical Centre, Nottingham, in collaboration with Professor Frank Entschladen from Witten University in Germany, studied three groups of breast cancer patients; 466 people in all. The first group had high blood pressure, also called hypertension, and were taking beta-blockers, the second had high blood pressure and were taking something different for it, while the third had no blood pressure problems.
In the group taking beta-blockers, there was a significant reduction in both cancer metastasis and new tumours within the breast. Overall they had a 71 per cent lower chance of dying from breast cancer compared with the other groups.
The study was however small scale, and needs to be repeated before formal conclusions can be drawn.
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Can fish oils block cisplatin drug?
Research from the University Medical School, Utrecht, on mice has pointed to the possible conclusion that stem cells in the blood of cancer patients might produce two fatty acids - known as KHT and 16:4(n-3) whose job it is to begin a series of chemical reactions protecting cancer cells from attacking chemotherapy drugs.
Professor Emile Voest, lead researcher, conducted the research on mice whilst treating them with Cosplatin. He has suggested that this mechanism could operate with many drugs and that common fish oils, which contain similar fatty acids, might also render other drugs less effective. (Ed: There’s a bit of a problem here because the press release states that you should ’consult your doctor’. But since this is only one study and indicates more research is necessary, how would your doctor be able to tell you anything? Cisplatin has now been shown to cause kidney and hearing side-effects.)
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Untenable costs of cancer drugs
The Lancet Oncology Commission, an International group of doctors and medical professionals, has found that too much is often spent on cancer drugs of limited benefit. The commission, set up to assess cancer treatment and its price, adds generic drugs, which are not attached to any pharmaceutical brand, are often cheaper.
The commission further stated that sometimes the benefits of new drugs in extending life bore little relation to the cost. The UK spends about 6bn a year on cancer treatment.
Dr Karol Sikora, a leading oncologist, patron of CANCERactive and one of the members of the commission, told BBC Today presenter Evan Davis, "The real problem is the sheer onslaught of drugs. Over the last six months, eight new drugs have come to market: average price, 9,000 a month. This is not a tenable way to move forward."
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Uterine cancer does the womb need to be removed?
Typically in women with uterine cancer, the womb is removed in a hysterectomy. But MD Anderson are looking at other options. One of the biggest risk factors is obesity, and the growth in numbers of younger obese women. This is bringing about an increase in younger females developing uterine, or womb cancer.
In response to a twenty year old patient’s comment that you ’don’t remove the lungs in someone with lung cancer’, MD Anderson are studying just have to remove only the infected parts and leave younger patient’s fertility intact, through confocal microscopy. This uses a camera to identify the exact perimeters of the infection.
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British Government choose cheaper vaccine option shock!
According to a report on the BBC web site (28th Sept 2011) the UK Government may have chosen the least cost-effective vaccine to immunise teenage girls against viruses that cause cervical cancer. A study of the data shows that in 2008, the Department of Health picked the cheaper of two options - a vaccine called Cervarix while the Health Protection Agency concludes that a rival vaccine, Gardasil, could provide better value.
The study in the British Medical Journal states that ’considerable uncertainty’ remains about the relative benefits of the two rival vaccines.
Both aim to protect against HPV types 16 and 18, which cause more than 70% of cervical cancer cases. Gardasil also protects against types 6 and 11 which cause genital warts and apparently these cost the NHS 17m a year.
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HPV vaccine shows positive benefits in preventing male genital warts
After a 4 year study, the FDA has approved Gardasil for use with young men to prevent genital warts. Despite the huge fuss now being made in America where ’cancer experts’ are now saying girls and boys can be vaccinated before their first sexual experience and ’so reduce the deaths of cervical cancer’, the FDA specifically said that this study and approval did not relate to cancer. (Ed: You can read more at http//:blog.canceractive.com)
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New 3 million Maggie’s centre opens in Glasgow
Maggie’s Gartnavel, the second Maggie’s Centre in the city, is near the Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre. Like at all the seven other Maggie’s Centres, staff there will see anyone affected by the illness, free and without an appointment.
The centre will provide emotional and practical support, including advice on money and nutrition. Maggie’s chief executive Laura Lee said: "It is an honour to open our eighth Maggie’s Centre. It’s a fantastic new resource for the west of Scotland."
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NUTRITION AND LIFESTYLE
Would the real Vitamin E stand up!
Complete confusion rules after the Journal of The Journal of the American Medical Association, which has a history of negativity to vitamins and natural compounds, published a report about men in a SELECT trial who had been taking ’vitamin E’. Their conclusion was that it made no difference at all to the development of cancer. Immediately critics pointed out that this trial used synthetic alpha tocopherol acetate, which is just one component of the eight component vitamin E, and previously other studies have shown that synthetic alpha tocopherol, the only version approved by the EU to be sold in High Streets, was inferior to the real thing and offered little benefit. The Cochrane Institute research, covered in Cancer Watch, even suggested it might cause harm.
To prove a point, the critics analysed data from the cohort study, which JAMA had not mentioned. The VITAL cohort results were exactly the opposite of the SELECT results. The VITAL study followed 35,000 men over 10 years since 2000 taking their own vitamin E which could have included natural and more complete versions too. The men taking 400 IU’s of vitamin E over the 10 years had a 14 per cent lower risk of prostate cancer and 57 per cent lower risk for advanced prostate cancer.
(Ed: Frankly, it is about time that the Powers that be woke up to the fact that they have approved an incomplete and synthetic version of vitamin E, especially given the many studies showing benefits of the Tocotrienol variants of vitamin E. In my opinion, synthetic alpha-tocopherol, which is just one of the eight different component forms of vitamin E, should not be allowed to be even called vitamin E anyway. Scientists themselves get confused! For example, The Memorial Sloan-Kettering web site lists foods containing vitamin E then goes on to talk only about alpha-tocopherol, which isn’t even present in some of those vitamin E-rich foods and does not possess all the benefits. Trading Standards in the UK should sort out this complete mis-claim. On the High Street, you are not buying natural vitamin E made up of its 8 constituents, but a synthetic version of just one component. And if it doesn’t perform as well, or even has side-effects (after all, it is synthetic), then who really should be surprised? People are being mis-led and mis-sold.)
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European study says antioxidants do prevent cancer
An 11 year study, the results of which were published in the European Journal of Nutrition, showed that people taking antioxidant supplements had a 48 percent reduction in the risk of cancer mortality. In addition, the risk of dying from all causes (all-cause mortality) was 42 percent lower among antioxidant supplement users. Interestingly, taking only a basic multivitamin and mineral supplement - the sort repeatedly ’dumbed down’ by Health Authorities in Europe - offered no protection against cancer or all-cause mortality.
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In a Taiwanese study published in The Lancet in August 2011, researchers found that doing 15 minutes of exercise every day - a total of 92 minutes a week, they claimed - increased life expectancy by three years. A further 15 minutes a day resulted in all-cause mortality to decrease by a further 4 per cent.
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Blueberries can stop breast cancer tumour growth
Eating blueberries may inhibit breast cancer tumor growth, according to a recent study by researchers at the City of Hope in Los Angeles and published in the October 2011 issue of The Journal Of Nutrition.
The study found that the oral intake of whole blueberry powder could reduce the growth and metastasis of a very aggressive form of breast cancer (triple-negative cancer), for which there are few effective drugs.
Tumour size reduced by 60-75 percent. In addition, molecu
lar analysis revealed that blueberry consumption altered the expression of genes that are important to metastasis. The ’dose’ required of blueberries to achieve these results was equivalent to two cups of fresh blueberries per day.
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Resveratrol supplementation can suppress growth of breast cancer
Resveratrol has had numerous research studies on its benefits with dementia, heart disease, cancer, longevity and even slimming over the last few years we have a full review on our web site.
Now researchers from the Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Calabria in Italy (The FASEB Journal report) have shown that in vitro resveratrol blocks the effect of oestrogen on cells and can help to prevent the malignant growth of breast cancer in women. Research used several breast cancer cell lines all with oestrogen receptor sites. One group was given resveratrol, while both were stimulated with oestrogen. The resveratrol group showed lowered cell growth and further research showed this to be due to a reduction in the number of oestrogen receptor sites, as a result of administering resveratrol.
The team concluded that resveratrol is able to counteract the malignant progression of breast cancer cells by inhibiting the growth and spread of hormone resistant cancerous cells. No effects were reported on healthy cells.
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Soy may reduce lung cancer risk
Research in the past has been a little mixed on soy and lung cancer, with many ’alternative cancer experts’ arguing that the benefits come only if the soy has been fermented. Not true, says a meta-study analyzing 11 past research studies, all of which followed people’s diets for more than a decade. (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition)
Pooling all of the results, people who got the most soy in their diet had a 23 percent lower risk of lung cancer than those who got the least. And the link between soy and cancer only held for unfermented products.
According to the American Cancer Society, about eight percent of men will develop lung cancer at some point, while six percent of women will get the disease. (Reuters)
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Whole grain consumption reduces bowel cancer risk
Imperial College researchers have analysed 25 past studies and concluded that adding 90gms or 3oz of wholegrain food to a daily diet brings a 20 per cent reduction in the risk of bowel cancer. The findings were published in the British Medical Journal. Surprisingly, researchers found no ’significant evidence’ that consuming a lot of fruit and vegetables or eating more legumes such as beans, peas, lentils, and peanuts protected against bowel cancer.
Grains are providers of fibre which feeds the beneficial bacteria in the gut allowing them to release folate, B-12, vitamin K, biotin and sodium butyrate known to restrict cancer cell growth. American Research has shown that microbes may ultimately lie behind bowel cancer and a healthy level of intestinal flora can deal with them.
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Three studies support Grape Seed Extract in cancer prevention
Three studies in 2011 show important cancer prevention abilities:
* Prostate Cancer
35,239 males were followed over 10 years since 2000 in the VITAL cohort study (May 2011). Men, with "high average use" over 10 years of an individual grape seed extract supplement experienced a 62 per cent lowered risk of prostate cancer compared to non-users. Even average users of grape seed extract supplements experienced a 41 per cent lowered reduction.
* Hematologic Cancers
66,227 men and women in the same VITAL study who had ever used grape seed supplements saw a 43 per cent lowered risk of haematologic cancers. (’high use’ of garlic also produced a 47 per cent lowered risk.
* Skin Cancer
A study carried out by Maryam Asargi et al, (Department of Dermatology, University of California at San Francisco, San Francisco, California; June 2011) involving 830 people compared various combinations of vitamins like A, C, E and multivitamins. The group taking grape seed extract had an incredible 74 per cent reduction in squamous cell carcinoma.
Grape seed extract is an OPC along with Maritime Pine Bark. Previous studies have shown this high antioxidant power.
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Walnuts may help prevent breast cancer
According to an animal study (Elaine Hardman, Ph.D., of Marshall’s Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine; Nutrition and Cancer), regular consumption of walnuts may help reduce the risk of breast cancer.
Mice were either fed a normal diet, or one with walnuts (the equivalent of 2 oz per day for humans. The experiment showed a significant reduction of cancerous tumors within the mice that continued their walnut diet. Researchers put the credit for this down to walnut ingredients such as fatty omega-3 acids, antioxidants and phytosterols. (Ed: Walnuts are a constituent of Chris Woollams’ Rainbow Diet and, Like olive oil, contain oils that can reduce bad cholesterol levels).
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Rainbow Diet can reduce bowel cancer riskrisk
Australian researchers reporting in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association have looked into a Rainbow diet and its effect on bowel cancers in different sections of the bowel. Professor Lin Fritschi, PhD, head of the Epidemiology Group at the Western Australian Institute for Medical Research, and her research team studied proximal colon cancer, distal colon cancer and rectal cancer with foods, finding that foods like apples, broccoli and cauliflower each lower the risk of cancer while high sugar, refined foods and purchased fruit juices increased the risk of colon cancer.
The controlled study included 918 participants with a confirmed colon cancer diagnosis and compared them with 1021 individuals with no history of the digestive disease. Researchers found a reduced rate of proximal colon cancer linked to eating brassicas (broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts); while total vegetable intake and fruit intake were linked to a lowered risk of distal colon cancer; and a significant reduction in distal colon cancer risk was linked to dark yellow vegetables and apples. (http://adajournal.org/webfiles/images/journals/yjada/yjada_pc_111_10.pdf )
Chris Woollams’ ’the Rainbow Diet and how it can help you beat cancer’ can be obtained by going to the Natural Selection shop.
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Prostate cancer risk and eggs
We’ve told you in the past about the straight line links between consuming cows’ dairy (milk) and prostate cancer risks. Now a new study from the Harvard School of Public Health investigated the role of egg consumption after a previous study had suggested that men diagnosed with low grade prostate cancers, non-the-less had higher risk of death if they ate a lot of eggs.
The findings of the new study record that ’men who consumed 2.5 eggs or more a week had an 85 per cent increased risk of lethal prostate cancer compared to men who consumed less than half an egg a week’. (Ed: Clearly more work is required to find out the mechanism of how this occurs. One also wonders on the cooking method: Frying in oil or butter would clearly be worse than boiling or steaming per se)
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Cancer Research UK tells people to supplement with vitamin D at last
According to an expert team funded by Cancer Research UK, fair skinned people may not be able to generate enough vitamin D from sunshine and may need to take vitamin D supplements. (Ed: I need to go and lie down. The shock has overwhelmed me. We have been telling people this for over 8 years. Still, better late than never, I suppose)
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’New’ broccoli on sale in UK to fight cancer
British scientists have developed a heart disease and cancer fighting ’super broccoli, and it is on sale in your stores now. Although the vegetable looks the same as normal broccoli it contains two to three times the normal levels of glucoraphanin which converts in the gut into the bioactive compound sulphoraphane and this circulates in the bloodstream.
The new broccoli, called Beneforte will be sold at Marks & Spencer stores immediately and will make an appearance on the shelves of other supermarkets next year.
Beneforte was developed by British scientists using conventional breeding techniques rather than genetic engineering. Work on the project began after a wild broccoli variety was discovered in 1983 with naturally raised levels of glucoraphanin. Beneforte broccoli was developed at the Institute of Food Research (IFR) and John Innes Centre, both based in Norwich.
Compared with normal broccoli, eating Beneforte broccoli raises sulphoraphane levels two to four times.
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CHEMICAL WORLD
Bisphenol A may cause your breast cancer even before your birth
Several studies in the last year have pointed to the dangers of Bisphenol A (BPA). Banned in Canada, there is little mention of this chemical by Government, Health Bodies or Cancer Charities in the UK.
For example, Blaustein in Molecular Endocrinology 2010 24: 252-260, starts the ball rolling, to be followed by other papers in the last year. One study shows how BPA could be doing harm inside the bodies of babies even before they are born.
A study conducted by scientists at the Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research showed that exposure to normal environmental levels of BPA, alters both the short-term and long-term response of the female foetus breast to oestrogens and progesterone. It also increased the number of cells in the adult milk ducts. Put simply, BPA can cause life-time changes to your baby; changes that can increase the incidence of breast cancer much later in life.
The University of Barcelona has reported on its studies that BPA can affect the production of ova in female humans, expressing concern about increased rates of Down’s Syndrome.
BPA is a chemical polymer widely used in the manufacture of plastics and has been found in baby feeding bottles, plastic bottles used for water and fizzy drinks and even toys, and white linings in cans. In May 2011 the FDA in America reported finding oestrogen-mimicking BPA in 71 of 78 canned food products for example, canned vegetables, pasta and tuna. Although the body can metabolise BPA and excrete it in urine, scientists are concerned that the constant absorption of BPA from food and beverage packaging is keeping levels higher in our tissues than those deemed safe.
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Are GMO foods already out of control?
We have covered the quite ludicrous acceptance-without-independent research policy of Western Governments towards Genetically Modified seeds in the past. The same Governments that bring in laws against the consumption of thousand year old herbs whilst supporting claims like ’Just because it’s natural, doesn’t make it safe’ seem hell-bent on supporting the downright unnatural. We have also previously covered the pressure for example directed towards the French authorities when they refused to take American GM seed.
The company that brought you the most destructive products known to man like dioxins (Agent Orange) and polychlorinated biphenols (PCB’s), are not only bringing you GM seeds and busy buying up non-GM seed companies, but bringing you a new chemical threat: glyphosate.
In France a documentary entitled ’The World according to Mosanto’ has slammed the company hinting at Mafia-like practices with teams of enforcers stopping farmers saving seeds from one year to the next, so that they have to use Mosanto’s patented GM seeds.
Some GM crops, such as GM sugar beets and certain varieties of GM corn and soy, are engineered (with the Roundup Ready gene) to withstand otherwise lethal doses of Monsanto’s herbicide Roundup, which has the active chemical glyphosate. Users of GM seeds become dependent upon Roundup and have to agree to its exclusive use. But one problem is that the weeds have already genetically developed to withstand it, so much so that weeds that grow several inches per day are now being found around GM crops. 11 million acres of US soul are now ’polluted’ by 130 or more strains of ’super weed’, across 40 states. (Scientific American)
Washing crops thoroughly is essential as all of these crops receive numerous applications of Roundup each and every year. But washing could never be enough. Glyphosate is already being found in waterways, in rain and in soil samples. A French court even found Mosanto guilty of falsely advertising its herbicide as ’biodegradable’ especially given that according to Mosanto’s own tests only 2 per cent breaks down within 28 days.
Glyphosate is now being linked to ’Sudden Death Syndrome’ (SDS) in plants and the emergence of disease, as the chemical weakens the plant defences and can interfere in photosynthesis.
As if this wasn’t enough of a threat to our health, some GM seeds are designed to produce chemicals that kill attackers, like bacteria and moulds. In 2011 Cry1Ab, a specific type of Bt toxin from GM crops was detected in human and foetal blood samples for the first time. Canadian research found this toxin in
93 percent of blood samples of pregnant women
80 percent of fetal blood samples
69 percent of non-pregnant women blood samples
In a review of 19 research studies by French Professor Gilles-Eric Sralini, published in Environmental Sciences Europe (March 1st 2011), the conclusions showed that consuming genetically modified corn or soybeans leads to significant organ disruptions in rats and mice, particularly in livers and kidneys. Weight changes were also common.
While the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is finally looking into the damaging effects of glyphosate on humans and the environment and plans to make a decision regarding its future by 2015, we all have to ask’ Will this be too late?’
With no independent testing of these seeds in the UK, their possible cross pollination of existing crops, a fear that ’organic’ seed companies will simply be bought up, could we at least ask for a little ’Chemical Consistency’ from our Government and Health Bodies? A new food has to go through all manner of approvals before a company can sell it. But an existing food can incorporate a new GM seed tomorrow, often without any UK acknowledgement on the label. California has just introduced a labeling law as a start. Where is ours?
While we have laws for drugs and now herbs, why is there no equivalent regulation on GM seeds? Perhaps it is time to bypass the Food Standards Agency and ask your MP directly exactly what he intends to do. (Source: Dr Mercola and others)
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EMF’s, WiFi and Mobile phones finally ’officialdom’ wakes up
The World Health Organisation has elevated EMFs to a state of ’possible carcinogen’, in particular citing the 40 per cent increased risk of glioma linked in research to be caused by mobile phone long-term usage.
Furthermore, the European Parliament has passed a resolution asking member states to restrict mobile phone usage in schools, to switch WiFi back to fixed line internet in schools and to provide information leaflets to schoolchildren, teachers and parents warning of the dangers of EMFs.
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American airport body scanners banned in Europe
We told you in previous issues about airport body scanner concerns and cancer. Now the European Commission has issued new guidelines - only scanners that use millimeter wave technology, (low-energy radio waves that do not cause radioactive damage), will be permitted for use in the EU -- the backscatter X-ray variety commonly used in the US are banned due to safety concerns.
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How do these people get jobs? Three stories to worry you! Three stories to worry you!
1. Sodium benzoate is a cheap preservative used in all manner of foods and drinks. It’s a known carcinogen but, as usual, health bodies claim you only ingest it in very small amounts so it is safe. It’s danger is to the mitochondria the power stations of the cell where it shuts down oxygen levels.
Benzene is actually worse - it too is a known carcinogen and of far more concern. Apparently, according to the FDA in America, sodium benzoate is safe but can form benzene when in the presence of vitamin C and vitamin E. Obviously there is none of these vitamins in any of the foods for which sodium benzoate is the preservative.
2. The European Food Standards Authority have now stated that there you cannot claim prunes and prune juice are aids for constipation.
And if those two were not stupid enough for you
3. The European Food Standards Authority have also stated that you cannot make claims that water can rehydrate the body. Presumably no one in charge of the EU ever learned Greek at school as ’hydros’ means ’water’. So the word rehydration means restoring the body’s water. But now you can go to jail for two to three years for claiming this in your advertising. Presumably someone is paid a lot of money to make important health decisions like this.