Higher Cancer Risk in Women Eating Western Diet

The typical Western diet means more colon cancer for women, a powerful new study shows.

The huge study of 76,402 women didn't try to keep them on any specific diet plan. Researcher Teresa Fung, ScD, and her Simmons College/Harvard University team just kept track of what they ate. They checked on the women, originally aged 38 to 63 years, in 1984, 1986, 1990, and 1994.

The women's eating habits fell into two patterns. One -- dubbed the "Western pattern" -- included:

Refined grains. These include white pasta, white breads, and white rice -- all made from grains that have had their bran shells removed. Red meats Processed meats Desserts High-fat dairy products French fries

The "prudent" pattern included:

Lots of fruits Vegetables Whole grains Legumes (beans and peas) Poultry Fish

By the end of the study period, 445 of the women developed colon cancer. Women who ate the most Western foods had 50% more colon cancers than the women who ate the least Western foods. Women who ate the most "prudent" foods tended to have less colon cancer than those who ate the least, but this trend was not statistically significant.

"Our study provides further evidence that switching from a typical Western diet to a more prudent diet may reduce the risk of colon cancer," Fung and colleagues write.

The study appears in the Feb. 10 issue of The Archives of Internal Medicine.

http://aolsvc.health.webmd.aol.com/content/Article/60/67185.htm

My latest CEA test is now 3.8, the lowest it’s ever been.
But before we celebrate,,we must be aware that CEA is not useful for all colon cancer patients.
Some never have an elevated CEA.
Usually, doctors watch for changes in CEA rather than a single reading.
A good friend of mine said her CEA didnt rise,yet she had reocurrence,her surgeon says it's not good guide

CEA test - http://www.mdadvice.com/library/test/medtest118.html
Tumour markers -
http://training.seer.cancer.gov/module_diagnostic/unit03_tumor_markers.html
Tumour markers - http://www.tc-cancer.com/tumormarkers.html

meat-eaters have much higher colon cancer rates—about 300 percent higher compared to vegetarians.

There's No Room for Chicken in a Healthy Diet
http://www.pcrm.org/magazine/GM00SpringSummer/GM00SpSum2.html

Q: Is chicken…poisonous?!

A: With live salmonella bacteria growing inside one in every three packages of chicken, it is making a lot of people sick. Although deaths from salmonella poisonings sometimes make the evening news, millions more cases that cause flu-like symptoms go unaccounted. Salmonella poisoning can cause vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, and low-grade fever lasting for several days. When it spreads to the blood and other organs, it can be fatal—and is, for as many as 9,000 people every year.

Ontario has among the highest rates of colorectal cancer in the world.

The occurrence of colorectal cancer varies greatly worldwide. Variation among countries is not due to genetic differences. This means that most colorectal cancers in Ontario may be preventable. The best ways to reduce the risk of colorectal cancer are to eat plenty of vegetables and to keep physically active

http://www.cancercare.on.ca/cancerfacts/home.html

Chemotherapy Patients Set Off Subway Alarms!

Radioactive patients set off subway alarms

NewScientist.com news service

Americans undergoing radioactive medical treatments risk setting off anti-terrorism sensors in public places, and subsequent strip searches by police, warn doctors at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York.

A 34-year-old patient who had been treated with radioactive iodine for Graves disease, a thyroid disorder, returned to their clinic three weeks later complaining he had been strip-searched twice in Manhattan subway stations. Christopher Buettner and Martin Surks report the case in a letter to the Journal of the American Medical Association.

"Police had identified him as emitting radiation and had detained him for further questioning. This patient's experience indicates that radiation detection devices are being installed in public places in New York City and elsewhere," the doctors write

http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993150

Healing Power of Touching; Clinic Offers Alternative Therapy for Low-Income Cancer Patients

http://printerfriendly.abcnews.com/printerfriendly/Print?fetchFromGLUE=true&GLUEService=ABCNewsCom

That sense of suffering just stops at the door," says Wai Chee Leung, one of some 200 patients at the clinic. "In here I feel so well taken care of, so well-received."
Another patient, Karen Holly, agrees. "It is almost magical," she says, "because the healing happens not only with the therapy, but it happens in the entire environment."
All the patients here have one thing in common: They are low-income women with cancer. "This disease," says patient Arie Lathuras, "can turn your life upside down in every possible way — financially, emotionally, spiritually and physically."
The clinic offers pain relief in the form of alternative therapies: acupuncture, a form of meditation known as visualization therapy, herbal medicines custom-mixed on site and massage. All services are provided free of charge by some 120 volunteers.
"It's just a really direct way to help people and to feel like you're making a difference," says massage therapist Eleanor Martineau.
Human Touch Has Powerful Impact
And certainly, the power of human touch does make a difference to these women, many of whom are living alone in poverty, sometimes in homeless shelters. The clinic's co-founder, Barbara Burns, says that can make the fight against cancer almost unbearable.
"Most of the time," says Burns, "you can't go into a shelter until the evening. So if you go to get an infusion of chemotherapy, you're on the sidewalk until the shelter opens at night."
But at the clinic, the women can find a welcome respite from that other world of radiation and chemo. "You get the doctor taking care of you on a medical basis," says Karen Holly, "but what you don't get is the loving hand that you get here."
That loving hand is offered at every turn, from the hug each patient receives upon arriving to the full body massage they could never possibly afford on their own. The clinic was named for Charlotte Maxwell, a social worker who died of ovarian cancer in 1988. She believed alternative therapies greatly enhanced her quality of life in her last years. And she wanted to make those therapies available to women who were less fortunate.
The clinic works with oncologists by monitoring patient care and sharing information about changes in treatments. There are social workers on staff to help obtain financial aid and housing. They are hopeful they can find a place for Juanita Kindley, who has stage-four ovarian cancer and, as of the end of this month, no place to live.
"I'm really scared about it," says Kindley, choking back tears. "I don't have a lot of money."
The clinic itself depends on charitable donations and grant money, and right now it receives only enough to operate three days a week. But no one here acts as though they are impoverished, neither the volunteers nor the patients. At least you'd never know by the big smiles and friendly hugs

Possible Link Found Between Virus and Colon Cancer

NEW YORK Nov 15, 2002 (Reuters Health) - A common type of herpesvirus may play a role in the development of colorectal cancer, preliminary research suggests.

The virus, called cytomegalovirus (CMV), is widespread and normally causes no problems in healthy individuals. As many as 90% of US adults may carry CMV, which in most cases remains dormant.

However, some research has suggested CMV infection can help promote heart disease, possibly by causing long-term inflammation in the body. Now the new study hints at a potential role in cancer of the colon and rectum--although, the lead author told Reuters Health, it does not prove the virus helps cause the cancer.