HEADLINES / TRENDS l STATS l RESEARCH l MEDIA l PEOPLE

May 2009

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Cancer Poised to Catch Heart Disease

It has to rank as the world’s most dubious race: Cancer will surpass heart disease as the planet’s leading killer by 2010 according to the World Health Organization’s World Cancer Report 2008, which says that the global cancer burden has doubled over the past 30 years. And while this disease is often thought of as the bane of industrialized nations, the danger posed by cancer to the rest of the world is growing. Of the 12 million new cases last year 5.6 million occurred in developing nations, which also experienced 4.7 million of the 7.6 million cancer deaths. WHO has found that cancer rates go up in these countries as they adopt Western lifestyles, which includes smoking, eating fatty fast foods and not getting enough exercise, and as their populations grow older.

The problem is that much of the developing world does not have the resources to cope with an increase in cancer. For one thing, many of these countries don’t have cancer treatment facilities; according to the WHO report, 30 low-resource countries don’t have a single radiotherapy machine. In many cases palliative therapy, designed to ease symptoms without trying to cure the disease itself, is the only care available.

The WHO targets smoking as a major avoidable cancer risk factor. More than a billion people smoke worldwide, and since rates of lung cancer—the most common cause of cancer death globally—generally increase several decades after smoking rates rise this translates into a health hazard that developing countries will have to deal with for the foreseeable future. WHO also sees a need to deal with breast cancer, which has shown dramatic increases in countries such as China, Japan and Korea.

Amid a rising tide of cancer worldwide the WHO does see reasons for optimism, saying that existing knowledge could prevent at least one third of all new cases every year. In addition to tobacco control, the agency urges public health programs aimed at getting people to eat healthier diets and get more exercise. “Most of the world’s cancer burden is attributable to a few preventible risk factors,” state the report’s authors. “Diet is one of the most modifiable risk factors for cancer that deserves worldwide attention.”

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Numbers

No Insurance + Cancer = Big Trouble

76%

Five-year survival rate for all cancer
patients with private insurance

65%

Survival rate for people who were
uninsured when diagnosed

(Source: Cancer Facts & Figures 2008,
American Cancer Society)

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Housekeeping Hazardous
for Women with Asthma

In our March article “Green Home, Sound Body,” we provided advice on eco-friendly ways to clean every room of the house after explaining how hazardous conventional cleaning products can be. Beth Greer, a holistic health consultant who served as one of the sources for our story, said that only 3 in 10 of the 17,000 chemicals in household products have been tested for their effects on human health. And we cited a report that computed a $381 million cost—in Maine alone—of the childhood cancer, asthma, lead poisoning and mental retardation resulting from exposure to pollutants, including toxic chemicals.

So we were not at all surprised to see research supporting the notion that housecleaning products can harm women who have asthma, in which lung inflammation causes airways to narrow and breathing to become difficult. The study was conducted by the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and published in the January issue of Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. Nearly 23 million Americans suffer from asthma.

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WORD

Cancer

Any of more than 100 separate diseases characterized by the abnormal growth of cells, which then invade tissues locally and spread, or metastasize, to distant organs. The name comes from the Greek word for crab, carcinos, based on the finger-like projections ancient physicians saw radiating from tumors.

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Pea Protein May Fight
High Blood Pressure

A key danger posed by high blood pressure is the damage it does to the kidneys, which can lead to chronic kidney disease. But now scientists at Canada’s University of Manitoba say that protein found in the common yellow garden pea may help damp down hypertension. The researchers fed pea protein to rats with polycystic kidney disease, a severe illness that drastically reduces urine production. After eight weeks, rats getting the pea-fortified chow showed a 20% drop in blood pressure compared with rats on a normal diet. What’s more, the pea protein increased urine output by 30%.

American Chemical Society, National Meeting, 3/09

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Fermented Wheat Germ
Inhibits Cancer Cells

One of our most abundant crops yields a substance that shows cancer-fighting promise. Scientists at the Medical University of Vienna added an extract of fermented wheat germ—a byproduct of wheat refining valued for its excellent nutritional content—to cultured lymphoma cells. The extract caused apoptosis, a form of cell death that helps slow cancer growth (Oncology Reports 3/09). This may help explain the results obtained in Russian study last year, in which fermented wheat germ helped improve survival rates among high-risk melanoma patients (Cancer Biotherapy & Radiopharmaceuticals 8/08).

While studies with fermented wheat germ are ongoing, scientists believe that this extract is able to block cancer cells from using glucose (blood sugar), the most common fuel within the body. Cancer cells devour up to 50 times more glucose than normal cells, causing them to grow quickly while denying glucose to normal cells.

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Yoga Brings Peace to
Breast Cancer Patients

There are few situations more stressful in life than dealing with a cancer diagnosis and its aftermath, which can be a frightening blur of tests and treatments. But the deliberate, peaceful poses used in yoga may help take the edge off that stress.

That’s the conclusion reached by researchers at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine, where 44 women were either enrolled in a yoga program or put on a waiting list. After 10 weeks, the women in the yoga group felt calmer and more positive than those who hadn’t yet taken classes.

The yoga group also experienced a 50% drop in feelings of depression.

Psycho-Oncology 2/24/09

Calendar - May

Melanoma/Skin Cancer Detection & Prevention Month

THE IDEA: To encourage early detection of all skin cancers but especially melanoma, the most dangerous kind
SPONSORED BY: American Academy of Dermatology
activities: “See Spot, Check Spot,” a program that encourages people to perform skin cancer self-examinations using the ABCD + E classification system—looking for spots that are asymmetrical in shape and have irregular borders, varied colors and a diameter larger than a pencil eraser, plus those that evolve, or change, over time; free screenings by dermatologists will also be available at various locations contact: 847-330-0230, www.melanomamonday.org

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