THE MOSS REPORTS Newsletter (06/12/05)

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12 Jun 2005 21:35:31 -0000

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THE MOSS REPORTS Newsletter (06/12/05)

 

 

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Ralph W. Moss, Ph.D. Weekly CancerDecisions.com

Newsletter #188 06/12/05

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THE MOSS REPORTS

 

 

" There's nothing new under the sun, " goes the old saying.

 

Well, perhaps there is. This week and next I discuss some new research

that suggests that exposure to sunlight can be instrumental in

improving the outcome of cancer surgery.

 

Vitamin D is produced in the skin in response to sunlight, and there is

mounting evidence that our vitamin D status significantly influences

not only our risk of developing various common kinds of cancer but also

our ability to fight cancer recurrence following surgery aimed at

treating existing disease.

 

If we listen to popular wisdom we could be forgiven for thinking that

exposure to the sun's rays is entirely undesirable. For years we have

been told to cover up, slather on the sunscreen and keep sun exposure to

a minimum. Yet now it is becoming increasingly apparent that stringent

sun avoidance may actually be harmful in its own right.

 

It is extremely hard, in the face of such mixed messages, for the

layman to make prudent health choices. And when the choices involve the

prevention and treatment of cancer, the stakes are even higher. The

conflicting claims of different factions within the scientific

community can

render decision making infinitely more difficult even for the most well

informed person.

 

Keeping abreast of the latest research and maintaining rigorous

objectivity in weighing the worth of cancer treatments has been the

guiding

principle of my work in the cancer field over the past thirty years. It

is my mission to provide cancer patients and their families with the

most thorough analysis of current thinking on the complexities of cancer

and its treatment so that they can face the disease with confidence.

 

The Moss Reports are a series of comprehensive guides to the best

available conventional and alternative treatments for almost 200

different

kinds of cancer.

 

If you would like to order a Moss Report for yourself or someone you

love, you can do so from our website, www.cancerdecisions.com, or by

calling Diane at 1-800-980-1234 (814-238-3367 from outside the US).

 

We look forward to helping you.

 

 

NEW EVIDENCE THAT VITAMIN D FIGHTS CANCER, PART ONE

 

 

In a world of increasingly sophisticated and expensive medical

treatments, it is refreshing to find a way to improve the outcome of

cancer

that is both effective and inexpensive. At the 96th annual meeting of the

American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) in San Francisco in

April, researchers from Harvard University showed that a successful

outcome for surgery to treat early-stage lung cancer is linked to the

patient's vitamin D intake.

 

The patients' vitamin levels were calculated by assessing dietary

sources, any supplements the patients took, as well as the amount of

sunlight to which they were exposed. (Vitamin D is formed in the skin

through

the action of sunlight.) Most intriguingly, the researchers found that

the time of year in which a cancer operation took place had a

significant influence on the likelihood of the malignancy recurring.

 

For example, patients who had a high intake of vitamin D, and who also

had their surgery in months when sunshine was abundant, were more than

twice as likely to be alive five years after cancer surgery compared to

those patients who had low vitamin D intake and who also had their

operations in the winter.

 

This was one of the strongest indications so far of the protective,

anti-cancer effect of moderate exposure to sunlight. It is also a strong

argument for ensuring that you are exposed to a moderate amount of

sunshine every week, especially if you are undergoing cancer treatment.

 

Exactly how vitamin D changes the outcome of cancer surgery is not

known. But this finding jibes with many other studies showing that

vitamin

D inhibits a variety of different types of the disease.

 

 

Animal Studies

 

 

" Animal studies have shown that treatment of cancer with vitamin D

demonstrates both anti-proliferative and anti-invasive properties, " said

the lead investigator, Wei Zhou, PhD, a research scientist at the Harvard

School of Public Health, Boston. " But we don't know if that is true in

humans with cancer….So the best way we can make some sort of

association is to look at differences in what happens after treatment

of cancer

between patients who maintain high levels of vitamin D through their

diet and supplements, as well as through sunlight exposure, compared to

patients who do not.

 

" This study in no way suggests that people should try to time their

cancer surgeries for a particular season - that would obviously be

impossible, " Dr. Zhou explained. " But, if validated, it may mean that

increasing a patient's use of vitamin D before such surgery could offer a

survival benefit. "

 

It will certainly be hard for critics of natural medicine to pick holes

in the credentials or methodology of this study. The research team was

led by Prof. David Christiani, MD, of Harvard University, and included

investigators from Massachusetts General Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer

Institute, Brigham and Women's Hospital, and Harvard Medical School.

They looked at both disease free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS)

in 456 patients at these prestigious institutions who had early stage

non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Patients with several different

NSCLC subtypes were included in the study. Nine percent of the patients

received radiation treatment following surgery, and one percent received

chemotherapy.

 

In the 1970s, the brothers Cedric and Frank Garland of the University

of California at San Diego first hypothesized that exposure to solar

radiation actually led to decreased cancer incidence through the

agency of

vitamin D. Evidence for the health benefit of moderate sunlight

continues to accumulate. Within the past year there have been two

studies from

the Cancer Registry of Norway, showing that patients who were diagnosed

with breast, colon or prostate cancer during the summer and fall also

had the lowest risk of dying from their cancer. These are the seasons in

which the blood levels of serum calcidiol, also known vitamin D(3), or

its derivative, calcitrol, are at their highest. The Scandinavian

authors concluded that " a high level of vitamin D(3) at the time of

diagnosis, and thus, during cancer treatment, may improve prognosis of

the

three cancer types studied " (Robsahm 2004, Moan 2005).

 

In an award acceptance speech at the 2005 AACR annual meeting, Prof.

Edward Giovannucci, an epidemiologist at the Harvard School of Public

Health, Boston, reported an inverse correlation between a dozen forms of

cancer (including cancers of the esophagus, stomach, colon, rectum,

pancreas, gall bladder, bile duct, and ovaries) and levels of vitamin D.

These observations derive in part from work done at Kyushu University in

Japan, showing that exposure to solar radiation reduces the risk of

cancers of the digestive organs, even though Japanese people have a

relatively high intake of dietary vitamin D through fish consumption

(Mizoue

2004). Apparently, there's no substitute for Old Sol!

 

Actually, the correlation with sunlight and vitamin D is stronger for

cancer mortality than it is for incidence, which leads William Grant,

PhD, of the Sunlight, Nutrition and Health Research Center (SUNARC), San

Francisco, to suggest that " vitamin D is more effective in fighting

cancer once it develops rather than preventing it in the first place.

This

makes sense since carcinogenesis does not involve vitamin D " (Grant

2005). But since we none of us know if we are harboring hidden nests of

cancer cells, it would be a good idea to obtain a moderate degree of sun

exposure year round.

 

 

TO BE CONCLUDED, WITH REFERENCES, NEXT WEEK.

 

 

 

--Ralph W. Moss, PhD

 

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