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Cancer Prevention
Michael Lam, MD, MPH
www.DrLam.com
(READING
TIPS: For fast reading, scan through the topic headings in BOLD BLACK,
important conclusions in BOLD
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and " Must Know " in BOLD RED. To jump to specific sections in this article, click on
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| Before You Begin
Information presented here is for general
educational purposes only. Each one of us is biochemically and metabolically
different. If you have a specific health concern and wish my personalized
nutritional recommendation, write to me by clicking
here. |
Contents
Introduction
How Cancer Develops
Markers of Cancer
Ways to Prevent Cancer
Does Nutritional Supplementation
Help?
How Antioxidants Fight Cancer
Primer on Calcium D-Glucarate
Primer on Free Radicals and
Antioxidants
CLASSES OF ANTIOXIDANTS
A. Antioxidant Enzymes
B. Molecular Antioxidants
DISCUSSION
Introduction
The events leading up to cancers often take place long prior to the clinical
detection of the disease. It is a disease skewed towards old age. The median
age of a U.S. cancer patient is 70. According to the National Cancer
Institute, the odds of getting cancer after age 60 is 16 times greater than
before age 40.
Cells in our body are dividing 24 hours a day. Bad mutations are few, but
they do happen. When enough mutations have occurred, the result can be cancer.
In fact, we are all walking around with millions of pre-malignant cells.
If we live long enough, we will come down with one form of cancer or another.
Advancements in technology have increased life expectancy in industrialized
nations to almost 76 years. Cancer is quickly replacing cardiovascular disease
as the number one cause of death in the United States.
The lifetime chance of getting cancer of the colon is 6%, prostate 17%,
breast 14%, and lung 7%. At the same time, proper diet, supplementation,
and lifestyle changes can reduce cancer of the colon by up to 50%, prostrate
by15%, and lung by 90%. Dr. Gabriel Deldman, Director of the
American Cancer Society, sums it up well by saying, "We don't need years
of research. If people implement what we know today, cancer rates would
drop. It's that simple."
Unfortunately, cancer chemoprevention research is 10-15 years behind cancer
treatment research. It makes more sense to treat pre-cancerous lesions than
to wait for people to develop fully blown cancer.
How Cancer Develops
 We
now know that cancer cells are developed in 3 phases:
- Initiation (Phase 1):
When something (such as a free radical or carcinogen) alters a cell's
genetic makeup, causing the cell to divide more frequently than it should.
- Promotion (Phase 2):
When the damaged cell goes into uncontrolled growth.
- Progression (Phase 3):
When the tumor builds itself a blood supply network through angiogenesis
and invades surrounding tissue.
The cornerstone of cancer prevention research is to design drugs that thwart
the carcinogenic process at points where mutations may occur. One goal is
to find drugs that limit the damage caused by substances which cause cell
mutations. These substances include such things as tobacco smoke, environmental
pollutants, or even toxic substances we may eat - such as nitrosamines, in
bacon and cured meats, to pesticide residues, in fruits and vegetables. Another
goal is to use gene therapy to stop the random genetic mutation that results
in cancer. A third goal is to intercept "free radicals" and errant oxygen
molecules that are released during normal cellular metabolism (production
of ATP) in order to prevent the damage they can do to cells and to trigger
genetic mutations.
One trillion molecules of oxygen go through each cell every day, inflicting
about 100,000 free radical wounds on the DNA. By
age 30, a few million free radical lesions per cell exist in each of our body's
cell. By age 50, about 30% of our cellular protein has been damaged by free
radicals. The solution is to fight the free radicals with antioxidants
such as selenium, beta-carotene, vitamin E, and vitamin C, among others.
Markers of Cancer
Unlike cardiovascular disease where established markers such as cholesterol
have a clear correlation with the disease, many markers associated with pre-cancerous
lesions have yet to be validated. There are only a few screening tests for
cancer, like the Pap smear for uterine cancer and prostate surface antigen
(psa) for prostate cancer. Until we get better imaging technology, determine
markers, and develop preventive drugs, we are left with few precious markers
for the early detection of many cancers.
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