THANK YOU to Texas based Cancer Prevention and Research Institute!!! – Sandy Hutchens
The funding announced today is part of $3 billion that will be invested in cancer research projects during the next 10 years.
The Austin-based organization awarded 66 projects funding, which were chosen from about 900 proposals. A team of 100 experts reviewed applications and chose projects that study causes and treatments for brain, breast, blood, cervical, colon, liver, lung, ovarian, and prostate cancer.
At the same time, the institute awarded the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio the second CPRIT Scholar in Cancer Research. The facility will use the donation to recruit new staff.
Texas voters passed a constitutional amendment that created the organization in 2007. The state garnered $3 billion in bonds for research that aims to expedite innovation and commercialization in cancer research.
British composer Andrew Lloyd Webber is urging men over 50 years-old to get regular tests for prostate cancer after he was successfully treated for the disease last year and given the all-clear.
Lloyd Webber, 61, said in a health diary published on his website that he noticed the first symptoms of his cancer last summer and underwent an operation to remove his prostate gland after a biopsy came back positive.
He was told the cancer had been caught early and the treatment was successful, but he then battled an underlying e-coli infection that had been there all along.
“If that infection had been found and cured, I could have been blissfully unaware that I had a cancerous tumor that was on the verge of breaking loose around the rest of my body. I could have thought that my frequent peeing was due to a weak bladder. I have been bloody lucky,” wrote Lloyd Webber.
“I say to every red-blooded male, if you do begin to have a problem down under, however embarrassing, go to your GP at once. Even if you don’t have any symptoms, if you are over 50 get regular PSA (prostate specific antigen) tests.”
Lloyd Webber, the composer behind hit musicals including “Jesus Christ Superstar,” “Cats” and “Starlight Express,” is staging a sequel to “The Phantom of the Opera” called “Love Never Dies” that is due to open in London in March this year.
He has also just kicked off a search for Dorothy to star in his West End production of “The Wizard of Oz” with his search to be the topic of a BBC television talent show.
Sandy Hutchens likes coffee as much as the next guy. But he was surprised to find out that it may prevent cancer.
Harvard researchers are finding an intriguing link between coffee and the prevention of an aggressive type of prostate cancer.
Prostate cancer kills 27,000 men annually. So this research comparing the history of thousands and thousands of men raises the possibility of a simple and effective prevention in this deadly disease.
The researchers discovered that men who drank six or more cups of coffee a day had a 60 percent lower risk developing the advanced form of the disease when compared to men who drank no coffee at all.
Even men who drank just one to three cups are showed a lower risk, about 20 percent, of developing the aggressive cancer.
Prostate cancer specialist Dr. Ihor Sawczuk, of Hackensack University Medical Center, says the researchers were not exactly sure what it is about the coffee that might affect the cancers. But he says it’s too early to recommend boosting coffee drinking to men, although one cup of coffee might be helpful.
“I think those that don’t drink coffee should consider perhaps a cup a day may help build up their immune system,” he said. “I think what we need to remember is there may be more to this story.”
And finding out more details will be the next job for researchers. Because one study is not enough for scientists, the findings will need to be confirmed.
But if coffee helps prevention, it’s a bonus for those who already drink it and a simple benefit for those who don’t.
Prostate cancer survivor Richard Williamson has made some already-proven lifestyle changes for his recovery. He’s lost 25 pounds, walks two miles daily and, because he doesn’t eat enough fruits and vegetables, now frequents a health food store near his home to get his vegetables in a drink he likes.
“I do my walk and then I stop there,” he said. “I do that three or four times a week.”
Other proven prevention habits include:
“Decrease the total amount of fat, taking good fat, for example, the omega-3,” Dr. Sawczuk said. “Tomatoes have lycopene, especially the skin of tomatoes. These are good substancse to ingest. Soy products, apples, perhaps even a glass of red wine.”
And now, maybe a cup of coffee or two. One way coffee might be working is that it’s known to help the body use insulin. And high insulin has already been proven to increase risk of prostate cancer.
