3 cups of coffee a day may keep skin cancer away

BREW THAT SAVES

Washington: Good news for the coffee buffs, especially women drinkers: Consuming copious amounts of the beverage daily may help reduce the risk of the most common type of skin cancer, a new study has claimed. 
    Researchers at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston found that women who drank over three cups of coffee daily were 20% less likely to develop basal cell carcinoma (BCC), a slowgrowing form of skin cancer, than those who drank less than one cup a month. 
    But, men who drank same amount of the beverage saw only a 9% reduction in the disease, found the study. BCC rarely spread to other parts of the body, and rarely return if they are promptly removed. 
    "Given the nearly one million new cases of BCC diagnosed each year in the US, daily dietary factors with even small protective effects may have great public health impact," study researcher Fengju Song said. 
    The study, presented at the American Association for Cancer Research meeting in Boston, found an association, not a direct cause-effect link. PTI 
Drinking water cuts bladder cancer risk 
    Downing more than four pints of the beverage daily can cut men's risk of bladder cancer by a quarter, say researchers. A new study of 48,000 men, carried out by Brown University, found that those who drank more than 2,531 ml of fluids a day — equal to almost four and a half pints — had a 24% lower risk or bladder cancer. This could be because the liquid flushes any cancer-causing agents out of the bladder before they are able to cause any harm, according to the researchers. PTI

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Bachelor? Cancer risk twice as high

London: Chronic bachelors, please take note: Unmarried people are twice as likely to die of cancer than those who live with their partners, claims a new study. Norwegian researchers who looked at cancer death rates over 40 years found that men and women who had never married were more likely to die from 13 of the most common types of cancer, including lung, breast and prostate. 

    But the increased death rate, they found, was most stark in unmarried men over the age of 70, and it's been increasing every decade, the Daily Mail reported. For the study, the University of Oslo researchers looked at the records of 440,000 people diagnosed with cancer from 1970 to 2007, and compared them with marital status. 
    They found that those who were unmarried when diagnosed, rather than being divorced or widowed, doubled the death rate in men from 18 to 35 per cent and in women more modestly from 17 to 22 per cent. 
    Past studies have already shown that married people have better health and live longer than singletons, as they tend not to smoke and drink heavily, and have better mental health. The Norwegian researchers did say however that married people are probably diagnosed earlier as they tend to visit the doctor more. PTI

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Cancer cases on the rise, hit 12m a year worldwide

London: The number of cancer cases has risen by 20% globally in a decade to hit 12 million a year, new figures have revealed. 

    This is more than four times the annual number of new HIV infections, and 2.8 million of the cancers are linked to poor diet, a lack of exercise and being overweight, according to the figures by charity World Cancer Research Fund. 
    The number of cancers that could potentially be prevented is expected to rise dramatically over the next decade as more people lead sedentary lifestyles and become obese, the Daily Mail has reported. 
    Experts have said that apart from cancer, diseases such as heart disease and diabetes are some of the biggest health challenges. 
    The British government has come under fire from several health charities over its responsibility deal, which aims to form partnerships with produce firms. It has been slammed for cutting spending on the Change4Life health campaign in favour of getting commercial firms and charities to fill the gap. 
    A spokesman for the UK's department of health said, "This week's responsibility deal calorie labelling announcement shows real progress that can be achieved by working with industry voluntarily to help improve public health." PTI 
Targeting enzyme to fight breast cancer? 
    Scientists in Singapore claim to have uncovered a new method to target an enzyme that promotes the oestrogen receptor-negative breast cancer, a finding which may pave the way for an effective treatment for the disease. A team from the Genome Institute of Singapore and the National University of Singapore says it has found the way to target the enzyme EZH2 which puts people at risk of developing the oestrogen receptor-negative breast cancer, one of the most aggressive forms of the disease unresponsive to treatment. It has been known that EZH2 enzymatic activity promotes cancer by inactivating some important tumour suppressors, which function as 'brakes' to stop tumour growth. Over-expression of EZH2 is often linked to aggressive and rapid spread of breast cancers, the most common cancer in women globally. PTI

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Drinking over recommended limit 'raises cancer risk'

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Many people do not know that drinking alcohol can increase their cancer risk.

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Drinking more than a pint of beer a day can substantially increase the risk of some cancers, research suggests.

The Europe-wide study of 363,988 people reported in the British Medical Journal found one in 10 of all cancers in men and one in 33 in women were caused by past or current alcohol intake.

More than 18% of alcohol-related cancers in men and about 4% in women were linked to excessive drinking.

The Department of Health said it was taking action to reduce drinking.

Cancer charities say people should limit their drinking to lower the risk.

The study calculated that in 2008 current and past drinking habits were responsible for about 13,000 cancer cases in the UK, out of a total of 304,000 cases.

Previous research has shown a link between alcohol consumption and cancers of the oesophagus, liver, bowel and female breast.

When alcohol is broken down by the body it produces a chemical which can damage DNA, increasing the chance of developing cancer.

Glass too far

The latest research found that individuals who drank more than two standard drinks a day for men and one drink a day for women were particularly at risk of alcohol-related cancers.

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Dr Kat Arney, Cancer Research UK: "The more you drink, the greater the risk"

A standard drink contains about 12g of alcohol, which is equivalent to a 125ml glass of wine or a half pint of beer.

Yet NHS guidelines are a little more relaxed, saying that men should drink no more than three to four units a day while women should not go above two to three units a day.

Of the cancers known to be linked to alcohol, the researchers suggest that 40% to 98% occurred in people who drank more than the recommended maximum.

The results were gathered as part of a study following 363,988 men and women in eight European countries aged between 35 and 70.

The European Prospective Investigation into Cancer study tracked their levels of drinking and how this affected their risk of cancer.

Researchers then looked at figures on how much people drank in each country, including the UK, taken from the World Health Organization.

The study focused on France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Greece, Germany, Denmark and the UK.

Madlen Schutze, lead researcher and study author, from the German Institute of Human Nutrition, said that many cancer cases could be avoided if alcohol consumption was limited.

"And even more cancer cases would be prevented if people reduced their alcohol intake to below recommended guidelines or stopped drinking alcohol at all," she said.

'Best data'

Cancer Research UK director of health information Sara Hiom said that many people did not know that drinking alcohol could increase their cancer risk.

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I think there will have to be some form of tougher regulation by government"

Professor Sir Ian Gilmore UK Alcohol Health Alliance

"In the last 10 years, mouth cancer has become much more common and one reason for this could be because of higher levels of drinking - as this study reflects.

"Along with being a non-smoker and keeping a healthy bodyweight, cutting back on alcohol is one of the most important ways of lowering your cancer risk."

Cancer Partners UK medical director Prof Karol Sikora said the message had to be "drink occasionally, but not regularly".

"This is the best data we've got and we're ever likely to get.

"The take-home message is that the more alcohol you drink, some of the common cancers - the four cancers that have been identified - do increase, and that's worrying. So the message has to be 'look at drinking habits, and reduce.'"

The Department of Health is set to publish an alcohol strategy in the summer.

Professor Sir Ian Gilmore, former president of the Royal College of Physicians and chairman of the UK Alcohol Health Alliance, called for tougher regulation to curb alcohol consumption.

He told the BBC: "It is yet another piece of evidence that really leads us to conclude that sitting back and waiting for people to change their habits, perhaps with voluntary partnerships with the drinks industry included in policies, will not bring about results.

"If we really want to see preventable deaths coming down in the next decade or so, I think there will have to be some form of tougher regulation by government."

It is expected to include plans to stop supermarkets selling cheap alcohol and tighten up licensing laws which were relaxed under the previous government.

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