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Focus on Cancer RSS Feed 2015-03-16 16:14:00

March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month. To learn more about screening, symptoms, treatments and the latest research, we’re teaming up with 6ABC for a live, streaming web chat at 6abc.com/pennmedicine.

Colorectal Cancer – Did you know?

Colorectal cancer, cancer of the colon and rectum, is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States.

You may be at a higher risk for colorectal cancer as you get older, but with education and screening, you can help reduce your risk.

Screening Can Save Lives

For those 50 years and older, getting a colorectal cancer screening can be life saving.

Symptoms like the appearance of polyps in the colon or rectum, persistent stomach aches and pains, rapid weight loss and bloody bowel movements may be key indicators.

While these symptoms may be indicative of other ailments, colorectal cancer screenings can help you take the right next steps.

This March, Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month, be sure to ask the right questions, and get the facts.

Our Experts Answering Your Questions

Patients and loved ones can submit questions ahead of time and also watch the chat in full after our broadcast.

Want to know more about:

Colorectal cancer screening?
Risk evaluation?
Hereditary risk?
Cutting-edge treatment potions?
New breakthrough clinical trials?
Survivorship?

Please join Penn experts Gregory G. Ginsberg, MD, Timothy C. Hoops, MD and Joshua I.S. Bleier, MD on Thursday, March 19 2015 at 4pm.

To submit your questions and set up an email reminder for the live web chat,
please visit 6abc.com/PennMedicine.

Does caffeine fight cancer?

Epidemiological studies have shown that caffeinated drinks may help prevent skin cancer by inhibiting a DNA repair pathway, thus killing potentially precancerous cells. In English, it means that drinking drinks containing caffeine will reduce one’s chances of developing some types of cancer, including UV-associated skin cancer. That just proves that caffeine fight cancer. The results, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, lend support to the idea that caffeine could be added to sunblock to increase its protective effects. At the cellular level, they’re showing that caffeine is working in this way of inducing an apoptotic mechanism. This statement was then made by cancer epidemiologist Joanne Kotsopoulos of the University of Toronto.

In the 2007, a study stated that woman who drank caffeinated coffee on a daily basis had a 10 percent lower risk of nonmelanoma skin cancer. Six or more cups of coffee a day translated to a 30 percent reduction in risk. Mouse studies have also confirmed the link, with both ingested and topically-applied caffeine lowering skin cancer rates in the animals. But exactly how the stimulant protected against cancer remained mysterious. One possibility is the drug’s inhibition of ataxia telangiectasia and Rad3-related (ATR), a large protein kinase that senses incomplete DNA replication often a result of DNA damage and signals the cell to not divide. By inhibiting ATR activity, caffeine could make cells more likely to die in response to UV damage, preventing damaged cells from ever becoming cancerous.

Studies have shown that the caffeine molecule acts as a sunscreen. It therefore blocks the penetration of UV rays. And that is why today we see many sunblocks with a good amount of caffeine in them.

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Can sugar consumption cause breast cancer?

A recent study stated that drinking three sugar sweetened drinks a week would increase the risk of having breast cancer. The study had 776 pre-menopausal women and 779 post-menopausal women. Each women’s breast density was assessed by examining their mammograms. The women were told to make a note of sweet they consumed such as chocolates, cakes, ice cream or any sweet drinks. Also they were asked to make a note of how much of spoonful of sugar they add to the drinks.

It was then found out that post-menopausal women who consumed more of sugar, an increase in the density of breast. While the pre-menopausal women observed an increase in breast density when they consumed sugar food. These women, in a week were just consuming three sugar sweetened drinks. The study then further stated that sugar tends to increase the migration of breast cells together. This explains the fact that the premenopausal women who consumed sugar-sweetened drinks were 3 percent more likely to have dense breasts than those who didn’t consume the drinks. And having dense breasts increases your risk of breast cancer by making it difficult to see tumors on mammograms.

However, there is more to be studied on this matter. But until then there is still a link between the sugar consumption and breast density. About 40% of women in the US have dense breast and they are totally unaware of it. Doctors say that women with a dense breast are five time more likely to have a breast cancer and 10 times more likely to miss the tumor in the mammogram test.

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