[Lifestyle] Healthy lifestyle habits can prevent up to 40% of cancer cases

[G h o s t l y.]

 

Healthy lifestyle habits can prevent up to 40% of cancers or even improve the prognosis of the disease in those who already have it, as reported by the Spanish Society of Radiation Oncology (SEOR), on the occasion of World Day Cancer Research.

Cancer is a genetic pathology, but also an epigenetic one. Contrary to genetic alterations, epigenetic changes are reversible, and can be modified by environmental factors, including lifestyle and diet.
 

"20% of cancers have a direct relationship with obesity, so we must continue to insist that an active life through physical exercise, not smoking, avoiding alcohol and avoiding sun exposure without protection are measures that are in our hands to reduce the risk of suffering from this disease ", said the radiation oncologist at the Parc de Salut Mar (Barcelona), Nuria Rodríguez de Dios.
 

According to the report 'Cancer figures in Spain 2019', the incidence of this disease is estimated at 277,234 cases for this year, 12% more than in 2015, when the number of new cases was 247,000. Survival in Spain continues to rise in recent decades, standing at approximately 53% at five years, a figure similar to that of neighboring countries.

"But we must clarify that cancer is a very broad term, since it is not the same to treat a breast cancer than a lung cancer or one that affects the brain, since the cells in each organ are different", has clarified the Dr. Rodríguez de Dios.

Even within the same tumor and the same individual, there are cells with different behaviors when faced with the same treatment, which means that in some cases resistant tumor cells persist, responsible for the relapse of the disease.
 

Likewise, the SEOR-GICOR representative has reported on some of the main challenges in cancer research. Among them, apart from prevention, he has highlighted the studies aimed at the possibility of detecting tumor-specific genetic markers through a blood test in asymptomatic patients.

Also, the doctor has emphasized personalized medicine, to treat each patient according to their genetic characteristics, as another of the key objectives in research and less invasive diagnostic methods. In this sense, she has alluded to the liquid biopsy in which, thanks to a blood test, we can identify the presence of the tumor without the need for the classic biopsy of the tumor tissue. "This would also allow us to closely monitor patients throughout their illness without the need to carry out bloody tests," she added.
 

Radiogenomics, one of the great challenges

On the other hand, Rodríguez de Dios has reported that radiogenomics is another of the great challenges. "The development of fully digital medical imaging techniques generates high-quality images that contain a great diversity of information beyond that used for diagnosis," he said.
 

Using algorithms of artificial intelligence, he continues, numerous images can be analyzed and that quantitative information extracted to know precisely and in detail the tumor phenotype. With regard to the importance of radiotherapy in the treatment of tumors, the oncologist has described it as a "basic pillar" of the multidisciplinary approach to cancer patients.
 

Proof of this is that more than half of cancer patients receive radiation therapy during the course of their disease. "In recent years, technological development allows us to administer treatment in a safer way, concentrating the radiation dose on the tumor, protecting the adjacent healthy organs," argued the doctor.
 

This is achieved thanks to the fact that there are treatment units that can administer radiation in a synchronized way with the physiological movements of the organs, such as respiratory movement or heartbeat, and that modulate the intensity of the radiation beam with a drastic reduction of the dose a few millimeters from the tumor.
 

In addition, the doctor has underlined the role that proton therapy plays to especially treat tumors near vital organs that need to be preserved, such as those near the brain stem, the optic pathway, the spinal cord, tumors of the head and neck area, and pediatric tumors, although studies are underway in other locations to assess its potential benefit.
 

"We have to abandon the classical concept that radiotherapy is only a local treatment to cure cancer. One of the effects of radiotherapy is to act as a booster of the immune system. We are making progress in some tumors thanks to the combination of radiotherapy with immunotherapy, one of the challenges is to know what is the best sequence to administer these treatments, what dose of radiation is the most appropriate and what profile of patients are the most benefited ", has settled the radiation oncologist.