Question: Is it true that people who sleep less than six hours a night are more likely to develop colon cancer than those who sleep more? and is colon cancer common? what is the most common form of cancer? and what are people doing to prevent cancer?
There are indeed a number of recent studies which have associated lack of sleep with colon cancer development! You are keeping up with the scientific news!
Lack of sleep has already been linked to conditions such as obesity, heart disease and diabetes and these may be related to increase risk in colon cancer.
It is thought that if you sleep less your body produces less melatonin which is a natural hormone produced by humans and most other animals. Melatonin repairs DNA so if you produce less of it your body won’t be able to repair itself or fight the cancer.
Cancer affects most parts of the body and I think there are over 200 different types but the most common are breast, lung, colon and prostate which make up nearly 60% of all cases.
Lots of scientists around the world are working really hard to solve the mysteries and prevent cancer. From the looks of it Kat is getting on pretty well. Good luck to her!!
I have to say, this isn’t an area I work on! This is the sort of thing epidemiologists do. These are scientists that look at information from thousands of patients (like age, eating habits, do they smoke, what diseases they have), do lots of complicated maths that I couldn’t hope to understand, and come up with information like this. So in this instance, they asked doctors to get their patients to fill in a questionaire asking them about their eating habits, sleep patterns, weight , smoking etc. All of the patients had come to the doctor because they were concerned or having tests for bowel cancer. They then looked at all the information they got and found that people who got less than 6 hours sleep had an increased risk of bowel cancer.
You have to be careful with studies like this as there may be other reasons for the link that you see – for example, if you are worried that you may have cancer, this may effect your sleep and therefore the results. However, this study seemed pretty decent, so I think what they say is true. As Glyn says, this may be because the body needs to repair and recover when you’re asleep.
The biggest killer in terms of cancer is lung cancer. Along with bowel cancer, its the most common and its pretty hard to cure. If you can catch the cancer early, bowel cancer cancer can be cured, but sadly, people often don’t realise they have it until its spread. Breast cancer is also common, but actually, most people with breast cancer will survive it (with treatment).
In terms of preventing cancer, the government are trying to get people to do some basic things like improve their diet, stop smoking and stop sun bathing. They are also vaccinating girls to protect them from the Human papilloma virus which can cause cervical cancer in women.
thank you for commenting on this!!!! i find it intersting !!!
@kat
at the doctors you can pay for a better cervical cancer jab which isnt avalible to have at schools yet! (my mum was a pharmasist) is there a reason that you think that people can pay for better things, yes the nhs is there but also there is the private health option, do people get a better quality of life if they can afford it? is itt down to rights? in my opinion people should all be allowed to have the best treatment out there? has anyone ever had cancer jabs and still died from cancer? does the jab help get rid of the cancer once you have it? is that what scientests are working on currently? what do cervical cancer jabs do that say bowel cancer jabs dont ? is it true that if you eat more that 5 tea spoons of ketchup a day you are likely to get bowel cancer?
from u11bradshawt
Wow, lots of good questions! People do get a better quality of life if they can afford it (that goes for schooling too) and I really strongly don’t agree with it. Lots of my family work in the NHS and so its close to my heart. Good healthcare should be available to all (and I don’t mind paying my taxes for it!).
I think the HPV vaccine is available on the NHS – maybe they have only started giving it to girls of a certain age though (in theory, you don’t need it until you are at the age where you might be sexually active). The NHS website has info on this: http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/vaccinations/Pages/hpv-human-papillomavirus-vaccine.aspx
I’m not sure if anyone has died from cervical cancer after the HPV jab – you’d have to look at the data from the original trial. I think it would probably depend on the vaccine and how long it gives you immunity for (some vaccines work better than others). Also, there might be the odd case of cervical cancer that isn’t caused by the virus (although I think most are), so those wouldn’t be prevented by the vaccine.
The cervical cancer jab works because almost all cervical cancer is caused by one virus. Bowel cancer is much more complicated and is caused by lots of mutations in your dan that build up over time, rather than a single infection or disease. For this reason you can’t vaccinate against it – its not a foreign virus causing the disease in your cells, but the cells themselves changing over time.
The HPV jab won’t get rid of the cancer once you have it. You need to have the jab before you get the virus that causes the cancer, it won’t kill the virus or the cancer once you have them. Scientists in my lab are working on cancer curing viruses, but these are where you give a harmless virus to patients at the same time as giving them drugs to treat their cancer. The idea is that the virus will get the patients immune system working more, so that it will attack the cancer. Some scientists are also working on cancer vaccines. This is where you make a vaccine against something (e.g. a protein) that the cancer produces but your normal cells. The vaccine then tells the patients immune system to fight the cancer. There has been some success with using these vaccines in skin cancer: http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/cancer-help/type/melanoma/treatment/melanoma-vaccines
And finally…….I doubt that 5 tea spoons of ketchup would give you cancer – some people actually think that tomatoes can help prevent cancer, not cause it. It might not be great for your teeth though!
Thanks so much !!!
Do you think that if they do find a cure for cancer that they will need to specialise in different types of cancer ??! Like one for bowel and one for Brest cancer ?!! Or do you thing first they will create a cute for all cancer ? Do ou think this will come in our life time or in the future ? What about the ratio one in every three people get cancer ? Is this true ? Also is cancer more common in certain country’s because to the health resource ? Is this known cancers ? Such an interesting topic !!!
Loads more good questions – you’re making me use my brain this morning!
Yes, I think we will need different cures for different cancers. In fact, thats already the case. Some cancers are pretty successful treated with the drugs we have (like this type of childhood leukaemia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acute_lymphoblastic_leukemia) whereas for others, we have yet to find anything that really works (like pancreatic cancer). So I very much doubt we’ll find one single cure for all cancer. Remember that cancer cells are part of your body, so something that kills all types of cancer cells is likely to kill all your normal cells too!
As far as I know the 1:3 ratio is true (I don’t work on statistics much though!) – it makes sense to me as your chances of cancer increase as you age, and we are living longer and longer.
There are several reasons why cancer is more common in some countries than others. Differences in lifestyle have a big effect – for example, bowel cancer is more common in places like Europe, America and Australia than in Africa and the middle east because our diet is more rich in red meat and lower in vegetables (which is not good!). Geography can also have an effect – skin cancer is much more common in Australia because the sun is much stronger there and the fair-skinned descendents of people from the UK that moved there have little protection from it. Healthcare plays apart as well. For example, people who are very sick with AIDs will often get cancers caused by virus, as their immune infection can’t fight them off. In the uk, these are rare as we treat people with HIV with drugs, so they don’t get advanced AIDS. This isn’t the case in parts of africa, where access to healthcare is limited, so they will have more patients developing cancer.
One other, quite important thing is health and safety. Here in the uk, we have lots of laws that protect us from working with anything that is known to cause cancer. This didn’t used to be the case and many people used to die from work related cancers. For example, men who oiled the machines in woollen mills used to get a particular type of cancer from the oil that they used splashing on their trousers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mule_spinners'_cancer
Many countries don’t have strict laws to protect people from cancer causing substances, so you they will have more work related cancers.
As usual, CRUK has some great info on all of this, check out this info graphic: http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/cancer-info/cancerstats/world/the-global-picture/cancer-overall-world#Worldwide
sorry to make you use your brain but i just love science !!!!
wow thanks loads so much info !!!!
does that mean children who get leukaemia can get it treated if it is caught early enough?
i dont eat red meat as my parents stopped after the mad cow diease thing when my mum was a child !! do you know much about that ? in africa people cant get the treatment they need should there be more campaigns to help ? thats all bye !!!
I’m glad you love science – its a very useful thing to love!
Children with leukaemia can indeed be treated successfully if it is caught early enough. How successful the treatment is depends on what type of leukemia they have (there are lots of different types, that originate from different types of blood cells and are caused by different mutations in the genes of the cancer cells). If you are a child with the most common type of lymphoblastic leukaemia (this is where your b-cells, which are your antibody producing cells and are part of your immune system, grow out of control) then you have a high chance of being cured of the disease.
I don’t eat red meat either – I’m veggie! There is some data that eating red meat itself increases the risk of bowel cancer, but some people argue that it is less eating lots of red meat, and more that if you eat a lot of red meat, you probably don’t eat enough vegetables and fibre. So rather than meat causing cancer, its vegetables and fibre preventing cancer. Honestly, I’m not sure which it is, but its generally a good idea to eat a healthy, balanced diet!
I don’t really know about mad cow disease – its the sort of thing Nicola would have known about!
There are lots of campaigns to get better access to healthcare for people in Africa. For example, they were raising money for vaccines for children in Africa as part of comic relief last Friday. Save the Children, Medicin sans Frontieres and UNICEF (thats just the big charities – there are lots more) all help children and adults with HIV and AIDs in Africa and other parts of the world.
Comments
u11bradshawt commented on :
thank you for commenting on this!!!! i find it intersting !!!
@kat
at the doctors you can pay for a better cervical cancer jab which isnt avalible to have at schools yet! (my mum was a pharmasist) is there a reason that you think that people can pay for better things, yes the nhs is there but also there is the private health option, do people get a better quality of life if they can afford it? is itt down to rights? in my opinion people should all be allowed to have the best treatment out there? has anyone ever had cancer jabs and still died from cancer? does the jab help get rid of the cancer once you have it? is that what scientests are working on currently? what do cervical cancer jabs do that say bowel cancer jabs dont ? is it true that if you eat more that 5 tea spoons of ketchup a day you are likely to get bowel cancer?
from u11bradshawt
Kat commented on :
Wow, lots of good questions! People do get a better quality of life if they can afford it (that goes for schooling too) and I really strongly don’t agree with it. Lots of my family work in the NHS and so its close to my heart. Good healthcare should be available to all (and I don’t mind paying my taxes for it!).
I think the HPV vaccine is available on the NHS – maybe they have only started giving it to girls of a certain age though (in theory, you don’t need it until you are at the age where you might be sexually active). The NHS website has info on this:
http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/vaccinations/Pages/hpv-human-papillomavirus-vaccine.aspx
I’m not sure if anyone has died from cervical cancer after the HPV jab – you’d have to look at the data from the original trial. I think it would probably depend on the vaccine and how long it gives you immunity for (some vaccines work better than others). Also, there might be the odd case of cervical cancer that isn’t caused by the virus (although I think most are), so those wouldn’t be prevented by the vaccine.
The cervical cancer jab works because almost all cervical cancer is caused by one virus. Bowel cancer is much more complicated and is caused by lots of mutations in your dan that build up over time, rather than a single infection or disease. For this reason you can’t vaccinate against it – its not a foreign virus causing the disease in your cells, but the cells themselves changing over time.
The HPV jab won’t get rid of the cancer once you have it. You need to have the jab before you get the virus that causes the cancer, it won’t kill the virus or the cancer once you have them. Scientists in my lab are working on cancer curing viruses, but these are where you give a harmless virus to patients at the same time as giving them drugs to treat their cancer. The idea is that the virus will get the patients immune system working more, so that it will attack the cancer. Some scientists are also working on cancer vaccines. This is where you make a vaccine against something (e.g. a protein) that the cancer produces but your normal cells. The vaccine then tells the patients immune system to fight the cancer. There has been some success with using these vaccines in skin cancer:
http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/cancer-help/type/melanoma/treatment/melanoma-vaccines
And finally…….I doubt that 5 tea spoons of ketchup would give you cancer – some people actually think that tomatoes can help prevent cancer, not cause it. It might not be great for your teeth though!
u11bradshawt commented on :
Thanks so much !!!
Do you think that if they do find a cure for cancer that they will need to specialise in different types of cancer ??! Like one for bowel and one for Brest cancer ?!! Or do you thing first they will create a cute for all cancer ? Do ou think this will come in our life time or in the future ? What about the ratio one in every three people get cancer ? Is this true ? Also is cancer more common in certain country’s because to the health resource ? Is this known cancers ? Such an interesting topic !!!
Kat commented on :
Loads more good questions – you’re making me use my brain this morning!
Yes, I think we will need different cures for different cancers. In fact, thats already the case. Some cancers are pretty successful treated with the drugs we have (like this type of childhood leukaemia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acute_lymphoblastic_leukemia) whereas for others, we have yet to find anything that really works (like pancreatic cancer). So I very much doubt we’ll find one single cure for all cancer. Remember that cancer cells are part of your body, so something that kills all types of cancer cells is likely to kill all your normal cells too!
As far as I know the 1:3 ratio is true (I don’t work on statistics much though!) – it makes sense to me as your chances of cancer increase as you age, and we are living longer and longer.
There are several reasons why cancer is more common in some countries than others. Differences in lifestyle have a big effect – for example, bowel cancer is more common in places like Europe, America and Australia than in Africa and the middle east because our diet is more rich in red meat and lower in vegetables (which is not good!). Geography can also have an effect – skin cancer is much more common in Australia because the sun is much stronger there and the fair-skinned descendents of people from the UK that moved there have little protection from it. Healthcare plays apart as well. For example, people who are very sick with AIDs will often get cancers caused by virus, as their immune infection can’t fight them off. In the uk, these are rare as we treat people with HIV with drugs, so they don’t get advanced AIDS. This isn’t the case in parts of africa, where access to healthcare is limited, so they will have more patients developing cancer.
One other, quite important thing is health and safety. Here in the uk, we have lots of laws that protect us from working with anything that is known to cause cancer. This didn’t used to be the case and many people used to die from work related cancers. For example, men who oiled the machines in woollen mills used to get a particular type of cancer from the oil that they used splashing on their trousers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mule_spinners'_cancer
Many countries don’t have strict laws to protect people from cancer causing substances, so you they will have more work related cancers.
As usual, CRUK has some great info on all of this, check out this info graphic:
http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/cancer-info/cancerstats/world/the-global-picture/cancer-overall-world#Worldwide
Kat commented on :
Sorry, there were quite a few typos in that – I forgot that I can’t edit my comments!
u11bradshawt commented on :
sorry to make you use your brain but i just love science !!!!
wow thanks loads so much info !!!!
does that mean children who get leukaemia can get it treated if it is caught early enough?
i dont eat red meat as my parents stopped after the mad cow diease thing when my mum was a child !! do you know much about that ? in africa people cant get the treatment they need should there be more campaigns to help ? thats all bye !!!
Kat commented on :
I’m glad you love science – its a very useful thing to love!
Children with leukaemia can indeed be treated successfully if it is caught early enough. How successful the treatment is depends on what type of leukemia they have (there are lots of different types, that originate from different types of blood cells and are caused by different mutations in the genes of the cancer cells). If you are a child with the most common type of lymphoblastic leukaemia (this is where your b-cells, which are your antibody producing cells and are part of your immune system, grow out of control) then you have a high chance of being cured of the disease.
I don’t eat red meat either – I’m veggie! There is some data that eating red meat itself increases the risk of bowel cancer, but some people argue that it is less eating lots of red meat, and more that if you eat a lot of red meat, you probably don’t eat enough vegetables and fibre. So rather than meat causing cancer, its vegetables and fibre preventing cancer. Honestly, I’m not sure which it is, but its generally a good idea to eat a healthy, balanced diet!
I don’t really know about mad cow disease – its the sort of thing Nicola would have known about!
There are lots of campaigns to get better access to healthcare for people in Africa. For example, they were raising money for vaccines for children in Africa as part of comic relief last Friday. Save the Children, Medicin sans Frontieres and UNICEF (thats just the big charities – there are lots more) all help children and adults with HIV and AIDs in Africa and other parts of the world.