CAN walking for an hour a day, eating meals rich in groundnut paste and shark extract cut the risk of developing breast cancer in later life?
Researchers say taking a brisk stroll can dramatically reduce the chances of developing the disease in women over 50, the period at which they are most at risk.
According to the study published online in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, just 60 minutes of so-called moderate activity a day led to a 14 per cent lower risk compared to women who were less active. And women who did more vigorous activities got almost double the protection, cutting their risk of breast cancer by a quarter.
Also, another recent study suggests that eating peanut butter could reduce a woman’s risk of breast cancer, new research suggests. Teenage girls who regularly eat peanuts are 39 per cent less likely to develop benign breast disease by the age of 30.
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Harvard Medical School, United States, found the link was particularly strong in girls who ate peanuts when they were between the ages of nine and 15.
Also, scientists are looking for a new breast cancer wonder drug – in sharks. It is hoped that antibodies found the giants of the deep will lead to the ‘the new Herceptin’.
Hailed as the biggest development in breast cancer for at least 25 years when it was launched more than a decade ago, Herceptin treats an especially fast-growing and spreading form of the disease.
Also, researchers claim that nearly all women will survive breast cancer by 2050. They believe that within the next 40 years treatment will be so effective that more than 95 per cent of cases will be cured.
Scientists also predict tens of thousands of cases will be prevented in the first place through improved diet, exercise and cutting back on drinking and smoking.
In one of the largest pieces of work of its kind, academics from more than 30 universities across the United Kingdom (UK) have drawn up an action plan for how to tackle breast cancer over the next few decades.
They have calculated if nothing is done to improve diagnosis and treatment, 185,000 women will die from the disease between now and 2030.
But with certain medical advances – which they say are achievable – within 40 years it will be rare for women to die from the disease. This could happen without even developing a formal cure for cancer.
Previous studies have shown the benefits of exercise, but scientists claim the latest research is the first to examine walking. It is thought to help cut down the body fat that can produce cancer-stimulating hormones such as oestrogen and insulin.
Scientists at the American Cancer Society studied 73,615 post-menopausal women, of whom 4,760 were diagnosed with breast cancer during a 17-year follow-up. Among all women in the group, 47 per cent said walking was their only recreational activity.
Of that group, those who walked at least seven hours a week had a 14 per cent lower risk of getting breast cancer compared to those who walked three hours or fewer every week.
The study also found that women who took part in more vigorous exercise for an hour each day had a 25 per cent lower risk of developing the disease than the least active.
The results were unaffected by factors such as a woman’s weight or the use of hormone replacement therapy.
Senior author Dr Graham Colditz, associate director for cancer prevention and control at Siteman Cancer Centre at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine said: ‘These findings suggest that peanut butter could help reduce the risk of breast cancer in women.”
The researchers studied 9,039 U.S. girls between 1996 and 2001, and then again between 2005 and 2010 when they were 18 to 30-years-old.
They found that the participants who ate peanut butter or nuts twice each week were 39 per cent less likely to develop benign breast disease than those who never ate them.
The study’s findings also suggest that beans, lentils, soybeans and corn also may help prevent benign breast disease, but consumption of these foods was much lower in these girls meaning the evidence was weaker.
Past studies have linked peanut butter and nut and vegetable fat consumption to a lower risk of benign breast disease.
However, participants in those studies were asked to recall their teenage food intake years later. This new study is the first to use reports made during adolescence with continued follow-ups. About 80 per cent of all breast lumps are benign, or noncancerous, and they are considered to be benign breast diseases.
Teenage girls who regularly eat peanuts are 39 per cent less likely to develop benign breast disease by the age of 30. Some benign breast diseases, while noncancerous, increase the risk of breast cancer later in life. These lumps tend to be moveable and smooth and are often found in both breasts. They can be caused by benign breast changes, breast infections or injury and medications such as birth control pills and hormone replacement therapy.
Previous research by the Shanghai Cancer Institute suggested that eating peanuts - and other foods rich in Vitamin E - could cut the risk of liver cancer. It also found that Vitamin-E rich foods, such as peanuts, could protect against heart disease and eye damage in old age.
Dr. Alpa Patel, senior epidemiologist at the Society, said: “Our results clearly support an association between physical activity and post-menopausal breast cancer, with more vigorous activity having a stronger effect.
“Our findings are particularly relevant, as people struggle with conflicting information about how much activity they need to stay healthy.”
Patel said promoting walking could be a good way of getting women to be more active. In the UK, around 50,000 women develop breast cancer each year – four out of five in the over-50s age group – and 400 men.
At the same time, three-quarters of Britons fail to do the recommended 150 minutes per week of moderate activity such as gardening, dancing or brisk walking, or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise including playing a sport, running or aerobics.
Dr. Hannah Bridges, of Breakthrough Breast Cancer, said just 30 minutes’ moderate activity a day – or 3.5 hours a week – can reduce the risk of breast cancer by at least 20 per cent.
“Any activity that raises your pulse reduces your risk – so regular brisk walks are an easy and free way to get active,” she added.
Baroness Delyth Morgan, chief executive of Breast Cancer Campaign, said: “This study adds further evidence that our lifestyle choices can play a part in influencing the risk of breast cancer and even small changes incorporated into our normal day-to-day activity can make a difference.”
Baroness Delyth Morgan, chief executive of Breast Cancer Campaign, which funded the research said: “My hope is that we will see a future – by 2050 – where breast cancer can be overcome, it can be prevented, it can be cured and so it can be outlived.’ She added: ‘Time is pressing. If we look at the impact of doing nothing, of not moving forward, then by 2030 we’ll have more than 1.2million women living with breast cancer.”
Breast cancer is by far the most common form of the disease in women. There are nearly 50,000 new cases every year and 11,500 deaths. But the researchers calculate by 2025 the numbers of women developing the disease could fall by a fifth. They hope to be able to pinpoint exactly how diets, exercise and stopping drinking and smoking all prevent the illness.
And when women do get the illness, the researchers hope it will be diagnosed early enough so it can be cured. The academics, whose study is published today in the journal Breast Cancer Research, have drawn up a series of targets where prevention, diagnosis and treatment could be improved.
These include improving tests for the disease so it can be detected before women have noticed a lump or any changes to the breast. And by 2025 they hope to have developed a blood test capable of diagnosing breast cancer well before any symptoms have occurred.
Researchers also say women should be offered personalised treatment so they are given certain combinations of drugs and treatment depending on the exact make-up of their tumour. In addition, they calculate that the number of women whose cancer spreads to other parts of the body could fall by a quarter by 2020 through improved diagnosis and medicines.
They also hope that by 2025 they will be able to predict each woman’s risk of getting the disease based on her family history, weight and other lifestyle habits.
At present 85 per cent of women diagnosed with breast cancer can expect to live for at least five years, compared with 52 per cent in the 1970s. However, Britain still lags behind other countries such as Canada and Australia where well over 90 per cent live at least five years.
One in four of the 44,000 British women diagnosed with breast cancer each year have this HER2-positive form of breast cancer. But Herceptin doesn’t work in all cases and sometimes it only offers brief respite, so new treatments are still needed.
Researchers believe the powerful immune system of the shark may hold the answer. They have taken HER2 protein, which sits on the surface of tumours and fuels their growth, and injected it into sharks, to trigger the production of antibodies against it.
The Aberdeen University researchers believe the powerful immune system of the shark may hold the answer. They have taken HER2 protein, which sits on the surface of tumours and fuels their growth, and injected it into sharks, to trigger the production of antibodies against it.
Researcher Helen Dooley, who has received a £200,000 grant from the Association for International Cancer Research, said: ‘It is just like going to the doctor to get your holiday shots. But instead of getting a shot in the arm, they get a shot in the fin.
“We let it cook for a couple of months and then go in and take a blood sample from their tail.”
It is hoped the blood contains antibodies that home in on the HER-2 protein and stop cancerous cells from growing and spreading. A synthetic version of these antibodies could then be used as a drug.
Shark antibodies are key because they are able to squeeze into very small spaces it is hoped they will reach parts of the HER2 protein that other drugs can’t.
Dooley said: “Herceptin is a brilliant drug but some women don’t respond to it and other women become resistant to it after a period of time.”
The experiments are being done on nurse sharks, huge but docile creatures, which make a sucking sound when hunting for prey that resembles the sound of a baby that is feeding.
A special colony is kept in an aquarium in Baltimore in the US and blood samples are shipped to Dooley’s lab in Aberdeen for analysis.
It is hoped the shark blood contains antibodies that home in on the HER-2 protein and stop cancerous cells from growing and spreading. A synthetic version of these antibodies could then be used as a drug.
Dooley, who takes blood samples from the sharks’ tails, said nurse sharks were chosen because of their gentle nature. “It is much harder to get a blood sample from a great white.”
The preliminary nature of the work means that it is still at least a decade before any drug is tested on women for the first time.
Dr Caitlin Palframan, of Breakthrough Breast Cancer, said: “Breast cancer is not a done deal and we need to keep developing new treatments for the disease.
“We look forward to seeing the results of this research in the future as, although it is a very effective drug, Herceptin sometimes does not work or can stop working over time, so we’re in need of drugs that can complement it.”
She added that any new drugs have to be cheap enough for patients to benefit.
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