Statin use has increased dramatically in the United States over the past two decades. In 1990 just 2% of adults over 45 were taking statins to control cholesterol compared to 25% in 2010. Statins are among the most commonly prescribed drugs and are a huge source of revenue for the pharmaceutical industry. While there is no doubt that statins have had a tremendous impact on reducing the prevalence of hypercholesterolemia (high cholesterol), concerns have been raised about whether long term statin use might increase the risk of cancer.

Over the years, many scientific studies have looked at whether marijuana smokers are at an increased risk of developing cancer. Interestingly, despite the fact marijuana smoke shares many of the same carcinogens as cigarette smoke, no study has found a significantly increased risk of cancer as a result of smoking marijuana.

For many years, obesity has been suspected of playing a role in breast cancer risk. Most studies find little association between obesity and breast cancer risk in pre-menopausal women but a significantly increased risk of breast cancer in post-menopausal women. Recent research suggests that measures of central obesity such as waist circumference and the waist-to-hip ratio may be more accurate predictors of breast cancer risk than BMI alone.

Many smokers want to know their probability of dying from lung cancer in a given time frame, however calculating precise risks can be difficult because there are a variety of factors that influence lung cancer probabilities.

The most important factors influencing lung cancer risk are age, number of years of smoking, average number of cigarettes smoked per day, number of years since smoking ceased (if the individual is a former smoker), and a history of asbestos exposure (working in a high risk occupation for at least 5 years).

Did you know that your chances of beating cancer depend on the season you are diagnosed in? It may seem bizarre but a large number of studies have found that individuals who are diagnosed with cancer in the summer have a better cancer prognosis than those diagnosed in the winter, apparently due to increased production of vitamin D by the body over the summer months.

A 2004 study, published in the journal Cancer Causes and Control, looked at the effect of sunlight on the prognosis of colon, breast, and prostate cancer in Norway. The researchers found that the case-fatality rate was higher in winter than in other seasons for all three forms of cancer.

A quick look at the latest figures from SEER, the statistical database provided by the National Cancer Institute, shows that survival rates for most forms of cancer have increased dramatically over the past 30 years or so. Overall, 5 year cancer survival rates have increased from 48.9% in 1975 to 66.7% in 2003. The following graph shows 5-year survival rates for some of the most common forms of cancer.

Cancer rates vary dramatically between countries, none more so than between Japan and the USA. Overall age adjusted cancer rates in the USA are more than 50% higher than in Japan.

Americans have a 30% chance of developing cancer and a 11.2% chance of dying from it by the age of 75 compared to a 20.4% chance of developing cancer and a 9.7% chance of dying from it in Japan. The only common forms of cancer that are more prevalent in Japan are pancreatic, liver, colorectal, and stomach cancer. Interestingly enough, Japan has one of the lowest cancer rates in the developed world despite a relatively high percentage of Japanese being regular smokers.

The disparities in cancer rates are one of the major reasons life expectancy is almost five years higher in Japan than the United States (82.9 vs 78.1).

The following table shows age adjusted cancer rates per 100,000 people for both the United States and Japan courtesy of data from GLOBOCAN, 2008. Rates are for men and women combined with the exception of breast and prostate cancer which are female and male only rates respectively.

Carrots are an extremely popular vegetable in the United States and are second only to potatoes in terms of consumption with an average of 12 pounds of carrots consumed per person per year. Carrots are well known for their ability to improve night vision however what is less known is that carrots and other foods rich in carotene may actually protect against lung cancer in both smokers and non-smokers.

One study, published in the journal Cancer Research in 1993, used data on 41,837 women from the Iowa Women’s Health Study to determine the effects of fruit and vegetable consumption on the risk of lung cancer.

Currently Hungary has the dubious honour of having the highest age standardised rate (ASR) of lung cancer in the world for men and the highest rate overall. At more than 50 cases per 100,000 people per year, Hungary’s lung cancer rate is more than twice the global average. The United States has the highest rate of lung cancer among women and the second highest rate overall. The following table shows the fifteen countries with the highest rates of lung cancer in the world (excludes countries with less than 1 million people).

A recent study published in The Lancet this month adds to a growing body of evidence that suggests tall people are more likely to develop cancer than their shorter counterparts.

The study, led by British researchers at the Cancer Epidemiology Unit, University of Oxford, involved almost 1.3 million women who were followed for an average of 9.4 years.

Fish oil supplementation has been shown to improve the response rate to chemotherapy and prevent weight loss in the treatment of the most common form of lung cancer according to the results of a study published in the journal Cancer in February.

The study, conducted by Canadian researchers at the University of Alberta, followed 46 patients who were receiving treatment for non small cell lung cancer. All patients underwent a common chemotherapy regime (carboplatin combined with vinorelbine or gemcitabine). A fish oil supplement containing 2.5g of EPA and DHA was given daily to 15 of the patients while the remaining 31 received the chemotherapy treatment only.

Colorectal cancer is an extremely common and often fatal form of cancer. In the United States, it is the fourth most common type of cancer and is second only to lung cancer in terms of mortality with almost 52,000 deaths in the USA alone last year. The lifetime risk of developing colorectal cancer for a 30 year old living in the United States today is 5.24%. Although great advances have been made in recent years in the early detection and treatment of colorectal cancer, the 5-year survival rate from diagnosis is only 65%, much lower than the survival rates for some other common types of cancer such as breast, skin, and prostate cancer.

A commonly held belief is that diets containing high amounts of fruit and vegetables can significantly reduce the risk of developing a variety of cancers. However a study published online in April this year has found that consumption of fruit and vegetables leads to only a marginal decrease in overall cancer risk.

The research, which appears in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, looked at data from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) study which involved more than 500,000 individuals from 10 countries across Europe.

A recent Japanese study, published by the British Journal of Cancer in September this year, has found that women who get six or less hours sleep a night are much more likely to develop breast cancer than the rest of the population.

The study involved 23,995 Japanese women aged between 40 and 79 who were followed for an eight year period. Over the course of the study, 143 women developed breast cancer. The researchers found that women who slept for 6 or less hours a night were 62% more likely to develop breast cancer compared to women who slept for an average of 7 hours a night.

A study, published in the peer reviewed medical journal Nutrition and Cancer, has found that walnuts can dramatically cut the growth rate of breast tumors in mice.

The study, conducted by researchers at the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology at the Marshall University School of Medicine in West Virginia, USA, involved the implantation of human breast cancer cells in a group of 22 mice. The tumors were allowed to grow to between 3mm and 5mm in size at which point the mice were divided into two groups.

A study, published this month in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers, And Prevention, has suggested that smokers may be able to reduce their risk of developing lung cancer by as much as 60% by consuming at least one glass of red wine each day.

The study was conducted by scientists at Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, California, and involved the study of 84,170 men aged between 45 and 69.

A high intake of dairy products can increase the risk of prostate cancer by as much as 30% according to a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2001.

The researchers, based at the Harvard Medical School in Boston, used data from the Physicians’ Health Study which involved more than 20,000 men from the United States who were followed from 1984 to 1995.

A low intake of fruit and vegetables, and a high fat diet may be risk factors for bladder cancer according to the findings of a study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology in April 2000.

The study involved the analysis of 38 previous research studies on the impact of diet on bladder cancer. The researchers looked at six dietary variables: high meat intake, high fat intake, low vegetable consumption, low fruit consumption, low intake of retinol (vitamin A), and low intake of beta-carotene.