Monday, November 17, 2008

How Eating Red Meat Can Spur Cancer Progression

University of California - San Diego. "How Eating Red Meat Can Spur Cancer Progression: New Mechanism Identified." ScienceDaily 14 November 2008. 17 November 2008 . full article here

ScienceDaily (Nov. 14, 2008) — Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, led by Ajit Varki, M.D., have shown a new mechanism for how human consumption of red meat and milk products could contribute to the increased risk of cancerous tumors.

Their findings, which suggest that inflammation resulting from a molecule introduced through consumption of these foods could promote tumor growth, are published online this week in advance of print publication in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Varki, UC San Diego School of Medicine distinguished professor of medicine and cellular and molecular medicine, and co-director of the UCSD Glycobiology Research and Training Center, and colleagues studied a non-human cellular molecule called N-glycolylneuraminic acid (Neu5Gc). Neu5Gc is a type of glycan, or sugar molecule, that humans don't naturally produce, but that can be incorporated into human tissues as a result of eating red meat. The body then develops anti-Neu5Gc antibodies – an immune response that could potentially lead to chronic inflammation, as first suggested in a 2003 PNAS paper by Varki.

"We've shown that tumor tissues contain much more Neu5Gc than is usually found in normal human tissues," said Varki. "We therefore surmised that Neu5Gc must somehow benefit tumors."

It has been recognized by scientists for some time that chronic inflammation can actually stimulate cancer, Varki explained. So the researchers wondered if this was why tumors containing the non-human molecule grew even in the presence of Neu5Gc antibodies.

"The paradox of Neu5Gc accumulating in human tumors in the face of circulating antibodies suggested that a low-grade, chronic inflammation actually facilitated the tumor growth, so we set out to study that hypothesis," said co-author Nissi M.Varki, M.D., UCSD professor of pathology.

Using specially bred mouse models that lacked the Neu5Gc molecule – mimicking humans before the molecule is absorbed into the body through ingesting red meat – the researchers induced tumors containing Neu5Gc, and then administered anti-Neu5Gc antibodies to half of the mice. In mice that were given antibodies inflammation was induced, and the tumors grew faster. In the control mice that were not treated with antibodies, the tumors were less aggressive

Others have previously shown that humans who take non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (commonly known as NSAIDs) have a reduced risk of cancer. Therefore, the mice with cancerous tumors facilitated by anti-Neu5Gc antibodies were treated with an NSAID. In these animals, the anti-inflammatory treatment blocked the effect of the Neu5Gc antibodies and the tumors were reduced in size.

"Taken together, our data indicate that chronic inflammation results from interaction of Neu5Gc accumulated in our bodies from eating red meat with the antibodies that circulate as an immune response to this non-human molecule – and this may contribute to cancer risk," said Varki.

Additional contributors to the paper are Maria Hedlund and Vered Padler-Karavani, UCSD Departments of Medicine and Cellular and Molecular Medicine. The study was funded in part by a grant from the National Cancer Institute, of the National Institutes of Health.


Click here for a discussion on this.....
http://coloncancersupport.colonclub.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=5234

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Images of my insides..

In light of my recent CT scan and the results coming back totally clean (Whoo hoo!), I thought you might like to see some of the images.. Sort of a celebration I suppose - this is what a clean bill of health looks like. I requested a copy of the CT scan from the hospital and they gave it to me on a CD. It is a good idea to have this and keep it in a safe place. Every doctor that I see, or will see in the future, gets a copy of these.




Different cross-section views of my abdomen using two different scanning techniques (I think, because one looks more sharp than the other) You can see my spine and back muscles on the bottom, then the ribcage on top. A view of various organs all in the middle. The top photo is roughly hip-height and shows some of the pelvic bone in white. The second photo is a cross-section from higher up, near the belly button.



(I deleted some of the personal information from these, like account number and name, etc. I looked through tons of these pictures, which are slices through my body from different angles. The ones I posted here just looked like they showed the most "stuff" but I really don't know what to look for. I leave that up to the doctors.





They say there are surgical clips in me where the reconnection is, but I don't know what to look for. I think that would be cool to see. I was also trying to see how my large intestine is now positioned differently because I no longer have the sigmoid portion of it. What am I looking at? Tell me what you see.

Aftermath: Well now, the CT scan is done and the next one wont occur for another two years provided my bloodwork continues to be normal. I see my Oncologist at the beginning of December and if all goes well, we will make arrangements to have the port in my chest removed. Stay tuned for more...