Archive for the ‘research’ Category
Friday, December 23rd, 2011
In a new study published in the journal Nanomedicine researchers showed that a new device distinguishes between volatile organic compounds in the exhaled breath of cancer patients from those of a control group without cancer. Subjects exhaled into a bag that separated superficial exhaled breath from that originated deeper in the lungs and then analyzed the deeper breath using an array of gold nanoparticle sensors.
The metabolism of lung cancer patients is different from the metabolism of those without cancer and consequently, the molecules making up the expired air are also different. Using gold nanoparticles to trap and define molecules in exhaled air the new device can tell if the lung is cancerous, and whether it is small cell or non-small cell, adenocarcinoma or squamous cell carcinoma.
The researchers say the device could be used to diagnose lung cancer and also to look at differences over time to determine if a treatment is effective. The device would also reduce cost of diagnoses and increase the efficacy of diagnosis because, for example, one previous study of 53,000 subjects found that using low-dose chest CT scans to detect lung cancer gave a near 95 percent false positive. Thus, the new device has hope for better diagnosing of lung cancer.
Tags: device, expired air, gold nanoparticles, lung cancer, research
Posted in Cancer, lung cancer, research | No Comments »
Wednesday, December 21st, 2011
In a recent study published in Cancer Causes Control researchers concluded that women with non-melanoma skin cancers were more likely to have smoked cigarettes than women without skin cancer. In the study researchers evaluated the relationship between cigarette smoking and non-melanoma skin cancers including basal cell carcinoma (BCC) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). Smoking histories were compared between subjects diagnosed with BCC and/or SCC and controls who were screened for skin cancer but were not diagnosed nor had a history of skin cancer.
There were 689 subjects (383 with skin cancer and 315 controls and 355 men and 343 women and all were white) in the study and questions were asked about years of smoking, how many cigarettes daily, and when those who once smoked had quit as part of the assessment. Results were stratified by sex and showed that smoking was associated with non-melanoma skin cancer overall, and that the risk increased by number of cigarettes daily, total years of smoking and pack-year smoked. Associations were especially strong for SCC in women which was more than two times as likely in those who had smoked for 20 or more years compared to the controls.
Among men there were positive associations between smoking and BCC and SCC but none were statistically significant. “However, among women, smoking was not associated with BCC, while highly statistically significant associations were observed for SCC. Women with SCC were almost two times more likely to have smoked 20 years or more. Men who had BCC were significantly more likely to have smoked for at least 20 years than men without cancer. A;though the study did find an association between smoking and skin cancer it did not prove a cause and effect. More research is needed.
Tags: research, skin cancer, smoking
Posted in Cancer, research | No Comments »
Friday, December 16th, 2011
A recent research study published in the Journal of The American Dietetic Association concluded that the effects of consuming fruit and vegetables seem to differ depending on the site of origin. Within the proximal and distal colon and that brassica vegetables such as Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, and broccoli are associated with a decreased risk of these cancer. However, a lower risk of distal colon cancer was associated with eating more apples, and at the same time an increase of rectal cancer was found to occur with the consumption of fruit juices. The researchers acknowledged the earlier research on diet and colorectal cancer research that was contradictory and believe these results were related to not considering the site of the colorectaL cancer. In a case controlled study, the researchers explored the link between fruit and vegetables and cancers in three different parts of the bowel: proximal colon cancer, distal colon cancer, and rectal cancer. There were 918 subjects with a confirmed colorectal diagnosis and 1021 controls with no history of colorectal cancer. Extensive medical and nutritional questionaires were completed and all participants were assigned a socioecomic status depending upon their address.
Results showed that the consumption of brassica vegetables were associated with a reduced incidence of proximal colon cancer, and both fruit and vegetables seemed to reduce the risk of distal colon cancer. Distal colon cancer risk was significantly reduced with the intake of dark yellow vegetables and apples, but there was an increase risk of rectal cancer associated with the consumption of fruit juice. There was no risk of proximal colon cancer or rectal cancer associated with intakes of total fruit and vegetables. total vegetables or total fruit.
Tags: colorectal cancer, distal colon, fruit, proximal colon, rectal, research, vegetables
Posted in Cancer, research | No Comments »
Wednesday, December 14th, 2011
A new study published online in the journal PLoS Medicine concluded that women who work an irregular shift schedule including three or more night shifts a month in addition to days and evenings in the same month may have an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes when compared to women who work only days or evenings.
Researchers analyzed data on move than 69,260 U.S. women ages 42 to 67, tracked between 1988 and 2008 and another 107,915 women ages 25 to 42 tracked between 1989 and 2007. The study subjects were part of the Nurses Health Study Part I and Part II respectively. Around 60% of the nurses performed more than one year of irregular shifts at the baseline. About 11% of the nurses in Study I had more than 10 years of irregular night shifts and in study II about 4% worked more than 10 years of the irregular night shift. Researchers found that the longer women worked on irregular night shifts the higher their probability of type 2 diabetes. Thus, those working 3 to 9 years had a 20% increased risk; those working 10 to 19 years had a 40% risk, and those working irregular shifts over 20 years had 68% risk for type 2 diabetes. When their data was adjusted for body weight the increased risk continued but at a lower risk level. The author said the increased risk seen was partly a result of increased weight. However, The awareness of the relationship of increased risk for diabetes among irregular night shift workers shows the importance of lifestyle and diet changes. The researchers also noted that these findings need to be confirmed in men and ethnic groups.
Tags: diabetes, irregular night shift, research
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Friday, December 9th, 2011
A recent study published in Cancer Epidemiology: Bio markers & Prevention concluded that long-term consumption of coffee may be associated with a reduced risk for endometrial cancer in women. The sample included 67,470 women enrolled in the Nurses Health Study who were followed for 25 years. During that time there were 672 cases of endometrial cancer in the sample and the results showed that drinking more than four cups of coffee daily was associated with a 25 percent reduced risk for endometrial cancer and drinking between 2 and 3 cups daily was associated with a 7 percent reduction. A similar association was found for decaffeinated coffee in which drinking more than 2 cups daily was associated with a 22 percent reduction for endometrial cancer. The author encouraged additional research.
Tags: coffee consumption, endometrial cancer, research
Posted in Cancer, research | No Comments »
Wednesday, December 7th, 2011
A new study published in the online edition of the British Journal of Cancer concluded that elevated blood sugar levels are associated with an increase risk of colorectal cancer. Women in the National Institute of Health’s Women’s Health Initiative Study were evaluated for fasting blood sugar and insulin levels before the study as a baseline and several times thereafter over a 12 year period. There were 5,000 women in the study and at the end of the 12 years 81 had developed colorectal cancer. Researchers found that baseline elevated blood sugar levels were associated with an increase colorectal cancer risk. Women in the highest 1/3 of baseline blood sugar levels were almost twice as likely to have developed colorectal cancere as the women at the lowest 1/3 levels. Similar results were found when researchers evaluated repeated blood sugar levels over the time period. There was no association between insulin levels and colorectal risk in the study.
Tags: blood sugar levels, colorectal cancer, insulin, research, women
Posted in Cancer, research | No Comments »
Friday, December 2nd, 2011
New research published online in Cancer presented results
answering questions of breast cancer patients about what their daughters might do to reduce their risk of breast cancer. They found that among adolescent girls with a family history of breast cancer (or maternal benign breast disease-a known risk factor for breast cancer) there was a significant association between the amount of alcohol consumed and increased risk of benign breast disease as young women.
Information from the Growing Up Today Study (GUTS) including females age 9 to 15 years in 1966 and who completed annual questionnaires from 1966 to 2001 and again in 2003, 2005, and 2007 were analyzed. In the final two surveys, participants between the ages of 18 and 27 at the time reported whether or not they had ever been diagnosed with benign breast disease. There were 67 who had this diagnoses as confirmed by breast biopsies and another 6,741 reported they had not had this diagnoses. In addition, breast cancer and benign breast cancer disease diagnoses were obtained from mothers, and maternal aunts and grandmothers.
Young women whose mothers or aunts had breast cancer were over 2 times as likely to have a diagnosis of benign breast disease as compared to the women in the control group (without family history). In addition, among adolescent girls who had mothers, aunts, or grandmothers with breast cancer , the more alcohol the girls consumed the more likely they were to develop benign breast disease. The authors said these results were consistent with results found for older women and alcohol use and concluded ” Our study suggests that adolescent females already at higher risk for breast cancer, in light of their family history, should be aware that avoiding alcohol may reduce their risk for benign breast disease as young women, which might be accompanied by reduced breast cancer risk later in life.”
Tags: adolescents, alcohol, benign breast disease, breat cancer, family history
Posted in breast cancer, research | No Comments »
Wednesday, November 30th, 2011
A new tool, the diabetes dashboard, “is so intuitive that it makes it hard for physicians not to do the right thing” according to the research study published in the Annals of Family Medicine. The dashboard provides information about the patient’s vital signs, health condition, medications, and laboratory tests that may need to be done. Physicians using the dash board were correctly able to identify data they were searching for 100% of the time in the study. However, those using traditional electronic records only identified data 94% of the time. In addition, the number of mouse clicks needed to find the data was reduced from 60 to 3 when using the dashboard. Thus, the researchers believe the dashboard will improve patient safety and reduce the cost of service. Using an example, researchers say that the dashboard shows the doctor a list of tests that are standard for diabetic care and indicate whether or not the patient has had these recently and if they should have them. This eliminates the potential for doctors to order unnecessary and costly tests.
Tags: dashboard, diabetes, efficacy, electronic records, research
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Friday, November 25th, 2011
A new study published in the journal Molecular Carcinogenesis concluded that silibinin, a major component of milk thistle, stopped the spread of lung cancer in mice lung cancer cells.
The researchers explained how it works as follows. In a cell there may be a chair of signals, one leading to the next, to the next and eventually to an end product. It is possible to eliminate the end product by breaking a signaling chain in the above process. The end product is COX2 and iNOS and are enzymes involved the inflammatory response to perceived wounds and both can aid tumor growth. Further back in the signaling process leading to these unwanted enzymes are STAT1 and STAT3 that allow the blueprint of DNA to bind with proteins that continue the signaling cascade leading eventually to the production of COX2 and iNOS and the growth of lung tumors. By intervening to stop STAT1 and STAT3 you interfere with the chain and the end result of COX2 and iNOS and the development of lung tumors. The researchers found that silibinin, a derivative of milk thistle, was able to do this. Compared to the multi-million dollar drugs that interfere with these and other parts of the chain, the naturally occuring silibinin blocked the expression of COX2 and iNOS and also the migration of existing lung cancer cells. The researchers stated “What we show is that STAT1 and STAT3 may be promising therapeutic targets in the treatment of lung cancer , no matter how you target them. And also that naturally derived products like silibinin may be as effective as today’s best treatments.”
Tags: lung cancer, milk thistle, research, silibinin
Posted in Cancer, lung cancer, research | No Comments »
Wednesday, November 23rd, 2011
A new study published in Nutricion Hospitalaria journal carried out in a Spanish population concluded that eating lots of cured meats is associated with greater weight gain and a higher obesity rate, whereas the consumption of fish is linked to a lower glucose concentration and a smaller risk of developing diabetes. The study was conducted in the Vanemcian community of 945 people consisting of 340 men and 605 women between age 55 and 80 with a high cardiovascular risk. Understanding the correlation between the Mediterranean diet and its association with cardiovascular risk factors and the dietary patterns regarding meat and fish consumption were the goals of the study Researchers found that consuming red meat by the study population occurred on average of once a day and that is high compared to dietary recommendations. It is believed this pattern may be related to weight-loss diets that recommend eating grilled veal. Eating excessive amounts of red meat is associated with higher cardiovascular risk, higher blood pressure, diabetes and a moderate decrease in life expectancy mainly die to cancer and heart disease. On the other hand, eating fish has a health benefit for the heart.
Although this was a cross sectional study that not determine a causal effect, the researchers confirm that similar studies show that the consumption of fish is associated with a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes. There were gender differences in that men more frequently ate a high intake of red and cured meat whereas women ate more white meat, especially chicken, and turkey. However, there were no significant differences in intake of fish between the two groups but women did tend to score higher on healthy diets than men.
Tags: cardiovascular risk, diabetes, fish, healthy diet, meat, research
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