A bin for my favorite articles
cancer
Lack of oxygen. The Real Cause of Cancer — And the Only Way to Stop It
Jun 17th
By Dr. Robert Rowan, MD
Did you know that if you contract stage-4 cancer, conventional medicine has absolutely nothing that can cure you? Some time ago, the Congressional Record stated that no one has ever been cured at this late stage with chemo, radiation, surgery, or any combination of these.
What’s worse, though, is that the government knows this is true and still gives orthodox medicine a government-granted monopoly on cancer treatment.
Fortunately, there are mavericks that risk their livelihood to offer treatments that can beat cancer at any stage. While some of them end up in prison or in poverty, there are others who fly below the government’s radar and make a huge difference in the way we fight cancer.
One such man was Otto Warburg, one of my greatest medical heroes. What he discovered about cancer more than half a century ago won him the Nobel Prize. But more importantly, it may spare your life.
Dr. Warburg was a brilliant German scientist who found the common denominator of all cancers. It’s a very simple thread that connects every cancer — and exposes cancer’s weakness. His meticulous research won him the Nobel Prize in 1931. And subsequent groundbreaking work earned him a second Nobel Prize offer in 1944. Unfortunately, the Nazis wouldn’t let him receive it.
Warburg studied cancer in real time. That means he studied cells as they transformed from normal to cancer as it was happening. His incredible paper was called “The Metabolism of Carcinoma Cells.” It was published in America in the Journal of Cancer Research in 1925.
The connection he discovered was a common metabolic link in all cancers. And it was not pesticides, preservatives, radiation, chemicals, poisons, or any other carcinogen. Wait a minute! Weren’t we taught to believe that carcinogens damage DNA and cause cancer by genetic injury? It’s true all of these are factors. But they all lead to only one simple bottom line — they all prevent your cells from getting or using oxygen.
Warburg’s story is all about oxygen. You know that I, too, love to use oxygen to treat disease. It’s the stuff of life. Consume more oxygen and live longer. Consume less and your life will be shortened with more chronic degeneration. Just what kind of degeneration? Not just circulatory diseases and infections, but cancer!
Most doctors think that less oxygen simply means a heart attack or stroke. But Warburg proved it also can mean cancer. Here’s why: You know that your cells need to make energy. They do that by burning sugars and fats with oxygen. It’s sort of like the combustion engine, which burns gasoline and oxygen in your car’s engine. Deprive your car’s engine of gasoline or oxygen, and it will stop running. Warburg found that malignant tumors always have a degree of oxygen deprivation.
He also found that cancerous tumors produced far more lactic acid than benign tumors. Lactic acid is what cells produce when they burn sugar without enough oxygen. It’s also what yeast produces when it ferments. Warburg argued that, malignant cancer cells are essentially cells that are fermenting. As the degree of fermentation increases, so does the degree of malignancy.
So the next question is, “Why don’t you get cancer in your brain or heart when a clot forms cutting off the blood supply?” That kind of oxygen deficit will cause instant cell death — a heart attack or stroke.
Warburg found in order for cancer to develop, damaged cells must survive long enough for fermentation to start. Total oxygen deprivation definitely means cell death and no subsequent degeneration to cancer. So there’s a mysterious delay between a partial insult and the development of cancer. The length of this delay is different in different animals. In man, it can take several decades. Or it can happen much quicker.
Warburg emphasized that you can’t make a cell ferment unless a LACK OF OXYGEN is involved. In 1955, two American scientists, R.A. Malmgren and C.C. Flanigan, confirmed Warburg’s findings. They found that oxygen deficiency is ALWAYS present when cancer develops.
Now here’s the real kicker. Warburg found that you can reverse fermentation simply by adding oxygen – but only if you do it early enough. He incubated cells in nitrogen, starving them of oxygen for regular but short periods. Starving the cells of oxygen caused them to begin fermentation. Restoring oxygen promptly enabled the cells to recover. But the longer they were oxygen starved, the slower and less certain the recovery. With enough oxygen starvation, cells don’t recover. Once they reach a certain point, no amount of oxygen will return them to normal.
So all of this begs the question, “Why do cells lose oxygen in the first place?” I mentioned earlier that poisons, preservatives, radiation, or other carcinogens all affect a cell’s ability to use oxygen. But there’s something far more common that has the same impact — glucose.
Warburg said that glucose brings a cell’s ability to use oxygen to a standstill. So if you flood your cells with glucose, your cells won’t get the oxygen they need to function correctly. That will begin fermentation, which leads to cancer. This is why I repeatedly call for you to avoid all refined foods. That’s the best way to stop the flood of glucose into your cells.
Now you know the underlying cause of cancer. The next question to consider is what we can do to enhance oxygen delivery. Well, one method is exercise with oxygen therapy (EWOT or multi-step therapy), which I’ve told you about in the past.
But what about your diet? Warburg did a lot of work on vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients. He found that they help cells use oxygen more efficiently. Today, we know that vitamins and minerals are absolute requirements for your enzymes to work. When you’re deficient in nutrients, it impairs your cell’s ability to use oxygen and produce energy. I prefer you get most of your nutrients from your food. But supplements will also help.
Ref: Cancer Research, vol. 15(7).
Cancer patient recovers after injection of immune cells
Mar 16th
A cancer patient has made a full recovery after being injected with billions of his own immune cells in the first case of its kind, doctors have disclosed.
The 52-year-old, who was suffering from advanced skin cancer, was free from tumours within eight weeks of undergoing the procedure.
After two years he is still free from the disease which had spread to his lymph nodes and one of his lungs.
Doctors took cells from the man’s own defence system that were found to attack the cancer cells best, cloned them and injected back into his body, in a process known as “immunotherapy”.
Experts said that the case could mark a landmark in the treatment of cancer.
It raises hopes of a possible new way of fighting the disease, which claims 150,000 lives in Britain every year.
Ed Yong, health information manager at Cancer Research UK, said: “It’s very exciting to see a cancer patient being successfully treated using immune cells cloned from his own body. While it’s always good news when anyone with cancer gets the all clear, this treatment will need to be tested in large clinical trials to work out how widely it could be used.”
However, the treatment could prove extremely expensive and scientists say that more research is needed to prove its effectiveness.
Genetically altered white blood cells have been used before to treat cancer patients but this is the first study to show that simply growing vast numbers of the few immune cells in the body to attack a cancer can be safe and effective.
Normally there are too few of the cells in a patient’s body to effectively fight cancer.
Dr Cassian Yee, who led the team at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre in Seattle, said: “For this patient we were successful, but we would need to confirm the effectiveness of therapy in a larger study.”
The work raises hopes that this approach could not only offer a more effective treatment for skin cancer, or melanoma, which kills around 2,000 people in Britain alone, but be applied to other cancers too.
The patient was one of nine with metastatic melanoma, that is skin cancer that has spread, who were being treated in a recently completed clinical trial to test bigger and bigger doses of their own white blood cells.
Larger, more elaborate, trials are now under way.
Almost 9,000 new cases of melanoma, the most serious form of skin cancer, are diagnosed every year in Britain, and nearly 2,000 patients die from the disease.
Prof Peter Johnson, Cancer Research UK’s chief clinician, said: “This is another interesting demonstration of the huge power of the immune system to fight some types of cancer.
“Although the technique is complex and difficult to use for all but a few patients, the principle that someone’s own immune cells can be expanded and made to work in this way is very encouraging for the work that Cancer Research UK and others are carrying out.”
Immunotherapy, in which a patients own immune cells are used to treat cancer, is a growing area of research that aims to develop less-toxic treatments than standard chemotherapy and radiation.
Because cancer occurs when the body’s own cells grow out of control, the immune system only responds weakly.
The ability of the body’s own defences to tackle cancer in this case is all the more remarkable because most deadly feature of the disease is its ability to colonise other parts of the body, when it becomes much more difficult to treat.
A dramatic example of immunotherapy was reported two years ago by one pioneer of the field, Dr Steven Rosenberg of the US National Cancer Institute, who eradicated cancer from two dying men using genetically modified versions of their own cells.
Both Mark Origer and “Thomas M” were suffering from advanced melanoma but the hope is that such methods could be customised to attack other common cancers, notably breast, colon and lung.
Dr Rosenberg told The Daily Telegraph the new work is an “interesting study that helps to confirm the effectiveness of cell transfer immunotherapy for treating cancer patients. We have now treated 93 patients with metastatic melanoma using their own anti-tumour cells with response rates up to 72 per cent. Mark Origer remains disease free now over three years after treatment.”
Hot tea linked with throat cancer
Mar 27th
People who drink their tea piping hot run a higher risk of throat cancer than counterparts who prefer a cooler cuppa, according to an investigation published Friday by the British Medical Journal.
Cancer of the oesophagus is linked especially to smoking and alcohol abuse but hot beverages have also been considered a risk factor, possibly because of damage to throat tissue.
Interested in finding out more, Iranian researchers went to Golestan province, which has one of the highest rates of oesophageal cancer in the world.
Inhabitants there sip large quantities of hot black tea — typically drinking more than a litre (1.8 pints) per day per person — but also have a low incidence of tobacco and alcohol use.
A team led by Reza Malekzadeh of the Digestive Disease Research Centre at Tehran University of Medical Sciences looked at 300 people who had been diagnosed with a throat tumour and a matched group of 571 healthy people who lived in the same area.
Those who drank hot tea (between 65-69 degrees Celsius, 149-156 degrees Fahrenheit) were twice as likely to develop throat cancer compared with those who drank warm or lukewarm tea, whose temperature was 65 C (149 F) or less.
Drinking very hot tea (at least 70 C, 158 F) was associated with an eightfold increased risk compared with warm or lukewarm tea.
In an editorial, The Lancet said the study backed evidence that scorching fluids may cause damage to the throat’s epithelial lining and lead to cancer, although exactly how this happens remains unclear.
But it also said that there was no cause for panic, as most people tend to drink tea at a warm temperature. Previous studies in Britain have reported an average temperature preference of 56-60 C (133-140 F).
It recommended that tea junkies wait at least four minutes before drinking from a freshly boiled cup.
The study said there was no association between the amount of tea that was consumed and the risk of cancer.
Its scope did not include an assessment of risk for coffee and other hot beverages.
Green tea and mushrooms cut breast cancer risk: study
Mar 19th
Chinese women who ate mushrooms and drank green tea significantly cut their risk of breast cancer and the severity of the cancer in those who did develop it, an Australian researcher said Wednesday.
Min Zhang, from the University of Western Australia, studied the diets of 2,018 women from the southeastern Chinese city of Hangzhou — half of whom had breast cancer — between July 2004 and September 2005.
While breast cancer was the most common type of cancer for women worldwide, Min said the rate in China was four to five times lower than that typically found in developed countries.
“We concluded that higher dietary intake of mushrooms decreased breast cancer risk in pre- and post-menopausal Chinese women, and an additional decreased risk of breast cancer from the joint effect of mushrooms and green tea was observed,” Min told AFP.
“The risk of breast cancer significantly declined with the highest intake of dietary mushrooms,” she said, adding that fresh and dried mushrooms were equally effective.
Eating as little as 10 grams, or less than one button mushroom daily, would have a beneficial effect, Min found, with the women who consumed the most fresh mushrooms around two-thirds less likely to develop breast cancer compared with those who did not eat mushrooms.
In addition to lowering the cancer risk, green tea and mushrooms also cut the malignancy of any cancer which did form, Min found.
The fact that the combination of green tea and mushrooms was more effective than just mushrooms alone could partially explain the lower incidence of breast cancer amongst Chinese women, she said.
“To our knowledge, this is the first human study to evaluate the joint effect of mushrooms and green tea on breast cancer,” she said.
“Our findings, if confirmed consistently in other research, have potential implications for protection against breast cancer development using an inexpensive dietary intervention.”
The study was published in the most recent issue of the International Journal of Cancer, and is one in a series of Asian studies by Min and her team on the anti-carcinogenic effects of phytochemicals.
Calcium cuts colon cancer risk: study
Feb 26th
Regular consumption of calcium appears to cut the risk of developing colon cancer or other tumours of the digestive system, a new study said.
“In both men and women, dairy food and calcium intakes were inversely associated with cancers of the digestive system,” the authors of the study in the Archives of Internal Medicine wrote.
Women who consumed the most calcium, some 1,881 milligrammes a day, cut their cancer risk by 23 percent over those who had the lowest calcium intake of around 494 milligrammes a day.
For men, those with the highest intake of calcium some 1,530 milligrammes daily, had a 16 percent smaller risk of developing cancer, the study authors, from the National Cancer Institute in Maryland, said.
Scientist Yikyung Park and his colleagues based their results on data gathered from 293,907 men and 198,903 women, aged between 50 and 71, who participated in the National Institutes of Health-AARP Diet and Health Study.
Participants filled in a food questionnaire when they enrolled in the study between 1995 and 1996, reporting how much and how often they consumed dairy products and other foods.
Over the next seven years of follow-up, some 36,965 cancer cases were identified in men and 16,605 in women.
Their records were then matched against state cancer registries identifying new cases of cancer through 2003.
The study found that there appeared to be no link between increased calcium consumption and a fall in prostate or breast cancers.
“In conclusion, our findings suggest that calcium intake consistent with current recommendations is associated with a lower risk of total cancer in women and cancers of the digestive system, especially colorectal cancer, in both men and women,” the authors write.
Mesothelioma Cancer
Feb 21st
Although reported occurrence rates have increased in the past twenty years, mesothelioma is still a comparatively infrequent form of cancer. The occurrence is approximately one per a million people.
For contrast, populations with high levels of smoking can have a lung cancer occurrence of over a thousand per one million people.
Between 1940 and 1979, approximately twenty eight million people were exposed to asbestos in the United States due to their occupation.
Between 1973 and 1984, there had been a great increase in the diagnosis of pleural mesothelioma in Caucasian males.
From 1980 to the late 1990s, the death rate from mesothelioma in the U. S increased from two thousand per year to about three thousand, with men four times more likely to get it than women. These rates may not be accurate now!
What is mesothelioma?
Mesothelioma is an infrequent form of cancer in which malignant or the cancerous cells are found in the protective sac that covers most of the body’s internal organs.
The doctors call it mesothelium. However, they are also quick to censure asbestos as the key cause of this form of cancer when a person breathes in these particles.
Mesothelium-what it is
Mesothelium is a covering that coat and shields most of the internal organs of the body. It is comprised of two sheets of cells: One layer directly surrounds the organ; the other forms a sac around it.
The mesothelium is believed to produce a lubricating fluid that is released amid these layers, allowing moving organs like the thumping heart and the escalating and constricting lungs to slither easily against adjacent structures.
How does mesothelioma happen?
Mesothelioma or the cancer of the mesothelium is a disease in which cells of the mesothelium become uncharacteristic and divide without control. They can attack and harm nearby tissues and organs.
These cells can also spread from their original site to other body parts with most cases of mesothelioma beginning in the pleura or peritoneum
What are the risk factors for mesothelioma?
The experts of this disease all point at the main risk being exposure to asbestos that result to mesothelioma after inhaling the particles.
A relative range of maximally eighty percent of all the cases reported in history coincides about asbestos. This does not mean though that there has not been cases not related whatsoever to this.
Air is everywhere and if these particles glide in it, particularly during manufacturing process, then they can be blown everywhere and can thus be inhaled by anybody so unlucky to.
Those who smoke and have this exposure can be said to have inflated chances of catching this cancer any time.
Who is at amplified risk for developing mesothelioma?
In the early years, many workers of the mines were greatly exposed to asbestos dust without much knowledge of them all their employers.
Luckily later on, an increased risk of developing mesothelioma was found among all the people who handled the shipment from the time it is mined to those who traded with the products that were made from it.
So in simpler words, the answer to the above question revolves around the same argument of asbestos particles inhalation.
A person who works where he can be infected can as well carry home the dust particles to his family members thus increasing their risk of developing mesothelioma.
Types of mesothelioma
Many reports quote two of them. The first one is Pleural Mesothelioma, which affects the outer lining of the lungs and chest cavity.
Second one is the Peritoneal Mesothelioma, which affects the lining of the abdominal cavity, also called the pericardium.
The above are then subdivided in to the following:
Malignant mesothelioma
Malignant Mesothelioma is an infrequent form of cancer in which cancerous cells are found in the mesothelium, a protective sac that covers most of the body internal organs.
This kind of cancer will affect the mesothelium that shields those part found in the chest cavity (pleural) such as the lungs and those found in the abdominal cavity (peritoneal).
When this cancerous cells infects other surrounding parts, they then becomes malignant.
Benign mesothelioma information
Most people who develop benign mesothelioma have operated in places where asbestos is the main product being mined, manufactured or deals with sale of products made from it.
This dust will then be settled in various body parts after inhalation such as lungs and the abdominal cavity. If this cancer does not spread to other parts surrounding, then is called benign.
Other diseases related to mesothelioma
Epithelioid mesothelioma
Is the mainly frequent form of mesothelioma and accounts for fifty to seventy percent of mesothelioma cancer cells.
The individual cells are comparatively uniform in shape with an exclusive tubular pattern and a cell nucleus that, on being viewed under high magnification, is visibly discernible from other cell nuclei.
Asbestosis
Is a chronic inflammation of the lungs caused by the same exposure to asbestos and can be confused with mesothelioma.
This is because of the many years the diseases takes in the body before they can portray any signs thus makes it difficult to tell which between them one will suffer from.
Asbestosis is a progressive disease with no cure. The irritation causes shortness of breath, which will get increasingly worse as the disease progresses. Death due to asbestosis occurs by respiratory failure.
Mesothelioma prognosis
Mesothelioma proper prognosis or prediction will not be accurate and also possible without intensive research on the same.
It is not also possible to tell which dimension this disease is going to take, if nothing is done to raise awareness.
This is why the work of the Asbestos and Mesothelioma Center is committed to providing the latest, up-to-date information to their visitors in hopes of spreading awareness about the real and renowned dangers of asbestos.
This is because if people do not know anything about it, then they can be said to be ignorant of their surroundings like the nature of the places of work, environment or even their homes.
If this is the case, then a research performed under such conditions may show high chances of exposure and ultimate death that have no sure cause.
Mesothelioma diagnosis
Diagnosing mesothelioma is a lot complicated, because the symptoms are alike to those of a number of other disorders.
The diagnosis starts:
Review of the patient’s medical history
After the doctor listens to the number of symptoms given by the patient whom he does not know to start with, it becomes essential for him to inquire about his medical history.
He may ask question that tend to probe the patient’s exposure to asbestos so he form the bases for diagnosis.
Physical examination
A physical examination will enable the doctor to start the proper diagnosis process where a number of things will be done.
X- ray- the X-ray reveal pleural thickening usually seen after the asbestos exposure and raises more suspicion of mesothelioma.
CT or CAT scan- this represent a chain of comprehensive pictures of areas inside the body developed by a computer linked to an X-ray machine.
In an MRI, a powerful magnet linked to a computer is used to make thorough pictures of areas inside the body. These pictures are viewed on a monitor and can also be printed. These should show if there are malignant cells or not.
Biopsy
A biopsy is required to confirm a diagnosis that the doctor performs on mesothelioma.
The medical oncologist, who specializes on cancer diagnosis and treatment, removes a sample of tissue for examination under the power of microscope by a pathologist.
This can be done in diverse ways depending on where this cancer is suspected to be.
Thoracoscopy
Here the doctor uses a tool called a thorascope after making a small cut on the victim’s chest, where it is inserted between the two ribs to obtain the tissue material.
Peritoneoscopy
If the doctor want to obtain tissue sample from the abdominal cavity, he performs this procedure using a peritoneoscope.
This is inserted through a small hole that a doctor makes on the abdomen and is able to explore and grab some tissue samples.
If these procedures do not give up enough tissue, more widespread diagnostic surgery may be compulsory.
If the diagnosis is mesothelioma however, the doctor will then want to find out how far the cancer has gone. To be able to do this (staging), more special test will be performed.
Localized
Mesothelioma that will only be found on the membrane surface where it originated.
Classified
This is mesothelioma cancer that has spread further than the original membrane surface to the rest of the body parts like the lymph nodes, chest wall, lungs and abdominal organs.
Do you think you have symptoms similar to these?
Shortness of breath and pain in the chest wall, pleural effusion or a fluid surrounding the lungs, fatigue, anemia, wheezing, hoarseness, cough and blood in the fluid coughed up (sputum). You could have pleural mesothelioma.
Abdominal pain, abnormal build up of fluid in the stomach, a mass in the abdomen, bowel obstruction and weight loss, blood clots in the veins, yellowing of the eyes and skin, low blood sugar level, pleural effusion, blood clots in the arteries of the lungs and severe ascites.
You could be suffering from peritoneal mesothelioma.See your doctor right away!
Mesothelioma Treatments Alternatives
Surgery
This is performed to remove the cancer. It can be done to a patient on its own or combined with other therapies. Report states that those who survive for a period of five years after diagnosis are less than ten percent.
Radiation therapy or radiotherapy
This uses high-energy x-rays to slay cancer cells and contract tumors.
Trials involving forms of radiation treatment have demonstrated rather encouraging with about twenty of the patients experiencing a greater than fifty percent cutback in tumor mass combined with negligible side effects.
Chemotherapy
This method uses drugs to destroy the cancer cells. It is called a systemic treatment because the drug enters the bloodstream, travels through the body, and can execute cancer cells throughout the body.
New York lawyers of Mesothelioma
If you are a resident of New York suffering from mesothelioma, there is help to enable you explore your legal alternatives.
You might have the right to monetary damages, including payment for medical expenses, any loss of income, anguish and even corrective damages if special circumstances can be proven.
The experienced New York lawyers of Mesothelioma focuses their practice on the entire state of New York, including New York City, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Albany and the counties of Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Rockland, Orange, Dutchess, Ulster, Putnam and Syracuse.
They understand the devastating shock of mesothelioma on victims and their families.
They provide empathetic advice, guidance and back up for the human needs of clients while delivering assertive and effective legal representation of the highest order within the following areas:
Mesothelioma/ Wrongful Death, Lung Cancer, terminal Asbestosis, toxic Mold and catastrophic Injury.
Note: never treat chest problems at home after reading this article assuming that what you have is mesothelioma.
The information and advice given on this website should not be treated as the final option to cure any disease.
Seek more medical advice before taking any actions. This website will not be liable to any damages resulting from reader’s ignorance or misinformed decisions.
Scientists link mutations to cancer survival times
Feb 19th
Scientists have identified two genetic mutations they believe are linked with the most common types of brain cancer and longer survival times, according to researched published on Wednesday.
Researchers at Johns Hopkins and Duke universities discovered variations in the IDH1 and IDH2 genes that are associated with three quarters of the most common types of cancer tumors, known as gliomas.
It is hoped the findings could open the way to more successful treatment of the disease.
Patients with these types of mutations can survive at least two times longer than those with other genetic variations, according to the work, which was published in the February 19 addition of the New England Journal of Medicine.
“Pathologists may find it useful to determine IDH1/IDH2 status to help identify and classify these cancers,” said Williams Parsons, a visiting professor in pediatric oncology at Johns Hopkins.
“The IDH mutation could serve as a biomarker that would help single out individuals who are likely to have better outcomes and receive different treatment,” said Darell Bigner of Duke University and a coauthor of the report.
Japan scientists identify cancer-suppressing enzyme
Feb 10th
Scientists in Japan have identified an enzyme which appears to suppress breast cancer and they hope the finding will spur new therapies to control the second most common cancer in the world.
At issue is the enzyme CHIP, which experts say can stunt cancer growth by degrading a number of cancer-causing proteins. The enzyme occurs naturally in human breast tissue.
In an article published in Nature Cell Biology, the scientists said they injected two kinds of human breast cancer cells into mice. One set carried the CHIP enzyme and the other was without the chemical.
Tumors in the first group of mice with the CHIP enzyme were far smaller than the one without the enzyme, Junn Yanagisawa at the University of Tsukuba’s Graduate School of Life and Environmental Sciences in Japan told Reuters.
The same results were seen in a parallel experiment using a more aggressive line of human breast cancer cells, he added.
“Our conclusion is that we have found that CHIP protein prevents breast tumor growth and metastasis,” Yanagisawa said.
Metastasis occurs when cancer spreads from its site of origin, which challenges therapy and may even result in death.
“In breast tumor treatments, measurement of the CHIP protein levels in the tumors may be valuable information for the treatment. Furthermore, designing a new therapy that increases CHIP protein levels or its activity could be useful for breast tumor treatment,” Yanagisawa said.
Breast cancer is the second most common form of cancer, after lung cancer. In 2005, it killed 502,000 people worldwide, or almost 1 percent of all deaths.
Melanoma doubles risk of new cancer: study
Jan 8th
People who have been treated for a melanoma have more than twice the risk of developing another form of cancer, according to a study published Wednesday.
Lifestyle could play a key role in such cancers, including spending too long in the sun but also smoking and being overweight, it said.
Researchers at Queen’s University in Belfast studied almost 21,000 people who had been treated for non-melanoma skin cancer, and over 1,800 who had had melanoma, to see which went on to develop a second primary cancer.
They compared the findings with cancer in people with no history of skin cancer.
A melanoma is the most serious form of skin cancer, with 9,500 cases diagnosed each year and almost 2,000 deaths.
The risk of developing a new cancer after developing non-melanoma skin cancer was 57 percent higher than in the general population, while the risk of developing a new primary cancer after melanoma was more than double.
“This study confirms that people with a diagnosis of skin cancer have an increased future risk of developing another type of cancer,” said Liam Murray, one of the authors of the report published in the British Journal of Cancer.
In particular they risked developing another type of skin cancer or a smoking-related cancer, he said, adding: “For those with melanoma the risk may be more than double that of the rest of the population.
“There are several possible explanations for this link. Sun exposure is an important risk factor for all types of skin cancers so patients who have had one type of skin cancer may be more likely to develop other types as well.
“Alternatively a new skin cancer may be more likely to be detected in patients who are monitored following their first diagnosis of skin cancer,” he added.
The increase in smoking-related cancers may be because smoking predisposes to skin cancer as well as other cancers or because people who smoke may be more likely to have unhealthy lifestyles including excessive sun exposure, he said.
Sara Hiom, Cancer Research UK’s director of health information, said: “We know that lifestyle factors such as excessive UV exposure, smoking, being overweight and drinking too much alcohol can increase the risk of cancer.
“These important findings could help doctors target health information more accurately to people who have been treated for skin cancer to help them reduce their risk of developing a second cancer,” she added.
More than 76,500 cases of non-melanoma skin cancer are recorded in Britain each year, but it is estimated that the actual figure could be more than 100,000 as it often goes unreported.
Cancer patients may have hope for treatment
Jan 6th
Patients with locally advanced squamous cell cancer of the head and neck may be cured of the disease if a worldwide clinical trial on a new targeted therapy drug to treat cancer is proven a success.
The clinical trial, to be completed in three to five years, will involve at least 22 institutions from 12 countries including Pakistan.
The National Cancer Centre Singapore NCCS is taking lead role as main cancer centre coordinating the trial which is to begin this March.
NCCS formalised its collaboration with Imogene Kalbiotech Pte Ltd, a Singapore based company that develops and commercialises innovative drugs. It aims to have first results of the clinical trial reported in about five years.
The countries involved in the trial span from Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Israel to South Africa and Cuba. Participation of Australia, Canada, Philippines & UK was also under consideration.
The trial would involve 700 patients and include those with locally advanced squamous cancer of the head and neck and who had had surgery, NCCS said.
Half of patients would be treated with new targeted drug, Nimotuzumab, which would be administered weekly for an eight-week period, and would be given together with standard chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
The trial was expected to offer an assessment of the drug’s efficacy, tolerability, influence on disease-free and
progression-free survival for this particular indication.