Can You Prevent - Cure - Cancer?

I do not have a problem with cancer in my family. Still, I work hard to stay out of the high risk groups. My husband comes from a 'high risk' family. But, when I started to look into his family's diet, exercise practices, and lifestyle. This lead me to wonder if his family's 'problem' is self induced. For one, they do not exercise. Second, they do not eat vegetables and fruit.

It amazes me to think that a person can 'give themselves cancer' - or if they get cancer, they can destroy their chances of survival. The important thing to remember is that you need to start avoiding disease on a daily basis. You can't wait until you have cancer and then try to prevent it.



One-Third of Cancer Deaths Could Be Avoided

Copyright © 2005 Daily News Central
Of the seven million worldwide cancer deaths reported in 2001, 35 percent were attributable to nine well-known behavioral and environmental risk factors, according to an analysis published in The Lancet.

Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and a network of collaborators made the calculation by estimating mortality for 12 types of cancer linked to the nine risk factors in seven World Bank regions for that year.

They also looked at how the risks, and the cancers they cause, were distributed over the regions of the world. This is the first assessment of the role of health risks in cancer deaths globally and regionally.

Risk Factor Analysis

The researchers analyzed data from the Comparative Risk Assessment project and World Health Organization databases to determine the level of risk factors in different world regions, and separately for men and women.

They also considered how hazardous each risk factor might be. The analysis covered all high-income countries together, and separated low-income and middle-income countries into geographical regions: East Asia and Pacific, South Asia, Europe and Central Asia, Latin America and Caribbean, Middle East and North Africa, and Sub-Saharan Africa.

The nine risk factors:

- overweight and obesity
- low fruit and vegetable intake
- physical inactivity
- smoking
- alcohol use
- unsafe sex
- urban air pollution
- indoor smoke from household use of coal
- contaminated injections in healthcare settings

Alcohol, Smoking Play Large Roles

More than one in every three of the seven million deaths from cancer worldwide were caused by these nine potentially modifiable risk factors (2.43 million), the researchers found, with alcohol and smoking playing large roles in all income levels and regions.

Worldwide, the nine risk factors caused 1.6 million cancer deaths among men and 830,000 among women. Smoking alone is estimated to have caused 21 percent of deaths from cancer worldwide.

In high-income countries, these nine risks caused 760,000 cancer deaths. Smoking, alcohol, and overweight and obesity were the most important causes of cancer in these nations.

In low- and middle-income regions, the nine risks caused 1.67 million cancer deaths. Smoking, alcohol consumption, and low fruit and vegetable intake were the leading risk factors for these deaths.

Sexual transmission of human papillomavirus is the leading risk factor for cervical cancer in women in low- and middle-income countries, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, where access to cervical screening is also limited.

Among low- and middle-income regions, Europe and Central Asia had the highest proportion of death from cancer from the nine risk factors studied; 39 percent of 825,000 cancer deaths in the low- and middle-income countries of Europe and Central Asia were caused by these risks.

The effects were even larger among men; one half of cancer deaths among men in the low- and middle-income countries of Europe and Central Asia were caused by these nine risks.

Behaviors and Environments

"These results clearly show that many globally important types of cancer are preventable by changes in lifestyle behaviors and environmental interventions," comments Majid Ezzati, senior author of the study and assistant professor of international health at HSPH.

"To win the war against cancer, we must focus not just on advances in biomedical technologies, but also on technologies and policies that change the behaviors and environments that cause those cancers," he adds.

The study, "Causes of cancer in the world: comparative risk assessment of nine behavioral and environmental risk factors," was funded by the National Institute on Aging and by the Disease Control Priorities Project.


Rita Jenkins is a health journalist for Daily News Central, an online publication that delivers breaking news and reliable health information to consumers, healthcare providers and industry professionals: http://www.dailynewscentral.com



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Hope for Down Syndrom

US scientists recently discovered an old discontinued drug that reduces the mental retardation in mice with a certain form of Down syndrome, according to a study published in the journal of Nature Neuroscience.

Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the Down Syndrome Research Centre at Stanford University in California, Craig Garner, led the research. His team experimented with Ts65Dn mice bred as model test specimens for Down syndrome. Ts65Dn mice have increased inhibition of the dentate gyrus, the part of the brain near the hippocampus that is associated with learning and memory.

The mice were given a discontinued drug that was originally used for epilepsy in humans, called pentylenetetrazole or PTZ, a GABAA antagonist.

Results were positive. The mice’s ability to explore, learn and remember things improved. Their ability to explore a T-shaped maze improved. In the beginning, they followed random patterns. After only 17 days they were exploring like normal mice.

The improvements continued for two months after the drug therapy ended.

The drug controls the ability of neurons to make connections with each other, a process that is necessary to learning and memory.

People with Down syndrome or "trisomy 21" have an extra complete or partial copy of chromosome 21, whereas most people have two. It is evident at birth and is associated by facial and body structure alterations. Symptoms include impairment of physical and cognitive development, including heart problems.

This is a problem many parents face with their children. The cost associated with down syndrome is prohibitive at both the personal and community level. A drug that allows people to learn better and function independently in society will be a miracle in many lives..

Statistically, one in 800 children born in the world have Down syndrome. Down syndrome does not prejudice across ethnic or socioeconomic groups. However, babies born to older mothers have an increased risk of Down syndrome. The ratio increases from one in 1,000 in the mother’s twenties, to one in 11 when the mother reaches 49 years old.

Garner and his team claim that over-inhibition of neuronal excitation contributes to the intellectual disability that is commonly associated with Down syndrome.

They believe that GABAA could treat the disorder.

Applying this knowledge to humans is not simple. Large doses of this drug causes epileptic seizures. This is why The Food and Drug Administration withdrew approval for its use in the 1980s. The research is positive, but people are warned to remember that many drugs which improve learning and cognitive functioning in mice have not worked as well in humans.

"Pharmacotherapy for cognitive impairment in a mouse model of Down syndrome."
Nature Neuroscience Published online: 25 February 2007

However, people who are struggling to create a life for those who suffer from Down Syndrome are not quick to turn their back on any possible treatment. Even if this drug can improve patients ability to learn how to live independently, slightly, it is worth extending the studies and learning more about the treatments available to patients.