An analysis of 14 unique behavior intervention trials for women with breast cancer between was published this month.  All interventions included moderate-intensity activities plus various behavioral change strategies. They all successfully increased physical activity levels. Two types programmes did particularly well: Highly structured interventions and interventions supported by phone counseling or e-mail. Read more | Tips to exercise | 

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre in New York evaluated 2,400 patients who underwent treatment for prostate cancer between 1988 and 2005. Although smoking has been previously shown to increase prostate cancer risk they found it is still important to give up because that those who continued to smoke during and after radiotherapy had double the prostate cancer specific death rate. Other studies have also shown smoking increased rectal damage. Clearly smokers after prostate should be strong counselled to quit. Read more | Tips to quit.

Insulin's role in breast cancer risk was invested in a study published by the American Diabetic Society. More than 3,300 women without diabetes, 497 of whom developed breast cancer over eight years were analyzed for their weight, fasting insulin levels and insulin resistance. Overweight women with high insulin had an 84% higher risk of breast cancer than overweight women with normal insulin but normal weight women with insulin resistance fared just as badly. It's excess insulin which is the problem not just being overweight.. read more

  A study published in the Journal of Adolescent Oncology showed that despite bowel cancer rates generally falling by 1% per year, there is a worrying trend in young adults. They found, that between that colon cancer rates have been rising by 2.7% among those under 50 year olds. Authors felt this may reflect a poor lifestyle earlier in life and are concerned that public health guidelines for bowel cancer rarely include this group. Read more

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