August 2007 podcast transcript

Kat: Hello, I'm Dr Kat Arney. In this month's podcast we find out about a new Cancer Campaign that you can get involved in - we want to push politicians to improve cancer screening in the UK, and ask you to pledge your support.

First, here's Henry Scowcroft with the latest news.

Henry: Scientists funded by Cancer Research UK have found a common genetic variation, carried by half the population, that slightly increases a person's risk of bowel cancer. Around one in 16 people who carry the variant will develop bowel cancer, compared to the normal rate of about one in 20. The scientists who made the discovery say that, although rare bowel cancer genes were already known, this is the first time a common variant has been identified.

The researchers, based in Edinburgh and London, used the latest genome-scanning technology to search through the genetic makeup of more than 30,000 people, around half of whom had bowel cancer. They found that the people with bowel cancer tended to have an abnormality in a region of one of their chromosomes - chromosome 8. But their research has not yet revealed the identity of the precise gene involved. Intriguingly, other researchers recently found that the same gene fault is linked to prostate cancer.

Professor Malcolm Dunlop, from the University of Edinburgh, was one of the lead researchers on the study.

"What we're all talking about today is a variant, which is a whole different understanding of how bowel cancer comes about. It's a paradigm shift in our understanding, meaning that this is a common genetic variation that increases one's risk not a lot, but by a small amount. This, combined with a bunch of other genetic variants, is likely to impact on large number of the population, but by a small amount."

The research was part-funded by the Bobby Moore Fund for Cancer Research UK. We spoke to Stephanie Moore, Bobby's wife and founder of the fund.

"I'm really excited, because to be able to tell supporters of ours that this new genes has been discovered, and is going to make an actual difference to people is phenomenal. It really is groundbreaking. It's very exciting for the scientific world, and for us at the Bobby Moore fund and our supporters."

A clinical trial has found that giving chemotherapy to children under three, who have a rare type of brain cancer, could avoid the need for radiotherapy, and the side-effects that can go with it. The trial recruited 89 children with ependymoma from the UK, Scandinavia and the Netherlands, and followed their progress for up to twelve years.

All of the children on the trial underwent surgery to try and remove their tumours, followed by an intensive course of chemotherapy to kill off any remaining cancer cells. Radiation treatment was reserved only for those children whose disease had spread or progressed.

Of these patients, the chemotherapy treatment managed to delay their need for radiotherapy by more than one and a half years. This meant that radiotherapy was not used on children under three, when their brains are much more sensitive to the potentially damaging effects of this treatment.

Although ependymoma affects only around 35 children in the UK every year, the researchers hope their results will benefit infants with other types of brain cancers. The research was carried out by scientists in the UK Children's Cancer and Leukaemia Group, funded by Cancer Research UK and the Samantha Dickson Brain Tumour Trust.

And finally, Cancer Research UK has played down reports of a link between eating grapefruit and an increased risk of breast cancer in postmenopausal women. Grapefruit is thought to interfere with oestrogen metabolism, and oestrogen levels are linked to breast cancer. So a team of US researchers asked around 46,000 women how much grapefruit they ate per day over a period of a year.

Those who said they ate the most grapefruit appeared to be more likely to develop breast cancer. But as the researchers admitted, this is the first study to find such a link, there could be many explanations, and there was a lot more research to do.

Overall, there is very little evidence to link fruit and vegetable consumption with breast cancer risk. So our advice remains - eating a good mix of at least five fruit and vegetables a day can reduce you risk of many other types of cancer, including bowel, mouth and stomach cancers.

Kat: And if you want find out more about these stories, or get the latest from the charity's scientists, and researchers around the world, then have a look at our News & Resources website.

Cancer Research UK has just launched our latest Cancer Campaign, aiming to improve cancer screening throughout the UK. Here's Elaine Londesborough, Cancer Campaigns officer, to explain more.

Elaine Londesborough The campaign's called Screening Matters and it's all about getting more people into the breast, bowel and cervical cancer screening programmes across the UK, and making sure that these programmes are the best they can be. Cancer Research UK is doing this because we know that early detection is vital to successful cancer treatment.

Thousands of women are alive today thanks to the breast and cervical screening programmes, and we know that the new bowel cancer screening programme has the potential to save thousands more men and women in the future. But we also know that many people are missing out on being screened, so we want to make sure that the governments of the UK are committing to increasing the number of people being screened, to make sure that everyone can benefit from cancer screening.

We're asking people to sign two pledges - one political and one personal. We want to show government that this issue is important,. But it's not just politicians that can make a difference – we hope that people will pledge to go along for screening when invited, and that they'll encourage their friends and family to do the same.

Our last campaign had over quarter of a million people sign up, so we're hoping to get more this time. We hope that the governments across the UK will really sit up and listen. We want them to:

Screen at least three million more people over the next five years
Reduce the variation in screening across the UK
Reach out to people eligible for screening who aren't taking part
Provide the best possible screening programmes through funding, staffing and measuring success

You can sign up to the campaign and find out more on our CancerCampaigns website. And you can find out more about cancer screening in general from our Healthy Living website. And if you've got general questions about screening or cancer you can call our Cancer Information Nurses on 0207 061 8355 or freephone 0800 226237.

Kat: And you can also find out more from our patient information website, CancerHelp UK.

Every year Cancer Research UK spends millions of pounds researching ways to prevent cancer, and detect the disease earlier. This includes significant projects investigating cancer screening. Cancer screening involves examining healthy people for cancers, or looking for abnormal cells that might cause cancer in the future if left untreated. The earlier a cancer is spotted, the greater the chances of a successful treatment.

Julietta Patnick is the director of NHS Cancer Screening Programmes in England, and she started by telling our roving reporter Anna Lacey about the different types of screening currently available in the UK.

Screening package

Julietta Patnick, NHS Cancer Screening Programmes: We have screening programmes in the UK for breast, cervical and bowel cancer. The kit comes in the form of a three-part card and some heavy card sticks. You have to catch a bit of bowel motion in some toilet paper, and smear a little bit on the card using the stick, and date it. You do that three consecutive times and then put it in the special foil-lined reply-paid envelope.

When we get it back in the lab we put some developer on it, which can tell us if there is any blood there – this can indicate that there is a cancer or polyp (pre-cancerous lump) in the bowel. But the test also picks up other red things – so you wouldn’t want to have a beetroot salad the day before!

In our pilot tests, we got about 60% of people to take up the test. Through an awareness programme, we hope to reduce the "yuk" factor about this test, to encourage people to do it. I see cancer screening as a normal part of looking after yourself – you go to the dentist, you go to the optician, and you take up your invitation for cancer screening when it's offered.

Professor Jane Wardle, Cancer Research UK Health Behaviour Centre: Some people choose not to take part in cancer screening, and you can divide these people into three groups. One group just don't want to know – they don't want to have anything to do with anything linked to cancer. There is a second group who don't realise that screening can pick up undetectable cancers. If they feel fit and well, they don't feel they need to go. And this group could probably benefit from education about screening. And there's a third group – which may be quite large – who intend to go but somehow don't quite make it. Maybe for this group we need to provide guidance on how to make it easier, or make the services more accessible.

The bowel screening programme is the first one for men. Traditionally we think of men as not being very keen on health issues, but my hunch is that men in their sixties (the age for bowel screening) are beginning realise that they need to take care of their health. But we probably need to look at the screening information materials that are provided, to see if they need modifying to appeal to men.

Professor Ian Jacobs, University College London: Cancer Research UK is helping to fund a big trial called UKCTOCS – the UK Collaborative Trial of Ovarian Cancer Screening – testing whether screening for ovarian cancer can save lives. If it does save lives, we need to know how many, and at what cost, and if the screening or subsequent investigations cause discomfort or distress. If ovarian cancer is picked up at a very early stage, survival is around 90%, but many cancers aren't picked up this early.

We hope that screening might pick up cancers earlier and save many lives. There are two screening methods. One is ultrasound screening, which looks at the size, shape and texture of the ovaries. Another technique is a blood test, looking for the levels of a protein called CA125. This test is used at the moment to measure the progress of ovarian cancer in patients, but we think it could be a useful screening test. But the results from UKCTOCS won't be available for several years yet.

Kat: We know that screening saves thousands of lives every year. But statistics are all very well. We spoke to June Evans from Darlington to hear about her personal experience.

June Evans My cancer was detected through breast screening. I went for the first mammogram I was invited for, and they picked up breast cancer. I would encourage every woman to go for screening when you get the invitation – it could save your life, and I believe it's saved my life. If cancer is detected early, the survival is really great nowadays, so don't let fear put you off. Sometimes people are fearful of an investigation they've never had before. It can be a wee bit uncomfortable but it's not painful – and it could save your life!

We've reached the end once more so we hope youve enjoyed the podcast. Don't forget that your feedback is vital in helping us improve the show, so please send us your comments and suggestions by email to podcast@cancer.org.uk. And you can sign up to our RSS feed to get the latest Cancer Research UK podcast delivered straight to your computer every month.

We’ll be back next month with all the latest news from the charity. Until then, good bye!!

Credits:
Presented and produced by Kat Arney
News by Henry Scowcroft and Kat Arney
Screening package produced and presented by Anna Lacey
Post-production by Henry Sowcroft
Original music written and performed by Kat Arney and Henry Scowcroft
With special thanks to all the participants