Cancer Research UK - Science Update

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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Cancer Research UK scientists have found that certain immune cells – known as dendritic cells – may play an unexpected role in beating cancer.

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In May’s podcast we discover the dangers of sunbeds, find out how drugs are made available for people with cancer, and look forward to Cancer Research UK’s garden at the Chelsea Flower Show.

Simply visit the podcast homepage and click on the player to hear the show, or click the link below to download the show directly.

Click this link to directly download the May podcast (17Mb)

You can also get the podcast through iTunes if you have it installed on your computer.

Visit the podcast homepage to listen to shows from the archive.

Please let us know what you think of the show, either by emailing us at podcast@cancer.org.uk, or by replying to this post.

Kat

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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Hello and welcome to Cancer Research UK’s new ‘Science Update’ blog.

We’ve launched this blog for several reasons.

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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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Today, a new study from Cancer Research UK shows that a child’s risk of becoming fat is strongly influenced by their genes. Inherited genes account for 77 per cent of the variation in both children’s BMI and the size of their waistlines.

The research was led by Professor Jane Wardle who directs Cancer Research UK’s Health Behaviour Research Centre at University College London. Wardle has had a longstanding interest in obesity and her research often makes the news. For example, she’s also published work on inherited preferences for food and childhood obesity.

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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 »

This week, a report from the Office of National Statistics reported that the proportion of smokers in the UK has fallen to a record low. In 2006, just 22% of people over the age of 16 smoked cigarettes, down from 27% in the late 1990s.

It’s certainly good news and on the face of it, the Government seem set to meet their target of reducing the proportion of smokers in the UK to 21% by 2010.

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This article on breast cancer appeared in the Independent yesterday:

Global rise in breast cancer due to ‘Western lifestyles’

Although it treads some fairly well-worn ground, it has got some good quotes (especially from our very own Professor Valerie Beral) and is a pretty good summary of the current state-of-play.

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