Prevent Cancer Foundation Blog

A 17 year-old California student, Angela Zhang, won the top individual honor at the Siemens Foundation’s annual high school science competition for creating a precise cancer fighting particle. The particle improves on current cancer treatments because it can deliver drugs directly to tumor cells, avoiding any damage to healthy cells. The particle is able to release the drug by laser activation avoiding more invasive procedures. Zhang said her research was partially motivated by her family’s loss of ...

A recently published study in the British Journal of Cancer suggests elevated blood sugar levels may increase women’s risk of colon cancer. Over a 12-year period women with the highest blood sugar levels were nearly twice as likely to develop colon cancer than women with the lowest blood sugar levels. None of the women had blood sugar levels high enough to be considered diabetic. The study hypothesized that high levels of blood sugar, or glucose, may fuel ...

[caption id="attachment_5752" align="alignright" width="240" caption="Janne Nappi, PhD"][/caption] The Foundation is proud to highlight the colon cancer research of Janne Nappi, PhD, an instructor of radiology at Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Nappi received a two-year grant from the Foundation in Fall 2008 to improve the accuracy of computed tomographic colonography (CTC) by developing sophisticated computer algorithms to analyze the surface of the colon and indicate the locations of hard-to-detect flat growths that might develop into cancer. 1.  What ...

A study recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association has found a correlation between the consumption of alcohol and increased risk of breast cancer. The data showed that even low-levels of drinking (3-6 glasses of wine per week) led to a 15% increase in breast cancer risk and that women who consumed higher levels of alcohol (at least 2 drinks per day) were found to have a 51% increase in breast cancer ...