Tag Archives: cancer charity

Walking cuts cancer risk

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A cancer charity is calling on people to ‘take to the streets’ and get walking, after new figures reveal that the number of walking trips have fallen to their lowest level since records began.

In the past 15 years alone, the number of journeys by foot have fallen by 28 per cent, according to the Department for Transport’s National Travel Survey.

The World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) said the figures are alarming because of the ‘strong scientific evidence’ linking inactivity to an increased risk of cancer and other chronic diseases.

The average number of walking trips taken in 1995/97 was 292 compared with 228 in 2009 and 210 last year.

The survey included all age groups, including children, and in 2010 diary data was collected from 8,100 households covering over 19,000 people.

In 2010, the average person made a total of 960 trips per year, compared with 1,086 in 1995/97 – a fall of 12 per cent. Most of the decline was accounted for by a fall in shopping and social visits.

Walking

Walking

Some 64 per cent of all trips were made by car, including 20 per cent of all trips of less than a mile. And 77 per cent of trips of less than a mile were made on foot.

Just 41 per cent of Britons walked for 20 minutes three times a week or more, while 23 per cent managed this once a week. One in five of those surveyed walked 20 minutes once a year or less.

The WCRF’s recommends that people should undertake at least 30 minutes of moderate physical activity a day.

Dr Rachel Thompson, Deputy Head of Science at WCRF, said: “Being regularly physically active has such a significant effect on cancer risk that it is really important people get 30 minutes a day, however they choose to do it.


“For many, brisk walking is the most obvious way of doing it because it is also a way of getting around.

“As with other types of activity, walking can reduce body fat, boost the immune system and helps to move food through the gut more quickly – all factors that seem to play a role in reducing cancer risk.

“Just half-an-hour’s walking a day can reduce the risk from cancer and we estimate that more than 10,000 cases of breast and bowel cancer could be prevented a year in the UK through people doing a bit more of this kind of activity.

“By making small changes like walking an extra ten minutes a day, people can make a real difference to their health.”

Cancer gene link

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A gene has been linked to at least three cancers in different tissues in the body, US researchers say.

Their findings, reported in the journal Science, showed a fifth of melanomas (skin cancer), Ewing’s sarcomas (bone) and glioblastomas (brain) had a defective copy of the gene STAG2.

It controls the way genetic material is divided between cells.

A cancer charity said the study provided researchers with new ways of tackling the disease.

Human genetic information is bound up in 23 pairs of chromosomes. When a cell divides in two, there should be 23 pairs in each of the two cells produced.

However, this does not always happen. Too many or too few chromosomes – known as aneuploidy – is common in cancer.

Cancer cells

Cancer cells

Researchers at the Georgetown University School of Medicine, Washington, have found a gene which controls that separation of genetic material.

Defective copies of STAG2 were found in 21% of Ewing’s sarcoma tumours, 19% of glioblastoma and 19% of melanoma.

Professor Todd Waldman said: “In the cancers we studied, mutations in STAG2 appear to be a first step in the transformation of a normal cell into a cancer cell.

“We are now looking at whether STAG2 might be mutated in breast, colon, lung, and other common human cancers.”


Researchers believe that if they can find a drug which targets cells with defective STAG2 they will be able to stop some cancers forming.

A separate study, also published in Science, looked at the affect of aneuploidy in yeast.

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology created 13 strains of yeast with an extra chromosome. In all cases, the yeast’s genetic code become less stable and more susceptible to mutation.

The study’s authors suggest the “instability could facilitate the development of genetic alternations that drive malignant growth in cancer.”

Dr Julie Sharp, senior science information manager at Cancer Research UK, said: “Scientists have known for more than 100 years that having too many or too few chromosomes is linked to cancer and these results suggest that this is not just a characteristic but a cause of the disease.

“Their discovery sheds light on how chromosome numbers can be altered when cells divide and presents researchers with new ways to tackle cancer by designing drugs to upset this chain of events.”