Alcohol spurs cancer growth.At least in mice, downing the human equivalent of two to four alcoholic drinks per day dramatically spurs the growth of an existing cancer. Epidemiologic studies have shown that people who regularly drink alcohol face an increased risk of certain cancers, notably breast malignancies. Last year, researchers at the University of Mississippi Medical Center University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMC) is the health sciences campus of the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss). Located in Jackson, Mississippi (USA), it houses the Schools of Medicine, Dentistry, Nursing, Health Related Professions, and Graduate Studies in the Health in Jackson showed that alcohol spurred the development of new blood vessels Blood vessels Tubular channels for blood transport, of which there are three principal types: arteries, capillaries, and veins. Only the larger arteries and veins in the body bear distinct names. to feed bone cancer cells cells once believed to be peculiar to cancers, but now know to be epithelial cells differing in no respect from those found elsewhere in the body, and distinguished only by peculiarity of location and grouping. See also: Cancer implanted in chick embryos (SN: 1/15/05, p. 37). The same team, led by Wei Tan, has now stimulated cancer growth by giving alcohol to animals. The researchers implanted melanoma tumors in 6-week-old mice and then administered 1 percent alcohol as drinking water drinking water supply of water available to animals for drinking supplied via nipples, in troughs, dams, ponds and larger natural water sources; an insufficient supply leads to dehydration; it can be the source of infection, e.g. leptospirosis, salmonellosis, or of poisoning, e.g. to some of the rodents. The animals drank as much as they wanted for 8 hours a day. Their resulting doses of alcohol remained well below those administered in other rodent-cancer studies, says Tan. At the end of a month, tumors in animals drinking the spiked water were twice as large as those in mice getting plain drinking water, Tan reported. Microscopic investigation showed that the tumors in alcohol-drinking animals had also experienced far greater blood vessel blood vessel n. An elastic tubular channel, such as an artery, a vein, a sinus, or a capillary, through which the blood circulates. blood vessel(s), n the network of muscular tubes that carry blood. growth, or angiogenesis angiogenesis /an·gio·gen·e·sis/ (-jen´e-sis) vasculogenesis; development of blood vessels either in the embryo or in the form of neovascularization or revascularization. an·gi·o·gen·e·sis n. , than did tumors in alcohol-free mice. Moreover, receptors for a protein that promotes angiogenesis were 40 percent more numerous in tumors from the alcohol-drinking rodents. Tan's colleague Jian-Wei Gu says, "We're not against drinking." However, he says, for people with genetic signs of vulnerability to any kind of cancer, "our message is simple: 'No drinking."--J.R. |
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