Category: Uncategorized

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, […]

By Yikyung Park, ScDA recent report on red and processed meat and cancer risk, written by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) of the World Health Organization (WHO), sent shockwaves worldwide. After reviewing existing evidence, the report concluded that processed meat consumption is a cause of cancer and red meat consumption is probably […]

It’s the final day in our nine day series highlighting key steps and practical tips that can help women lower their risk of breast cancer. Previous days. _ _ _ _ If High Risk: Consider Risk-Reducing Medications Although not commonly thought of as a “healthy behavior,” taking prescription risk-reducing medications – such as, tamoxifen, raloxifene, and […]

It’s day eight in our nine day series highlighting key steps and practical tips that can help women lower their risk of breast cancer. Previous days. _ _ _ _ Day 8 – Find Out Your Family History Women with a strong family history of breast cancer can take special steps to protect themselves, so it’s […]

It’s day seven in our nine day series highlighting key steps and practical tips that can help women lower their risk of breast cancer. Previous days. _ _ _ _ Day 7 – Avoid Postmenopausal Hormones The issue still comes up in the news, and study results still get parsed and discussed, but in the end, […]

It’s day six in our nine day series highlighting key steps and practical tips that can help women lower their risk of breast cancer. Previous days. _ _ _ _ Day 6 – Avoid Birth Control Pills – Particularly After Age 35 or If You Smoke There’s no denying that birth control pills have been a […]

It’s day five in our nine day series highlighting key steps and practical tips that can help women lower their risk of breast cancer. Previous days. _ _ _ _ Day 5 – Breastfeed, If Possible Breastfeeding for a total of one year or more (combined for all children) lowers the risk of breast cancer. It […]

It’s day four in our nine day series highlighting key steps and practical tips that can help women lower their risk of breast cancer. Previous days.    _ _ _ _ Day 4 – Don’t Smoke, and Avoid Other People’s Smoke, Too This really goes without saying: Don’t smoke, and avoid other people’s smoke, too.  Smokers and […]

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 […]

It’s day two in our nine day series highlighting key steps and practical tips that can help women lower their risk of breast cancer. Previous days.   _  _  _  _ Day 2 – Be Physically Active Exercise is as close to a silver bullet for overall good health as there is, and those benefits […]

We know. You’ve been awash in pink for the past three weeks.  So you’re forgiven if you’re a bit tired of reading about breast cancer and Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  But, we at Cancer News in Context hope to help you work past any late October doldrums by closing the month out with an engaging […]

by Katy Henke Breast cancer is one of the most well known cancers as well as the leading cause of cancer death in women worldwide (1). In an effort to educate and prevent future breast cancer cases and deaths, online health assessment tools have been created to help women understand their risk for developing breast […]

When it comes to news stories about infections and cancer, HPV (human papillomavirus) has dominated the headlines the past few years.  For the most part, this has been great. HPV causes nearly all cases of cervical cancer and increases the risk of multiple other cancers.  And there is an effective vaccine to protect against HPV, […]

by Mary C Politi, PhD and Sydney Philpott More people in the United States die from lung cancer than any other type of cancer. Patients and providers want and need ways to find lung cancer early when it is more easily treated. Recently, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) approved yearly lung cancer […]

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 […]

In 2008, scandal struck the world of cancer screening.  A rare occurrence, to be sure. About two years after the release of a groundbreaking study showing that low-dose CT scans could catch lung cancer early and save lives in smokers, it was revealed that the study’s principal investigator had close ties to the tobacco industry. […]

[If you are viewing the mobile version of this post on a desktop, click here for desktop version.] A large proportion of colon cancer is preventable with healthy lifestyle choices, even without taking into account the benefits of screening.  That’s the finding in a new analysis from the large Nurses’ Health Study released in print […]

bPhoto: Melissa P by Hank Dart A federal report released at the end of July shows promising trends in rates of HPV vaccination in United States adolescents, but rates varied greatly between certain regions and left much room for improvement overall, especially for boys. The recommended schedule for HPV (human papillomavirus) vaccination, which protects against […]

Results from a large analysis released yesterday further confirm that getting even small amounts of physical activity is better than getting none if your goal is to live longer. In the new paper, which combined results from nine cohort studies, researchers focussed on the possible mortality benefits of varying levels of physical activity in people […]

by Ashley Housten, OTD, OTR/L, MSCI, MPA The Siteman Cancer Center Program for the Elimination of Cancer Disparities (PECaD) hosted a Community Health Education Day in East St. Louis, Illinois on July 11, 2015. Partnering with the East Side Health District and other community organizations, community health workers, citizens, and cancer survivors came together to […]

In blunt terms: we’re larger than we’ve ever been.  That’s the essential conclusion of new research published online yesterday in JAMA Internal Medicine by CNiC’s Dr. Graham Colditz and Dr. Lin Yang.  In the analysis, which looked at a nationally representative sample of Americans from 2007 – 2012, the authors found that 75 percent of […]

After posting a handful of excerpts over the past year, we’re excited to announce the official launch this week of the e-book: TOGETHER – Every Woman’s Guide to Preventing Breast Cancer. Written by CNiC’s Graham Colditz, MD, DrPH and Hank Dart, MS, along with noted Washington University School of Medicine researcher Katherine Weilbaecher, MD, TOGETHER takes a […]

It’s said that sitting is the new smoking.  And while this is an exaggeration of sorts, there is certainly something to it.  Sedentary lifestyles have been linked to heart disease, diabetes, certain cancers, and premature death.  And like smoking, sitting too much has health risks even for those who are a healthy weight and who […]

by Graham A. Colditz, MD, DrPH In a recent detailed analysis of weight change across the life course (funded by our NCI TREC center addressing obesity and cancer), we reported that short-term weight gain, defined as change over a 4-year time frame, significantly increased risk of both premenopausal and postmenopausal breast cancer (see report for […]

Media coverage this week draws attention to a well-known fact in epidemiologic research. A risk factor alone does not always identify the top stratum of risk for a disease. Kerlikowske and colleagues from the NCI-funded breast cancer surveillance consortium draw on prospective data to demonstrate for women that a mammographic report of dense breasts is […]

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 […]

By Yikyung Park, ScD Editor’s note: Not surprisingly, the recently released report from the Dietary Guidelines for Americans Advisory Committee was met with both praise and scorn.  Many in the medical and health fields lauded the report for its innovative approach to considering both the food environment and sustainability, as well as for its healthy […]

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 […]

Photo (Creattive Commons): Flickr/jeffjose It can be easy to think that we’ve won the fight against tobacco.  Rates of smoking have plummeted since the 1960s.  Most restaurants, bars, and workplaces across the country are now largely smoke-free.  And many of us may have trouble coming up with a single family member or close friend who […]

Photo: flickr/saneboy (Creative Commons lic; cropped) Though the most recent Surgeon General’s report on the health effects of tobacco stops just short of classifying smoking as a cause of breast cancer, current evidence seems compelling enough to finally push tobacco smoke from simple risk factor to full-fledged “cause.” While research into the tobacco/breast cancer link […]

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 […]

By Sarah Cortez New guidelines from two professional medical organizations strongly suggest that the HPV (human Pap test micrograph. Photo: Flickr/euthman papilloma virus) test can be used on its own as an effective alternative to standard Pap tests in most women being screened for cervical cancer. For seventy years, the Pap test has been the […]

Photo: Flickr/whatshername, Creative Commons Lic. There was a nice piece in the New York Times this weekend on the risks of indoor tanning, particularly in youth. Focussing on the personal experiences of a handful of young women and their  parents, it does a very good job highlighting the well-established risks of skin cancer and deadly melanoma, the […]

While the paper by Tomasetti and Vogelstein is certainly intriguing and will help guide future research on targeting prevention and early detection efforts, it is still a preliminary finding and does not reverse the long-term conclusion that is supported by decades of well-designed research in people:  that cancer is largely preventable. –     –   […]

Creative Commons photo: Flickr/Robert S. Donovan (cropped) The holidays are filled with great-tasting but less-than-healthy food.  And that’s OK.  We all deserve some time to celebrate with our family and friends and enjoy food without worrying about its sodium, fat, and whole grain content.  As long as we don’t go too crazy and get back […]

Amidst the crush of year-end top ten lists filling your news feeds this week, we present our own: the top posts of 2014 from Cancer News in Context. Covering topics from aspirin to healthy eating to the importance of starting healthy behaviors in childhood, these posts show the prominent place that cancer prevention has had […]

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 […]

Photo: Flickr/PAHOWHO by Sarah Cortez When given before the start of sexual activity, the HPV (human papillomavirus) vaccine prevents most cases of cervical cancer and genital warts. It can also lower the risk of oropharyngeal, penile and anal cancer. HPV is a sexually transmitted infection, and we target the vaccine to 11-12 olds, as we […]

PDF link to full graphic.

Photo: Flickr/Micahb37 by Sarah CortezThere’s been a recent surge in women asking for genetic testing for breast cancer, due in large part to Angelina Jolie’s public decision last year to get a prophylactic mastectomy after discovering she had a mutation in the BRCA1 gene. These days, another breast cancer gene has been making headlines, a gene […]

by Sarah Cortez It certainly goes without saying that birth control has been a major news story the past couple of months. Much of this coverage, of course, has revolved around the recent Supreme Court ruling and reactions to it. Outside of that media storm, there have been some other health-related birth control stories as […]

Yesterday, we posted about a new analysis suggesting that long term aspirin use is likely to have an overall health benefit in the general population even when its side effects are taken into account.  At risk of being wonky, we wanted to follow up on that with a figure that shows the general evolution of […]

Photo: Flickr/JenR The writing was on the wall a few years ago, but it seems that we may have finally reached a point where the scientific evidence points pretty convincingly to the potential health benefits of long-term regular aspirin use outweighing the potential risks for most people. That’s the conclusion of a new analysis appearing last […]

Photo: Flickr/Melissa Wiese  To work in the field of cancer prevention one has to be an optimist at heart.  In the science, in the statistics, and in the news, you see not only the broad burden of cancer but also the vast opportunities that exist to lower risk and prevent the disease. At the same […]

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/thomashawk It probably comes as no surprise, but mom was right: We really shouldn’t eat so fast. Apart from the noise and the mess and the ill-effects on dinner table conversation, wolfing down food may have ill-effects on health as well. A detailed new analysis in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition shows that […]