Stomach Cancer - Latest News, Latest Research | CANCERactive

Stomach Cancer - Latest News, Latest Research | CANCERactive

LATEST NEWS AND RESEARCH ON STOMASH CANCER

Increase your personal odds of survival by empowering yourself with the latest news and research on Stomash Cancer; news you can use today and incorporate into your integrative cancer treatment programme.

CONTENTS

Just click on the title below to read the article.

Go to: An Overview of Stomach or gastric Cancer - symptoms, treatments and therapies

2024 Research

2023 Research

2022 Research

2011 Research

August 2010 Research

2009 Research

2006 Research

2005 Research

2004 Research

Aspirin cuts stomach cancer risk

ASPIRIN users could be 36 per cent less likely to get a type of stomach cancer, according to a study published by Dr Christian Abnet, based at the National Cancer Institute in America, in the British Journal of Cancer.

In a study of over 300,000 people, the researchers found that people who had taken aspirin at least once in the previous year were significantly less likely to get non-cardia gastric cancer cancer of the middle or lower parts of the stomach.

There was also a 32 per cent reduction for the same type of stomach cancer in people who used other types of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs or NSAIDs.

In contrast to results of previous studies, the researchers found that aspirin does not protect against oesophageal cancer and cardia gastric cancer, which is cancer of the top of the stomach.

Taking aspirin regularly has been found to cut the risk of bowel cancer, but it is not currently recommended because side effects could include bleeding within the abdomen.

The figures were calculated from a study of more than 311,000 people in America and an analysis of 17 published studies on the topic.

Nitrate, nitrite and bacterial cancer links to stomach, oesophageal and brain cancers

Scientists from 19 countries, at the International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon (IARC) have concluded that high nitrite levels (especially in conjunction with low vitamin C levels) are linked to carcinogenicity.  Links with stomach cancer, oesophageal cancer and brain tumours were especially noted.

The working group were especially concerned with the run-off of fertilisers into surface and well water.  Nitrites and nitrates may have a direct cancer effect or promote the by-products of cyanobacteria in the soil and water.  By-products such as microcystins and nodularins are cyclic peptides and are toxins produced when the bacteria die.  These toxins accumulate in fish and shellfish, for example.  Significant evidence linking these toxins to liver cancer was found.

Large Scale Study On BRCA1 And BRCA2

Families with these two genes mutated are high risk for breast, ovarian, pancreatic, prostate and stomach cancers according to a study published in The Annals of Oncology. The data used reviewed 948,000 Swedish families since 1931.

The study also showed that in families with bilateral breast cancer or two breast cancers, at least one of them under the age of 50, showed increased risk of prostate and primary liver cancers.

High salt diet links to stomach cancer

Cancer Research UK has published results of an epidemiology study on stomach cancer showing a strong link with highly salted foods (British Journal of Cancer). High salt has been shown to induce atrophic gastritis, a precursor to this cancer.

The study reviewed 40000 people in Japan over an 11-year period. Those people who consumed 12-15 gms of salt a day had twice the risk of stomach cancer.

Other findings from the study showed that smoking and a low consumption of vegetables and fruit also increased risks, especially in men,

Ed: The average American male consumes 12 gms, and the average UK male 8-10 gms. In The Tree of Life, published June 2003. we showed how high potassium and magnesium and low sodium were the essential ingredients of health. Indeed the formula was even used by Dr Max Gerson 60 years ago.

We believe 1 gm of salt is the maximum you should consume a day and that the FSA target of 6 mgs is far too high. Apart from stomach cancer and heart disease, an excess of sodium negatively affects all cells in the body making them inefficient, more acid and reducing oxygen usage. All precursors of cancer

As regular readers know, we have been warning about salt for over a year.

Broccoli can fight stomach cancer

Heliobacter pylori is a bacterium known to be behind stomach ulcers and stomach cancer we have covered it many times in Cancer Watch. Now researchers from Johns Hopkins University have found that eating just a few ounces of broccoli or broccoli sprouts ieach day may significantly reduce a person’s risk of ulcers and stomach cancer by restricting the bacterium’s effects.(Cancer Prevention Research)

The research tested the controlled effects of human consumption broccoli sprouts alfalfa sprouts each day for two months.

Broccoli, and especially its seed sprouts, contains high levels of the phytochemical sulforaphane. Alfalfa however contains none.

The researchers then analysed participant stool samples for a chemical called HpSA, known to be a reliable marker of infection with the bacterium. Helicobacter pylori, which is known to cause chronic stomach inflammation.

The researchers found that in those participants who ate the broccoli sprouts, HpSA levels decreased 40 percent by the end of the experiment. Consumption of alfalfa had no effect on HpSA levels. When participants stopped eating the broccoli, their marker levels returned to normal after 2 months.

"The evidence is all pointing toward broccoli or broccoli sprouts being able to prevent cancer in humans," said the lead researcher. Sulforaphane is known to act as an antibiotic, and also reduces levels of a number of known ’bad enzymes’ that can cause inflammation leading to stomach, heart disease and even skin cancer.

Insulin resistence/intolerance found to increase cancer risk

A while ago, at CANCERactive we told you all about Insulin Resistance. ’Do you have trouble losing weight?’ This is a common sign, as are low levels of HDL, high triglycerides, high blood glucose levels and more. And while you are not a true diabetic, the principles seem the same for an estimate of up to 70 per cent of the population, who (frankly) just eat badly. We have also given you a number of research studies showing glucose drives cancer.

Not surprisingly, insulin resistance is a step along the road to diabetes and heart disease. Now it has been shown to be a step along the road to cancer too.

New research published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, concluded that ’there is a strong link between insulin resistance and the risk of developing postmenopausal breast cancer.’ Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York have concluded that the elevated insulin levels linked to insulin resistance result in post-menopausal women having a higher risk of breast cancer.

The researchers also found that elevated blood glucose and triglyceride levels raised the risk of breast cancer by 1.7 times. Increased diastolic blood pressure (the second number when you have your blood pressure measured ) raised the risk of breast cancer 2.4 times.

Two factors are important here:

  1. Although this research was conducted looking at breast cancer, you can bet this is true for many cancers, male and female.
  2. Yet again it highlights the point we consistently make about the daft sugar-laden diets given to cancer patients in UK Hospitals.

We have complained that the NHS booklet on ’a diet for chemotherapy’ shows little drawings of cheese burgers, milk shakes and sticky doughnuts on every page. My daughter was given ice cream and Ribena endlessly in her oncology unit.

Of course the good news for everyone preventers and people with cancer - is that insulin resistance and blood sugar levels are controllable and reverse-able. Just change your diet!!!

I will list here for everyone’s benefit some of the tips from my book ’The Rainbow Diet and how it can help you beat cancer’:

  • Eat six small meals a day, not one or two big ones
  • Eat whole foods and whole grains (never refined, processed or fast foods)
  • Avoid alcohol, fizzy soft drinks, sweets, cakes, white bread, white pasta, biscuits, chocolate. Diet drinks are especially bad! As are smoothies and purchased fruit juices; even many so-called health drinks.
  • Eat raw most days, on an empty stomach if possible
  • Eat your fruit first thing in the morning on an empty stomach
  • Eat steamed or grilled never fried
  • Avoid Dairy (lactose is a sugar)
  • Take probiotics in several strains
  • Ensure you have no yeast excesses in your body (take cinnamon, oregano, Pau D’Arco and wormwood).
  • And eat fresh raw garlic.

Remember, research from North Western shows that if you lose excess weight you reduce risk and even improve survival times.

The book contains far more detailed advice.

Being overweight increases cancer risk fact

Cancer Research UK have just researched 4,000 people and come up with the staggering fact that 97 per cent of people have no idea that being overweight is a significant cancer risk. Of course, had they read our report on the research we conducted 4 years ago they would have known that people haven’t much a clue what does cause cancer anyway. Indeed we went into all the key issues in our 2004 Cancer Prevention Conference, which was poorly attended by the ’major’ charities.

As we have been telling people for seven years, it all depends which report you read, and how much overweight you are, but to be just 7 kgs overweight knocks over 5 years off your life expectancy, and a whopping 13 years if you smoke as well. .All this is well documented in my book, ’Everything you need to know to help you beat cancer’  indeed it has been there since the first edition some 7 years ago.

All this comes in parallel with new Swedish research showing overweight women tend to be diagnosed with higher grade cancers than ladies who have restrained their weight.

One of the real issues is that many overweight people are in denial. We have had ladies write to us with breast cancer and they are 13 kgs over normal weight for their height. One described herself as ’cuddly’, another as ’being a bit chunky’.

In our original 2004 prevention research, people stated that giving up smoking was important, as was avoiding excess alcohol, and staying out of the sun. As we pointed out at the time, ’Burning is bad, sunshine is sensible’. 4 years ago there was too much bad science coming from cancer charities suggesting sunshine was carcinogenic. In fact there is actually a great deal of research that suggests that a daily dose of sun shine promotes vitamin D synthesis in the body, and reduces cancer risk. A few people also knew that exercise was a risk reducer. But, in all, few people knew any information about preventing cancer (unlike Heart disease or AIDS) and blame for this lack of information can only be laid at the doors of the Government and the cancer charities. It was in response to this research finding that CANCERactive decided to adopt the Precautionary Principle (that where there is expert research expressing concern, we will pass on that research information so that the people of Britain can make more informed choices). As a result just compare the volume of Prevention Topics we cover against those listed on the major charities web sites. Pesticides? EMF’s? Melatonin? Toxic Chemicals, from dioxins to oestrogen mimics in plastic bottles and preservatives?

Anyone who is unsure of the factors that may increase cancer risk should go to the prevention part of our web site where they will find more information on more possible causes than on any other UK charity web site. As you will see, we have given some weight to the issue of cancer prevention!

Men more likely to get cancer the issue is why?

Men are almost 40 per cent more likely than women to die from cancer, reveals a report published by the National Cancer Intelligence Network (NCIN).

And they are 16 per cent more likely to develop the disease in the first place.

After excluding breast cancer and cancers specific to one or other sex from the analysis, the difference is even greater with men being almost 70 per cent more likely to die from cancer and over 60 per cent more likely to develop the disease.

The researchers then looked at the figures, excluding lung cancer as well, because the disease and its main risk factor, smoking, is known to be more common in men.They expected to see that, across the broad range of remaining cancer types, men and women were just as likely as each other to die from and get the disease. But they found that for all of these cancers combined, men were still 70 per cent more likely than women to die from cancer and 60 per cent more likely to get cancer.

Experts suggest that a possible explanation for the differences seen for some types of cancer could be down to stereotypical male behaviour like down-playing important early symptoms and having an unhealthy lifestyle.

Even rogue cancer DNA repairs itself

CRUK scientists (Nature) have discovered a sensor which exists even in cancer cells. Some drugs try to damage cancer DNA. This sensor system is actually a family of proteins (alkyltransferase-like proteins or ATL’s) warns the cell and activates the DNA repair systems and so the drugs lose their effect.

Organic foods are better ignore the UK Food Standards Agency

All over the UK papers comes news of the ’ruling’ from the FSA that ’organic food is no more nutritious than other foods’. According to that well known medical journal, the Daily Mail, ’watchdogs’ have declared this to be true.

Claiming to be the largest and most comprehensive study of its kind, researchers for the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine’ trawled through more than 50,000 studies on the value of foods since 1958.’ The results were published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Dr Alan Dangour (a public health nutritionist, no less) who was the lead researcher stated that, ’Currently there is no research to support the selection of organically produced foods on the basis of nutritional superiority’.

Spokesperson Gill Fine from the FSA burbled on about, ’Ensuring people had accurate information’ and ’no evidence of additional health benefits from eating organic foods’.

What staggers us at CANCERactive is that in order to resolve this very same question the EU has just spent 12 million of tax payers’ money conducting as near as can be, the definitive Clinical Trial, growing fields of organic food in parallel with normal pesticide and fertiliser-grown crops and then employing top scientists to give us the results. The FSA, which is after all a Government funded unit, ought to know this and use the data. And be clear, Gill: The ’accurate information’ is that there is a considerable difference. And this is just from early assessments. The project will continue for a few more years yet, as that is how long it takes to be sure. Professor Carlo Leifert, one of the CANCERactive patrons, is a lead member of the team.We covered the early conclusions in this very magazine.

The Daily Mail falls into the usual ’bad science’ trap too, meandering on about 50 years of research and 50,000 studies. But, the researchers didn’t use 50,000 studies, they used, sorry selected, 55 that ’met their criteria’, whatever they were. So one concludes therefore they left out a mere 49,945 studies from their conclusions. Perhaps one was the definitive EU study?

Then there is Dr Alan ’no evidence to support nutritional superiority’ Dangour. I quote about 10 - 15 such studies in my book ’The Rainbow Diet and how it can help you beat cancer’. Leifert and his team have a hundred more! What planet do these people live on? Al, old chap, there is rather a lot of scientific evidence actually; I cannot believe you think there is none..

But for the last word we will return to Gill ’no additional health benefit’ Fine. All I can conclude is that she finds pesticides tasty and of absolutely harmless. Of course that view would put her directly at odds with the EU, which recently concluded that there were ’deep concerns’ and cited health hazards including cancer as a need for more regulation. It is puzzling that Gill ’ensuring people have accurate information’ Fine does not seem to be telling you all about  research studies showing that farmers using pesticides develop more multiple myeloma, and another that this is due to the pesticide making pre-cancerous MGUS proteins in the blood, or (for example) that some third world suppliers to British retailers still use the banned pesticides of DDT and Lindane, each linked to higher rates of Breast Cancer. (If she is unsure, she could always trawl through back issues of Cancer Watch for more ’accurate information’.)

For the record, there is concern that organic foods grown on depleted soils offer little in additional mineral content over mass-farmed foods. How could they? On basic vitamins there is quite a lot of evidence that organic food is superior, but sometimes not by much. The real advantage seems to come in the area of complex natural compounds (like resveratrol, quercitin, omega 3 or polyphenols) where organic foods score much more highly. For example, the use of fungicide negates the need for grapes to produce fungus fighting resveratrol of their own several studies have measured this. And even 10 years ago researchers didn’t know too much about these compounds or their health benefits, and so did not research for them. How many such studies were in the ’selected’ group?

Personally I don’t think everybody should rush off and buy everything organic we have told you which foods research studies show are more likely to hold their pesticides, and which do not. So in a number of cases there is not a lot to worry about. But red fruits like strawberries and greens like broccoli do need extra caution before using the sprayed versions.

It is all very sad really. I think that the people, and especially the patients who want to beat cancer deserve better than this. But then, that’s why we set up CANCERactive.

Need to prevent thousands of older people dying from cancer, prematurely

As many as 15,000 people over 75 could be dying prematurely from cancer each year in the UK, according to research presented today at the National Cancer Intelligence Network (NCIN) conference.

These premature deaths could be prevented if cancer mortality rates in the UK dropped to match countries in Europe and America which have the lowest rates.

The researchers from the North West Cancer Intelligence Service (NWCIS) in Manchester compared cancer death rates in the UK with Europe and America.

They found that over the past decade the numbers of people dying from cancer in the under 75s has significantly dropped in the UK. But, little progress has been made in the over 75s and the gap in death rates with other countries is getting wider.

Dr Tony Moran, lead researcher from NWCIS, said It’s worrying that so many older people die from cancer in the UK compared with other countries. But, it’s not clear why this is. Research is urgently needed to understand the reasons for the extra deaths so that steps can be taken to prevent them.

New scientific study reveals flaws, even fraud, in Clinical Trials

Scientific study. Clinical Trial, Gold Standard. Non Sequetor. Well, at least according to Dr Daniele Fanelli at the University of Edinburgh. In a recent study Fanelli lists findings such as

Most clinical results are misleading

  • 5 per cent of scientists have admitted falsifying results
  • One third of scientists admitted observing such bad practice in others

Fanelli’s report states that the misconduct is more prevalent in clinical, medical, and pharmaceutical research. So much for the ’gold standard’; but then he goes on to refer to the high profits at stake where a few word changes can make all the difference, even if it’s not fraud but ’presentation’.

He also comments on studies that criticise vitamins suggesting that all too often, doses used are too low to have an effect, or the where vitamin tested is known not to have an effect on a particular disease whereas another, untested one, is.

All this coincides with a USA FDA report that reports deficiencies and flaws in up to 20 per cent of US drug clinical trials.

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Rainbow Diet also helps beat stomach cancer
 
A study conducted by the Catalan Institute for Oncology in Barcelona reports that the Rainbow Diet reduces the risks of stomach cancer significantly (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition).
 
Dr. Carlos Gonzalez and his colleagues evaluated a European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) study of over 485,000 people from ten European countries. Those people eating the Mediterranean Rainbow diet were a third less likely to develop stomach cancer than those who fell on the opposite end of the diet spectrum. 
 
Researchers concluded the diet was an excellent start in helping to stave off stomach cancer. (See Chris’ revised new version of ’The Rainbow Diet and how it can help you beat cancer’ click here)
 

Oesophagael and stomach cancer and meat eating (http://www.reuters.com/article/idUS)

According to the results of a study published in the American Journal of Gastroenterology, there is a clear link between red meat consumption and both oesophageal and stomach cancers.

Previous studies have looked at both Heterocyclic amines and nitrosamine compounds formed by heating meats to high temperatures. Another dangerous product, acrylamide, is produced from other foods by baking at high temperatures.

The AJG research focused on a compound called DiMelQx, formed when meat is cooked at high temperatures.

The researchers from the National Cancer Institute in the USA followed 500,000 US Citizens between the ages of 50 and 70 for ten years. The group that ate the most meat was 79 per cent more likely to develop oesophageal cancer than the group that ate the least. Overall the researchers ’found positive associations between red meat intake and oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma and between DiMeIQx intake and gastric cardiac cancer’.

But Oregano oil shown to help fight cancer and beat the meat chemicals

We have told you before about oregano and its abilities to kill excess yeasts in the body. It is also known to have anti-parasite, anti-microbial and anti-bacterial properties.

Now, researchers at the University of Arizona have found that it can even prevent cancer, possibly due to these properties. Caracole is the natural compound that has the important properties.

In the research, scientists showed that oregano oil, taken daily, could cut the dangerous chemicals formed when heating and cooking meats to high temperatures by 78 per cent.  (Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry)

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