cancer risk

PARIS: Certain genes can determine which people are more at risk of getting sunburnt, and possibly develop skin cancer as a result, scientists said Tuesday. In a trawl of the genetics of nearly 180,000 people of European ancestry in Britain, Australia, the Netherlands and United States, researchers found 20 sunburn genes. Eight of the genes had been associated with skin cancer in previous research, according to findings published in the journal Nature Communications. And in at least one region of the genome, "we…

LONDON: European food safety officials issued a warning on Tuesday about potential health problems, including an increased risk of some cancers, linked to long-term use of laxatives such as senna and rhubarb extract. Laxatives often contain hydroxyanthracenes, a class of substances found in roots, outer leaves, seed and bark of plants such as aloe, rhubarb or senna. Read More: ‘Inflammatory’ diet linked to higher risk of colon cancer Evidence from animal studies suggests some of these substances can cause cancer of the…

MIAMI: Women who regularly work the night shift in Europe and North America may face a 19 percent higher risk of cancer than those who work during the day, said a study Monday. These heightened risks were not apparent among female night-shift workers in Australia and Asia, said the meta-analysis in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention. "Our study indicates that night shift work serves as a risk factor for common cancers in women," said study author Xuelei Ma, an oncologist at the West China…

LONDON: The alcohol industry uses denial, distortion and distraction to mislead people about the risks of developing cancer from drinking, often employing similar tactics to those of the tobacco industry, a study said on Thursday. Drinks industry organizations often present the relationship between alcohol and cancer as highly complex, implying there is no clear evidence of a consistent link, said the study led by scientists at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and Sweden’s Karolinska…

NASHVILLE, US: People who eat a lot of saturated fat - the “bad” kind of fat that’s abundant in foods like butter and beef - are more likely to develop lung cancer than individuals on low-fat diets, a recent study suggests. Compared to adults who didn’t get a lot of fat in their diets, people who ate the most total fat and saturated fat were 14 percent more likely to get lung malignancies, the study found. For current and former smokers, the added risk of a high fat diet was 15 percent. While the best way to lower the…