Ovarian and Endometrial Cancers

Ovarian cancer strikes fewer than half as many women as endometrial cancer, yet ovarian cancer has double the mortality rate.  The symptoms for this cancer tend to be vague at first. As the disease progresses, women may experience discomfort or pressure in their pelvic area, back, abdomen or legs. They may feel fatigued, bloated, nauseated, constipated, and have diarrhea or indigestion. Some women experience breathlessness, vaginal bleeding·even after menopause·and feel they have to urinate frequently.

Endometrial cancer (also known as uterine cancer) develops in the tissue lining the uterus. This disease is a few steps ahead of ovarian cancer in terms of how frequently it is diagnosed, but it tends to be much less deadly. Women with early-stage endometrial cancer may experience unexplained vaginal spotting or bleeding between menstrual periods or after menopause (when they should not experience any bleeding). They may have pain or difficulty during urination, discomfort during sex, or pain in the pelvic region. Individuals with any of these symptoms should see a doctor for proper

gynecological examinations.

Risk factors associated with ovarian and endometrial cancers includes:

Age over 55 years. Diet high in total fat content (in particular animal fat). Because fat stimulates the body's production of estrogen hormone which in turn increases ovulation  thereby increasing cancer risk. Genetic predisposition in familes with mutation in the DNA repair genes known as BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes. Ionizing radiation, obesity and diabetes are associated with increase risk to ovarian and endometiral cancer.

Healthy diet rich in fruits and vegetables and moderate level of excercise (avoidance of sedentary lifestyle) are all associated with reduced risk of this type of cancer.

For detailed information read "Cancer Causes and Controversies- Understanding risk reduction and prevention"

Happy new year!!!!!!

Have a peaceful relaxed 2012.

CALORIE RESTRICTION DIET AND CANCER

Folks, we eat too much and we eat the wrong kind of stuff!!!

Eating slightly less than what one would naturally consume is an old technique for extending life. Scholarly papers often credit Lucretius (ca. 50 b.c.) with being the first to have suggested that rampant eating leads to premature aging and degenerative diseases. The old Roman poet was on the right track. Scientific evidence shows that restricting calories (called calorie restriction), or under-nutrition without malnutrition, significantly decreases the risk for age-related diseases and may even delay death. Researchers found that yeast, worms, flies, mice, and rats that were put on calorie-restricted diets had considerably longer lives than their control counterparts.

When correctly designed, a calorie-restricted diet features essential nutrients and vitamins but carefully controlled total energy consumption. Calorie decreases of about 20 to 30 percent (compared to free-feeding tendencies) can still be seen as a normal, healthy level of food consumption. While the people who benefit the most from calorie restriction may be those who have followed this approach throughout their lives (as opposed to beginning as an adult), adopting this eating approach in adulthood may still prevent obesity and a host of diseases, suppress cancer, and extend lifespan.

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Your immune system and cancer risk

A healthy immune system is essential for a healthy life- and to avoid cancer. Deficient immune systems put people at increased risk for certain types of cancer as well as other diseases. In fact, scientific studies estimate that up to 15 percent of cancer incidence around the world is related to microbial infection. This suggests a firm link between weak immune systems, chronic infection, and cancer. Common examples of this connection between chronic infection and cancer are the human papillomavirus, associated with cervical cancer, and the hepatitis B and C viruses, which are linked with liver cancer.

Therefore the body needs a healthy immune system to fight deadly illnesses such as cancer. Studies show that when cancerous cells evade the immune system, usually they do so by taking over the immune system's defensive inflammatory response mechanism for fighting infection. In a bit of biological irony, cancer uses the
human body's defenses to promote disease development. While not all the mechanisms are understood, studies suggest that a complex combination of factors influence the immune system's efficacy at fighting cancer
and other diseases. These factors include diet, exercise, brain stimulation, and emotions that may affect the immune system via the brain.

Read more in Cancer Causes and Controversies- understanding risk reduction and prevention.  Available through Amazon.com.

CCC- Understanding risk reduction and prevention

Book is available through Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble.

New release at Amazon.com- Cancer Causes & Controversies 7/31/2011

Like no other work, this much-needed volume gathers the latest research and understanding about the causes of cancer and methods of preventing the disease—and makes it all clear and accessible to the general reader.
Cancer Causes and Controversies: Understanding Risk Reduction and Prevention describes common risks factors associated with particular types of cancer, including genetic predisposition, radiation and chemical carcinogens, diet, hormonal factors, infection, and smoking. The book then looks at the scientific evidence supporting the positive role of healthy nutrition, exercise, and diet in lowering cancer risk, as well as the dangers posed by a dysfunctional immune system compromised by chronic infection, unhealthy lifestyles, stress and poor psychological health. Finally, the book provides an unbiased assessment of a number of controversies surrounding cancer causes and prevention, including screening and genetic testing, vitamin supplementations, genetically modified foods, chemical food additives, and cellular phones and deodorants as potential cancer causing agents.

Cancer Causes controversies- Introduction

Contents

Introduction

Part I: Risk Factors for Commonly Diagnosed Cancer Diseases 1

1. Bladder Cancer 3

2. Brain Cancer 9

3. Breast Cancer 19

4. Cervical Cancer 25

5. Colorectal Cancer 31

6. Esophageal Cancer 37

7. Gastric Cancer 45

8. Head and Neck Cancer 49

9. Leukemia and Lymphoma 55

10. Liver Cancer 65

11. Lung Cancer 73

12. Ovarian and Endometrial Cancers 83

13. Pancreatic Cancer 89

14. Prostate Cancer 95

15. Skin Cancer 101

16. Occupation-Associated Cancer 109

Part II: Behaviors and Controversies 113

17. Nutrition and Cancer 115

18. Body Weight and Cancer 127

19. Immune System and Cancer Risk 141

20. Controversies Concerning Cancer Screenings Benefits and Disadvantages

21. Controversies Surrounding Dietary Supplements and Foods for Cancer Prevention

22. Controversies Regarding Commonly Perceived Risk Factors and Cancer

23. Conclusion

Resources

Introduction

Cancer’s mysteries and miseries have been with us for thousands of years. One of the earliest known references to this collection of diseases appears in ancient Egyptian papyri1·medical texts dating from about 1600 b.c. The ancient texts authors describe swellings and ulcerations that fail to heal, much like cancers we know today.

Little was learned about the nature of cancer during the following 1,500 years. But diagnostic procedures had by the year 1775 advanced enough to enable the English physician Dr. Percival Pott, of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital in London, to correlate the development of a specific cancer with prolonged exposure to a workplace toxin. At that time in England, it was common to employ small boys to sweep and clean the insides of chimneys- a treacherous occupation in itself.

In later years, the men who held this job as children experienced a high incidence of scrotal cancer. The doctor discovered that most of his patients with scrotal cancer had worked as chimney sweeps as children and had experienced prolonged exposure to the irritating effects of the soot. This was the first recognized and recorded instance of an occupational cancer due to environmental influences.

But it wasn’t until the early 20th century that science began to make great strides in understanding the causes of cancer.2 This includes the first epidemiological study that linked sunlight to skin cancer in 1907.2 In 1916 researchers learned that removing the ovaries from a strain of female mice with a high incidence of spontaneous breast cancer decreased the rodents’ risk of breast tumors. Later work showed that transplanting ovaries into male mice induced mammary tumors, supporting the theory that hormones in the ovaries could promote breast tumors.

In 1928 scientists identified cervical cancer cells in smears of exfoliated vaginal cells. This discovery led to the development of the Pap smear in 1960, now widely accepted as an effective method of preventing and screening for cervical cancer. Since then, other screening methods for the early detection of various cancers have become routine, such as colonoscopy for colorectal cancer and mammography for breast cancer. U.S. researcher Dr. Charles B. Huggins made a significant discovery in 1941 when he demonstrated that prostate cancer is hormone dependent. His research showed that physically castrating dogs that had metastatic prostate cancer reduced their disease burden, while injecting male hormones into dogs increased prostate cancer metastasis. Perhaps the single most important discovery was the identification of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) in 1944 as hereditary material. This opened up a whole new realm of science, leading researchers to determine that most carcinogens, agents that cause cancer, do so by damaging DNA or creating DNA mutations.

Since the 1970s, the United States and other parts of the world have taken an aggressive stance against cancer in medical laboratories. This has led to the development of therapeutic treatments such as the antiestrogen drug tamoxifen in 1977. Still used today to treat some types of breast cancer, more than 500,000 people have survived the disease because of this drug. However, the wider use of tamoxifen has been hampered by side effects. In another example, researchers linked prostate cancer with levels of prostate specific antigen (PSA), leading to the creation of the first routine protein biomarker test used in cancer screening and prevention in 1980. Nowadays, several tests screen for the early detection of cancer ·a key to successfully treating the disease.

Scientists soon learned that certain bacterial or viral infections could cause cancer. Researchers identified the bacterium Helicobacter pylori as a causative agent for stomach ulcer in 1982; it is now known that chronic inflammation caused by this bacterium is a major risk factor for stomach cancer. The human papillomavirus was found to be the causative agent of cervical cancer in 1983. Scientists followed up in 2004 by designing vaccines against the most common tumor-producing (oncogenic) human papillomavirus types, HPV16 and HPV18. It’s thought the vaccine could prevent up to 70 percent of cervical cancer cases worldwide. The completion of the Human Genome Project in 2000 means a great deal to cancer research. As every nucleotide of the human genome has been sequenced and mapped, the way is clear for scientists to learn how cancer cells are different from normal cells. This undoubtedly will lead to understanding individual variations at the DNA level, and it may help explain differences in disease susceptibility. Ultimately, more powerful and specific pharmaceutical drugs could be designed///////////////////////////////

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