Category: Uncategorized

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 […]

Photo: Flickr/whatshername A new study out this week further confirms the dangers of indoor tanning, finding that use of tanning beds and other UV tanning devices is strongly linked to developing skin cancer early in life. Published early online in the medical journal Pediatrics, the study compared the history of indoor tanning in a group […]

Photo: Flickr/abraj This week I had the privilege of addressing the American Cancer Society CEOs Against Cancer at their annual meeting that this year was held at Washington University in St. Louis. As a member of the panel addressing worksite wellness, I was able to briefly summarize the strong evidence that worksite wellness programs can […]

Photo: Flickr/DanielGo This post seems a bit cruel, coming out as it does during the current TV season’s finale week and the beginning of the World Cup.  But, science doesn’t rest – not even for Game of Thrones or the Brazilian national soccer team. So, neither do we. Just released on the Journal of the […]

Cancer News in Context‘s own Graham Colditz received the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO)–American Cancer Society Award today at the ASCO Annual Meeting in Chicago (more info).  The award honors contributions to cancer prevention and control. In his associated lecture, Colditz will focus on the need to place a higher priority on prevention if […]

I had the privilege of presenting in this thematic area for the Shanghai Forum and addressed the priority for prevention. This contrasted with a preceding talk that advocated for greater emphasis on genomic testing to focus prevention activities within the Chinese population. Using diabetes and breast cancer examples I contrasted the time course of disease […]

An excerpt from the upcoming e-book: The 8IGHT WAYS Guide to Preventing Breast Cancer (Colditz and Dart) What is Risk? What is Prevention?  The word “risk” gets thrown around a lot these days.  And that’s actually a great thing, particularly when it comes to breast cancer.  By knowing your risk of breast cancer, and what […]

Photo: Flickr/ToastyTreat As we mentioned in a previous post on CNiC, an article in the New York Times last week called the link between diet and cancer risk, in essence, a “myth.”  In that post, we note that “the article’s conclusions [about the links between diet and cancer] demonstrate a lack of understanding of the science.”  To further make […]

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 […]

Flickr/NatalieMaynor At the annual meeting of the American Society for Preventive Oncology, I had the privilege of presenting the evidence that supports the potential for health behaviors and vaccines to have a huge payoff for prevention of cancer throughout the world. My slides from that talk are now available. Questions that I addressed include the […]

Read the press release from the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

  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 […]

Read Dr. Colditz’s article on The Huffington Post: “Half of all cancers are preventable: Lower your risk with these eight steps.”

by Graham A. Colditz, MD, DrPH Much attention is being placed today on the global burden of cancer and the power for prevention to have an enormous benefit for the world through reducing cancer incidence, diagnosis, treatment, pain, and suffering. A reminder on numbers that have been around for some time – more than half […]

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 […]

Obesity is a strong driver for postmenopausal breast cancer. Consistent data from around the world show that overweight and obese women are at increased risk of breast cancer through their postmenopausal years. It is estimated that obesity causes more than 10% of postmenopausal breast cancer. Mechanisms for this include higher circulating estrogen levels among overweight […]

The latest in the New York Times‘ Retro Report series tackles the launch and subsequent progress of the Nixon administration’s 1971 National Cancer Act, dubbed the “War on Cancer.”  The ultimate hope of the act was that – with an economic and human power push similar to that used with the first moon landing in […]

Validation of breast cancer risk prediction models in an independent prospective data set is rare. We drew on prospective data from the Nurses’ Health Study and the California Teachers Study to validate the Rosner-Colditz breast cancer incidence model and compare it to the Gail model.1 (see report) The Rosner-Colditz model includes a range of established […]

To assess variation in the role of reproductive risk factors in relation to risk for breast cancer among premenopausal women we examined the relationship comparing women less than age 40 with older premenopausal women. Drawing on Data from the Nurses’ Health Studies, Dr. Warner and colleagues documented 374 incident cases of breast cancer diagnosed before […]

Breast cancer remains the second leading cause of cancer death among women. In the US it is estimated that 40,000 women will die from breast cancer in 2013. Just over 232,000 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer. Importantly, nearly a quarter of these new cases are diagnosed among women who are less than 50 […]

“Mental health affects people’s social and economic opportunities, and in turn, social and economic opportunity affects mental health,” says Darrell L. Hudson, PhD, assistant professor in the Brown School at Washington University about a study aimed at improving mental health in St. Louis. Washington University public health science researchers Bettina F. Drake, PhD, and Melody […]

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 […]

Media coverage today picked up on our paper published last week in breast cancer research and treatment (link). In that paper, we reported on the follow-up of women in the Growing Up Today’s Study. Over 9000 women were recruited to the study in 1996 when they were 9 to 15 years of age. The unique […]

Read the story here: “Study on health and well-being of African Americans in St. Louis releases first policy brief”

Read the story here: “Program links researchers, community to improve public health”

Read the press release here: “School-age drinking increases breast cancer risk”

Hot off the presses this morning are two important health-related releases from the US Preventive Services Task Force and the Cochrane Library. From the USPSTF are updated recommendations that highlight effective approaches that primary care providers can use to prevent tobacco use in youth.  Because 90 percent of regular adult smokers begin smoking when they […]