Stand Up To Cancer

I always love it when a new cancer treatment comes from an unexpected place, so I thought I'd kick off this week's roundup with a study out of Oklahoma, where researchers have discovered that frankincense - you know, as in frankincense and myrrh - may be helpful in treating bladder cancer. For the curious, frankincense is a tree oil that smells great when you burn it. And, as it turns out, it suppresses cancer growth as well, differentiating between bladder cancer cells and healthy cells to induce cancer cell death.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,25209160-38200,00.html?from=public_rss

In other good news, it turns out Gleevec, a drug currently used to treat adult leukemia, is also effective at preventing the recurrence of gastrointestinal cancer. In a trial including over 700 patients, the drug was shown to be most potent when the tumor removed was larger than 10 cm. But doctors caution that more research is needed before Gleevec can be cleared for this use.
http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/healthday/2009/03/19/gleevec-prevents-return-of-intestinal-cancer.html

USA Today has the results of a fascinating new study indicating that cancer patients of faith are three times more likely to wind up undergoing intensive medical procedures than their non-believing peers. Patients who used "positive" religious coping were more likely to encourage their doctors to do everything possible to keep them alive; on the opposite side of the coin, however, they also made fewer preparations for death.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-03-17-cancer-coping_N.htm

It seems like new genetic markers for cancer are identified every week - just one of the many reasons to be encouraged by the current scientific progress against the disease. This week, docs at Albert Einstein College of Medicine have found genetic markers that indicate poor outcomes for patients with head and neck cancer. "Our next steps are to confirm these results in a new patient population and to find additional markers that would allow us to develop a reproducible and accurate prognostic test," said one of the researchers involved in the study.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090318113608.htm

Well, it just wouldn't be the Weekly Links without an update on the latest news in cancer-fighting foods, and this week's hot tickets are green tea and mushrooms. A study out of China indicates that these foods may decrease the risk of developing breast cancer in both pre- and post-menopausal women. So put the kettle on and pass the portabellas, please!
http://www.foodproductdesign.com/hotnews/mushrooms--green-tea-lower-breast-cancer-risk.html

And according to a new study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, vegetarians have a much lower risk of developing cancer than people who eat meat. (Don't panic quite yet: the study's results indicate that fish is OK.) In an analysis of 52,700 people on various diets, including meat eaters, fish eaters, vegans and vegetarians, the vegetarians and fish eaters fared best. However, one big surprise was that the vegetarians involved in the study did have higher rates of colorectal cancer than the meat eaters. The authors say further research is needed.
http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/health/2009/march/Eat-Only-Veggies-and-Avoid-Cancer--Says-New-Study.html

That's all for this week, but I'll be back next Thursday with more!

--Cat