Recent Comments:
The Cancer Blog retires
The Cancer Blog
Sep 18th 2007 12:39PM Very sad indeed. Can readers suggest other blogs on the subject?
Expert tips on preventing lung cancer
The Cancer Blog
Sep 12th 2007 1:12PM You want knockout? consider this:
Among US women, breast cancer incidence (not mortality) remained stable over the past 20 years at about 130 cases yearly per 100,000. Stable, the opposite of epidemic. Yet, a Google search for the sentence "breast cancer epidemic" returns 15,900 hits.
During that period, lung cancer incidence (and mortality) among women was increasing at an alarming rate, going from 40 to 60 cases yearly per 100,000. A true epidemic. A Google search for the sentence "lung cancer epidemic" returns 10,800.
I am knocked out. Aren't you?
A large majority of physicians in training do not understand statistics, says Yale study
The Cancer Blog
Sep 11th 2007 12:41PM Thinking of the number of times I had to explain the difference between total and age-corrected cancer incidence in this blog, I think very few people get statistics.
Uterine cancer caused by natural hormone replacement?
The Cancer Blog
Aug 21st 2007 1:03PM If the drug alleviates all the symptoms of menopause, it has oestrogenic activity in sufficient amounts. If it has oestrogenic activity, it will promote endometrial and breast cancer. This is true regardless of the source of the oestrogen-like substance.
Anyone who told you otherwise is either misinformed or lying.
Thought for the Day: Medical studies need more women
The Cancer Blog
Aug 13th 2007 12:42PM Surely they must be joking.
A search in Google Scholar for "breast carcinoma" returns 252,000 articles. For "prostate carcinoma", 47,000. That's five times less research, despite the very similar numbers of these two diseases.
Not a day passes without a new study on HRT or cervical cancer, but studies on testicular cancer are few and far between.
Why is the "war on cancer" taking so long to win?
The Cancer Blog
Aug 7th 2007 12:25PM I am tired of all the talk about the "war on cancer". Once cancer is encrusted in the flesh the battle is indeed ugly and difficult, but anyone of us can prevent cancer with little effort and at no cost.
About two thirds of all cancers can be avoided by simple lifestyle changes like stopping smoking, losing weight, exercising, eating more veggies, avoiding the sun, etc.
Dr Liboff writes: "medicine still does not have a firm understanding of the underlying basis for cancer." Wrong. We understand clearly what causes most cancer. In the end, however, very few care, fewer listen.
They are too busy looking for "the cure for cancer".
Many Americans believe unsubstantiated claims about cancer
The Cancer Blog
Jul 27th 2007 9:14AM I wish they would have checked if people knew that obesity causes breast cancer, that a meat-rich diet causes colon cancer. These are major preventable risk factors for common cancers.
Thank you for posting about this very important study.
Wheat can cause cancer?
The Cancer Blog
Jul 23rd 2007 1:07PM All forms of chronic inflammatory diseases come with an increased risk of lymphoma because of the prolonged proliferation of lymphocytes. Celiac disease is one of them.
By the way, this is the first time I see celiac disease called "wheat allergy". It is not incorrect, just unusual.
One risk of breast cancer screening: the false-positive
The Cancer Blog
Jul 23rd 2007 1:00PM Compare this post to the ones about MRI mammograms in this blog.
Chinese women see more breast cancer based on Western diet
The Cancer Blog
Jul 11th 2007 3:07PM "With all the chemicals in processed and fatty foods being having been connected to cancer risk increases, I guess this was inevitable."
Brian, do you accuse environmental chemical pollutants for the higher incidence of breast cancer incidence in western countries? Sorry but you are mistaken.
Please read the first article below. It was written following the melanine pet food scandal. You will learn that, in addition to melanine, Chinese people eat formaldehyde, borax, diethylene glycol and industrial dyes. These are not accidental contaminants: they are added to food for various reasons. Besides food, pollutants from the innumerable factories end up in the air, water and soil. Finally, the women working in these shops have no worksite protection laws to speak of.
Therefore, Chinese women are exposed to much more environmental contaminants than western women. Now, in 2002 age-standardized breast cancer incidence was 99 per 100,000 women per year in the US, 85 in Western Europe and 19 in China.
More pollutants, less breast cancer. Now you know.
Now, back to the story. The incidence of breast cancer is indeed increasing in the far East, because the well known risk factors for this disease are increasing out there : less children, earlier puberty, obesity, alcohol and inactivity. To this you must add the aging of the population (was this age-standardized?) and the increase in screening causing a temporary increase in incidence (lead-time bias).
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070618/tainted_food_070618/20070618?hub=Health
http://www.oralcancerfoundation.org/facts/pdf/worldcancer.pdf
