The diet of a person can have significant effects on the gut microbiome, i.e. the populations of microorganisms such as bacteria which live in the human gut. It is well recognized that dietary habits through complex metabolic interactions contribute to cancer prevention. More specifically, diets rich in fiber reduce the risk of developing specific cancers such as colorectal cancer. Although ...
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High-dose vitamin D shows benefit in patients with advanced colorectal cancer
Prompted by the “very encouraging” results of the SUNSHINE clinical trial, the potential benefits of vitamin D supplementation in metastatic colorectal cancer will be evaluated in a larger clinical trial planned to open at several hundred sites across the United States later this year, said Kimmie Ng, MD, MPH, director of Clinical Research in Dana-Farber’s Gastrointestinal Cancer Center, and corresponding ...
Read More »Sinister blastocystis: a clandestine killer of good bacteria revealed
Since most of the microbes in our gut are bacteria, they tend to hog much of the microbiome research limelight. But, lurking amongst the bacteria are other microbes such as single-cell eukaryotes (SCE) and viruses, which have been largely ignored until now. If doctors and scientists think of Blastocystis (one the most common gut SCEs) at all, they often regard it as ...
Read More »Radiation therapy advances extend, improve lives of patients with anal cancer, studies find
Two recent studies find advances in radiation therapy are helping to prolong or improve the lives of people with anal cancer, including those whose cancer has advanced to stage IV. Both studies were published in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology * Biology * Physics (Red Journal), the flagship scientific journal of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO). One ...
Read More »Pilot study identifies strain of bacteria as chief risk factor for stomach cancer
Researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center have found a specific strain of Helicobacter pylori strongly correlated with stomach cancer. The research, published in the journal PLOS ONE, could eventually be used to shape treatment and screening strategies for patients. Collaborating with researchers at Zhengzhou University, the Fred Hutch team ran tests on 49 patients’ stomach endoscopy and stool samples, looking for H. pylori with a variant ...
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