The caffeine in coffee as well as in tea, soda and chocolate may be responsible for lowering the risk of Basal Cell Carcinoma ( BCC ).

A twenty year study has shown an inverse relationship between coffee drinkers and those who develop BCC.

“These results really suggest that it is the caffeine in coffee that is responsible for the decreased risk of basal cell carcinoma associated with increasing coffee consumption,” Jiali Han, associate professor at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School in Boston as well as the study’s lead author, said in a press release. “This would be consistent with published mouse data, which indicate caffeine can block skin tumor formation. However, more studies in different population cohorts and additional mechanistic studies will be needed before we can say this definitively.”

Along with sunscreen, limiting sun exposure and regular check-ups, caffeine could be an enjoyable way to help prevent skin cancer.

Health concerns top the list of reasons many gave for consuming less red meat.

With more evidence pointing to environmental factors for the rise in heart disease and many cancers, red meat has been at the center of the debate for quite some time.

“American culture has been a meat-and-potatoes culture for a very long time,” Fabius tells The Salt. “Now we’re in a period of believing that intake of meat should be reduced in this country; we’re talking about a generational transition.”

Among those who are eating less meat, 66 percent said they’re worried about the health effects; 47 percent said cost is a factor, while 30 percent were concerned about animal welfare, and 29 percent have limited their meat intake out of a concern for the environment.

Robert Lawrence, professor of environmental health sciences and director of the Center for a Livable Future at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, says this is consistent with what he found when he asked people in 2002 why they might eat less meat. “Health concerns still remain the No. 1 reason people might consider cutting back on meat,” says Lawrence, who helped launch the Meatless Monday initiative.

For women with faced with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer trastuzumab emtansine, commonly referred to as T-DM1, will offer a very important therapeutic option.

The drug, trastuzumab emtansine, commonly referred to as T-DM1, appears to be superior to the standard treatment for women with advanced HER2-positive breast cancer. Researchers are presenting the results of a large three-year clinical trial Sunday at the 2012 American Society of Clinical Oncology conference in Chicago.

This two pronged approach to treating cancer offers an effective result with fewer side affects than traditional treatments.

Because the drug is delivered directly to the cancer and not into the blood stream the immune system has the opportunity to help fight the cancer.

As Western lifestyle habits extend into developing countries, so too, do the diseases which come with them.

In a paper from the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in Lyon, France the findings indicate that along with a rise in living standards, cancer will be on the rise.

A 75 percent increase in cancer by 2030 is expected in the developing world.

The researchers said that rising living standards in less developed countries would probably lead to a decrease in the number of infection-related cancers. But it was also likely there would also be an increase in types of the disease usually seen in richer countries.
They predicted that middle-income countries such as China, India and Africa could see an increase of 78 percent in the number of cancer cases by 2030.
Cases in less developed regions were expected to see a 93 percent rise over the same period, said the paper published in the journal Lancet Oncology.
Those rises would more than offset signs of a decline in cervical, stomach and other kinds of cancer in wealthier nations, said the researchers.

The most common types of cancer in the world are lung cancer, female breast cancer, colorectal cancer, stomach cancer, prostate cancer, liver cancer and cervical cancer.

Aspirin therapy for skin cancer has been suggested by a recent study to reduce the incidence of some skin cancers.

Study researcher, Sigrún Alba Jóhannesdóttir of Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark has found that aspirin and other similar anti-inflammatory painkillers such as ibuprofen and naproxen can lessen the risk of three major types of skin cancer

People who took NSAIDs did not seem to benefit from a reduced risk of developing basal cell carcinoma in general, although they did have a 15 percent and 21 percent reduced risk of developing this type of cancer on less-exposed sites (body areas other than the head and neck) when they took them long term or at high intensity, respectively.

Low incidence of side affects, affordability and availability make aspirin a promising tool in fighting one of the leading cancers.

Sunscreen, reduced time to sun exposure and a diet rich in vitamin A have also been shown to reduce skin cancers.