Preventing cancer–2 views

From The Scientist

“Can we prevent cancer? Absolutely, according to epidemiological data on migrant populations. The Japanese historically have a high incidence of gastric cancer and a low incidence of colon cancer. In the U.S., it is the opposite. In the last half of the twentieth century, upon migration to Hawaii, first generation Japanese saw a dramatic switch in the relative incidence of gastric versus colon cancer. By the second generation, the incidence reflected the western diet. One to two generations is not long enough to see a change in genetics, so clearly the environment plays a major role.”

–Leonard Augenlicht, professor of medicine and cell biology; associate director for translational research, Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Cancer Center, New York

“How can we prevent cancer? Don’t have your cells divide! Cancer is one of those very hard walls we hit as far as longevity goes. There are lots of things to do to lower your risk of getting cancer–eat well, don’t smoke–but to actually guarantee not getting cancer, I don’t really know if we can ever do that. Cell division is risky business. The risk of cancer is something we have to learn to live with.”

–Judith Campisi, senior scientist, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; professor, Buck Institute for Age Research, Navato, Calif.

Seems to me like Old School (the former) vs. New Skool (the latter).

More cancer from The Scientist

There are a couple of additional articles in the cancer feature of The Scientist that should be of interest to FI Space.

READ MORE

Follow-up on NIH and cancer science

If you’re interested in science trends that may be contributing to the new twists at NIH, it happens that The Scientist has a feature this week that is all about cancer science. Strap on your molecular biology thinking cap.

Aberrant cell signaling. How cells take the wrong fork.

DNA expression profiling. Are cancers as distinctive as, say, earlobes?

Diagnosing cancer with genomics and proteomics.

NIH turbocharged?

Looks like the NIH is adopting some new initiatives to push research out the door faster in deliverable interventions in health. They have developed a “master plan” that targets more specific areas of research. Some quotes:

…the institutes will provide training in clinical research to community doctors, who can help test treatments and disseminate the findings of biomedical research.

One goal of the institutes’ plan is to catalog the intricate networks that transmit information among genes, molecules and cells. Scientists believe that disturbances in these “biological pathways” can cause disease.

More precise knowledge of the molecular events that lead to health or disease can “revolutionize the practice of medicine”…

Another goal is to create a picture gallery showing the three-dimensional structure of all the proteins in the body.

The future…will require much more “team science” conducted by interdisciplinary groups of molecular biologists, chemists, physicists, mathematicians, behavioral scientists, pharmacologists and epidemiologists.

I think NIH is leading the way here, especially in recognizing that team, multidisciplinary research is where the future of life science is. I think the ACS should support this direction too.