Cancer Research, Immunotherapy

New Research Finds Tantalizing Similarities between Aging and Cancer Cells

Similarities to Aging and Cancer Cells
Similarities to Aging and Cancer Cells

That cancer risk dramatically increases with age is a known fact. But why that is so has puzzled scientists. The general assumption has been that living longer simply increases our exposure to cancer-causing agents. However, a new study recently published in the journal Nature Cell Biology indicates that the very process of aging may play a major role in the connection between increased cancer risk and aging.

In studying the aging process of connective tissue cells, called fibroblasts, a team of Scottish researchers discovered aging cells exhibit many of the same DNA changes that occur in cancer cells. As explained on arstechnica.com, as we age our cells go through a process called senescence which causes changes to the epigenome. The epigenome consists of the proteins and biochemical compounds that attach to and can alter our DNA. While not actually part of our DNA, epigenetic alterations can be passed from cell to cell during cell division.

When aging cells enter senescence, changes in the epigenome direct cells to stop dividing; however, as cells age they begin to lose control over their epigenome, leaving it more vulnerable to modification. Scottish researchers discovered that the epigenetic modifications that occur during senescence are remarkably similar to the epigenetic changes observed in cancer cells. Scientists hope the revelation will take them a step closer to solving the puzzle of how cancer cells are able to continue multiplying and ignore genetic imperatives to stop dividing.

Like the tumor microenvironment targeted by Issels integrative immunotherapy, the epigenome may turn out to play a surprising role in cancer treatment.

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Cancer Care Tips

Cancer Care in Crisis: Are You Getting the Right Treatment?

Get Proper Treatment
Get Proper Treatment

Cancer care has become so complex that many physicians lack “core competencies in caring for patients with cancer,” warns a recent report, Delivering High-Quality Cancer Care: Charting a New Course for a System in Crisis, by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine (IOM). “Patients need to be asking, Is my doctor giving me appropriate treatment?” said cancer specialist Dr. Patricia Ganz of the University of California-Los Angeles. Gantz chaired the medical panel tasked with updating IOM’s 1999 report on the quality of U.S. cancer care. Progress has not been as great as hoped. “Barriers to achieving excellent care for all cancer patients remain daunting,” the new report notes.

Over the next two decades, an expected increase in new cancer diagnoses precipitated by the aging baby boomer generation and a predicted shortage of oncology specialists will make it more difficult to provide cancer patients with adequate care. But the growing complexity of cancer care in an age of genetic discovery is what most concerned the IOM panel.

As scientists continue to explore the genetic mechanisms of cancer tumors and the importance of the tumor microenvironment, highly individualized cancer treatments are expected to become the norm. The IOM panel expressed concern that the volume and speed of new cancer discoveries appears to be outpacing the ability of many physicians to keep up with new knowledge and apply it to patient treatment. That knowledge/treatment gap is only going to widen as cancer treatment moves away from one-size-fits all chemotherapy and radiation treatments and toward modern advanced targeted cancer therapies tailored to meet the specific individual needs of each cancer patient.

Cancer Research

Study Links Allergies to Greater Blood Cancer Risk in Women

Allergies Linked To Cancer
Allergies Linked To Cancer

Women that suffer from airborne allergies, including hayfever, appear to be at greater risk of developing blood cancers, according to a study by researchers at Seattle’s Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Curiously, a similar risk was not found among male allergy sufferers, prompting the research team to suspect “a possible gender-specific role in chronic stimulation of the immune system that may lead to the development of hematologic cancers,” Science Daily reported.

Allergies and cancer are both linked to dysfunction of the body’s immune system. “If your immune system is over-reactive, then you have problems; if it’s under-reactive, you’re going to have problems,” study leader Dr. Mazyar Shadman explained. “Increasing evidence indicates that dysregulation of the immune system, such as you find in allergic and autoimmune disorders, can affect survival of cells in developing tumors.”

Over an 8-year time span, the study tracked the health histories of 66,000 adults with no prior history of cancer malignancies other than non-melanoma skin cancer. The relationship between the development of blood cancers and various types of allergies was studied. Women with allergies to plants, grass and trees were found to have the highest risk of developing hematologic cancers. Researchers found study results surprising because men typically have a greater risk of developing blood cancers than women. Additional research is needed, but the chronic strain allergies place on an already weakened immune system may allow cancer the foothold it needs. Following in Issels’ footsteps, the American medical community is increasingly recognizing the importance of a strong immune system. Cancer vaccines to boost the immune system may someday become as common as allergy injections.

Cancer Care Tips, Cancer Research

5 Ways to Cut Your Cancer Risk

Ways to Reduce the Risk of Getting Cancer
Ways to Reduce the Risk of Getting Cancer

“Right now, there’s no sure way to prevent breast cancer, but we know healthy habits significantly decrease your risk,” Debbie Saslow, the American Cancer Society’s director of breast and gynecologic cancer, recently told AARP The Magazine. Studies indicate that what is true of breast cancer can, in many cases, be successfully applied to other cancers with equally beneficial results.

The advent of Big Data has allowed cancer researchers to sift incredible amounts of patient data through highly sophisticated computer sieves. The result has been the discovery of myriad, often previously unknown, behavioral, health, environmental and genetic commonalities among people who develop the same type of cancer. While scientists continue to grapple with the “hows” and “whys,” it is clear that certain health and lifestyle choices can and with alarming statistical frequency do increase the likelihood of cancer development.

While scientists are still working to bring the mechanisms of cancer risk into focus, recent discoveries, backed by decades of experiential data, strongly indicate that five specific health habits have the potential to significantly decrease cancer risk. Interestingly, all are general health habits that support and strengthen the body’s immune system. Individualized immunotherapy, considered by many researchers to be cancer’s kryptonite, is ushering in what is being heralded as a new age in cancer treatment that is increasing medical focus on risk avoidance and cancer prevention.

5 Ways to Decrease Your Cancer Risk

1. Get at least 6 hours of sleep a night.

2. Lose weight.

3. Eat more vegetables.

4. Drink less alcohol.

5. Get more exercise.

Follow Issels, the alternative cancer treatment center, on social media for how-to tips on decreasing your cancer risk.

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Cancer Care Tips, Cancer Research

Scientists Are Sniffing Out Cancer’s Scent

Sniffing Out Cancer
Sniffing Out Cancer

The scent of cancer caused a national ruckus recently when a New Mexico school principal banned a mother with stage 4 breast cancer from participating in school activities with her children (see our November 18, 2013 tweets). Why? School staff complained about her smell!

The incident raised the ire of people in the woman’s own community and across the nation. Messages poured in condemning the principal’s decision and supporting the cancer patient and her family. The take-away message was that cancer patients and their families rely on and profit from the support of their families, friends and community; but the incident also piqued people’s curiosity. Does cancer affect the way a person smells?

Body odor is the natural result of the expulsion of waste products through our breath, blood, urine and skin. The way we smell can be affected by changes in body chemistry. Certain dietary practices, diseases and medications are known to cause changes in body scent. Chemotherapy appears to have been the cause of the chemical scent that created so much trouble for the New Mexico mom. But the evidence linking cancer to scent is largely experiential.

Organic chemist George Preti of the Monell Chemical Senses Center, who has spent more than 40 years studying human scent, hopes to change that. Working with an interdisciplinary team from the University of Pennsylvania, Preti is now attempting to identify the scent of cancer, specifically ovarian cancer. If Preti’s team is successful, the ability to scent cancer in its early stages before it is detectable by other methods could prove to be a powerful diagnostic tool.

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Cancer Care Tips

What Are Probiotics and How Are They Beneficial

Probiotics
Probiotics can benefit cancer treatment

You have many options for receiving treatment for your cancer, and the use of probiotics may be one companion treatment you’d want to investigate.

The link between cancer and probiotics is still being assessed by researchers, but there’s evidence that this “good” bacteria often found in a healthy gut may lessen the often damaging side-effects of chemotherapy.

About probiotics
Probiotics are live-culture organisms like bacteria and yeast, which grow naturally in our body’s digestive systems. Although the word “bacteria” may sound risky (think about all the antibiotics prescribed for various ailments), when processed correctly these organisms actually contribute to a healthier gut and a boosted immune system.

Cancer and probiotics
Probiotics’ benefits to the immune system is particularly relevant in terms of cancer treatment. If you have undergone chemotherapy, you know that this treatment works by seeking out and killing not just the cancerous cells, but fast-growing cells of all descriptions – that’s why you lose your hair.

And among other targeted cells are the ones that contribute to your immune system. When those are killed off, you risk infection. So a regimen of probiotics may help keep your immunity stronger during and after chemo.

Forms of probiotics
Because they are a supplement and not a drug, probiotics are widely available over the counter, added into products like yogurt, chocolate and granola bars. You can also find probiotics capsules.

Probiotics can become part of an alternative or  holistic cancer treatment program. But before jumping into probiotics on your own, make sure to check with your cancer team at Issels for their recommendations and program.

Individualized Cancer Treatment