Links to Cancer and Processed Foods are Studied by Brazilian and French Researchers

What You Put in Your Body Could Be Affecting Your Likelihood of Catching Cancer.
What You Put in Your Body Could Be Affecting Your Likelihood of Catching Cancer.

Following a nutritional diet during cancer treatment is essential to boosting your immune system and energy level. A recently published study indicates that there may be a link between highly processed foods and development of cancer.

Does Diet Affect Cancer Risk?

A recent issue of medical journal BMJ included the report of a study conducted by a team of French and Brazilian scientists. After reviewing the diets and medical records of 104,980 French adults, the researchers found that an increase in consumption of processed foods paralleled an increase in cancer risk.

Specifically, data showed that eating 10 percent more highly processed foods was accompanied by a 12 percent increase in overall cancer risk and 11 percent increase in breast cancer risk.

Items defined as “highly processed foods” included ready-to-eat meals, carbonated drinks and reconstituted meat found in products like chicken nuggets. According to the research team, these types of foods constitute nearly half of the energy intake in many developed countries.

Making Healthy Choices

No link was found with moderately processed foods such as cheese, canned vegetables and freshly made bread. Not surprisingly, minimally processed foods such as fruits and vegetables, meat, eggs and fish were linked to a lower risk of cancer.

The team said that study limitations prevented firm conclusions. Further research can clarify the implications and help to identify the specific elements in foods that link to cancer.

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Ribosomes May be Hijacked to Protein Fuel for Cancers

It's Time to Stop Cancer
It’s Time to Stop Cancer

Cancer cells often have an uncanny ability to hijack the functions of normal body cells. Scientists have focused on this property in the belief that deciphering the process will lead to more effective cancer treatment.

Thanks to the results of a Yale University study, the scientific community may be a little closer to this goal. Discovery of unknown pathways to fuel sources provides insights into the development and growth of cancer.

How Cell Proteins Drive Cancer Growth

Organelles are specialized structures in cells that carry out certain tasks, much like organs do for the human body. One of these organelles, called the nucleolus, produces ribosomes, which in turn manufacture proteins.

Ribosomes can be hijacked by cancer cells to divert protein production in order to fuel cancer growth. In a study published in Cell Reports, Dr. Susan Baserga of Yale University and two of her graduate students screened 18,000 proteins that are vital to nucleoli formation.

A Target for Immunotherapy Cancer Treatment?

Dr. Baserga and her team found 139 proteins that serve as a type of master switching network. The proteins represent countless cellular pathways that control the production of ribosomes. This discovery clarifies the link between ribosomes and cancer as well as the one between ribosomes and certain birth defects known as ribosomopathies.

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New Possible Cervical Cancer Treatments Focus on Cancer’s Energy Supply

New Possible Cervical Cancer Treatments Focus on Cancer's Energy Supply
New Possible Cervical Cancer Treatments Focus on Cancer’s Energy Supply

A new potential cervical cancer treatment is making waves. After decades of the same, largely unchanged treatment protocol, there may be a new hope on the horizon. A study conducted on mice by the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has uncovered that cervical tumors that don’t respond to radiation are vulnerable to therapies that cut off cancer’s energy supply at the source.

Turning Cervical Cancer ‘Off’
The mice used in the study, implanted with human cervical cancer cells, provided some interesting data. When treated with a combination of radiation and 3 drugs designed to slow tumor metabolism, cancer’s ability to burn glucose and protect itself was shut down, thwarting cancer cell survival attempts.

The Sugar-Zapping Theory
Cancer cells take up glucose in larger amounts than normal tissues. Researchers in the study observed that tumors resisting treatment were those that took up a large deal of glucose prior to radiation therapy. On the hypothesis that sugar strengthens tumor resistance, they decided to delve closer into what would happen if that sugar uptake was inhibited.

Shocking Potential
With glucose eliminated as a food source, cancer cells must scavenge for sustenance. In typical treatment modalities, cancer will rally by hitting the cells’ metabolic pathways in two more ways simultaneously, making tumors vulnerable to their own self-created toxic stew.

Free radical toxicity escalates, eventually devastating the cancer cells. As healthy cells don’t rely on this fuel production pathway, no obvious negative side-effects were revealed. Future studies will explore this cancer treatment’s potential in HPV-induced cervical cancer.

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Targeting Proteins May Prevent Metastasis of Cancers

Targeting Proteins May Prevent Metastasis of Cancers
Targeting Proteins May Prevent Metastasis of Cancers

New research has uncovered the existence of a protein that helps tumors spread, enabling their capacity to grow blood vessels. Could targeting this protein in cancer treatment experimentation lead to a new potential cure?

Not So Fast!
Published in the journal Oncogene, the study involved laboratory experiments blocking the protein latent TGF-beta binding protein 3 (LTBP3), prevented tumors from effectively metastasizing. A collaborative effort between multiple researchers, the investigation began based on the observation that lower levels of the protein LTBP3 correlated to an improved survival outcome in those with certain types of cancer.

A Complex Dynamic
The LTBP3 protein binds to a substance called TGF-beta to metastasize. TGF-beta presents a double-edged sword, either aiding the spread of tumors – or putting a halt to metastasis. Our bodies rely on TGF-beta to function properly. In early stages, it suppresses cancer growth. However in advanced cancers, it transforms and promotes tumor growth. The cancer treatment trick? To control the harmful effects of TGF-beta without disturbing normal cell function.

A Confirmed Association
As researchers looked closer into the interplay of LTBP3 and TGF-beta using head and neck carcinoma and fibroscarcoma in mice and chicks, the scientists discovered LTBP3 helps tumors grow blood vessels, and primary tumors could not metastasize properly in its absence. This corroborated the previous research associating lower levels of the LTBP3 protein with better patient outcomes. Further research into this complex dynamic is highly anticipated.

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Specialized DNA Nanobots Close Cancer Tumor’s Blood Supply

Specialized DNA Nanobots Close Cancer Tumor's Blood Supply
Specialized DNA Nanobots Close Cancer Tumor’s Blood Supply

Robotics has made quite a splash in manufacturing and industrial applications, and now it’s on the brink of a breakthrough in a completely different arena. Future cancer treatment options may include an army of tiny tumor-fighting nanobots.

Biochemistry Meets Industrial Technology

The concept is in the preliminary stages, so real-life use is still far off on the horizon. Scientists are encouraged by the results of a study that was recently published in Nature Biotechnology.

Researchers conducted the test on a group of mice with human breast cancer tumors. Specially engineered DNA nanobots containing a payload of thrombin, an enzyme that causes blood to clot, were then injected intravenously into the affected mice.

Once inside, the nanobots delivered the thrombin directly to tumor-associated blood vessels, where they induced intravascular thrombosis. As a result, cancer cells were deprived of their blood supply and ultimately died off.

Sparing Healthy Cells

While scientists welcome any advancement in cancer treatment, one particular aspect of DNA nanobots is especially promising. During testing on the mice, the nanobots focused exclusively on cancer cells. There was no damage to healthy cells, unlike results often found in traditional cancer treatments such as radiation and chemotherapy.

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Liquid Biopsy Test for Cancer Has Problematic Accuracy Results

Liquid Biopsy Test for Cancer Has Problematic Accuracy Results
Liquid Biopsy Test for Cancer Has Problematic Accuracy Results

Early detection improves the chances of successful cancer treatment, so recent news of a “liquid biopsy” has encouraged the medical community. Unfortunately, the test is showing unacceptable levels of accuracy, leaving the procedure a long way from any real-world applications.

Controlled vs. Real World Conditions

CancerSEEK uses a blood sample for a battery of tests to measure tumor biomarkers and identify cancer-associated DNA mutations. During clinical studies, researchers obtained some promising results.

By the team’s own admission, the conditions were optimized to facilitate detection of cancer. Even so, most of the cancers detected were late-stage while the goal of screening was to find cancer in the early stages.

Accuracy problems in less-controlled environments became more clear in a 2017 study involving 40 prostate cancer patients who underwent liquid biopsies to fine-tune their therapy programs. Each sample was sent to two different labs with similar technology, but the results differed for more than half of the patients.

Are Liquid Biopsies the Answer?

Researchers are also questioning the full value of a positive result. While the test may detect the presence of cancer, it gives no clues as to the location of the tumor, unlike traditional screenings such as mammograms and CT scans.

Scientists will no doubt continue to study the science behind liquid biopsies, as detection of circulating tumor DNA can have other applications. The question remains whether liquid biopsies have a viable future as useful cancer screening.

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