Women who go on a low carb diet just two days per week have a lower risk of developing breast cancer compared to those who follow a standard calorie-restricted diet every day of the week, in order to lose weight and lower their insulin blood levels. Long-term high blood insulin levels are known to raise cancer risk. These findings were presented by scientists from Genesis Prevention Center at University Hospital in South Manchester, England, at the 2011 CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. The researchers stressed that a larger, longer-term additional study is required. Michelle Harvie,...

People who claim to be addicted to tanning may be on to something according to new research that suggests brains of frequent tanners are similar to those of alcoholics and drug addicts. According to Dr. Bryon Adinoff, a professor of psychiatry at UT Southwestern Medical Center, “Using tanning beds has rewarding effects in the brain so people may feel compelled to persist in the behavior even though it’s bad for them.” The implication is, ‘If it’s rewarding, then could it also be addictive?’” The study, published in Addiction Biology, examined if addiction...

Scientists say they have found a new way to predict lung cancer – by looking at a person’s toenail clippings. Experts at the University of San Diego in California have found that measuring nicotine levels in clippings can give a fairly accurate idea of future risk. Slow-growing toenails provide a barometer of chronic smoke exposure the American Journal of Epidemiology says. Men with the highest readings were over three times as likely to get lung cancer as those with the lowest. Toenails not only spot which smokers are most at risk but also which non-smokers are as well. The researchers...

British scientists say that the first reliable test for prostate cancer could be available within months. Professor Robert Winston has hailed the ‘exciting discovery’, which is the culmination of three years of research at the University of Surrey. A version of the test kit suitable for home use is also in development, which like a pregnancy test, could provide results from just a few drops of urine within minutes. It is expected to cost less than 100 pounds, reports the Daily Mail. The current blood test measures levels of a protein made by the prostate, but false positive and negative...

Discovering how a rare cancer heals itself could lead to new treatments for other types of the disease, claim scientists. Researchers believe they have found a key gene involved in Ferguson-Smith disease, otherwise known as multiple self-healing squamous epithelioma (MSSE), a skin cancer that grows rapidly but then a few weeks later, inexplicably, heals itself. They believe that by finding out how the faults in the gene TGFBR1 cause the cancer and then subsequently heal it could give valuable insights into beating other types of tumour. Read more…

By Kate Kelland (Reuters) – About a third of all common cancers in the United States, China and Britain could be prevented each year if people ate healthier food, drank less alcohol and exercised more, health experts said on Friday. Estimates from the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) and the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) suggest that making simple lifestyle changes could prevent some 40 percent of breast cancers alone in Britain and the United States, as well as tens of thousands of colon, stomach and prostate cancers. “It is distressing that even in 2011, people are...

By Charles Bankhead, Staff Writer, MedPage Today A four-gene signature accurately distinguished high-risk prostate cancer from low-risk disease in a series of experiments involving mice and human tumor specimens. In studies involving archived human prostate cancer specimens, the test demonstrated 83% accuracy for identifying cancers that led to fatal metastatic spread. Combining the test result with Gleason score increased the accuracy to 90%, researchers reported online in Nature. The results indicate the test has potential to help reduce unnecessary treatment of prostate cancer by distinguishing...

ZURICH—Swiss drug giant Roche Holding AG said Wednesday its promising new skin-cancer drug helps patients with advanced forms of the disease live longer and without their illness worsening, according to late-stage trial data. RG7204 is a novel drug compound that targets a specific part in the cell, which is considered to be causing cancer in half of all patients who suffer from metastatic melanoma tumors. The drug tries to subdue activity of the mutated form of the so-called BRAF protein. The drug’s positive performance in the trial is likely to boost Roche’s pipeline and the group’s...

Aging population means cost of care will increase by 27 percent in the next decade Following the life stages of baby boomers has become somewhat of a national pastime — and now, as the flower-power generation reaches the age of Medicare eligibility, policymakers are wondering how much their health care will cost. A new study published today by researchers at the National Cancer Institute predicts how much more the nation can expect to spend on its collective cancer care a decade from now. The aging of the population alone means that the cost of cancer care will increase by 27 percent between...

66-Year-Old At Risk for Recurrence, Researchers Say After months of radiation and chemotherapy for late-stage throat cancer, actor Michael Douglas is tumor-free, he told NBC’s Today Show viewers this morning. Not a trace of the stage-IV, walnut-sized tumor at the base of his tongue could be detected on medical imaging, Douglas said. That’s a signal, researchers told MedPage Today and ABC News, of complete response to treatment. Yet they caution that the 66-year-old Douglas is hardly out of the woods. “We always hope that our treatments cure the patient but the reality is that...