Report Provides Blueprint For Cancer Prevention Research

Main Category: Cancer / Oncology
Article Date: 24 Jan 2008 - 1:00 PDT

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A scientific report published this month provides a blueprint to revolutionize the future of cancer prevention research.

Until now, most research on how to prevent cancer has provided information about the average person - nothing tailored for the individual.

The report, "The Art of Casting Nets: Fishing for the Prize of Personalized Cancer Prevention," is published in the January 2008 issue of Nutrition and Cancer. The article focuses on the need for personalized cancer prevention - a strategy that will enable each person to reduce his or her risk for lethal cancer by matching the dose, duration and timing of an intervention with their own cancer risk profile.

"The central tenet of personalized cancer prevention is that average is overrated," said David G. Bostwick, MD, MBA, medical director of Bostwick Laboratories and co-author of the report. "Average may have been a useful concept in the past, but now we are entering a new and exciting era: the era of personalized cancer prevention.

"This is an urgent call to action to change the way cancer prevention research is being conducted."

The authors frame the major obstacles to developing personalized interventions to prevent cancer. These include the lack of non-invasive stratifiers of cancer risk and the U-shaped dose response between cancer-fighting nutrients and cancer-causing genetic damage.

For example, a low level of the trace mineral selenium is recognized as a risk factor for many cancers, especially prostate cancer. Research by the authors has led to an important discovery - too much selenium may be as bad for you as too little. In fact, there is a U-shaped dose response between selenium intake and genetic damage in the prostate. The best place to be is in the mid-range of selenium intake.

"For this reason, you shouldn't take selenium supplements until you find out exactly where you are on the curve," said David J. Waters, Ph.D., DVM, director of the Gerald P. Murphy Cancer Foundation and co-author of the report. "The research is telling us that more of a good thing is not necessarily a good thing. It's a U-shaped world. More is not always better."

A simple toenail test, SeleniumHealth™, can provide men the opportunity to measure their own selenium level. The SeleniumHealth™ toenail test indicates how much selenium you have been receiving from your diet and from supplements over the last three months. The goal is to savor the health benefits of selenium and at the same time to avoid oversupplementation.

According to this new way of personalized thinking, it's important to get your level of cancer-fighting nutrients just right - not too low, not too high. The SeleniumHealth™ toenail test takes away the guesswork for selenium.

"Your physician doesn't guess your cholesterol level. He or she measures it with a blood test and, if it is abnormal, a personal strategy of diet and medication is created to bring your cholesterol within the desired range. If this seems smart for your heart, then why not personalize your prostate protection?" Bostwick said. "With the results of the toenail test, you can adjust the amount of selenium you get from food and supplements to the amount that is best for you. It's all about you."

The report underscores the essential need for scientists to be cross-trained in cancer and aging, because a better understanding of what exactly happens in old tissues - the tissues in which most cancers arise - will likely lead to fresh ideas that will advance cancer prevention.

The authors also stress that scientists must take more responsibility for communicating health-related research to the public in the proper context.

"We need to give people news they can use. The time for personalized cancer prevention is now, and a non-invasive test like SeleniumHealth™ is an important step toward that goal," said Waters, who serves as associate director of Purdue University's Center on Aging and the Life Course.

Drawing a parallel between fishing and conducting cancer research, the researchers observe that every fisherman knows that where he casts his net determines the catch. The simple question is: When it comes to solving the cancer problem, where should we be casting our nets?

For more information about personalized cancer prevention, go to http://www.gpmcf.org.

About Bostwick Laboratories

Located in Richmond, Va. Bostwick Laboratories™ is the leading premium diagnostic testing and information reference laboratory for physicians and patients that focuses on urologic diseases such as prostate cancer.

About the Gerald P. Murphy Cancer Foundation

The Gerald P. Murphy Cancer Foundation is a not-for-profit cancer research institute based in the Purdue Research Park in West Lafayette, Ind., that is helping people live longer and healthier lives through research aimed at personalized cancer prevention and healthy aging.

http://www.purdue.edu