Can viruses treat cancer? – Apollo CBCC, Ahmedabad

Viruses – From villain to saviour

When we think of viruses, we think of diseases, damage to the body, death, and outbreaks. It’s hard to imagine a more heinous creature. But what if we could reimagine viruses? Virotherapy is the use of viruses in therapies to treat diseases – a sort of reinvention of the virus. Scientists are taking these infectious agents and using some of their features, like how viruses can find specific cells in the body to target and destroy cancer cells or how they can stimulate the immune system. Basically, scientists are turning a villain into a saviour.

Fundamentals of Virus

Viruses are tiny little packages of protein and genetic material (DNA or RNA). They seek out our cells then invade, hijack, and convert them to miniature virus factories churning out thousands upon thousands of new viruses. The viral proteins act as a shell that surrounds the genetic material, protecting it when the virus is not infecting a host. Some of the viral

Processed Meat And Cancer

The International Agency for Research on Cancer has declared processed meat and red meat as carcinogens. It refers to meat that has been treated in some way to preserve or flavour it. Processes include salting, curing, fermenting, and smoking. A study found that eating 50 grams of processed meat every day increased the risk of colorectal cancer by 18%. When a chemical in red meat called haem is broken down in the gut, N-nitroso chemicals are formed and these have been found to damage the cells that line the bowel, which can lead to bowel cancer. These same chemicals also form when processed meat is digested. In addition, the nitrite and nitrate preservatives used to preserve processed meat produce these N-nitroso chemicals and can lead to bowel cancer. Avoiding tobacco, getting to and staying at a healthy weight, getting regular physical activity, limiting alcohol and processed meat can help people lower their risk of getting many types of cancer.

Patients often worry about weight gain as a potential side effect of chemotherapy. Eating behavior triggered by chemotherapy-related symptoms, taking steroids, and inactivity due to fatigue can all contribute to weight gain. Chemotherapy can cause certain appetite-related side effects, for example – increased appetite, nausea or cravings for sweets and carbohydrates. Although patients don’t have to cut sugar out of their diet completely, there are many healthy alternatives to help control the cravings. Try fresh fruits By eating even small amounts of sweets throughout the day, calories can add up fast. The same goes for carbohydrates, which break down into sugars. Although the body needs carbohydrates for energy, eating more than required can lead to extra sugars being stored as fat. Try reaching for a piece of fresh fruit when a sugar craving comes. Food cravings are not the only thing that can impact weight gain during chemotherapy. Fatigue and lack of physical activity can also contribute. If you are experiencing these side effects, try incorporating light walking into your daily routine to help combat potential weight gain from inactivity. Speak to your doctor Certain medications can also

What are cancer vaccines?

Vaccines are a type of immunotherapy. Research in this area is at an early stage. The vaccines are made to recognise proteins that are on particular cancer cells. This helps the immune system to recognise and mount an attack against those particular cancer cells. These vaccines might help to:

• stop further growth of a cancer • prevent cancer from coming back • destroy any cancer cells left behind after other treatments

Types The following types of cancer vaccines are most commonly under investigation throughout the world: Antigen vaccines These vaccines are made from special proteins (antigens) in cancer cells. They aim to stimulate your immune system to attack cancer. Whole cell vaccines A whole cell vaccine uses the whole cancer cell, not just a specific cell protein (antigen), to make the vaccine. Dendritic cell vaccines Dendritic cells help the immune system recognise and attack abnormal cells, such as cancer cells. DNA vaccines These vaccines are made with bits o

Help your child to eat well during cancer treatment – Apollo CBCC

Inculcating good eating habits and enticing kids to eat nutritious, healthy foods is an issue with which all parents with young children struggle.  For parents of children with cancer, however, the challenges are even bigger, requiring higher levels of patience and inventiveness to overcome.  Why is good nutrition so vital, yet so challenging, for kids with cancer?  The truth is that many forms of childhood cancer, as well as today’s cancer treatments involving chemotherapy and radiation therapy, adversely affect your child’s appetite, capacity to eat, and ability to process and store nutrients properly, making a healthy diet even more hard to keep up at a time when your child’s body needs the energy and nutrients from a healthy diet more than ever. If your child is undergoing treatment for childhood cancer and is struggling to keep up a nutritious diet, or is losing or putting on significant amounts of weight, we urge you to speak to your child’s oncology team quickly.  They can offer important information about your child’s dietary needs, and may s

Should you be worried about WIFI radiation? These are radio waves – no different than those used to broadcast television programs – except that they are higher in frequency. They aren’t nearly as high a frequency as visible light and no one worries about getting cancer from visible light (ultraviolet light, on the other hand, causes skin cancer – but this is the minimum energy necessary to cause ionizations that can cause breaks in strands of DNA – which is the mechanism by which cancer cells can be created). There is no credible evidence that non-ionizing radiation has any adverse health effects at all. There is no radiobiologic mechanism that could explain such an association and no scientifically valid evidence that cancer has ever happened because of WIFI radiation

Immunotherapy is different from chemotherapy and radiation because it uses immune system to fight off cancer whereas the latter treatments utilize medications or high energy X-rays to kill cancer cells. Some immunotherapy treatments help the immune system find the cancer or work harder to fight it while other immunotherapy treatments give man-made versions of proteins or other substances to help body combat the disease. Some types are also called biologic therapy or biotherapy. Immunotherapy is approved to treat cancers like melanoma, lymphoma, and lung cancer. Immune-based treatments for many other types are being tested in clinical trials. It’s a fairly new treatment compared with surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy but it’s commonly used to treat some cancers. It works better on certain forms of the cancer than others. Depending on the type of cancer, immunotherapy is incorporated with or after another treatment like surgery, radiation or chemotherapy. It can itself be a first treatment or one may

Can obesity cause cancer?

Obesity is a health condition where a person has accumulated so much body fat that it might have a negative effect on their health. Being obese increases one’s risk for a multitude of health complications and diseases, including several types of cancers. Excess weight can cause hormonal imbalances like affecting insulin levels, sex hormones and even trigger long-term reflux problems and heartburns, all of which result in disruption or changes to normal cells which may lead to cancer. Findings have shown that obesity resulting from a sedentary lifestyle, bad food habits and alcohol consumption is linked with increased risks of various types of cancers such as oesophagus, pancreas, colon and rectum, breast (after menopause), endometrium (lining of the uterus), kidney, thyroid, gallbladder and possibly many more. While many factors influence one’s cancer risk, maintaining a healthy body weight or losing weight if you are overweight, is one way to help reduce that risk. If you are trying to lose weight, consult your doctor to determine which dietary changes and exercise plans will work best for you. We recommend the following tips to lose weight: · Drink plenty of water throughout the day. · Follo

While we have made enormous strides in treating cancer with chemotherapy over the last couple of decades, myths and misunderstandings about it still remain. Let’s separate facts from fiction. Chemo will make you sick. This was true 20 years ago. Patients can now take medicines before chemotherapy to prevent nausea and vomiting. MYTH: If you don’t lose your hair during chemotherapy, it’s not working. Not every patient experiences it. It depends on the type of chemo as well as the combination of drugs. Also, patients can now go for targeted medicines that influence specific cells. With these drugs, there is usually no hair loss. MYTH: Your cancer must be really bad if your doctor ordered chemo. This is not true at all. Sometimes chemo is given to shrink a tumor before surgery, sometimes it is given to control disease and keep a patient stable. MYTH: Chemo will drastically affect your entire life. Absolutely not. The drastic side effects that patients experienced years ago are not at all common today, thanks to medical advancements. MYTH: You won’t be able to have children after chemo. Women can now take medications that suppress ovarian functio

Change the way you live. Follow these 4 tips to lead a healthy lifestyle that can reduce the risk of developing cancer

There is no doubt that the way you live, the foo