Author: areifschneider

For a topic that always gets a lot of news coverage, health and healthcare has been in the media even more than usual since the 2016 election. While it’s unclear exactly where the current debates on Obamacare and the American Health Care Act will lead, a Sounding Board article in today’s New England Journal of […]

It’s not news that parents can sometimes have blinders on when it comes to their kids. It’s only natural that we look for all the positives in our children and downplay any possible negatives. And this is just what seems to be happening with parents and the loaded issue of their child’s weight.  Parents of […]

by Hank Dart The course of the obesity epidemic in the United States has been so bad for so many years that even minor victories have been cause for celebration. But despite some bright spots in the most recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports on national rates of obesity (on adults, on youth), […]

by Katy Henke Breast cancer is back in the headlines this week with the announcement by U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill (Missouri) that she has been diagnosed with the disease following a routine mammogram. Because such news coverage can raise questions about current breast cancer screening guidelines and the steps women can take to prevent the disease, […]

by Hank Dart Though coverage of the Iowa caucuses has eclipsed most other media stories this week, there was still some important health news Monday about a large study finding that a high-fiber diet early in life may lower the risk of later adult breast cancer. The study, part of the long-running Nurses’ Health Study II, […]

by Hank Dart In a paper published yesterday in the journal Science Translational Medicine, Cancer News in Context’s Graham Colditz and Washington University researcher, Kelle Moley, detail the important role that overweight and obesity play in the development of breast cancer. Looking at wide-ranging evidence at all periods of life — from gestation to the […]

by Katy Henke Colon cancer is the third most common cancer in the United States. The good news is that 75 percent of cases could be prevented with healthy lifestyle choices. These eight simple tips can help you lower your colon cancer risk and improve your overall health (PDF). For more information and prevention tips, […]

It’s day three in our nine day series highlighting key steps and practical tips that can help women lower their risk of breast cancer. Previous days. _ _ _ _ Day 3 – Avoid Too Much Alcohol Alcohol can be good for the heart, but when it comes to cancer, there is, unfortunately, nothing really […]

by Katy Henke In early September 2015, Vivek Murthy, MD, the Surgeon General of the United States, began a national campaign to increase the amount of physical activity Americans engage in each day (see video below).  The campaign, called Step It Up!, works not only to get Americans walking more but also to help facilitate […]

by Graham Colditz, MD, DrPH Article originally appeared in the Washington University – Institute for Public Health Blog When it comes to cancer, there are few topics as supercharged as diet. A quick search of “diet and cancer” in Google News alone returns over 3 million stories. And yet, however large these numbers are, they […]

Cancer News in Context’s Graham Colditz is being honored tonight at the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as an AACR 2014-2015 Scientific Awardee. In the announcement of his 2014 Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cancer Prevention, AACR describes the honor and Colditz’s contributions to the field: The award is given […]

We’re not prone to posting video clips from satirical news programs, but this weekend’s piece from Last Week Tonight with John Oliver really captured why it is so important to keep up the fight against Big Tobacco.  While we still have a great deal of work to do to get tobacco under control in the […]

Creative Commons photo (cropped): Flickr/zingersbs by Hank Dart A new study released last week in the journal Human Reproduction has found that regularly drinking sugar-sweetened beverages – like sodas and fruit drinks – may cause girls to start their menstrual periods at earlier ages.   The study, a spin off of the long-running Nurses’ Health […]

Creative Commons photo: Flickr/CatDancing (cropped) We’ve written a lot recently about the importance of breast cancer prevention starting early in life, both here on Cancer News in Context and in a guest post on the American Association for Cancer Research blog, Cancer Research Catalyst.  Though most breast cancer research focusses on women in midlife and […]

PDF link to full graphic.

Photo: Flickr/Tim RT It’s been a big week in the news for alcohol and health. Three separate studies were released that helped shed light on a key issue we often discuss here at Cancer News in Context: the important impact that drinking has on cancer risk – particularly when started early in life. The first […]

Photo: Flickr/Mike65444 An article posted earlier this week on the New York Times website stated that the link between diet and cancer risk was, in essence, a “myth.”  And while links between diet and cancer are not as strong as those with some other chronic diseases, like heart disease, the article’s conclusions demonstrate a lack […]

  With some exciting projects coming down the pike for our Zuum risk assessment app for iPad, it seemed a great time to re-introduce Zuum with a video demonstration of all that it does.  Its engaging interface and strong evidence base make it a unique addition to the field of mHealth offerings.  With just a […]

Earlier this month, we posted about recent findings linking nut consumption with a lower risk of benign breast disease in young women.  Further confirming the power of nuts, new results from a large study published in the New England Journal of Medicine reports that men and women who are frequent nut eaters (7 or more […]

Let’s follow up on our recent post showing adolescent diet high in vegetable protein or nuts was associated with reduced risk of premalignant breast lesions in young adult women. (see previous post: Peanuts and lower risk of breast cancer)  This generated much interest and the potential of peanut butter to be of such major health benefit […]

One thing is clear about New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, he doesn’t shy away from a good fight, especially if the health and well-being of citizens is at stake.  Whether it’s getting food establishments to post calorie counts, cut back on trans fats, or limit the size of sugary sodas, he and his administration […]

In a time when school budgets are stressed and school performance is judged more and more on standardized test scores, it’s understandable that certain aspects of the school day that can seem less-critical get cut back or cut out altogether.  Student physical activity and physical education has been one of those things slowly reduced over the […]

As we wrote about earlier this spring, the new “TIPS from a former smoker” campaign from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is gaining a lot of attention for its no-holds-barred effort to shock non-smokers into staying smoke-free and smokers into to quitting smoking – hopefully for good.   One primary thrust of […]

The new two minute Coca Cola video (“Coming Together”)  touting the company’s efforts to combat weight gain while urging everyone to “come together” to work against the rising tide of obesity is at once daring and laughable.  There is a great deal to critique in the well-produced ad (seeking praise for developing new artificial sweeteners, for one), […]

Yesterday, we wrote a post about the growing use of stand-up desks as a way to cut down on the amount of time workers sit throughout the day.   That an everyday item, like a desk, could help affect a key health behavior, made the trend a good example of how important our environment (those […]

Update: Final published recommendation: The USPSTF recommends screening for hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in persons at high risk for infection. The USPSTF also recommends offering 1-time screening for HCV infection to adults born between 1945 and 1965. (Grade: B) It seems it’s time to add one more item to the list of effective screening tests […]

The magnitude of spending to repair damage from the mega-storm Hurricane Sandy is a useful reminder of how we allocate resources for health. We spend far more on repair or treatment of disease than on prevention. Population health focuses on improving the health of the entire population and reducing inequalities in health between populations. In […]

Alcohol is a well-documented cause of breast cancer. Risk increases by approximately 7% for each 10 g of alcohol consumed daily by adult women.1-3 That is for each drink of beer wine or liquor, risk increases about 7% more compared to a never drinker. About one third of the population of US women never drinks. […]

It’s National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, so what better time to post about our two tools that can estimate a woman’s risk of the disease and provide personalized tips for prevention?     Our long-running website Your Disease Risk is a scientifically validated tool that provides a detailed look at the factors that can increase […]

The evidence on screening as an effective strategy to reduce colorectal cancer mortality has its roots in studies of fecal occult blood testing (FOBT) that showed a reduction in colorectal cancer mortality1-3. These three independent trials were conducted in the US, England and Scandinavia. Completing the clinical trials of fecal occult blood testing case-control sampling […]

Healthy eating gets a bad rap.  It’s difficult to know exactly where things went awry, but it’s hard to deny that a lot of people these days associate healthy eating with a too-restrictive, tasteless collection of food rules.  Veer too far from bran fiber and distilled water and people half expect a stern dietician to […]

  Schroeder has argued that much of our health and wellness is within our reach, and that behavior may account for 30 to 40% of our disease burden. He notes that we can improve our international ranking on many measures of health through simply implementing things we already know. Likewise we recently made the case for […]

by Hank Dart While tragic events can bring the issue of inequality to the headlines every once in a while, it’s more often a problem that lives under the radar of most people.  Yet, as the gaps between rich and poor continue to grow wider and wider and health care coverage remains an important issue, […]

  The media release from the Washington University School of Medicine, yesterday, on our review of the potential to prevent cancer and barriers slowing our progress in acting on what we already know. (For article link here) Colditz, Wolin, and Gehlert collaborate on a number of cancer prevention projects through Siteman Cancer Center Prevention and […]

As we complete April, colon cancer awareness month, the topic of strategies to improve our population risk profile and reduce the cancer burden in our families, our workplaces, our communities and our state, I am reminded of many times we have written and talked on this topic. We have written on physical activity and colon […]

Recent updated evidence from the United States National Health And Nutrition Survey (NHANES) show that the majority of US adults have more than one modifiable risk factor for colon cancer that needs attention (see article). While screening is advocated for prevention of colon cancer and supported by evidence from randomized controlled trials (1), we have […]

Colorectal cancer kills over 50,000 Americans each year. Lung cancer is the only cancer that kills more people. Both men and women can get colorectal cancer, and it usually strikes those over the age of 50.   The good news: Colorectal cancer is one of the most preventable cancers. No matter what your age, there is […]

As part of our current training program at Washington University in St. Louis in collaboration with Instituto Nacional de Cancerología (National Cancer Institute, INCAN, Guatemala) (funded by Fogarty International Center, NIH: 1R24TW008820-01), we have held our third annual scientific meeting in Guatemal. 1,2 Our pilot program trained Washington University and INCAN participants in research methodology, […]

Obesity and cancer? Why are we meeting in Philadelphia? These are question not commonly asked on our CNiC blog. Let me explain a little of our new center on obesity and cancer, and link you to our related resources. NCI convened the first meeting of funded centers working together on issues relating energy balance, obesity, […]

Next up in the Eight Ways to Prevent Cancer video series: Exercise. CNiC’s Dr. Kate Wolin walks us through the huge benefits we get from exercise, including a lower risk of heart disease and diabetes, on top of the cancer benefits many people may not be aware of. The video also highlights the fantastic progress […]

One third of the 571,000 cancer deaths in 2011 are due to smoking. That is 188,744 men and women will die unnecessarily because of their smoking habits. These are avoidable deaths. Strong evidence supports the benefits of smoking cessation, not just lowering cancer deaths but also reducing deaths form heart disease and total mortality. The […]

At the recent Breast Cancer Research Foundation scientific symposium held in New York City and Memorial Sloan-Kettering on October 25, I summarized evidence on lifestyle approaches for breast cancer prevention. Let me briefly review the evidence presented in this talk.   You might ask how can we assume that breast cancer is preventable? Evidence comes […]

We have previously summarized strategies to reduce the risk of colon cancer. Briefly, these include increasing physical activity, avoiding weight gain, reducing red meat consumption, limiting alcohol and following screening recommendations.   Aspirin has been regularly recommended by the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) for the prevention of cardiovascular disease in men and women […]