Women’s cancers

Introduction to Women’s #cancers

Women who carry excess body fat have an increasing incidence of cancer and this is due to the fact that they produce more oestrogen.  Oestrogen production is higher when there is excessive body fat because oestrogen can also be made in adipose tissue.  This is true even after the menopause.  Oestrogen leads to proliferation of certain cells and when this goes awry it can lead to cancer.  This can occur in the uterus, breast , endometrium and other tissues.

 

Carrying excess weight can also decrease the number of a protein, called sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG), that bind oestrogen in the blood and render it inert.  So aswll as producing more oestrogen, a woman with excess body fat also has more ‘free’  and less ‘bound’ oestrogen in the blood .

Oestrogen is an essential hormone for women and a lack of it causes menopuse symptoms and loss of fertility.  It is also natural for oestrogen levels to fall after the menopause but it is having higher than normal levels of oestrogen for long periods of time that could lead to certain cancers.

Saturday, August 4th, 2012

A high #glycemic load diet may be associated with certain form of #breast cancer

Older women who eat a high glycemic load diet may be at increased risk of a less common but deadlier form of breast cancer, a new study suggests.

This conclusion was reached after a study of nearly 335,000 European women, where postmenopausal women with high glycemic load diets had a 36% higher risk of ER-negative breast cancer, compared with women whose diets had the lightest load.

These findings do not prove cause-and-effect, but highlight an association and more research is needed to draw a firmer link. The take home message is that while no single factor accounts for breast cancer risk, the findings do offer more incentive to limit refined carbs, with a high GI, in favor of healthier foods.

 Am J Clin Nutr 2012, July 3rd

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Saturday, June 30th, 2012

Eating #soya food seems safe after breast cancer and may lower #breast cancer link

Despite concerns to the contrary, eating soya foods may be linked to a lower recurrence risk in breast cancer, according to some new research .

The researchers obtained data from the ‘After Breast Cancer Pooling Project’ so that they had more than 9,500 breast cancer survivors from two prospective U.S. cohort studies and one Chinese study.  After a mean follow-up period of 7.4 years, there had been 1,171 deaths, 881 of which were from breast cancer, and 1,348 recurrences. The researchers found that women who ate at least 10 mg isoflavones per day had a significant 25% reduction in their recurrence risk, as well as non-significant trends toward reduced all-cause and breast cancer-specific mortality.

The recurrence risk dropped with increasing isoflavone intake, the hormone like active ingredeient in soya.  So women in the highest 10% of intake had a 36% reduced risk of recurrence compared with the lowest 10%. The inverse association between isoflavone consumption and recurrence was slightly stronger among women with estrogen receptor-negative breast cancers. Among women with estrogen receptor-positive breast cancers, the risk of recurrence was significantly reduced only for women who also used tamoxifen.

So. women who are regular soya food consumers, they should not be concerned about cutting their soy food intake after diagnosis of breast cancer. The researchers warned that While soy food consumption after diagnosis of breast cancer is safe, these results can’t be directly generalised to supplements that contain soy isoflavones.

Am J Clin Nutr June 26 2012.

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Monday, April 16th, 2012

Veg like broccoli and cabage may reduce reccurance of #breast cancer

The consumption of cruciferous vegetables (cabbages, broccoli, cauliflower etc) might have a positive impact on survival in breast cancer patients, according to the results of a new study.

The study was the Shanghai Breast Cancer Survival Study which wast a large population-based prospective cohort study of Chinese breast cancer survivors. After adjustment for confounders such as demographics, clinical characteristics, and lifestyle factors, cruciferous vegetable intake during the first 36 months after diagnosis was associated with a reduced risk for total mortality, breast-cancer-specific mortality, and recurrence. As the amount of cruciferous vegetable consumption increased, the risk for total mortality decreased by 27% (to 62%), the risk for breast-cancer-specific mortality decreased by 22% (to 62%), and the risk for recurrence decreased by 21% (to 35%).

The researchers did point out that differences in the populations need to be taken into account when trying to extrapolate these results to other settings. First, commonly consumed cruciferous vegetables in China include turnip, Chinese cabbage/bok choy, and greens, whereas broccoli and brussels sprouts are the most commonly consumed cruciferous vegetables in the US and other Western countries. Second, the amount of intake among Chinese women is much higher than that of American women.

 Future studies with direct measurements of bioactive compounds are needed to better understand the association between cruciferous vegetable intake and breast cancer outcomes.  The researchers however suggested that breast cancer survivors follow the general nutrition guidelines of eating vegetables daily, and consider increasing their intake of cruciferous vegetables, such as cabbage, cauliflower, and broccoli, as part of a healthy diet.

American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) 103rd Annual Meeting: Abstract LB-322. Presented April 3, 2012.

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