cancer lesson #3

Excerpt number 3:

Measuring Inflammation

The cancer-provoked inflammatory process is so crucial that measuring the production of inflammatory agents by tumors can predict survival time in many cancers (colon, breast, prostate, uterine, stomach, and brain).

At the Glasgow Hospital in Scotland, oncologists have been measuring inflammation markers in the blood of patients with various cancers since the nineties. They have shown that patients with the lowest level of inflammation were twice as likely as the others to live through the next several years. These markers are easy to measure, and to the astonishment of the Glasgow oncologists, they are a better indicator of the chances of survival than the patient’s general state of health at the time of diagnosis. It is as if the body’s chronic underlying state of inflammation were a major determining factor of health. This is true even when the inflammation doesn’t seem serious and gives no detectable signs such as joint pain or cardiovascular disease.

Several studies have been able to show that people who regularly take anti-inflammatory medication (Advil, Nuprofen, ibuprofen, etc.) are less vulnerable to cancer than people who do not. Unfortunately, these drugs have side effects; the risk of stomach ulcers and gastritis is significant. New anti-inflammatory medications, such as Vioxx and Celebrex, initially inspired new hope. They are inhibitors of the calamitous COX-s – the very enzyme tumors produce to speed up their expansion. Several research projects explored these drugs’ protective effects against cancer, with very encouraging results. However, in 2004 the demonstration of increased cardiovascular risks greatly dampened the early enthusiasm, and these drugs are not used clinically against cancer.

The Black Knight of Cancer

Thanks to the ongoing efforts of researchers, the Achilles’ heel of cancer’s mechanism for promoting inflammation is clearly identified today. In the laboratory of Michael Karin, PhD, professor of pharmacology at the University of California at San Diego, researchers working with a major German foundation have demonstrated it in mice. The growth and spread of cancer cells relies to a large extent on a single proinflammatory factor secreted by the tumor cells – a sort of black knight without which tumors become much more fragile. That factor is referred to as nuclear factor-kappa B (or NF-kappa B), and blocking its production makes most cancer cells “mortal” once again. It also prevents them from creating metastases. The key role played by NF-kappa B in cancer is so well identified today that Alberta Baldwin, PhD, a professor at the University of North Carolina, concluded in the journal Science that “almost every cancer preventive is an inhibitor of NF-kappa B”.

As a matter of fact, many natural approaches are capable of blocking the inflammatory action of this key substance. The same article in Science notes, not without irony, that the whole pharmaceutical industry today is looking for drugs inhibiting NF-kappa B, while the molecules known to act against it are already widely available. The article cites only two of these molecules, qualified as low-tech: catechins, found in green tea, and resveratrol, found in red wine. Actually there are a good many of these types of molecules found in food, and some are even more active.

This whole area is particularly interesting to me given my 10-year-long infected/inflamed tooth. The dentist who finally removed my tooth a couple weeks ago told me my gums were purple and very unhealthy. Apparently the dentist who performed my root canal missed a canal, which I am told by someone at Wikipedia is fairly common in upper molars.

I now take both low-dose aspirin and curcumin (turmeric) supplements for their anti-inflammatory properties. I try to drink green tea but I don’t love it, and I do take in my share of red wine.