Cancer Blog

Drinking beer or liquor on a regular basis may increase the risk of several different cancers in men, reports Reuters.

Research published in Cancer Prevention and Detection analyzed the cancer risk of 3,600 Canadian men ages 35 to 70. Findings suggest the men who averaged at least one drink per day had higher risks for a variety of cancers than men who drank occasionally or not at all.

Specifically, beer and liquor consumption - not wine - heightened overall risks for being diagnosed with cancer of the esophagus, stomach, colon, lungs, pancreas, liver and prostate.

Cancer risks only increased based on each man's lifetime alcohol consumption, according to the study.

The World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) warns that parents should choose poultry, fish, low-fat cheeses and hummus over processed meats such as salami and ham in their children's lunch boxes, reports the Guardian UK. Not doing so could increase a child's risk of developing poor eating habits that could lead to a cancer diagnosis.

WCRF specifically states that if Britain residents were to eat no more than 70g of processed meats -- the equivalent of three servings of bacon -- a week, about 3,700 fewer people per year would receive a bowel cancer diagnosis in the country.

Scientific evidence that suggested processed meat consumption increased bowel cancer risk in adults led the WCRF to suggest that children should also avoid it.

New research suggests obesity in early adulthood increases pancreatic cancer risk, while overweight patients of an older age with this difficult disease have lower survival rates, reports Reuters.

Being obese or overweight at young age had a "stronger association with pancreatic cancer risk than did subsequent weight gain at an older age," M.D. Anderson Cancer Center Researchers, Houston told Reuters Health. Another major study finding, reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association for June 24, was people obese or overweight between the ages of 20 to 49 years had an earlier onset of pancreatic cancer by 2 to 6 years. Overall, the risk for overweight people began to level off at age 40 and became statistically irrelevant after age 50.

Obesity at an older age was, however, connected to reduced survival rates from pancreatic cancer. Specifically, a person with normal body weight a year before pancreatic diagnosis had an average survival of 18 months, while overweight and obese patients saw reduced survival times that averaged around 13 months.

Researchers analyzed 841 patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma and a control group of 754 healthy people without cancer who matched the age, race and gender of the cancer patients.

Researchers have discovered walnuts reduce breast cancer risk in mice, reports Reuters.

Investigators from Marshall University School of Medicine in Huntington, West Virginia, found that feeding mice a human equivalent of a handful of walnuts per day significantly reduced breast cancer risk in mice bred to develop the disease. Reuters reported on the study from a summary presented at the American Association for Cancer Research's annual meeting in Denver.

Omega-3 fatty acids, antioxidants and phytosterols are all walnut ingredients that have individually impeded cancer growth, according to researchers.

Researchers found the mice that ate walnuts had fewer and smaller breast tumors.  In addition, the walnut-eating mice that did develop breast cancer did so later than other mice studied.

Discuss walnuts and other foods with cancer patients, survivors and caregivers interested in the benefits of a healthy diet. Visit the Cancer Nutrition Message Board.

Researchers at Columbia University found vitamin D deficiency was a prevalent factor among women with breast cancer.

Investigators conducted the study, which was published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, because vitamin D deficiency is a known risk factor for increased breast cancer risk and decreased survival rates from the disease. Study authors noted the purpose of their research was to determine the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in premenopausal women at the beginning of adjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer compared to vitamin D supplementation after one year.

Study participants included 103 premenopausal women in breast cancer stages I, II and III who received adjuvant chemotherapy and participated in a one-year zoledronate intervention trial. All patients were prescribed 400 IU of vitamin D3 and 1,000 mg of calcium carbonate daily. Bone mineral density measurements and blood tests were taken at the baseline of months 6 and 12.  Vitamin D deficiency was defined when blood tests revealed serum 25-OHD less than 20 ng/mL.

Researchers found 74% of women were vitamin D deficient; it was slightly less common in white women (66%) as compared with black (80%) and Hispanic (84%) women. After one year of vitamin D supplementation, less than 15% of white and Hispanic women, and no black women had sufficient levels of vitamin D.

Study authors concluded the current dietary recommendations for vitamin D are too low and that optimal dosing has yet to be determined.

Discover what breast cancer patients are saying about vitamin D on our Breast Cancer Discussion Board and the Supplements Discussion Board.

The executive chef at the Tulsa Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA) was recently featured in an article in The Organic Food Examiner for his commitment to preparing foods for healing.

Chef Kenny Wagoner is a part of CTCA's integrated care model, which incorporates state-of-the-art medical treatments with scientifically-supported complementary therapies such as nutrition.  Wagoner discusses how his mother's struggle with cancer has motivated him to prepare healthy dishes cancer patients will enjoy.

You read more about Kenny Wagoner in the full article, or learn how to make his chicken with pineapple.

Discuss this recipe and others at the Cancer Compass Recipe Discussion Board.

CTCA is a Cancer Compass Sponsor.

New findings recently published in The British Medical Journal suggest that drinking hot tea may increase a person's risk of throat cancer.

Researchers analyzed the tea drinking habits of northern Iranians in the Golestan province, where there is a high rate of oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma. Almost all study participants (98%) consumed over one liter of black tea per day. Of those participants, 39% drank their tea at temperatures less than 60 degrees Celsius (140 degrees Fahrenheit), 38.9% at 60-64 degrees Celsius (140-147.2 degrees Fahrenheit) and 22% at 65 degrees Celsius (149 degrees Fahrenheit) or higher.

Researchers concluded that participants who drank their teas at the hottest temperatures were at highest risk of throat cancer.  Also, participants who drank tea less than two minutes after being poured were more at risk than those who waited four or five minutes before drinking their tea.

According to an article by Reuters it's not exactly clear how hot tea might cause throat cancer, but researchers told Reuters repeated thermal injury could be a possibility.

U.S. News and World Report also stated that a diet lacking in fruits and vegetables, socioeconomic status and poor oral health habits were also contributing factors for throat cancer.

Learn what researchers are discovering about dietary changes for cancer prevention. Read other blog posts about green tea and mushrooms helping prevent breast cancer or a new study launched to learn about the relationship between caffeine and Leukemia.

Discuss these findings and your own personal experiences with preventing cancer through diet, nutrition and other methods by posting comments at the Cancer Compass Cancer Prevention Message Board.

New research published in the International Journal of Cancer is taking a closer look at what effects green tea and mushrooms have on reducing breast cancer risk.

Australian and Chinese researchers found Chinese women who ate mushrooms, both dried and fresh, lowered their risk of breast cancer. These women further reduced their risk when green tea was added to their daily diet.

Reuters Health reported that despite a noticeable increase in breast cancer among the most affluent parts of China, overall the country experiences four-to five-times lower risk for this disease than most developed countries.

Findings suggest that traditional Chinese diets that include large amounts of mushrooms and green tea probably account for the overall reduced breast cancer occurrences.

There are many potential causes and risks factors for developing breast cancer, though some women have the disease without these factors playing a role. Learn more about breast cancer risk factors.

Soy food can reduce the risk of colorectal cancer in women, according to a study published in this month's edition of The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Researchers from the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine investigated the relationship between soy food intake and colorectal cancer in 68,412 women aged 40 - 80 who were currently cancer and diabetes free.

Exams establishing a baseline for research were conducted between 1997 and 2000. Researchers then conducted their first follow up with the women between 2000 and 2002 through a food-frequency questionnaire. Researchers discovered 321 women were diagnosed with colorectal cancer during the mean follow up, 6.4 years later.

Study authors noted that consuming foods containing soy may reduce the risk of colorectal cancer in postmenopausal women.  Specifically the study reports "each 5-g/d increment in intake of soy foods as assessed by dry weight (equivalent to approximately 1 oz (28.35 g) tofu/d) was associated with an 8% reduction in risk."

The intake of soy protein and isoflavones also suggested the same results.

Japanese researchers have found foods high in soy protein reduce the risk of estrogen receptor cancers, according to results published recently in the International Journal of Cancer.

Researchers at the Aichi Cancer Center Research Institute in Nagoya say soy consumption reduced the risk of estrogen receptor (ER)-positive and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-negative tumors.

During the case-control study, researchers observed 678 cancer cases and 3,390 controls matched by age and menopausal status with no history of cancer. According to the study a "significantly reduced risk" of breast cancer was found among women with the highest soy intake who were ER-positive, HER2-negative or both.

Overall, the study's findings concluded soybean products have potential benefit in preventing some breast cancers.