Surviving-Cancers.com

Chao Cancer Center

The cancer prevention research office at the Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of California, Irvine Medical Center is looking for participants for a Melanoma prevention trial.

Participants must be at least 18 years of age with 2 or more easily-biopsied abnormal moles and/or a history of melanoma.

Of the three main forms of skin cancer, melanoma is the least common but the most deadly, accounting for about 79% of skin cancer related deaths. This equates to approximately 8000 deaths a year. According to the American Cancer Society, the incidence rate for melanoma has more than doubled since 1973.

Those with a history of melanoma or who exhibit abnormal moles have an increased risk of developing skin cancer.

Lovastatin is an investigational drug for use in skin cancer prevention.

In a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase II clinical trial, Lovistatin will be tested in an effort to develop a safe, effective method to halt and/or reverse the progression of abnormal moles, also known as atypical nevi, into melanoma.

Participants will be asked to take the medication once daily by mouth, for six months. They will also be asked to return to the clinic at scheduled intervals for follow-up examinations.

Those who qualify will receive a free screening and evaluation of their abnormal moles. Lab work, the study medication, and follow-ups during the study will also be free.

The research project is sponsored by the National Cancer Institute.

For more information and to see if you qualify for this melanoma prevention trial, contact Vanessa Wong or Rachel Gonzalez at 1-888-456-7067 or (714) 456-6210.

Ripe Mango

In 2001, a study at the University of Florida indicated that Mangoes contain several cancer fighting components including carotinoids and phenolic compounds called polyphenols, both powerful antioxidants.

A more recent study funded by the National Mango Board and done at Texas A&M University’s AgriLife Research department determined that one class of these phenolic compounds, known as gallotannins, is particularly effective in killing breast cancer and colon cancer cells under laboratory conditions.

In the earlier study, mangoes were pureed and separated into a carotinoid portion and a portion heavy in phenolics.  While both portions inhibited cancer formation, the phenolic portion was shown to be more effective.  Some of the compounds were suspected of being unique to Mangoes and the results suggested that further studies were warranted.

This brings up the later study.  The husband and wife team of Dr. Susanne and Dr. Steve Talcott at Agrilife Research found that gallotannins were effective in slowing the growth of lung, prostate, and leukemia cancer cells, but were even more effective against breast and colon cancer.  The compounds actually caused the breast and colon cancer cells to stop multiplying and die in a form of cell suicide called apoptosis.

The gallotannins also prevented damaged cells, those showing precancerous signs, from developing further.  When the compounds were administered to normal, healthy cells, no harm was done.

Although the research was funded by the National Mango Board, there appears to be no reason to question the findings.

Of course, not all experiments performed in the laboratory pan out when used on human subjects.  But the results give hope that another, more natural alternative to widely prescribed cancer drugs may soon be offered to cancer victims.  Clinical trials may begin soon to determine the efficacy on human subjects.

In the meantime, eat more mangoes and drink tea, which is also high in gallotannins.

Breast cancer self-examination

A year ago I reported on findings which indicated that bisphosphonate drugs might be a contributor to esophageal cancer. Now I have to report new research which indicates that bisphosphonate drugs such as Fosamax may be effective in reducing the risk of breast cancer.

Two different studies have come up with similar results, one resulting from the Woman’s Health Initiative (WHI) and another from a controlled case study in Israel. Both showed a sharply lowered cancer incidence in women who had been prescribed bisphosphonates to prevent bone loss.

The WHI study was led by Dr, Rowan Chlebowski, chief oncologist from the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center.

Of the 2816 women having taken bisphosphonates at the beginning of the WHI study, only 64 women developed breast cancer. This was a 32 percent reduction in incidence compared to those women who were not taking the drug.

It should be noted that women taking the drugs were slightly more likely to develop DCIS, or ductal carcinoma in situ, than those who did not. DCIS is a very early form of breast cancer confined to the milk ducts where it is formed and is nearly 100 percent curable when found.

The other study, led by Dr. Gad Rennert, chairman of community medicine and epidemiology at the Clalit National Cancer Control Center in Haifa Israel looked at 4575 women who took bisphosphonates for at least a year. The results indicated a 34 percent reduced rate of breast cancer diagnosis. Even after controlling for other risk factors, the reduction remained at 29 percent.

Where tumors did occur in the women who took the drugs, the tumors were more estrogen-receptor positive and differentiated. These factors are associated with better response to treatment and better prognoses.

Breast cancer ribbon

The study found that protection from the drug was most pronounced after taking it for a year. Less than a year offered little or no protective benefit and after more than a year, the benefit did not increase.

Over 30 million patients are prescribed bisphosphonates for the reduction of osteoporosis.

So there you have it. If you take bisphosphonates you may increase the risk of developing esophageal cancer, and your risk of developing breast cancer may increase if you don’t.

An 8 to 12 year study has determined that women with non-Hodgekins

lymphoma who drink wine on a regular basis are less likely to suffer a relapse or death.

Xuesong Han, a doctoral candidate in cancer epidemiology

Wine helps against Non-Hodgekins Lymphoma

at the Yale School of Public Health, led the study which analyzed 546 women with non-Hodgekins lymphoma. The results were presented at the 100th annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research.

The longer a woman drank, the lower her chances of a relapse or death. Those who drank for at least 25 years prior to diagnosis were 26 percent less likely to relapse or to develop secondary cancers and 33 percent less likely to die than those who did not drink wine.

76 percent of women who drank at least 12 glasses of wine over their lifetime were alive five years after diagnosis versus 68 percent of those who drank none.

The best outcomes were found among patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. These women had a 40 to 50 percent reduced risk of death which rose to 60 percent if they had drunk wine the previous 25 years.

Other alcoholic beverages such as beer or liquor had no effect on lymphoma risk, relapse, or secondary cancer.

More and more evidence suggests wine contains chemicals that promote good health.

Two separate studies indicate that coffee and tea may reduce the chance of developing endometrial cancer.  Better known as uterine cancer, it is the fourth most common cancer in women.

One study led by Susan E. McCann of the Roswell Park Cancer Center Institute in Buffalo, New York surveyed 1100 women.  In this study it was found that the chance of developing uterine cancer was

-50% less with 4 cups of coffee and tea a day
-44% less with 2 cups of tea a day
-29% less with 2 cups of coffee a day
-no different with decaffeinated coffee

In the other study, done by Japan’s National Cancer Center, 53,724 women aged 40 to 69 were divided into 4 groups by the amount of coffee consumed.

In the Japanese study it was found that those women who consumed at least 3 cups of coffee a day were 60% less likely to develop endometrial cancer than those who drank coffee less than twice a week.  Green tea was observed to have no effect.

The exact mechanism by which coffee and tea reduce the odds of developing cancer are not known, but both are known to contain flavonoids, catechins, and isoflavenoids.  These substances may reduce the levels of insulin and estrogen in the body.  Increased levels of estrogen appear to play a role in the development of endometrial cancer.

Additionally, caffeine induces enzymes that work to neutralize potential cancer causing substances.

If you are a woman concerned about developing uterine cancer and love your coffee and tea, drink up!

A group of researchers, led by W. Elaine Hardman, PhD – Associate Professor of Biochemistry at Marshall University School of Medicine, has concluded that eating walnuts may reduce the development of breast cancer tumors.

Laboratory mice were programmed to develop tumors within six months. Divided into two groups, one group was given an ounce of walnuts (about a handful) twice daily, the other group none.

The mice eating walnuts developed tumors three weeks later than those without. This would equal a 9 month delay of incidence in humans. Additionally, the tumors in those mice fed walnuts grew 50% more slowly than those not fed the nuts. The tumors were also smaller and fewer in number.

Molecular analysis showed the omega-3 fatty acids found in walnuts to have an effect. Perhaps more importantly, phytosterols in the nuts bind to estrogen receptors. These receptors are known to fuel tumors. Binding them prevent this. Lastly, walnuts are high in antioxidants which may have additional cancer fighting effects.

The results were presented at the 100th annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR).

Beyond the breast cancer study, additional research is being done for the effect of walnuts on prostate cancer.

Choline, a nutrient found in eggs, can help prevent breast cancer.  Consumed by pregnant women, indications are it can lower the risk of breast cancer in an unborn daughter.

Researchers from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, in a study of 3000 adult women found that the risk of developing breast cancer was 24 percent lower among the women who had the highest intake of choline, 455 milligrams per day average, as opposed to those with the lowest intake, 196 milligrams per day average.

The Institute of Medicine states daily intake of choline for men and breast-feeding women should be 550 milligrams.  For women it should be 450 milligrams per day and for pregnant women, 450 milligrams.

Most of the choline consumed by women in the study came from coffee, eggs, and skim milk.

While choline is required for the normal functioning of cells in all individuals, evidence points to it being even more important for women of child bearing age.

Biologists at Boston University, in a study involving pregnant female rats, found increased choline intake by the mothers led to very slow growing tumors in their daughter’s chemically induced breast cancer.  Those mothers who had reduced choline produced daughters whose tumors grew much more aggressively.

The rats with slow growing tumors had genetic patterns that would indicate a positive prognosis in humans.

Results of both studies were published in The Journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology.

Findings of an 11 year study suggest that a sedentary lifestyle can be a risk factor for breast cancer.

Vigorous activities including running, competitive tennis, bicycling, and even fast dancing can reduce a woman’s chances of developing breast cancer by about 30%.

Dr. Michael Leitzmann, while at the National Cancer Institute, led the study of over 30,000 post menopausal women, looking at the mechanisms by which energy imbalance affects cancer risk.

Questionnaires were used to keep track of the women’s activities and all women were healthy at the start of the study.

Dr. Leitzmann, now at Germany’s University Hospital in Regensburg, suggested that, as other studies have shown, vigorous exercise reduces estrogen levels and protects the body’s immune system.

According to the results of the study, light exercise, such as light housework, walking and hiking offered no protection against the disease.  The exercise had to be vigorous.

The reduced risk of cancer was 13% for women who exercised, without regard to body weight.  When considering only women who were lean or average weight, they were 30% less likely to develop the disease.

It has been known for quite some time that a high fiber diet reduces the likelihood of developing cancer of the gastrointestinal tract.  New studies indicate that fragments of pectin, a water soluble fiber found in fruits and vegetables used widely in food processing, have an anti-cancer effect.

A team led by Professor Vic Morris at the Institute of Food Research in Norwich, Britain took pectin, a carbohydrate, and broke it down by heat into small non-branched chains of simple sugar known as modified citrus pectin.

One of these fragments has been shown to induce apoptosis (cell death) in multiple Myeloma cells which were resistant to other treatments.  It does this by binding to and inhibiting galectin 3, a protein known to play a role in all stages of cancer progression.

By binding to receptors on cancer cells, some fragments prevent the cells from penetrating nearby healthy tissue, causing the cancer cells to circulate in the blood stream until they die.  This inhibits the spread of the disease.  Tests were performed on rats injected with melanoma and human prostate cancer cells.

It is not known, but suspected by studies, that unmodified pectin found naturally in unprocessed fruits and vegetables can fight cancer.  Natural sources of pectin include citrus fruits, blackcurrants, apples, plums, carrots, and potatoes.  Most processed pectin comes from citrus peels and apple pulp.

Wei-Zen Wei, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Immunology and Microbiology at Wayne State University has been searching to find a non-toxic breast cancer vaccine.  She may have succeeded.

The new vaccine would bolster a patients immune system to the point where their own body can kill the cancer cells, even in tumors resistant to current therapies.

According to Wei the vaccine could eliminate the need for other therapies.

Aggressive HER2 positive tumors, which were the focus of the study, constitute about 25% of all breast cancer occurrences.

HER2 receptors are found in low numbers on normal breast cells.  Their function is to regulate normal cell growth.  HER2 positive breast cells have many more receptors than usual, promoting growth of the tumors.

The vaccine was tested on mice, but is expected to be effective on humans.  It is the second such vaccine developed by Wei.  The first is currently in clinical trials on humans.  The vaccines may be useful in prevention as well as treatment of HR2 breast cancer and other types of solid tumors.