"Cancer lies dormant in all of us," he wrote in his new book, "Anticancer: A New Way of Life" (Viking, $25.95). "But our bodies are also equipped with a number of mechanisms that detect and keep such (defective) cells in check." Cancer rears its ugly head when things get out of balance, Servan-Schreiber said in an interview. And that can happen if the bad guys that promote the growth of cancer cells (tobacco, excessive alcohol, excessive sugar, hydrogenated fats, environmental pollutants) outnumber the good guys that support our natural defenses (cancer-fighting phytochemicals found in fruits, vegetables, herbs and teas; physical activity; and stress management techniques). But conventional treatment, while indispensable, focuses on a single target: destroying cancer cells. Doctors rarely address the other side: teaching patients how to fortify themselves using nutrition, exercise and stress-management techniques to create an inhospitable environment for cancer.
Laskawi R, Ellies M.
The role of botulinum toxin in the management of head and neck cancer patients.
Curr Opin Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2007 Apr;15(2):112-6.
PMID: 17413413 [PubMed - in process]
European experts in cancer and nutrition are meeting in Zurich, Switzerland late this month to discuss cutting-edge research in one of the most important and fiercely debated topics in cancer prevention: the link between diet and cancer.
There is growing evidence that many cancers may be prevented through healthy lifestyle, including a nutritionally balanced diet. In addition, nutritional problems can also have a negative impact on cancer management and the lives of patients.
Other presentations will include new data on topics such as:
Childhood nutrition and later breast cancer risk
The anti-tumour effects of green tea
Malnutrition and patient distress in cancer
Possible anti-tumour effects of soy extracts in mice
Estrogens in beef and cancer risk
Second Expert Report\n\nFood, Nutrition, Physical Activity, and the Prevention of Cancer: a Global Perspective\n\nIt began in 2001 with AICR and its international affiliate, WCRF-UK committing themselves to systematically review and analyze the total body of scientific evidence on the relationship of diet, physical activity and weight management to cancer risk. After a rigorous five-year process, Food, Nutrition, Physical Activity, and the Prevention of Cancer: a Global Perspective does just that.
Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) and complementary and integrative medicine (CIM) are therapies of proven or unproven efficacy that have been used to promote wellness, to manage symptoms associated with cancer and its treatment or to treat cancer. When properly combined with standard cancer treatments, some complementary therapies can enhance wellness and quality of life, but others may be harmful during or after treatment for cancer. Most, but not all, are natural products.
ACOR is an Internet-based public charity dedicated to improve the quality of care provided to cancer patients and the quality of life of patients, survivors and their caregivers.
ACOR leverages its wide technological and biomedical resource expertise to be a reliable source of knowledge, support and community in a relentless worldwide campaign to empower those suffering from the disease.
ACOR achieves its mission by constantly investing in advanced technologies and improving them to:
Provide uninterrupted open access to a large nexus of online peer support groups (Health eCommunities) it creates and manages,
Host a number of exceptional patient-centered websites.
Conduct breakthrough research.
If angiogenesis controls cancer growth, what controls angiogenesis? Researchers at the University of Michigan and the University of South Florida believe that the copper status is critical to the function growth factors.
For several types of cancer, persistently high levels of the soluble factor TGF-beta in the blood after surgery, chemotherapy, or radiation therapy correlate with increased risk of early metastasis and a poor prognosis. Using a mouse model of breast cance
What if we didn't try to cure cancer, but simply kept tumors from growing too big? That's what radiologist Robert Gatenby of the Moffitt Cancer Center proposes this week in the journal Nature.
Gatenby argues that high doses of powerful chemotherapies wreak havoc on a patient's immune system and foster the rapid regrowth of chemoresistant cancers that doctors have no hope of fighting. So instead of curing cancer, he suggests doctors aim to stabilize the tumor at a tolerable size.
In practice, this would mean that doctors identify a target size for an individual tumor that gives the patient the best quality of life. Then, they will regularly monitor the tumor's growth with medical imaging equipment like a PET/CT scanner (see photo), and regulate doses of anticancer drugs to maintain it at a precise volume.