Posted on 2011/09/14
“We showed that the link between greater height and increased total cancer risk is similar across many different populations from Asia, Australasia, Europe, and North America,” said Dr Jane Green, lead author of the study, who is based at the Cancer Epidemiology Unit at Oxford University. “The link between height and cancer risk seems to be common to many different types of cancer and in different people; suggesting that there may be a basic common mechanism, perhaps acting early in peoples’ lives, when they are growing.”
Cells are the building blocks of living things. Cancer grows out of normal cells in the body. Normal cells multiply when the body needs them, and die when the body doesn’t need them. Cancer appears to occur when the growth of cells in the body is out of control and cells divide too quickly. It can also occur when cells “forget” how to die.
There are many different kinds of cancers. Cancer can develop in almost any organ or tissue, such as the lung, colon, breast, skin, bones, or nerve tissue.
There are many causes of cancers like drinking access alcohol, chemicals especially benzene, tobacco, radiations, viruses, excessive sun exposure, Environmental toxins, such as certain poisonous mushrooms and a type of poison that can grow on peanut plants (aflatoxins), genetic problems etc.
Cancers are primarily an environmental disease with 90-95% of cases attributed to environmental factors and 5-10% due to genetics. Environmental, as used by cancer researchers, means any cause that is no genetic. Common environmental factors that contribute to cancer death include: tobacco (25-30%), diet and obesity (30-35%), infections (15-20%), radiation (both ionizing and none ionizing, up to 10%), stress, lack of physical activity and environmental pollution.
Common symptoms in all cancer patients are as;
- Chill
- Fatigue
- Fever
- Loss of appetite
- Night sweat
- Weight loss
- Malaise
Total cancer risk increased with height, as did the risk of many different types of cancer. The types of cancers which increased along with height include cancers of the breast, ovary, womb, bowel, leukaemia, and malignant melanoma.
How is it possible that height increases the risk of cancer? Theories abound, but the researchers have not been able to pinpoint any as the true cause. One suggestion is that environmental influences that may cause an individual to grow taller, such as childhood diet and infections or growth hormones, may be involved. Another theory is that, because the heights of global populations have increased in the 20th century, the overall landscape of cancer risk has been altered.
The researchers used data from the Cancer Research UK-funded Million Women Study which examined 1.3 million middle-aged women in the United Kingdom. This study took place between 1996 and 2001 and included factors relevant to cancer, the incidence of cancer, and personal information such as height. A follow up to the survey was conducted in 2011, ten years after the survey concluded. Of all women, 97,000 cases of cancer were identified.
Height has been linked to cancer before but this is the first mass study. It followed more than one million British women who registered between 1996 and 2001. About 97,000 of these women had developed cancer 10 years later. The study found that for every 10cm of height, the risk of cancer increased by 16 per cent.
But Ms Sara Hiom of Cancer Research UK said: “Tall people should not be alarmed by these results. Most people are not a lot taller than average and their height will have only a small effect on their cancer risk.
Professor Dame Valerie Berel, head of the cancer epidemiology unit of oxford have finding in some studies that leg length is the component of height that is generating the height-cancer associations requires replication. Furthermore, the differential association of growth factor levels with leg length and trunk length should be investigated. Such research might provide insight into periods of life that are critical for the development of cancer risk.
“Of course people cannot change their height,” said Dr. Green. “Being taller has been linked to a lower risk of other conditions, such as heart disease. The importance of our findings is that they may help us to understand how cancers develop.”
More than 374 patients from both private and public hospitals have been confirmed dengue fever positive in the Punjab including 273 in provincial metropolis and 101 from other cities during the last seven-and-a-half months till August 21, according to Communicable Disease Control (CDC) Cell of the Health Department.
Manager, Provincial Malaria Control Programme, Dr Naheed Jamali said that six thousand cases of malaria had been reported in the ongoing year, which she considered normal. President Infection Control Society, Director Dow Laboratories and Assistant Professor Dow University of Health Sciences, Dr Rafique Khanani says the chances of malaria and dengue spreading in the rain-hit areas of Sindh have drastically increased due to the accumulated rainwater in the flooded areas. Whereas the allocated budget for the Provincial Malaria Control Programme for the calendar year 2011-12 was yet to be released.
Africa, Asia, and Central and South America are the areas with high numbers of malarial and dengue infections. To reduce the chance of getting malaria, experts suggested to people should avoid malaria and dengue-endemic areas of the world, use mosquito repellents, cover exposed skin, and use mosquito netting covered areas when sleeping.
Despite decades of efforts to beat mosquitoes with insecticides, indoor spraying, bed nets and combination drugs, malaria still kills nearly 800,000 people a year, most of them babies and young children in sub-Saharan Africa.
A study from Africa and South America which have suggested resistance to common insecticides is on the rise, and said this could have serious implications for malaria control strategies, particularly since there are few alternative insecticides that are effective, cheap and safe for humans.
By 2010 the proportion of mosquitoes resistant to Delta methrin, the chemical recommended by the World Health Organization for bed nets, was 37%. In the last four months of the study the researchers found that the incidence of malaria attacks returned to high levels. Among older children and adults the rate was even higher than before the introduction of the nets.
Climate change, which continued to endanger health and food safety were among major health issues that needs to be given more attention. Experts say that Pakistan needs to invest a lot on research on most effective measures to protect health from climate change particularly in vulnerable populations such as women, children and elderly in the country.
In January 2011, President Paul Biya announced that malaria treatment would be free for all children under five. And now Cameroonian Prime Minister Philemon Yang on Saturday 20 August launched an anti-malaria campaign, promising to distribute nine million free mosquito nets. But in Pakistan no such positive steps have seen in such unhealthy conditions. Health experts from Pakistan suggest that the provincial health department particularly in Punjab should allocate a separate additional budget well in time for prevention and control of dengue fever in 2011, now when dengue is on full boom, misfortunately.
The 12th International Training Course on Dengue, 8- 19 August, which for the first time was attended by more than 200 experts from Cuba and another 27 countries, also included the third International Convention on Latin American Laboratories and Collaborating Centers for Dengue (RELDA), where the structure and work guidelines of the organization for the next term were discussed.
The 12th International Training Course on Dengue concluded in Havana with the participation of Cuban and foreign specialists. The creation of a multinational dengue monitoring and control program is one of the main achievements of the 12th International Training Course on Dengue.
In addition, the participants paid tribute to Professor Gustavo Kouri —who passed away recently— for his contribution to the struggle against dengue. Kouri was an insigne scientist, researcher and director, who had taken part in the eleventh previous courses.
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