Stand Up To Cancer

It seems like omega-3s are all over the news these days. And now we can add another health benefit to the "good fat" found in nuts and dark fish - new research indicates that a diet high in omega-3s can protect against advanced prostate cancer, even in men with a genetic predisposition to the disease. The study, which looked at 466 men with prostate cancer, found that an omega-3-rich diet reduced the risk of aggressive prostate cancer by a whopping 63%!
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE52O5XL20090325

Elsewhere, the results of a massive federal study on the long-term health impact of red meat are in, and unfortunately for steak lovers everywhere, the news ain't good. The ten-year analysis of 500,000 middle-aged and elderly Americans indicated that those who consumed the equivalent of a small hamburger every day were 30% more likely to die in the decade that followed, mostly from heart disease and cancer. On the other hand, routine consumption of white meat decreased the risk of death by a small amount. Turkey burger, anyone?
http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-na-red-meat24-2009mar24,0,6623810.story

A team of 24 researchers from all over the world (a dream team, if you will) has engineered a new anti-cancer agent that is around 200 times as powerful at killing tumor cells than most drugs currently under evaluation. The drug inhibits the enzymes that feed cancer, but also currently binds itself to bone, reducing its efficacy. Still - it's a step in the right direction!
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090325132458.htm

There's a lot of back-and-forth in the medical community about the usefulness of cancer screening. There's no doubt that it saves lives, but in many cases it can also be an impediment to prompt diagnosis. It sounds counter-intuitive, but take the case of ovarian cancer. Early-stage ovarian cancers, the kind screening catches, tend to be slow-growing; meanwhile, aggressive forms of the disease are often not detected in time. "This highlights the potential challenges of developing a screening test for this disease, because earlier detection of aggressive cases is essential if screening is to reduce ovarian cancer deaths," noted the lead author of a new study on the disease.
http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/healthday/2009/03/24/catching-ovarian-cancer-early-may-miss-aggressive.html

Early screening for prostate cancer also comes with risks. According to a recent New England Journal of Medicine study, screening has little to no effect on how many men die from the disease; instead, many men diagnosed with prostate cancer wind up getting tests and treatments they don't need, with side effects as severe as incontinence and impotence.
http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-he-closer23-2009mar23,0,1042900.story

Finally, I loved this editorial by Sens Ted Kennedy and Kay Bailey Hutchison in the Houston Chronicle. The senators, who have both been strong advocates for increased federal funding for cancer research and other cancer-related programs, write, "The solution isn't easy, but there are steps we should take now if we hope to see the diagnosis rate decline substantially and the survival rate increase. To do so, we must identify and remove the numerous barriers that obstruct our progress in cancer research and treatment." Amen!
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/outlook/6342313.html

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

--Cat