ZeroCancer.com – fight cancer through knowledge

Cancer news

O's think pink in fight against cancer
Lara Bingle's father Graham lost his battle with cancer and died on Saturday night.
Antidepressant drugs may help the immune system fight serious illness, research suggests. They enhance the activity of natural killer cells, key elements of the immune system, and could help the body combat infections such as HIV, and even cancer
Thousands of cancer beds could be lost as part of an NHS attempt to save money for other treatment.
NILES -- A Niles teen may soon be saying goodbye to her long locks. The 18-year-old plans to shave her head if she raises enough money for childhood cancer research.
NOT a single record exists to explain why the Department of Health and the Health Service Executive (HSE) decided to publish three reports on the cancer-screening crisis on the same day.
KUCHING: Cancer patients, particularly those from the lower income group, who cannot afford high treatment cost, can breathe a sigh of relief now that the Laila Taib Cancer Charitable Trust (LTCCT) has been launched to ease their financial burden.
Over 100,000 people lined up along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia to cheer on approximately 45,000 walkers, racers, and 6,000 cancer survivors who participated in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure.
Many organizations spent Mothers' Day raising awareness about breast cancer.
Kristi Gundersen got an unexpected surprise on her 40th birthday - breast cancer.     The diagnosis was a shock, Gundersen said Saturday, because there was no history of the disease in her family.

High cholesterol linked to prostate cancer risk

LONDON (Reuters) - Men with high cholesterol levels, particularly if they were detected before the age of 50, may have an increased risk of developing prostate cancer, Italian scientists said on Wednesday.

They discovered an association between prostate cancer and raised cholesterol in a study of more than 2,750 men, published online by the journal Annals of Oncology.

“We have found a possible relation between high cholesterol and prostate cancer. It was self-reported by patients,” Dr Francesca Bravi, of the Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri in Milan, said in an interview.

After considering other potential confounding factors, Bravi and her team said men with prostate cancer in the study were around 50 percent more likely to have had high cholesterol levels than men without the disease.

Prostate is one of the most common cancers in men. Each year 543,000 new cases are reported worldwide and the disease kills 200,000 mostly older men in developed countries.

High cholesterol levels had been thought before to be linked to the disease but most of the evidence was in animal studies. The new research shows a statistically significant relationship, according to Bravi and her team.

The scientists said the association was stronger for men whose high cholesterol levels had been diagnosed before they were 50 and for men over 65, where there was an 80 percent greater likelihood of high cholesterol levels.

They also found that prostate cancer patients in the study were 26 percent more likely to have suffered from gallstones, which are often related to high cholesterol levels.

Dr Cristina Bosetti, a co-author of the study, said hormones called androgens that play a role in prostate tissue and cancer are synthesized from cholesterol. Gallstones are also often composed of cholesterol.

“So, the direct relationship we found between gallstones and prostate cancer, while it was not statistically significant, suggests a similar biological mechanism may explain the link,” Bosetti said.

The scientists added that cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins may help to lower a man’s prostate cancer risk. Statins have also been shown to help prevent diabetics and people at high risk of heart disease from suffering a heart attack or stroke.

But Bravi said further studies are needed to determine whether statins could reduce the risk of prostate cancer because current research is limited and inconclusive.

Source: Reuters

Tags:

▼ Show related feed