Battling Cancer

 Diet plays and important role in the development of breast cancer, especially among Caucasian women. It estimated that food and drinks contribute to about 50% of all newly diagnosed breast cancer.

The phytochemical genistein belongs to a class of compounds called isoflavones found in many plants. Genistein is found mainly in the soybean plant from which tofu and other soy products are made. Isoflavones are said to have string antioxidant properties although some studies suggest that genistein has actually the opposite (oxidation) effect.

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You would think these two conditions - gestational hypertension and testicular cancer - can’t have anything to do with each other. After all, they are completely separated by the gender divide (bar in transgenders, of course).

Well, it seems that there is a connection between these two and it started rather early - in the uterus in fact. According to this Swedish study, “women who experience severe gestational hypertension may give birth to boys at lower risk for testicular cancer.”

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This week, cancer experts gathered in National Harbor, Maryland for the Seventh Annual International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research of the American Association for Cancer Research (ACCR). The meeting runs from November 16 to 19.

In this news round up post, I’m featuring presentations on cancer prevention and lifestyle risk factors from the conference. More →

Do you have a history of hepatitis B infection?

Then you should be aware that hepatitis B infection may increase your risk of getting pancreatic cancer. This is based on the new study led by Manal M. Hassan, assistant professor at The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. The study showed that patients with pancreatic cancer are twice as likely to have a past history of hepatitis B compared to those without the disease. Researchers, however, stated that more studies are needed to evaluate the relationship between the two diseases.

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Do you know that your size at birth may actually tell you whether you are susceptible to breast cancer later in life? Yes, new findings showed that birth size, particularly birth length, may be related to risk of breast cancer in adulthood and this information can be used as an indicator for susceptibility to this type of cancer for women.

This is based on the association study led by Isabel dos Santos, a professor of Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. In this study, the researchers reviewed 32 published and unpublished studies, comprising of 22,058 cases of breast cancer among 600,000 women from developed countries. They re-analysed the data to determine the relationship between birth size and risk of breast cancer in adult women. The information on birth size was based on birth records of all participants. The three birth size measures that were examined were birth weight, birth length and head circumference.

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