5 ms·

Colon Cancer Isn’t Just an Older Person's Disease Anymore

helsinkiandrew 4y ago
https://archive.ph/J1iOg https://archive.ph/J1iOg Original paper: https://acsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.3322/caac.21763 https://acsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.3322/...
moi2388 4y ago
Why would you ever link to paywall sites?!
- helsinkiandrew 4y ago
  "Tell HN: Paywalls with workarounds are OK; paywall complaints are off topic" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10178989 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10178989
  - more_corn 4y ago
    If someone says “hey check out some information” and I can’t see that information I’m pretty sure me saying so is on topic. Even if somebody’s FAQ asserts otherwise.
    - helsinkiandrew 4y ago
      Always check the comments when a paywalled link is posted. In this case a link to a readable copy was added within a minute of the original post
neovialogistics 4y ago
Can microplastics be ruled out? I ask because they are known to massively damage the stomach linings of some birds.
- noobermin 4y ago
  Given the rising rates of cancer in the young across multiple sites, microplastics feel like the most likely culprit from people who are non-experts given it is the thing that has become more prominent in the last few decades. I have no idea though if it can be ruled out or not.
  - lm28469 4y ago
    > has become more prominent in the last few decades. malnutrition too: https://www.niddk.nih.gov/-/media/Images/Health-Information/Weight-Management/Graph-8-revised.jpg https://www.niddk.nih.gov/-/media/Images/Health-Information/...
    - pantojax45 4y ago
      Graph comes from obesity statistics here - https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/health-statistics/overweight-obesity https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/health-statisti... (Aside it’s confusing to post a graph that doesn’t have a title without context)
- refurb 4y ago
  Whats the biological mechanism for plastic causing cancer?
  - pvaldes 4y ago
    Some chemicals could act as fake hormones or mimicking grow factors, for example
    - refurb 4y ago
      Most plastics are just polypropylene or polystyrene. It's just long chains of hydrocarbons and is inert. Plastics sometimes have plasticizers added, but if you're talking about microplastics, the amount of those chemicals in a microscopic piece of plastic is negligible.
nexthash 4y ago
I am taking a class in my college on environmental literature. One thing I learned is how environmental issues are consistently swept under the rug and underreported (like in this article, written by a former chemical & engineering news reporter) in society's discourse on cancer. All the blame for cancer is put on you and your habits, whether smoking or red meat. Big perps of this information campaign include the American Cancer Society. But as really good books like Silent Spring and When Smoke Ran Like Water show, environmental pollution and pesticides consistently correlate with rising cancer rates in modern society. It is ludicrous that one of two men and one of three women will be stricken with the disease in their lifetimes. Why is such a massive factor being hidden from the public? All this noise and focus on treatment... yet no focus on prevention. Because that would require economic changes that put a burden on corporations.
- lm28469 4y ago
  We're poisoning entire generations for the profit of a few. That's the invisible hand of the free market for you
  - Philorandroid 4y ago
    Enlightening comment. Why's it a failure exclusive to capitalism? Would this not have happened under a mixed economy, or a centrally-planned one?
    - iosono88 4y ago
      [dead]
    - kevviiinn 4y ago
      Differing incentives under different structures
    - lm28469 4y ago
      I would expect other systems to optimise/maximise other things, the current, especially in the US thanks to lobbies and borderline corrupt politicians + conflicts of interests, maximises wealth acquisition and cost reduction without any regard for health or long term effects It's really similar to the tobacco industry back in the days, and will probably end up the same way (fingers crossed) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DboTyNu-FLk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DboTyNu-FLk https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2866605/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2866605/
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
delhanty 4y ago
> Is something in our diet, like processed meats and sugary drinks, to blame? Could this be linked to the rise in obesity? Dr Peter Attia on the Tim Ferris podcast in 2019 suggested it's the fructose in sugary drinks. > Sugar as a liquid versus sugar as a solid behave differently and also the dose matters, but if you take a bolus of liquid sugar, it’s going to make it further down the GI tract than the solid. Certainly, in animals, the evidence, Lew Cantley actually published this study in Science about four months ago. You could basically take a mouse model that is primed to get colon cancer and you had three groups. One group is getting just a bolus of glucose. The other group is just getting a bolus of fructose liquid, and the other is getting a bolus of sugar, glucose and fructose together. You could make that animal explode in colon cancer with the sugar, the glucose fructose. https://tim.blog/2019/12/07/peter-attia-transcript/ https://tim.blog/2019/12/07/peter-attia-transcript/
mamonster 4y ago
"Researchers are trying to determine what’s behind the shift. Among the questions: Is there something biologically different about these early onset tumors? Is something in our diet, like processed meats and sugary drinks, to blame? Could this be linked to the rise in obesity?" I wonder whether some researcher would even dare investigating whether this is related to increase in anal sex incidence in younger people.
- more_corn 4y ago
  Came here to ask that. HPV is known to cause cervical cancer in women. It’s also implicated in neck cancer passed due to oral sex.
digitalsushi 4y ago
My mom died from colon cancer at age 44. She seemed healthy, she didnt smoke, barely drank.. then one summer night, a call that mom is in the hospital, a night later, it's colon cancer, and then the funeral. She insisted her three kids each get screened as soon as insurance would pay for it. And so, in order, each of us went at age 30, or 35, for our first, and each of us has had the type of polyp that makes a doctor go "hrm" removed. Probably they just go hrm and remove all of them though. Anyways, I'm not a doctor, and I also can't meditate upon the health of my colon enough to correctly assess its health; I remain convinced these early scans are going to really help me and what's left of my family out, and I'm glad to bother with it. Just go do it, if you're putting it off. It's more annoying than getting a filling but it's less annoying than getting three fillings.
- mpalfrey 4y ago
  Likewise, my mum (as British) died at 65 of bowel (again, British, colon otherwise) cancer. Planning on starting to look at private screening from 40 here.
- tanseydavid 4y ago
  Had my first colonoscopy about 3 months ago. The experience in total was far less of a problem than what I had anticipated based on the comments of others who had gone through the procedure. In short, it is really not a big deal, including the fasting and cleansing part.

https://archive.ph/J1iOg https://archive.ph/J1iOg Original paper: https://acsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.3322/caac.21763 https://acsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.3322/...

moi2388 4y ago

Why would you ever link to paywall sites?!

helsinkiandrew 4y ago
"Tell HN: Paywalls with workarounds are OK; paywall complaints are off topic" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10178989 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10178989
- more_corn 4y ago
  If someone says “hey check out some information” and I can’t see that information I’m pretty sure me saying so is on topic. Even if somebody’s FAQ asserts otherwise.
  - helsinkiandrew 4y ago
    Always check the comments when a paywalled link is posted. In this case a link to a readable copy was added within a minute of the original post

neovialogistics 4y ago

Can microplastics be ruled out? I ask because they are known to massively damage the stomach linings of some birds.

noobermin 4y ago
Given the rising rates of cancer in the young across multiple sites, microplastics feel like the most likely culprit from people who are non-experts given it is the thing that has become more prominent in the last few decades. I have no idea though if it can be ruled out or not.
- lm28469 4y ago
  > has become more prominent in the last few decades. malnutrition too: https://www.niddk.nih.gov/-/media/Images/Health-Information/Weight-Management/Graph-8-revised.jpg https://www.niddk.nih.gov/-/media/Images/Health-Information/...
  - pantojax45 4y ago
    Graph comes from obesity statistics here - https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/health-statistics/overweight-obesity https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/health-statisti... (Aside it’s confusing to post a graph that doesn’t have a title without context)
refurb 4y ago
Whats the biological mechanism for plastic causing cancer?
- pvaldes 4y ago
  Some chemicals could act as fake hormones or mimicking grow factors, for example
  - refurb 4y ago
    Most plastics are just polypropylene or polystyrene. It's just long chains of hydrocarbons and is inert. Plastics sometimes have plasticizers added, but if you're talking about microplastics, the amount of those chemicals in a microscopic piece of plastic is negligible.

nexthash 4y ago

I am taking a class in my college on environmental literature. One thing I learned is how environmental issues are consistently swept under the rug and underreported (like in this article, written by a former chemical & engineering news reporter) in society's discourse on cancer. All the blame for cancer is put on you and your habits, whether smoking or red meat. Big perps of this information campaign include the American Cancer Society. But as really good books like Silent Spring and When Smoke Ran Like Water show, environmental pollution and pesticides consistently correlate with rising cancer rates in modern society. It is ludicrous that one of two men and one of three women will be stricken with the disease in their lifetimes. Why is such a massive factor being hidden from the public? All this noise and focus on treatment... yet no focus on prevention. Because that would require economic changes that put a burden on corporations.

lm28469 4y ago
We're poisoning entire generations for the profit of a few. That's the invisible hand of the free market for you
- Philorandroid 4y ago
  Enlightening comment. Why's it a failure exclusive to capitalism? Would this not have happened under a mixed economy, or a centrally-planned one?
  - iosono88 4y ago
    [dead]
  - kevviiinn 4y ago
    Differing incentives under different structures
  - lm28469 4y ago
    I would expect other systems to optimise/maximise other things, the current, especially in the US thanks to lobbies and borderline corrupt politicians + conflicts of interests, maximises wealth acquisition and cost reduction without any regard for health or long term effects It's really similar to the tobacco industry back in the days, and will probably end up the same way (fingers crossed) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DboTyNu-FLk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DboTyNu-FLk https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2866605/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2866605/

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

delhanty 4y ago

> Is something in our diet, like processed meats and sugary drinks, to blame? Could this be linked to the rise in obesity? Dr Peter Attia on the Tim Ferris podcast in 2019 suggested it's the fructose in sugary drinks. > Sugar as a liquid versus sugar as a solid behave differently and also the dose matters, but if you take a bolus of liquid sugar, it’s going to make it further down the GI tract than the solid. Certainly, in animals, the evidence, Lew Cantley actually published this study in Science about four months ago. You could basically take a mouse model that is primed to get colon cancer and you had three groups. One group is getting just a bolus of glucose. The other group is just getting a bolus of fructose liquid, and the other is getting a bolus of sugar, glucose and fructose together. You could make that animal explode in colon cancer with the sugar, the glucose fructose. https://tim.blog/2019/12/07/peter-attia-transcript/ https://tim.blog/2019/12/07/peter-attia-transcript/

mamonster 4y ago

"Researchers are trying to determine what’s behind the shift. Among the questions: Is there something biologically different about these early onset tumors? Is something in our diet, like processed meats and sugary drinks, to blame? Could this be linked to the rise in obesity?" I wonder whether some researcher would even dare investigating whether this is related to increase in anal sex incidence in younger people.

more_corn 4y ago
Came here to ask that. HPV is known to cause cervical cancer in women. It’s also implicated in neck cancer passed due to oral sex.

digitalsushi 4y ago

My mom died from colon cancer at age 44. She seemed healthy, she didnt smoke, barely drank.. then one summer night, a call that mom is in the hospital, a night later, it's colon cancer, and then the funeral. She insisted her three kids each get screened as soon as insurance would pay for it. And so, in order, each of us went at age 30, or 35, for our first, and each of us has had the type of polyp that makes a doctor go "hrm" removed. Probably they just go hrm and remove all of them though. Anyways, I'm not a doctor, and I also can't meditate upon the health of my colon enough to correctly assess its health; I remain convinced these early scans are going to really help me and what's left of my family out, and I'm glad to bother with it. Just go do it, if you're putting it off. It's more annoying than getting a filling but it's less annoying than getting three fillings.

mpalfrey 4y ago
Likewise, my mum (as British) died at 65 of bowel (again, British, colon otherwise) cancer. Planning on starting to look at private screening from 40 here.
tanseydavid 4y ago
Had my first colonoscopy about 3 months ago. The experience in total was far less of a problem than what I had anticipated based on the comments of others who had gone through the procedure. In short, it is really not a big deal, including the fasting and cleansing part.