Resources

What Is Cancer? What Causes Cancer?

Good basic information

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/info/cancer-oncology/

World Health Organization's report on Worldwide Cancer (C.S.Christopoulos)

Click on the link to Globocan 2012/ ARC for charts & data, and follow other links on the page for more interesting information

www.who.int/cancer/en/

WHO: We can't beat cancer with drugs alone

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/03/us-cancer-idUSBREA120X920140203

Cancer now biggest killer in Australia, ahead of heart disease: WHO report

http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2014-02-04/cancer-now-biggest-killer-in-australia/5236148

Melbourne scientists suppress cancer-causing MCL-1 protein, breakthrough gives hope for new treatment

http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2014-01-08/cancer-protein-breakthrough-prompts-drug-development/5190502

Fruits, vegetables, and cancer

"Weak overall association" but is it causal?

http://jnci.oxfordjournals.org/content/102/8/510.full

"...the current body of scientific data suggests increased intake of non-starchy vegetables and fruits can decrease risk of some cancers..."

http://www.foodproductdesign.com/articles/2012/09/fruits-and-vegetables-vs-cancer.aspx

"...may impart some protection against developing pancreatic cancer."

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16172215

"...high intake of fruits and vegetables and particularly fruit may decrease the risk of cancer. However..."

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19640185

Fruit, vegetables, and cancer prevention: a review of the epidemiological evidence. "A statistically significant protective effect of fruit and vegetable consumption was found..."

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1408943

Cancer Immunotherapy (M. Geller)

http://m.sciencemag.org/content/342/6165/1432.full

Vitamin, Mineral,and Multivitamin Supplements

One of our classmates pointed out Dr Mercola's article that states that synthetic vitamin E is linked to increased risk of prostate cancer:

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/11/18/dangers-of-vitamins.aspx

This article is an overview of research into the topic.

http://annals.org/article.aspx?articleid=1832969

This article states that the evidence is insufficient to make a conclusive recommendation:

Evidence insufficient for vitamins in CVD, CA prevention

http://www.clinicaladvisor.com/evidence-insufficient-for-vitamins-in-cvd-ca-prevention/article/335437/

What would you do if you had the BRCA1 mutation?

One study recommends that women with the gene mutation that's related to ovarian cancer should have surgery to remove their ovaries:

http://www.philly.com/philly/health/womenshealth/HealthDay685180_20140224_Ovarian_Cancer_Gene_May_Point_to_Early_Removal_of_Ovaries__Study.html

Drugs to treat brain (and other) cancer using immunology

This company is developing drugs that coax the body's own immune system into tracking down and killing cancer cells by harnessing the master cells of the immune system that give marching orders to its soldiers, including t-cells and b-cells, which make antibodies.

http://uk.mobile.reuters.com/article/idUKBREA1P16H20140226?irpc=932

The 2013 HHMI Holiday Lecture Series

In OLLI's "Boundaries of Science" class Mar 13, Richard McCaman showed some great videos from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Holiday Lecture Series sessions on "Cancer as a Genetic Disease" (Especially interesting are parts 18-27 on Chronic Myeloid Leukemia.)

http://media.hhmi.org/hl/13Lect2.html

The home page for the lecture series has links to all of the lectures (the other main topic was autism) and classroom materials:

http://www.hhmi.org/biointeractive/medicine-genomic-era

Richard also recommended Genome TV on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/user/GenomeTV

Effects of Diet on Cancer (and other causes of death)

Seventh-day Adventists abstain from smoking, drinking alcoholic beverages, and eating pork. About 50 percent are lacto-ovo- (milk-and-egg-using) vegetarians, and most Adventists do not use coffee, other caffeine-containing drinks, hot condiments, or spices. They do use fruits, nuts, grains, and vegetables abundantly, and are discouraged from eating highly refined foods. How does this affect their likelihood of dying of cancer?

A 1958 study found: "With California death rates standardized at 100 percent, the relative death rates among Seventh-day Adventists were: 20 percent for lung cancer; 5 percent for cancer of the mouth, throat, and larynx; 32 percent for bronchitis and emphysema; 28 percent for bladder cancer; 34 percent for esophagus cancer; 13 percent for cirrhosis of the liver; 72 percent for breast cancer; 65 percent for digestive tract cancer; 62 percent for uterus cancer; 66 percent for all other cancer; 55 percent for coronary heart disease; 65 percent for other heart disease; 53 percent for stroke; 55 percent for diabetes; 42 percent for peptic ulcers; and 54 percent for single vehicle traffic accidents."

http://www.llu.edu/info/legacy/appendixc/

Scholarly articles about the Human Papilloma Virus Vaccination controversy

http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=hpv+vaccine+controversy&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart&sa=X&ei=uvEYU_uONtCDogSWnoGoCA&ved=0CAoQgQMwAA

IBM's Watson Attempts To Tackle The Genetics Of Brain Cancer

http://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewherper/2014/03/19/what-watson-cant-tell-us-about-our-genes-yet/

Sequencing of cancer genomes reveals potential drug targets for an aggressive type of lung cancer

http://www.healthcanal.com/cancers/48657-new-view-of-tumors%E2%80%99-evolution.html

New test could accurately predict prostate cancer recurrence

Researchers have created a test that they say can predict whether a man is at high risk of prostate cancer recurrence: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/275112.php

Blood test could provide rapid, accurate method of detecting solid cancers

http://med.stanford.edu/ism/2014/april/diehn.html#sthash.MSHuRPOt.dpuf

Blood Test Aims to Predict Breast Cancer's Return

http://consumer.healthday.com/cancer-information-5/breast-cancer-news-94/blood-test-aims-to-predict-breast-cancer-s-return-686769.html