Viruses hit list of known cancers

Tue., Feb. 1, 2005

Associated Press

Anti-cancer cows

ALBANY, N.Y. – Cornell University researchers are trying to boost the level of a fatty acid in milk shown to prevent or limit cancer, bolstering milk's health benefits and giving struggling farmers a new market.

Dale Bauman, a professor of food science at Cornell, is heading the research to formulate a diet for dairy cows that will increase a type of conjugated linoleic acid, or CLA, in the milk they produce.

Studies have shown CLA to be effective at preventing the formation of tumors. The fatty acid appears to block angiogenesis, the process by which a tumor creates new blood vessels, said Dr. James Marshall, director of prevention at Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo.

Without creating new blood vessels, a tumor's growth stops because it cannot get nutrients or oxygen. In the next few months, about 80 of the 1,500 dairy cows at Spruce Haven Farm in Union Springs will be given the special diet.

CLA is a byproduct of the metabolism that occurs in the cow's first stomach, or rumen. Bacteria acting on foods containing linolenic and linoleic acid – such as corn and soybeans – convert those fatty acids.

In 2003, U.S. dairy farms produced 170.3 million pounds of milk, according to the Department of Agriculture.

Researchers say many more questions will need to be answered on CLA's benefits before the medical community is sold on the idea.

– Associated Press

WASHINGTON – The government is adding viruses for the first time to its list of known or suspected causes of cancer, including hepatitis B and C and a third virus that causes sexually transmitted diseases. Lead, X-rays and compounds in grilled meats also are joining the list.

It has been known that the hepatitis viruses can cause liver cancer and that some forms of the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus can cause cervical cancer.

But they were added to the list Monday only after officials decided to go beyond the report’s historical focus on the occupational and environmental causes of cancer, said Dr. Christopher Portier, associate director of the National Toxicology Program, which prepared the latest update. The list, which now identifies 246 known or suspected cancer-causing agents, is intended to give people who may or may not be exposed to any of the substances something to think about, he said.

New to the suspected category are substances that form when meats are cooked or grilled at high temperatures. Studies suggest an increased cancer risk when foods containing them are eaten.

Lead, used to make lead-acid storage batteries, ammunition and cable coverings, and lead compounds, used in paint, glass and ceramics, in some cosmetics and as a fuel additive also joined the suspect list.

The Report on Carcinogens – which federal law requires the health and human services secretary to update every two years – lists 58 “known” and 188 “reasonably anticipated” cancer-causing substances. It was prepared by the National Toxicology Program of the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences and was last updated in December 2002.

Viruses hit list of known cancers

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