Epigenetics Research Brings New Strategy to Cancer Research

By Doug Bintzler

The epigenome is an extension of the genome. Epigenetic mechanisms cause specific genes in certain cells to become inaccessible, thus causing these genes to be silenced. Cells become increasingly specialized, or differentiated, into a specialized cell during development. For example, liver cells and lung cells carry the same DNA. However, only certain genes are active in liver cells while other genes are active in lung cells. This is the result of cell differentiation. What typically happens during cellular development is regions of DNA become methylated and wrap around protein molecules called histones. Genes bound to histones are silenced. This determines how a cell will differentiate.

Changes in the Epigenome

Environmental influences can impact the epigenome. Ultraviolet light and chemicals associated with tobacco are two examples. These influences can affect factors in the epigenome as well as cause mutation. Mutation has often been thought of as the primary causative agent of many cancers. However, mutation in the region of a silenced gene should not cause cancer. A silenced gene does nothing so it is as if it is not even there. Changes to factors in the epigenome can loosen the DNA bound to histones. This can cause the silenced genes to become active. Cells that loose this control may go into a stage of rapid division, eventually developing into cancer.

New Treatments for Damage Caused by Changes in the Epigenome

Typical treatments for patients with cancer include radiation therapy and chemotherapy. Although these traditional forms of treatment are sometimes successful, cancer remission does not always happen. Plus, these treatments attack both cancerous and healthy cells. This makes them very taxing on the recipient with no guarantee of remission. In many cases these therapies are the best means of treatment. Fortunately the treatments and how they are administered are continually improving.

The problem with genetic mutations that cause cancer is that the mutation is not reversible. People who survive cancer may still carry the genetic cause. If this is the case, then they may pass the cause on to the next generation. This is one reason doctors evaluate the family's medical history. Unlike mutation, epigenetic change is reversible. Some forms of treatment currently in clinical trials use drugs to repair cancerous cells instead of destroying them. Unfortunately, much like radiation and chemotherapy, these drugs are known to cause damage to healthy cells when high doses are used. However, some success has been seen when they are administered in low dosages. Azacitidine and decitabine are currently being used in studies at John Hopkins. Studies being conducted at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center are using similar treatments with Leukemia patients with varying degrees of success.

Epigenetic research is a field that helps science understand more about the complex relationship between DNA, histones and cell differentiation. It provides a new direction for the potential treatment of patients afflicted with cancer.

Doug Bintzler is the Laboratory Director for DNA Analysis, LLC. They provide automated DNA sequencing and fragment analysis services. Reprints of this article and other education resources are available at http://www.agctsequencing.com

The Reasons Why Many People Do Not Survive Cancer

By Alan Wighton

When somebody is diagnosed with cancer they tend to abandon all common sense and summit to our orthodox medical treatments because of blind faith. While our mainstream health care system is superb for some medical problems but when it comes to degenerative diseases like cancer it mostly fails. There is only one way to approach the cancer problem and that is to correct the reasons why it happened.

While everyone is hopeful for a cure to be found, the facts are if somebody wasn't trying to make money out of cancer, we would have a cure tomorrow. True cures for cancer involve correcting the reasons why it appeared but no one can profit from that. All you have to do is to remove the reasons why it grew and that will allow the body to self heal through the immune system. This system is effective when someone breaks a bone or cuts a finger and of course it also works for every type of cancer as well.

The cancer rate has been steadily climbing over the last 100 years and it's still increasing and expected to affect 1 in 2.5 people in the western developed world by 2015. Ten years ago world wide there were 6.5 million people dying of cancer each year and in the year that's just past that figure has increased to nearly 8 million people. That represents over twenty thousand people a day world wide that our medical system failed to cure.

The reason why people fear the disease is because everyone knows the treatments often don't work. Until our medical system changes the way they treat the disease those figures aren't going to change. The conventional approach to cancer is that it is a genetic problem and the best approach is early detection followed by surgery, radiation or chemotherapy. This approach most of the time has been a dismal failure.

Today we only have a medical care system which is profit driven and not a health care system which cares about people's wellbeing. Why do you think our drugs are synthetic or artificial? It's because they can then be patented and companies profit from them. That is also the reason why you will almost never be offered ways to overcome a health problem by natural means.

Nature has always had a cure for cancer so all you have to do is to turn to nature to help you with your problem. Cancer is not an isolated problem, it is a reminder telling you that something is wrong with the entire body so it's time to make some important changes. Cancer will arise in the body when the body's immune system has been weakened and allowed cells to divide without control and you certainly can't fix that with a pill.

Cancer is only a modern day problem and it's caused by the way we are now living. Also we are not being taught what we can do to help ourselves. We are kept ignorant about its many causes so we are forced to rely on the so called experts for treatment.

We don't have an effective health care system for someone with cancer and our three ways of treating it seldom solve the problem.

Alan Wighton is an experienced natural therapist who has specialized how the food we eat daily is related to the many degenerative diseases that are now common. This article is from a site for those that are facing cancer. To learn more about it and why our treatments are not working visit Alan's web page at; survivingcancer
http://www.cancerhealed.com

Bulsulfite DNA Sequencing Determines Base Methylation in Epigenetics Research

By Doug Bintzler

Epigenetics involves the study of external factors that affect the genome and gene expression without altering the base sequence. It involves the relationship between base methylation patterns and histones. Methylation causes DNA to wrap tightly around the histone complex. This hides this DNA from the transcription process, thus silencing the gene. Active and silent genes are defined by the function of the cell as cells become more and more specialized. Liver cells have one specific group of active genes while skin cells have a different group of active genes. Methylation and binding to the histone complexes are functions that determine when cells become more differentiated.

External factors could influence the epigenome. Ultraviolet radiation and chemicals found in harmful agents like tobacco affect methylation patterns. Cells that lose their specialized functions may also lose the mechanisms that control cellular division. Rapid cell division leads to cancer and tumor development. A better understanding of the epigenome and base methylation process may provide a better understanding of cancer. In the past, cancer was believed to be caused by mutation or was the result of specific viruses. Now it is understood that epigenetic damage can also lead to cancer. It is one reason cancer may develop in one of two genetically similar people like twins, but not in the other one. Epigenetics research has led to new directions in cancer treatment with varying success. But how do researchers determine methylation patterns when comparing normal and cancerous cells? Basic Sanger sequencing does not differentiate between methylated bases and non-methylated bases.

What Determines Base Methylation

DNA becomes increasingly methylated during development as groups of cells differentiate into cells with specific functions. In general, cytosine bases that are followed by guanosine bases are methylated along the 5-prime carbon, thus forming a methylated CpG. The cellular genetic mechanism provides the information the cell needs to determine which bases eventually become methylated. DNA methyltransferases help maintain proper methylation as cells divide so that the daughter cells perform the same functions as the parent cells.

Bisulfite Treatment of Genomic DNA

Researchers use a process called bisulfite sequencing to identify methylated bases. Genomic DNA undergoes treatment with bisultfite. This converts non-methylated cytosine bases to uracil. Methylated bases are not affected by bisulfite treatment. Once bisulfite treated DNA is amplified by the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), uracil bases are replaced by thymine. Uracil is the RNA equivalent of thymine. Comparison of DNA that is untreated with bisulfite and DNA treated with bisulfite shows bases transitioning from cytosine to thymine as non-methylated bases. The cytosine bases that remain unchanged are methylated. Genomic DNA is the source for bisulfite treatment. Fragments amplified by PCR can not be treated with bisulfite because the methylation patterns are lost during amplification. This is the basic process used by researchers to determine methylation patterns in DNA for epigenetic studies.

Doug Bintzler is the laboratory director for DNA Analysis, LLC. The company provides quality DNA sequencing services and fragment analysis to the research and commercial community. Additional articles and company information are available at http://www.agctsequencing.com.

Goal and Direction of Cancer Translational Research

By Terry R Dancer

Translational research involves managing the ultimate results of studies carried out the laboratory and making use of it within the clinic when it comes to improving the discovery, healing and guarding against diseases. Fundamentally, it is definitely too close the disparity between researches done in the clinic and completed in the laboratory. It could be the effective use of laboratory studies in clinical setting where patients are healed. Consequently, it's also in the name - research through the bench to the bedside..

Cancer's translational research goal

When done alone, it really is useless to acquire a cancer gene from fruit flies. However, if employed for the goal of scientific study, it's really a humane treatment for aid cancer patients. In the oncology area, translational research is essential. It's going a considerable ways in improving studies to boost identifying cancer in the initial phase. In the same manner, it facilitates the exploration of a much more effective and safer charge of cancer. There will come an occasion when translation research should be able to discover successful deterrent methods against cancer.

Cancer translational research direction

Brilliant investigators get excited about undertaking cancer translational research where they cover some other part of studies in biology, genetics, medicine, pharmacology, medicine including various other disciplines. Presently, scientists will work together to interpret the cornerstone of knowing the task from the laboratory and discover improve patient care by making use of innovative imaging techniques, newer diagnostic tools and improved medication.

Most companies from other countries all around the worlds are re-emphasizing their direction towards real progress with this sort of applied research. Several companies have been interested in the whole operation of setting up a tissue database of each and every type and each form of cancer. By tracking cancer's histopathology and coordinating every type using the molecular profile, it'll provide more advances from the beginning of diagnosis and find out the way of cancer.

In cancer research, another exciting field is in heat-sensitive nanoparticles for drug delivery. These nanoparticles bearing the medicines of chemotherapy are injected into the bloodstream and targeted about the tumor cells. They may be heated to permit the drugs to spread across the tumor cells. These studies hope to resolve the current issue of the non-selectivity of chemotherapeutic drugs in distinguishing between cancer cells and normal cells.

From the medical study stage of cancers of the breast, Fraxel treatments is now very relevant. It has to even be put on accommodate treatment in other sorts of cancer. Some laboratories are tasked to work on vaccines against glioblastomas, that's this is the most belligerent forms of brain tumors. Currently stage, the final results of research are extremely inspiring. There are additional cancer researchers focusing on an approach to anti-estrogen to stop cancer of the breast. This may greatly help patients with cancer of the breast that has become resistant to other standard therapies.

From the general perspective, studying cancer with all the approach of translational research comes with a vital advancement in improving positive outcomes for patients. Even regions of photoacoustics and high-frequency ultrasound have identified new directions for Cancer Translational Research.

High-frequency ultrasound and photoacoustics currently have opened new alternatives for Cancer Translational Research. For more details about Cancer Translational Research, please feel free viewing Visual Sonic Site.

Cancer, Caused By Bad Food - Can Be Cured By Good Food

By Alan Wighton

We all know that our diet has changed over the last 50 years because most people in developed countries now shop in supermarkets. Our diet in the past was more natural but now day's people are consuming mostly factory food or processed food and this food exists because of profit. While cancer sometime has other contributing factors such as smoking, the food we eat is almost always the main cause.

Most processed foods contain additives; while a few might be from natural sources there are two that need to be avoided and they are sodium nitrate and sodium nitrite. These additives are in bacon, hot dogs, ham, salami and other processed meats, used to help preserve its colour and to make it look more natural. These additives are also used to inhibit botulism which will give these products a longer shelf life, therefore increasing profit. Nitrates and nitrites will increase your risk of cancer.

Cooking food by smoke is cancer causing as it irritates our digestive system and can cause cancer of the stomach and colon. Also pickle foods have been suspected to cause cancer probably because of the high amount of salt used in the process. Research has linked pickle food to a higher risk of stomach cancer.

Cooking meat especially on a barbecue is very high in carcinogens which are known to promote cancer and increase the progression of cancer. Also sugar, the refined stuff has been found to be the natural fuel for growing cancer cells and since our modern diets are laden with it then it's not surprising that there is so much cancer today.

If bad food weakens the immune system which produces a favorable condition for cancer to form then it makes sense that the only treatment worthy of serious consideration lies within the domain of good food. We have all heard that vegetarians and vegans have a much less incidents of the disease and that is because a plant based diet is very effective in both preventing and fighting these foreign invasive cells.

There are many foods in a plant based diet that have been proven to aid in the recovery of a cancer patient. Onions, garlic and ginger along with vegetables from the cruciferous family which are broccoli, cauliflower and brussel sprouts. Vegetables which are rich in colour such as tomatoes, capsicum and carrots. Fruit is the same so choose a variety of different coloured fruit such as pip fruit, stone fruit and berries.

As you can see we have moved away from eating foods such as these to convenient foods or food that has come out of a factory and when something is processed or heated it looses its cancer fighting properties. Cancer cells are really only a symptom of a poor diet and by changing your diet you are removing the reasons why it first appeared. For a cancer patient a change in diet has to be your top priority.

Cancer is mainly a food caused disease and there is no quick and easy cure and certainly no magic pill or treatment to solve the problem. It's only when the cause of the disease is recognised and corrected can true healing take place.

You are the only person that can make you healthy and you do that by choosing the foods you eat wisely. It works for everyone and no one can profit from it.

Alan Wighton is an experienced natural therapist specializing in nutrition. If you are seeking information on how to fight cancer, using food as your medicine, visit his website and learn how the body can self-heal when you make these changes; eattobeatcancer
http://www.cancerhealed.com

Giving Thanks for My Mom's Example

By Kay E Williams

Since this is Thanksgiving week, I'd like to share something personal that I'm feeling very grateful for. I'm thankful for my mother's example of being open to change and new ways of doing things during the most challenging time in her life.

When my mom was diagnosed with cancer in her mid-seventies, she was a 30-year breast cancer survivor. Her first response to the diagnosis was that she would simply let nature take it's course. Being a retired RN, she was well aware of the gravity of her situation, having been mis-diagnosed for a year before an accurate diagnosis was made. She had gone through horrendous side-effects during her previous cancer treatment and was not anxious to repeat that process. She also felt that, given the lost time with incorrect diagnoses, there was no point in fighting.

At the urging of her family, she finally acquiesced and proceeded with treatment. However, she did not simply follow all recommendations without question.

It takes a great deal of courage to advocate for your own health. It takes tremendous fortitude to look outside of convention and accepted methods of modern medicine and make personal decisions based on your own inner guidance.

My mom found a health coach to support her during her illness. One of the first orders of business was to rid her house of foods and cleaning products that would be unhealthy or toxic. I was able to help with this process and it is the memory of this task that inspired this writing.

Being a child of the Great Depression Era, wasting food or anything she had paid money for, was very distressing to my mom. As we went through her kitchen and disposed of white sugar, white flour, pasta, processed foods, corn syrup laden condiments, and much more, my mom was a trooper! She fought the urge to hang onto those items "just in case". She conceded that giving those nutrient-depleted foods to someone else wouldn't be doing them any favors, so we just just kept filling trash bags.

While my mom fought cancer, she continually educated herself about nutrition and acted on what she learned. Her quality of life was far better than it might have been had she simply followed medical protocol. She also maintained the dignity of being in control of her life.

Mom's way of dealing with her illness was not always easy for her or for our family. However, I can say that her example of being willing to learn, to make changes, to be her own advocate, is something I am eternally grateful for. I am truly thankful that she demonstrated the courage to live the last years of her life on her own terms and that I have her example to carry with me always.

Visit me at http://kay-williams.healthcoach1.integrativenutrition.com/contact-kay-williams for a free health consultation.

Chemotherapy Can Actually Increase Cancer Growth

By JC Spencer

Chemotherapy can increase cancer growth by damaging the DNA of nearby healthy cells. Researchers found "evidence of DNA damage" in healthy cells after chemotherapy treatment. Scientists recently published this report in Nature Medicine.

Cancer cells metabolize sugar differently than do healthy cells. Cancer cells cannot absorb oxygen like healthy cells and it is this low oxygen level that proves to be the key factor in cancer growth.

Most cells and most proteins in blood are glycosylated; that is, they are coated with sugars. This coating of glycoprotein receptor sites form the operating system (OS) for your cells and the body communication system including translating and transcribing DNA.

The damaged DNA excites the healthy cells to secrete a protein that sustains tumor growth and cause resistance to further chemotherapy. The damaged DNA requests WNT16B protein which is then used to boost the cancer cell survival.

Other studies have shown that fermentation of sugar, because of lack of oxygen, allows the cancer cells to lose all beneficial function. Cancer with the highest fermentation rate has the highest growth rate producing only putrid toxic waste because the cell cannot metabolize further without oxygen.

The WNT16B study was seeking to explain why cancer cells are so easy to kill in the lab, yet so resilient inside the human body. Healthy tissue collected from men with prostate cancer showed evidence of DNA damage following chemotherapy. The team confirmed and then reconfirmed their findings with breast and ovarian cancer tumors. Co-author of the study, Peter Nelson of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle stated, "The increase in WNT16B was completely unexpected." These findings were "completely unexpected".

Nelson explained, "WNT16B (protein), when secreted, would interact with nearby tumor cells and cause them to grow, invade, and importantly, resist subsequent therapy."

Tumors often respond well with chemotherapy initially; but, is normally followed by rapid regrowth, prior to developing resistance to further treatment. Oncologists know this danger; but now they know why: the WNT16B protein.

Cancer cells crave sugar. Sugars that are easy to ferment feed cancer while some Smart Sugars resist cancer and build a powerful immune defense system.

My hypotheses is that cancer cells "mow down glycoproteins " on the surface of neighboring cells, thus weakening or killing their signaling capabilities. This reverse glycosylation (stripping away the glycoprotein receptor sites) leaves the cell naked and defenseless, unable to summon help to correct the situation. It cannot receive the proper care and feeding, so cancer spreads as it produces a more acid/toxic environment.

Smart Sugars coat healthy cells like fuzz on a peach; however, cancer cells are depleted of glycoproteins. Healthy cells have a forest of glycoproteins while cancer cells are void of this living forest.

The future of medicine and healthcare is in evaluating glycoproteins by literally counting and determining the quality of these receptor sites. Medical science will gather worlds of data through the soon to be Gold Standard of medical diagnostics to determine if the cells are healthy, bald, or balding.

The age-old question is: "Is the glass half full or half empty?" Is that really important? Just fill the glass!" Do we treat the cancer, enable the cancer, or prevent the presence of cancer simply by growing more glycoprotein receptor sites. We now have scientific evidence that oral consumption of Smart Sugars can and do improve glycosylation in the human body.

JC Spencer has invested two decades in the research and study of glycomics, the science of sugars. He is CEO of The Endowment for Medical Research, Inc http://endowmentmed.org

Authors free book is available at http://www.GlycoscienceNEWS.com

References from the textbook Expand Your Mind - Improve Your Brain and the ebook and Change Your Sugar, Change Your Life. The book, Change Your Sugar, Change Your Life is downloadable without charge.

Source: can be located on the website for The Endowment for Medical Research.