Potty Mouth?

In need of an extra incentive to brush your teeth this Monday morning?  Well, they don’t come much better than this. According to a new study published in the journal Cell Host & Microbe a common type of mouth bacteria may contribute to colorectal cancer.

Colon cancer is the third most commonly diagnosed cancer and the second leading cause of cancer death in both men and women in the US. The American Cancer Society estimates that almost 143,000 people will be diagnosed in 2013 and that more than 50,000 will die of the disease.

The bacteria  at issue –  Fusobacterium nucleatum is a key component of periodontal plaque and plays a role in periodontal disease.  But, according to the researchers from Case Western Reserve University School of Dental Medicine, it can also attach to colon cells and trigger a sequence of changes that lead to colon cancer.  Although they noted that levels of F. nucleatum are much higher in people with gum disease, than in those without, it was not possible to prove a cause and effect relationship.

Nevertheless, the findings emphasize the importance of good oral hygiene.

The research team also found a way to prevent the bacteria from attaching to colon cells. “This discovery creates the potential for new diagnostic tools and therapies to treat and prevent colon cancer,” says lead investigator Yiping Han.

Until such time, SRxA’s Word on Health will be focused on flossing.

A Breath of relief for Colorectal Cancer diagnosis

According to the American Cancer Society, colorectal cancer is the second leading causes of cancer-related deaths in the United States.  In 2008, 142,950 people were diagnosed and 52,857 people died from it.

Although early diagnosis can often lead to a complete cure, many people who should get tested, don’t.  Maybe it’s because the current diagnostic tests for colorectal cancer include colonoscopy and sigmoidoscopy.

Few people in America will forget that day almost 12 years ago when  Katie Couric underwent a colonoscopy, live on the “Today” show in an effort to encourage screening after her husband, Jay Monahan, died of colon cancer in 1998.  And while she did her best to show that the procedure does not have to be either uncomfortable or embarrassing, and there was a 20% spike in colonoscopies in the years that followed, according to the CDC half of colorectal cases are still being diagnosed in the late stages

This is, please excuse the pun, a huge bummer, because if found in the early stages, colon cancer has a survival rate of over 90 percent.

Which is why SRxA’s Word on Health was excited to read a new study, published in a supplement to the British Journal of Surgery, which showed that a simple breath analysis could be used for colorectal cancer screening.

Apparently, cancer tissue has different metabolism compared to normal healthy cells and produces some substances which can be detected in the breath of these patients. Analysis of the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) linked to cancer represents a new frontier in cancer screening.

Donato Altomare, MD, of the Department of Emergency and Organ Transplantation and his team of researchers at the University Aldo Moro of Bari, collected exhaled breath samples from 37 patients with colorectal cancer and 41 healthy controls.

Results showed that patients with colorectal cancer have a different selective VOC pattern compared with healthy controls. Tests based upon these VOC’s are able to discriminate patients with colorectal cancer with an accuracy of over 75%.

“The technique of breath sampling is very easy and non-invasive, although the method is still in the early phase of development,” Altomare notes. “Our study’s findings provide further support for the value of breath testing as a screening tool.”

A previous pilot breath test study showed that the technique is not only able to detect cancer, but it can also differentiate between the four most common forms of cancer: lung, bowel, breast and prostate.

While this is all still at an early stage there is no doubt that simplifying the methods for early diagnosis of cancer, will have a significant impact on cutting death rates.

Beating the Mets?

As fans of the New York Mets know all too well, in recent years they’ve been all too easy to beat.  However, another type of mets have remained somewhat harder to beat.

Metastatic cancer, more commonly referred to as “mets” is cancer that has spread from the place where it first started to another place in the body. The process by which cancer cells spread to other parts of the body is called metastasis.

Although some types of metastatic cancer can be cured, most cannot. In general, the best that can be done is to control the growth of the cancer or to relieve symptoms caused by it. In some cases, metastatic cancer treatments may help prolong life, but sadly, most people die of metastatic disease.

Now it seems there may be a way to beat the mets off the baseball field as well as on it.

Researchers are harnessing viruses to infect and subsequently destroy cancer cells without affecting normal tissue. Several types of viruses have been developed to date: adenovirus, poxvirus and picornavirus.  Even the herpes simplex virus is under consideration.

As are reoviruses, which are currently being studied by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).  Early results indicate that reoviruses could be especially effective in treating metastatic cancers.

Reoviruses are found everywhere in nature. They have been isolated from untreated sewage, river and stagnant waters. These viruses choose to colonize certain types of mutated cancer cells while sparing normal cells that lack these mutations. Approximately two-thirds of human cancers have the mutation that makes them a prime target for reoviruses.

One of the new drugs based on reovirus is known as REOLYSIN^®, an acronym for Respiratory Enteric Orphan Virus, which is widely found in the environment. By adulthood, most people have been exposed to this reovirus. As it is non-pathogenic, infections are typically asymptomatic.

REOLYSIN^®  was developed, based upon research conducted by Dr. Matt Coffey.  He found that the reovirus was able to infect and selectively destroy cancer cells. When a normal cell is infected with the reovirus, an antiviral response is activated, which prevents the virus from replicating within the cell. However, inside a cancer cell with one or more mutations on a growth pathway called the Ras pathway, there is an aberrant antiviral response that is unable to prevent the virus from replicating. This abnormality allows the reovirus to multiply to an extent that is fatal to the cancer cell.

Additionally, reovirus appears to spread particularly easily to organs where metastasis is common, so a concentration of the drug can be built up in those regions of the body.

REOLYSIN is currently being studied in combination with the chemotherapy drugs in six of the ten most common cancers diagnosed in men and five of the ten most diagnosed in women, including patients with head and neck cancer, non-small cell lung cancer, colorectal cancer, castration-resistant prostate cancer, drug-resistant ovarian cancer and pancreatic cancer. All of these indications are associated with metastatic disease.

The American Cancer Society estimates there will be more than 1.6 million new cancer cases diagnosed in the United States alone in 2012; more than 1,500 people a day are expected to die from the disease.

So, could a sewage water virus be the answer? SRxA’s Word on Health will be watching out for the results of these studies and let our readers know if they’ve truly found a way to  “beat the mets.”