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- Cancer is a leading cause of death among Americans, just behind heart disease.
- Researchers are discovering the genetic secrets of cancer and, with it, new potential treatments.
- As a result of their efforts, the cancer mortality rate for men, women and children has decreased every year between 1999 and 2016.
The 21st century has been and will continue to be shaped by cancer. Although heart disease remains the leading cause of death in the United States, cancer is rapidly reducing the spread and may even surpbad it soon. Some oncologists claim that a treatment is needed in five, ten, or even twenty years. Others are not so sure because, in a way, cancer is the price to pay for the success of the evolution.
"It's no coincidence that the very genes that allow our embryos to grow – our hands to grow, our feet to grow – if you modify them in inappropriate contexts, will ultimately release the disease that kills us" said oncologist Siddhartha Mukherjee, dubbed the cancer of the Emperor of all Diseases in the title of his Pulitzer Prize-winning book.
Whether for five years or forever, cancer will not go away anytime soon. Yet, doctors and scientists discover it, the better we can learn to live with.
A love-hate relationship: cancer and antioxidants
A photo showing a cancerous growth in a lung. (Photo: James Heilman / Wikimedia Commons)
Contrary to what many people think, cancer benefits from a diet that is rich in nutrients as much as the next cell because it promotes its growth. Even these legendary antioxidants.
In two independent studies published in CellSwedish and American research teams have discovered that lung cancer uses antioxidants to activate a protein called BACH1. This protein stimulates cancer cells to metabolize glucose and accelerate metastasis. Even in the absence of a supply of dietary antioxidants, the tumor would simply produce its own.
Professor Martin Bergo, who led the Swedish study, hopes that this research will help develop new treatments. "We now have important new information on lung cancer metastasis, which allows us to develop new treatments, such as those based on the inhibition of BACH1," he said in a statement.
Does this mean that you should refrain from foods rich in antioxidants? Not at all. Antioxidants neutralize free radicals that cause oxidative stress on cells. Preventing such cell damage can help prevent cancer.
However, it is best to avoid antioxidant supplements except on the doctor's prescription. As reported by the National Cancer Institute, out of nine randomized controlled clinical trials, none has provided evidence that such supplements reduce the risk of cancer. Some even found that beta-carotene supplements increased the risk of lung cancer to such an extent that testing had to be stopped prematurely.
Get your antioxidants from fruits, vegetables and beans. Research suggests that these antioxidants work in combination with additional molecules found in whole foods. It is this team effect that gives antioxidants their healthful power.
Cancer costs (in more ways than one)
It goes without saying that cancer is expensive. The physical constraint of the treatment. The potential loss of life, whether it is his or the life of a loved one. And even if we survive, there is the emotional cost of the ordeal.
But the cost imposed by cancer is more than physical or psychological. A study published last year revealed "that 42% of patients exhaust their savings during the first two years of treatment". Of the 9.5 million newly diagnosed cancer patients surveyed, the study calculated average losses of $ 92,098.
Its authors have qualified the effect of "financial toxicity" and concluded: "As it has been found that heavy financial burdens hinder access to care and results, the active development of approaches mitigating these effects among already vulnerable groups remains of paramount importance ".
The cancer candy
A recent study has found a positive badociation between a daily sweet drink and an increased risk of cancer. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)
The researchers asked more than 100,000 people to complete surveys of their usual intake of 3,300 foods and beverages. The results? A positive badociation between the daily consumption of a sugary drink and an increased risk of cancer. Sugary drinks included not only soft drinks, but also 100% fruit juice and artificially sweetened beverages.
"These data confirm the relevance of the existing nutritional recommendations to limit the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages, including 100% fruit juice, as well as policy measures such as tax restrictions and marketing restrictions targeting sweetened beverages help reduce the incidence of cancer, "the researchers said in a statement.
Do not destroy the Olympics, not yet. As an observational study, the data could not establish a cause-and-effect relationship and the researchers noted that the results were only preliminary. In addition, the results depend on the participants' memories. (What did you eat exactly at breakfast last Monday?)
But the study helps highlight the suggestion of the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) to limit sugary drinks. Try to remove soda from your diet. Drink 100% fruit juice with no added sugar in moderation. And of course, enjoy an active and healthy lifestyle.
Cancer on the grill
The hydrocarbons and amines formed during roasting at high temperature are known compounds of cancer. (Photo: Pxhere)
It's a summer tradition to throw some meat on the grill with a good beer. But as with all the pleasures of life, grilled meats hide some stealthy carcinogens: polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and heterocyclic aromatic amines.
Hydrocarbons are entrained in the smoke after the grease has burned on the flame, while heterocyclic amines are formed when sugars, amino acids and creatine react to high heat. Neither has been proven to cause cancer, but they are known as mutagens that can damage DNA after being metabolized.
"Research shows that diets high in red and processed meat increase the risk of colon cancer," said Alice Bender, senior director of nutrition programs at AIRC. "And grilling red or white meat at high temperatures forms powerful carcinogens."
Like sweet drinks, however, you do not have to hang up your "Kiss the Cook" apron. The institute has several suggestions for grilling the summer safely, such as limiting red meat, marinating food beforehand, maintaining a low flame and adding more vegetables to the mix.
A unified theory of leukemia
Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) affects about one in 2,000 children and Mel Greaves, of the Institute of Cancer in London, thinks he found the cause. In researching 30 years of data and medical literature on childhood leukemia, he argues that the "theory of delayed infection" is the cause.
According to this, children develop a pre-leukemic mutation in utero. The mutation remains inert until late in life when the child is infected with a common infection. The microbes then trigger secondary genetic changes leading to overt leukemia.
Does this mean that children are safe only in clean rooms? Hit that, reverse it. Greaves think that exposure to germs during the first year of life is proactive. It causes the immune system to cope with pathogens, thus preventing the triggering of the secondary mutation.
"LAL in childhood can be seen as a paradoxical consequence of the progress of modern societies, where behavioral changes have limited early microbial exposure," writes Greaves. "This leads to an evolutionary mismatch between historical adaptations of the immune system and contemporary lifestyles – ALL in the child can be a preventable cancer."
The future of cancer treatment is genetic
The human genome project has led to a better understanding of cancer. Why? Basically, cancer is a genetic disease.
Our ability to sequence and read cancer genomes will be a major step towards cancer treatments. As Eric Green, director of the National Institute of Human Genome Research, said, Big Think:
I think the standard of treatment for many types of cancer will be: Take this tumor, read its DNA, sequence its genome and based on what you saw that is wrong with this tumor. This is not by looking under a microscope or in a coarse form, but looking inside its plan, you will be able to choose a better way to choose the type of treatment to follow and to have a treatment much more efficient. better idea of what's wrong with this kind of tumor.
A future treatment? The "cancer vaccine"
An airman receives a vaccine. Could the future of cancer treatment be as simple as a stroke? (Photo: Senior Airman Areca T. Wilson / US Air Force)
Rather than resorting to chemotherapy to fight cancer with the subtle atomic bomb, immunotherapy aims to unveil the cancer cells so that the body's immune system can go on the offensive.
The "cancer vaccine" is an example of an immunotherapeutic approach. During his clinical trial, 11 patients had a tumor injected with a steroid to strengthen the site's dendritic cells, immune system cells specialized in antigen processing.
Following a mild dose of radiation and a stimulant, patients' dendritic cells directed the T cells to attack the cancer cells. Once the T cells were able to recognize the tumor, they became able to locate the cancer cells throughout the body.
Of the 11 patients, three had their cancer regressed or in remission. Six others had their cancer blocked for at least three months.
"It's really promising, and the fact that you get not only answers in treated areas, but also off the field [of treatment with radiation] Silvia Formenti, president of radiation oncology at Weill Cornell Medicine and New York Presbyterian, said CNBC. (Dr. Formenti did not participate in the study.)
A future treatment? Transform tumors into fat
Cancer cells spread to other parts of the body through the circulatory system. (Photo: NIH / Flickr)
A deadly tool in the arsenal of cancer is cellular plasticity, the ability of a cell to alter its physiological characteristics. This is one of the reasons that cancers can metastasize throughout the body, and this helps the disease to resist treatments.
Researchers from the University of Basel, Switzerland, have diverted this capacity and turned it into cancer. Using pharmacotherapy combining an antidiabetic and MEK inhibitors, they attacked the cancer cells and turned them into adipocytes (fat cells).
Although this does not remove the tumor, the cells become post-miotic, which means that they can no longer divide. This inhibited the cancer's ability to spread.
"In the future, this innovative therapeutic approach could be used in combination with conventional chemotherapy to suppress both primary tumor growth and the formation of life-threatening metastases," said Gerhard Christofori, an experienced author of the I & # 39; study. Medical News Today.
A future treatment? Bacterium killer of cancer
An image of the E. coli bacteria. Will these become the next breakthrough in cancer treatment? (Photo: NIAID / Wikimedia Commons)
Synthetic biology is another step forward in the treatment of cancer. Scientists use the principles of engineering to rethink biological systems. In one example, researchers genetically programmed a non-pathogenic virus. E. coli strain to attack tumors in laboratory mice.
Once injected, the rewired bacteria took refuge in the tumor, where they self-destructed. These dead bacteria leaked from the tumor and, thanks to coded nanobodies, attracted the attention of the T cells that devoured the bacteria and the tumor.
Of course, laboratory tests on mice do not guarantee a successful transition in humans, but this remains a promising avenue for treatment.
"In the future, we will use programmable bacteria for treatment," said Michael Dougan, immunologist at Mbadachusetts General Hospital, New York Times. "I think there is too much potential."
A new attitude towards cancer
Health professionals originally saw cancer as a disease to be destroyed with extreme biases; treatment only better than illness only because it has resulted in death.
But as David Agus, professor of medicine and engineering at USC, said, there are better ways to treat cancer:
For me, cancer is a verb and not a name. You cancel, it's something the body does and not what the body gets. And so, this philosophy requires a very different approach to the disease and involves changing the system in addition to trying to target cancer.
One solution is to approach the treatment holistically. Agus indicates a clinical trial that gave pre-menopausal women with bad cancer a bone strengthening drug. The drug did not target cancer, but it reduced recurrence by 40% because bad cancer metastasized in the bones.
Another method is psychosocial oncology. In this relatively new field, the goal of practitioners is to improve the quality of life of cancer patients through integrated mental health care in physical care.
Living with cancer
Cancer mortality rate in the United States by type of cancer, male and female, standardized by age. (Source: American Cancer Society / Our world in data)
Scientists have learned a lot about cancer, but there are still many things we do not know. Does this mean that we should despair for the future? On the contrary. Thanks to the knowledge accumulated by scientists, we have a lot of hope.
The headlines correctly indicate that the total number of new cancer cases and deaths continues to increase. However, cancer rates diagnosed and deaths have decreased year after year. Absolute figures do not take into account factors such as population growth and increased life expectancy. In fact, the Annual Report to the Nation on Cancer Status found that the cancer death rate among men, women and children was declining year after year between 1999 and 2016, as was the rate of death from cancer. cancer incidents.
"Death in old age is inevitable.The job of science is to prevent unplanned deaths at an unexpected time.I find it's a perfectly reasonable goal," said Mukerjee. "If you tell me that we will have a deeper, more proximal reconciliation with cancer in the coming decades, I think the answer is absolutely yes."
We may not be able to eradicate cancer as we have done with diseases such as smallpox and polio. But we are learning to live with it more and more every day.
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