Category Archives: Physical activity

Expert Opinion: Professor Jack Cuzick

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Will we ever be able to ‘pop a pill’ to stop cancer developing? In our latest expert interview, we talked with Professor Jack Cuzick about the concept of preventive therapy for cancer, and in particular, his work on breast cancer prevention.

Professor Jack Cuzick is helping to assess drugs to prevent breast cancer

Cancer Research UK: When did the idea of preventive therapy for cancer really start to gain ground?

Jack Cuzick: The first major observation that really gave impetus to this idea was the fact that when we were looking at the use of tamoxifen to treat breast cancer, the trials showed a benefit of reducing recurrences of current breast cancers but – very excitingly – also showed that new cancers in the opposite breast (‘contralateral’ breast cancers) were also being reduced substantially.

Breast cancer is kind of unusual in the sense that you have a second breast in which you can learn about drugs that you use for treatment to tell you something about prevention.

That work occurred in the early 1980s. In 1986 we put together a prevention statement about the real need to run clinical trials of tamoxifen as a drug for the prevention of breast cancer in women at higher than average risk of disease.

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The Government’s Responsibility Deal – our view

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Below is the text of a letter that we’ve sent to Andrew Lansley – secretary of state for health – about the Government’s new Responsibility Deal.

It outlines our support for ways to improve public understanding of how lifestyles help to reduce the risk of cancer, as well as our concerns that the alcohol pledges do not go far enough to promoting health behaviour.

 

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Healthy resolutions 2011 – our interactive lifestyle tool

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New year’s resolutions: easy to make, hard to keep. Yours might even have fallen by the wayside already, or a few slips weakened your resolve.

But don’t give up – making healthy changes to your lifestyle is really worth it. Last year we wrote about the changes that can really cut the risk of developing cancer. And the messages we included back then are just as relevant today – keep a healthy weight, keep active and, if you smoke, try to quit.

If it all seems a bit much, our brand-new interactive lifestyle assessment can help you to take the first step. By answering a few short questions about your lifestyle, you’ll get a tailored report telling you where you’re doing well, as well as suggestions for changes you might benefit from. You’ll also get plenty of information and tips to help you make those changes.

Click on the image to launch the widget

Click on the image to launch the widget

Starting to live more healthily can be hard, but it makes a big difference. Up to half of all cancers could be prevented by changes to lifestyle, so healthy living can have a huge impact on the chance of developing cancer in the first place. But that’s not the only benefit – many healthy habits, like getting more active or giving up smoking, can also make you feel better in the short term.

And remember, it helps to get support when you’re planning a change. Family, friends, colleagues and your doctor, pharmacist or practice nurse can all be there to help and support you to make healthy choices.

So after all that festive excess, now is a good time to start afresh. So take our lifestyle assessment to find out how you’re doing and get ideas for a change, so you can make 2011 the year you gain a healthy habit or two.

And if you’re thinking of upping your exercise levels, Race for Life 2011 has just launched – visit the website and sign up today!

Jess

Find out more:

Check out our January podcast to hear our health expert Ed Yong discussing some of the big issues around lifestyle and cancer.

Being physically active can help reduce the risk of womb cancer

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Physical activity could help to reduce the risk of womb cancer

Physical activity could help to reduce the risk of womb cancer

Keeping active is great for your health. It keeps excess fat at bay, gives you a rush of mood-enhancing endorphins, and keeps your bones and muscles strong. Many studies have also shown that keeping physically active can reduce the risk of bowel and breast cancers.

But a new study has just been published in the British Journal of Cancer, which confirms that being active also reduces the risk of womb cancer (technically, “endometrial” cancer, which starts in the lining of the womb).

To investigate the link, the researchers looked at the combined results of many different studies into activity and womb cancer risk. This gave them an overall, more reliable, picture of the effects of physical activity.

And that wasn’t all: these overall results also hinted that spending too long sitting down was also linked to a higher risk of womb cancer.

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Kate Pickett on the nation’s health – why can’t we close the gap between rich and poor?

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Kate PickettProfessor Kate Pickett is a Cancer Research UK-funded health researcher, and co-author of  The Spirit Level.

In this guest blog post, she discusses the latest research and insights into the causes of inequalities in health, and gives us her opinions on what government should do to tackle them…

A tube platform with the sign 'mind the gap' on it

We need to close the 'health gap' between rich and poor

Britain has a long and distinguished record of research into how people’s health is affected by social factors such as where they live, where they go to school and how much they earn.

In fact, we were the first country in the world to properly examine how social class affected death rates – and, over the years, British governments have commissioned a number of important reviews of health inequalities, from the Black Report in 1987 to this year’s Marmot Review of Health Inequalities.

British research has also benefited from investment in the British birth cohort studies of 1946, 1958, 1970 and the Millennium Cohort Study, as well as other large research projects, such as the Whitehall Studies of civil servants, the UK Women’s Cohort Study, and the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children.  These studies follow large groups of people throughout their lives and collect information on their health, education, employment and other aspects of the social environment in which they live.

As a result, we have an increasingly sophisticated understanding of how these factors affect both average levels of health in the general population, and the differences between people from different backgrounds and in different areas.

Yet, as the Marmot Review and recent research shows, these inequalities in health have not improved in recent decades.

So why have we failed to close the gap?

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Healthy Resolutions 2010

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This is a repost of an article from last year. A few stats have been updated, but the messages are the same. Despite a huge amount of coverage in the press, the standard tenets of healthy living still remain the best way of reducing the risk of cancer.

And what better time to start that in the New Year?

A diet high in fruit and veg can help reduce the risk of some cancers

Christmas means different things to different people. But it’s probably fair to say that to most, it can be summed up very eloquently in one phrase – ‘my eyes were bigger than my belly’.

It’s traditionally a time when we eat more than we would ever usually eat, drink more than we would ever usually drink, and, perhaps no wonder, collapse on the sofa more than we would ever usually collapse.

Thank goodness, then, that Christmas is followed by New Year and the chance to start afresh.

Resolutions are a big part of any New Year and when we make them, we often have our health in mind. But how many of us realise just how much good we’re doing? In this post, we’ll find out how familiar resolutions can help to dramatically reduce our risk of cancer.

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Behind the headlines – Can housework really reduce your risk of breast cancer?

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Can housework cut cancer risk?

Can housework cut cancer risk?

Scientists have known for some time that physical activity can reduce the risk of cancer, especially bowel and breast cancer. In December 2006, researchers working on the EPIC study published results showing that physical activity can cut the risk of breast cancer. Specifically, the team found that activity in the home – namely housework – was the most beneficial form of exercise.

This research was partly funded by Cancer Research UK, and was widely covered in the media in articles such as this story on BBC News Online. It is important to stress that these results came out of a large, wide-ranging study into the links between lifestyle and many different types of cancer.

But the results of this research raise certain issues. Women who have had breast cancer may feel upset that a link is being made between housework and the disease. And some people may think that the presentation of these results was sexist. So what’s the real story?
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