News summary

Vitamin D supplement “makes chemo more effective”?

A form of vitamin D may be able to prolong life in men with terminal prostate cancer. At present men with advanced tumours that keep growing despite surgery or radiation and subsequent drug treatment and given a form of chemotherapy called docetaxel, which gives them an average of about 16 months. However, scientists at Oregon Health & Science University in the US have raised the life expectancy of men on this treatment to about two years with the addition of the experimental drug DN-101.
The San Francisco Chronicle Online

? and E may prevent Parkinson’s

A diet rich in vitamin E could protect against Parkinson’s disease, say researchers in Canada. Dr Mayhar Etminan and colleagues at Queen’s University [at Kingston, Ontario] in Canada, reviewed eight studies published between 1966 and 2005 looking at the effects of vitamins E and C, and beta carotene, and conclude that moderate and high doses of vitamin E reduce the risk of Parkinson’s, while neither vitamin C or beta carotene has such an effect.
BBC News Online

Fat in diet “may affect breast tumours”

A low fat diet may reduce the risk of a recurrence of tumours in breast cancer patients, according to the first study to produce direct evidence that a lifestyle change may offer protection from any type of malignancy. A study of more than 2,400 middle-aged and elderly women by scientists at the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles shows that those who reduce the fat in their diet after standard treatment for early breast cancer are significantly less likely to have recurrence within five years.
The Washington Post Online

Aspirin and colon cancer

Aspirin can help colon cancer patients avoid a relapse, say researchers in the US. Dr Charles Fuchs and colleagues at Harvard’s Dana-Farber Cancer Institute say in a sample of more than 800 stage III colon cancer patients whose cancer had spread to nearby lymph nodes – but no further – about 9 per cent consistently took aspirin, and those were at 50 per cent less overall risk of relapse and death. COX-2 inhibitors have a similar effect, but too few patients in the sample took them regularly for the researchers to be able to tell if the result was significant.
Reuters Health Online

Coeliac disease – time factor identified

The best time to introduce gluten to children at risk of developing coeliac disease is when they are between 4 and 6 months old, according to research in the US. Dr Jill Norris and colleagues at the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center assessed the occurrence of coeliac disease in 1560 children over a period of 5 years, and found that children exposed to gluten before the age of 4 months are up 23 times more likely than those introduced later to develop the disease. Introducing children to gluten after the age of 6 months increases the risk fourfold, the team says.
Reuters Health Online

Websites “influence young disorder sufferers”

Four out of 10 teenagers with eating disorders visit websites devoted to helping people lose weight and hide their disorder from their friends and family, according to a study at Stanford University in the US. Dr Rebecka Peebles says the sites could be harmful – encouraging unhealthy attitudes and behaviour. More than 60 per cent of teenagers who had visited the sites said they tried weight loss advice or diet aids as a result—as did a quarter of those who had visited onto sites devoted to recovery from eating disorders.
Reuters Health Online