A study involving patients receiving palliative radiotherapy or chemotherapy for Head and Neck cancer was conducted by Mount Sinai Beth Israel Medical Center in New York. They showed that patients' benefited from regular friendly dog visits during which they petted and formed a bond. Despite declines in physical and functional well-being as treatment progressed, there were significant improvements in overall quality of life as well as social and emotional well-being scores. Publish in The Journal of Community and Supportive Oncology. - more

A study, by the National Cancer Institute, asked 3.5 million people their coffee drinking and found that moderate coffee intake was linked with a 20% reduced risk of malignant melanoma even when factoring out other risks such as ultraviolet radiation, body mass index, age, sex, physical activity, alcohol intake and smoking. Previous studies have also shown that the polyphenols in coffee reduces the risk of non-melanoma skin cancer - more

An further analysis of The Health Professionals Follow-up Study looked at selenium intake after prostate cancer. Although an early trial showed selenium deficiency increased the risk, the SELECT study showed selenium supplements actually increased risk especially if combined with vit E. Now this study of 4,459 men showed selenium supplementation of ≥ 140 μg/d after prostate cancer was linked with a 2.6-fold greater risk of relapse (abstract). This confirms you should only take selenium to correct a known deficiency - measure your selenium levels

A chemical released from muscles after vigorous exercise called irisin has been added to triple negative breast cancer cells in laboratory by scientists at University of New Mexico. irisin reduced the number of malignant cells by 34% compared with untreated cells, but had no effect on normal cells. What's more cell migration (a marker of metastasis) reduced by 51%. It also enhanced the killing effect of the chemo agent Adriamycin - The study in the International J of Cancer supports the clinical data that exercise improves outcome after breast cancer - read more about exercise after cancer

  A growing interest has been directed towards the role of probiotics in preventing upper respiratory track infections. Several studies have now confirmed that their regular intake reduces the incidence and severity of colds. For most of us this is a troublesome annoyance but of those with other illnesses this could lead more to serious consequences. For athletes colds can interfere with their training programme - hence why probiotics are recommended to the Australian national team. It is very important however to take a reputable brand with high manufacturing standards - read more

A pool analysis of 2 published trials was this month. 1,498 cases of glioma and 3,530 (87%) controls participated. Mobile and cordless phone use was found to increased the risk of aggressive brain cancer (glioma) particularly of the lobe closest to the ear (temporal lobe). The risk increased per 100 hrs of use and the earlier in life phones started to be used. It would be wise to encourage children to use ear phones - more