May 13, 2008
This is a bit of a long one, but we felt it was important to get it all down in one place… particularly as this is a topic that pops up frequently in the news. As ever, we’re keen for your feedback - so let us know if you think it’s too long…
In recent years, there have been frequent reports that our old friend aspirin, the over-the-counter painkiller and anti-coagulant, appears to be able to prevent cancer.
The most recent one was in April, when there was widespread coverage of research looking at breast cancer rates amongst women who regularly took so-called ‘non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs’ - NSAIDs - the class of drugs to which aspirin belongs.
This research made the news because it suggested that aspirin might prevent the formation of a common type of breast cancer - ‘oestrogen-positive’ breast cancer.
In fact there’s quite a lot of evidence building up now that NSAIDs might indeed play a role in stopping, or at least slowing down, the development of cancer - at least under certain circumstances. But does this mean that doctors will one day be able to prescribe a simple pill to reduce your risk of cancer, like they do for people at risk of heart disease?
As usual, it’s a not quite that simple, so let’s have a look at what the science actually shows.
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1 Comment |
Bowel, Breast, Cancer Research UK-funded research, Cancer in the news, Cancer prevention, Drugs, Oesophagus, Ovarian, Prostate, Scientific papers |
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Posted by Henry Scowcroft
May 7, 2008
Last month, Cancer Research UK alerted the UK to the cancer risk posed by sunbeds. The national media lapped the story up and a series of related events conspired to produce a perfect storm of media coverage.
A mother revealed that her son had acquired severe burns during an unsupervised sunbed session, TV presenter Denise van Outen blamed facial scars on her earlier sunbed use and Which? magazine published a survey which showed that 170,000 under-16s in the UK have used a sunbed, including children as young as eight.
Shortly after, England’s Health and Safety Executive put forward revised proposals for guidelines that will restrict under-18s from using sunbeds.
Amid all this media interest, it’s easy to get carried away and forget that all of this attention is based on messages that are backed by sound scientific evidence. Let’s take a look at it.
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Cancer in the news, Skin cancer, Sun, UV and skin cancer |
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Posted by Ed Yong
February 15, 2008
At Cancer Research UK, we regularly get asked why we spend different amounts on different types of cancer.
Most commonly, people want to know why we spend more on breast cancer than on prostate cancer, despite the fact that there are similar numbers of cases of each per year.
These queries often contain the accusation, implied or explicit, that there is some prejudice against men, or male cancers, amongst the cancer research community.
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Cancer Research UK-funded research, Cancer in the news, Cancer myths, Diet, Genes, Healthy Living, Prostate, Scientific papers |
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Posted by Henry Scowcroft
February 6, 2008
Ah, the humble mobile phone. Has humanity ever invented a more distrusted technology?
These little knobbly, bleepy bricks of controversy have, over the past few years, been accused of causing hearing loss, thumb strains, car crashes, spurious 999 calls, disruption of birds’ migration patterns, memory loss, and male infertility; encouraging children to look at pornography; increasing the risk of being struck by lightning… not to mention triggering the occasional lethal outburst. An impressive list for what is, basically, a small portable radio transmitter [added the word 'transmitter' for clarity, since a reader pointed out that mobiles broadcast and receive, whereas radios receive only - HS 7/5/08]. Read the rest of this entry »
3 Comments |
Cancer myths, Scientific papers, risk |
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Posted by Henry Scowcroft