Sandy Hutchens Cancer Prevention

Judy Danchura found the cat in her backyard one day last June and put out some food. The feline was back again at her door meowing enough to wake her at 3 a.m. She let the cat in, prepared a litter, and retired to bed.

While Danchura and her husband slept, the cat jumped onto the bed and slowly walked across her body. As the cat stepped on one of her breasts, Danchura was struck by an strong shot of pain.

A lump was discovered.

“I sort of went, ‘Oh geez, there’s definitely something wrong there,’” she said.

The cat was considered a hero by finding a cancerous tumour in Judy Danchura’s breast She made a doctor’s appointment,then there were the tests and ultimately the diagnosis of cancer.

Due to the early detection of the malignant tumour, and since she was able to start treatment right away, Danchura’s possibility of survival is estimated at 95 per cent.

She is grateful to the cat, which she has now adopted.

“I don’t know what my chances of survival would have been without him,” she said. “I know I’d certainly be far worse off.”

Danchura named the cat Sumo but likes to refer to him as her “furry four-footed angel.”

“I sometimes feel overwhelmed because I feel humbled,” she said. “I can’t understand why this animal turned up for me.”

UK scientists say they have discovered why some women fail respond to breast cancer treatment, and it is a gene error they believe they can fix.

Tamoxifen is given to most women diagnosed with breast cancer to prevent the cancer returning.

But not all women respond to the drug – experts estimate a third get no benefit.

The work in the journal Cancer Research suggests the problem is too much of a gene called FGFR1.

This discovery could lead to new treatments for these women as scientists “switch off” the action of FGFR1, enabling Tamoxifen to work.

The team of scientists in the Breakthrough Breast Cancer Research Centre at The Institute of Cancer Research have already shown this is possible in the lab.

They introduced a drug which “switched off” the action of FGFR1.

Once FGFR1 was stopped, hormone-based treatments like Tamoxifen could get back to work in destroying cancer cells, they found.

The researchers believe this could ultimately help thousands of women each year.

They say one in 10 breast cancer patients has too much of the FGFR1 gene.

Dr Nick Turner, who led the research, said: “Understanding how this gene can cause Tamoxifen resistance reveals a new drug target for treating breast cancers in patients who would otherwise have a poor outcome.

“There are a number of drugs in development that stop FGFR1 working, and clinical studies are investigating whether these drugs work against cancers with too many copies of this gene.

“The next step is to set up a clinical trial to see whether a drug that blocks the action of this gene can counteract hormone therapy resistance in breast cancer patients.

“If these trials confirm our lab work we could be on the verge of a potentially exciting new treatment for breast cancer.”

Dr Lesley Walker of Cancer Research UK, the charity which helped fund the work, said: “Cracking the problem of resistance to treatments such as Tamoxifen would be a major advance in treating breast cancer.”

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in the UK affecting more than 45,500 women each year.

Tamoxifen blocks the female sex hormone oestrogen that fuels the growth of some breast tumours.

Cancer risk can be markedly reduced through everyday decisions regarding diet, exercise and smoking.

Here are the 10 ways.

1. Moderate your alcohol consumption: drinking alcohol increases the risks of cancers of the pharynx, mouth, larynx, rectum, esophagus, colon, and liver. Women should limit themselves to one alcoholic beverage per day. Men should limit themselves to two.

2. Eat plenty of raw fruits and vegetables: The American Cancer Society recommendation is to eat five servings of fruits and vegetables daily since they are loaded with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and other substances that decrease the risk of cancer. Recent studies have shown that the connection between eating vegetables and fruits and lower risk of cancer risk isn’t as strong as once thought. However the majority of researchers still subscribe to the idea that a plant-based diet is one of the best ways to secure overall health.

3. Think about chemoprevention: Chemoprevention is using natural or synthetic compounds to reduce the cancer risk or recurrence. Tamoxifen, prescribed to prevent breast cancer in women, is the most famous chemoprevention agent. The downside: chemoprevention drugs may have serious side effects.

4. Decrease the amount of fat in your diet: Studies suggest that high-fat diets are linked to several types of cancer, including postmenopausal breast, colon, and lung cancer. High-fat diets are usually high in calories and increase the risk of obesity. More study is required to understand which types of fat should be avoided and what amount effects cancer risk.

5. Stay within your ideal weight zone: Being overweight will tend to increase the risk of postmenopausal breast cancer as well as cancers of the endometrium, colon, esophagus and kidney. There have been studies showing that obesity increases the risk of cancers of the prostate, liver, stomach, gallbladder, pancreas, ovary and cervix. Some studies estimate that excess weight is a factor in 15 to 20 percent of cancer-related deaths.

6. Get screening exams: Pap tests, mammograms, colonoscopies and other routine screenings obviously don’t prevent cancer. But screenings will detect cancers early, when treatment is more likely to be successful.

7. Exercise: Evidence increasingly suggests that people who exercise have lower risk of certain cancers than those who are sedentary. From 45 to 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity a day, on most days of the week, is considered optimal to decrease the risk of breast and colorectal cancers.

8. Limit radiation exposure: Ultraviolet (UV) radiation, from the sun, sunlamps or commercial tanning beds, is the primary cause of skin cancer.

9. Stop smoking or don’t start smoking: The risk of cancers caused by smoking is proportional with the length of time a person has smoked and the quantity of cigarettes smoked. Lung cancer, the leading cause of cancer death among Americans is caused by smoking. Quitting smoking decreases the risk of lung cancer and it is never too late to take action on this.

10. Guard yourself from infection: Infections caused by viruses are well known to be risk factors for a wide variety of cancers. Human papillomavirus (HPV), which is a sexually transmitted disease, is the most frequent cause of cervical cancer. Chronic hepatitis B and hepatitis C aggravate the risk of liver cancer. They are usually spread by contact with contaminated blood, contaminated needles or sex. Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the virus that leads to AIDS, additionally increase the risk of many cancers.