A recent study carried out by Penn state food scientists has shed even more light on green tea’s anti-cancer effects, finding that a compound within the antioxidant-rich beverage may be capable of destroying oral cancer cells while leaving healthy cells completely unharmed.

The compound responsible for many of green tea’s benefits and one which is known to protect against cancer is known as epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG). The compound has been studied extensively for its ability to not only prevent and beat cancer, but also increase metabolism, protect the brain, and slow the aging process. Continue reading →

Scientists believe the gases in our body can reveal a range of diseases such as colon cancer and irritable bowel syndrome.

But attempting to ‘scientifically analyse people’s farts’ – either by using a breathalyser or looking at feces – can prove tricky.

Now one engineer claims he has come up with two methods to do this that are far more effective; fecal fermentation and gas-sensing capsules.

Fecal fermentation involves incubating feces in conditions similar to those found in the large intestine.

To do this scientists place a spoonful of feces in a jar, and place a lid on it. Continue reading →

Debrah Reid, who has breast cancer, at home in Memphis, where mortality risk is greater for blacks. Credit Ruth Fremson/The New York Times

A troubling racial divide in breast cancer mortality continues to widen in most major cities around the country, suggesting that advances in diagnosis and treatment continue to bypass African-American women, according to new research.

An analysis of breast cancer mortality trends in 41 of the largest cities in the United States shows that the chance of surviving breast cancer correlates strongly with the color of a woman’s skin. Black women with breast cancer — whether they hail from Phoenix or Denver, Boston or Wichita, Kan. — are on average about 40 percent more likely to die of the disease than white women with breast cancer. Continue reading →

Archaeologists have found a complete 3,200-year-old skeleton, pictured, with cancer. The find could help show how the disease has evolved

Wealthy young man’s bones could help show how the disease evolved.

Archaeologists have found a complete 3,200-year-old skeleton with cancer and say the discovery could help show how the disease has evolved.

The remains of the wealthy man, believed to have been between 25 and 35 when he died, were found in a tomb close to the River Nile in Sudan last year.

The bones showed evidence of metastatic carcinoma – cancer which has spread from where it started.

Analysis proved it came from a malignant soft-tissue tumour and spread across large parts of the body, making it the oldest ‘convincing’ example of metastatic cancer ever found, the authors of the study said. Continue reading →

A dog has been used to sniff out thyroid cancer in people who had not yet been diagnosed, US researchers say.

Dogs have 10 times the number of smell receptors as people

Tests on 34 patients showed an 88% success rate in finding tumours.

The team, presenting their findings at the annual meeting of the Endocrine Society, said the animal had an “unbelievable” sense of smell. Continue reading →

Images track hotspots in tumours where the immune system attacks disease cells

A new test can predict the survival chances of women with breast cancer by analysing images of ‘hotspots’ where the immune system is attacking the tumour.

Scientists have employed techniques previously used in detecting crime hotspots to track how strongly the immune system is working.

The test identified women’s chances of treatment keeping the disease under control – those at low risk survived 50 per cent longer before the cancer spread.

So far the test is being trialled only on women with a type of breast cancer called oestrogen receptor negative (ER negative), which affects up to one in three patients and is particularly hard to treat. Continue reading →