A Nanomaterial-based Breath Test for Distinguishing Gastric Cancer

According to the encouraging preliminary results presented in British Journal of Cancer March 5 2013, there may be a nanomaterial-based breath test for distinguishing gastric cancer from benign gastric conditions. We all hope that this method can be clinical used someday.

 The following is the original article from British Journal of Cancer

Background:

Upper digestive endoscopy with biopsy and histopathological evaluation of the biopsy material is the standard method for diagnosing gastric cancer (GC). However, this procedure may not be widely available for screening in the developing world, whereas in developed countries endoscopy is frequently used without major clinical gain. There is a high demand for a simple and non-invasive test for selecting the individuals at increased risk that should undergo the endoscopic examination. Here, we studied the feasibility of a nanomaterial-based breath test for identifying GC among patients with gastric complaints.

Methods:

Alveolar exhaled breath samples from 130 patients with gastric complaints (37 GC/32 ulcers / 61 less severe conditions) that underwent endoscopy/biopsy were analyzed using nanomaterial-based sensors. Predictive models were built employing discriminant factor analysis (DFA) pattern recognition, and their stability against possible confounding factors (alcohol/tobacco consumption; Helicobacter pylori) was tested. Classification success was determined (i) using leave-one-out cross-validation and (ii) by randomly blinding 25% of the samples as a validation set. Complementary chemical analysis of the breath samples was performed using gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry.

Results:

Three DFA models were developed that achieved excellent discrimination between the subpopulations: (i) GC vs benign gastric conditions, among all the patients (89% sensitivity; 90% specificity); (ii) early stage GC (I and II) vs late stage (III and IV), among GC patients (89% sensitivity; 94% specificity); and (iii) ulcer vs less severe, among benign conditions (84% sensitivity; 87% specificity). The models were insensitive against the tested confounding factors. Chemical analysis found that five volatile organic compounds (2-propenenitrile, 2-butoxy-ethanol, furfural, 6-methyl-5-hepten-2-one and isoprene) were significantly elevated in patients with GC and/or peptic ulcer, as compared with less severe gastric conditions. The concentrations both in the room air and in the breath samples were in the single p.p.b.v range, except in the case of isoprene.

Conclusion:

The preliminary results of this pilot study could open a new and promising avenue to diagnose GC and distinguish it from other gastric diseases. It should be noted that the applied methods are complementary and the potential marker compounds identified by gas-chromatography/mass spectrometry are not necessarily responsible for the differences in the sensor responses. Although this pilot study does not allow drawing far-reaching conclusions, the encouraging preliminary results presented here have initiated a large multicentre clinical trial to confirm the observed patterns for GC and benign gastric conditions.

Seven Tips for a Healthy Life

1, Drink some green tea when you are surfing the internet:

Tea contains rich pro-vitamin A, which is easily absorbed by the body, and quickly converted into vitamin A. Vitamin A not only synthesizes into rhodopsin, but also makes the eyes see things more clearly in dark light. Therefore, green tea will not only reduce the computer radiation hazards, but also protect and enhance our vision.

2, Have some vinegar can relieve fatigue:

The reason why people get fatigue is because the lactic acid in the body is accumulated overmuch. While vinegar is alkaline foods, so having vinegar can neutralize the lactic acid and relieve fatigue.

3, Have a light diet can prevent cold to some extent:

Taking too much salt may reduce the secretion of saliva and give virus opportunities to settle in the mouth. Besides, sodium salt has a high permeability which might suppress the defense function of the mouth and throat’s epithelial cells. In this condition, the cold virus may invade into the body easily and causing a cold. Some severe cases may can also cause severe upper respiratory and lung infections.

4, Drink lemon juice often does great help to the health and body beautification

Lemon juice has a strong bactericidal effect and uterine contraction inhibited function, which can reduce blood lipids, play the effect on reducing weight. As a highly alkaline food, lemon also has a cosmetic effect that can prevent and eliminate skin pigmentation, make the skin soft and smooth. Besides, lemon is considered a trump for kinds of diseases. It can not only relieve a cough, remove the phlegm, strengthen the spleen, but also helps the body's blood circulation, promotes the metabolism.

5, Kiwi fruits promote sleep:

Researchers from Taipei Medical University found that those who eat two kiwi fruits an hour before sleep for 1 month have higher sleeping quality than those who have not. Their time to fall to sleep is shortened by 39%, time of waking up in the middle of night is shortened by 43%, and the total sleep time is lengthened 14%. Kiwi fruit contains rich calcium, magnesium and vitamin C, which helps to ease the tension in the central nervous system and calm the nerves.

6, Bask in the sun--the cheapest anti-cancer prescription:

 

Basking in the sun often can achieve the anti-cancer effect by increasing the content of vitamin D in the body. Vitamin D deficiency may increase the risk of breast cancer, colon cancer, prostate cancer, ovarian cancer and gastric cancer. While in order to avoid the sun exposure increases the risk of skin cancer, 15 minutes every day under the sun will be enough.

7, Purple sweet potato has strong anti-cancer effects

In addition to the nutrition elements as other sweet potatoes contains, purple sweet potato also rich in selenium and anthocyanin. Of which, selenium is called "the king of cancer anting". It is easy to be absorbed by human body and remained in the serum, then enhancing the immunity, eliminating free radical, inhibiting the growth of cancer cells, and preventing the occurrence of cancers to great extent.

A Healthy Trip to Guangzhou

Last 2012, you perhaps gain love, or career, or family or something else…but you may also overdrawn your health. The advent of 2013, you can learn to enjoy life, learn to slow down the pace of life, bring back the body and soul together for physical health and peace of mind.Come and join us for the 2013 tour in Guangzhou, China to experience a healthy and joyful travel.
for more infromation, please check here:  http://www.asiancancer.com/hot-topics/1950.html

How to Arrange Diet for Cancer Patient?

Cancer patient’s life has to rely on various nutrients of food. The main problem of cancer patient is nutritional disturbance, so improving patient’s nutrition is an important measure for anticancer treatment. Reasonable diet allocated to cancer patient can enhance body’s immunity and help a lot to patient’s treatment.

When arrange cancer patient’s diet, one should notice that:

　　1. Supply protein foods which are easy to digest and absorb, such as milk, eggs, fish, bean product, etc. for example, milk and eggs can emend the protein disorder after radiotherapy.

　　2. Intake proper amount of carbohydrate to supplement the heat. High dose of radiotherapy may destroy body’s glycometabolism resulted in glycogen decreased dramatically, lactic acid in blood increased with no longer use and insulin insufficiency aggravated. Consequently, it’s better foe patient to supplement glucose. E.g., honey, rice, flour, potato and so on are the sugar-rich food that can supplement heat.

　　3. Eat more anticancer foods, such as turtle, mushroom, black fungus, garlic, seaweeds, mustard and royal jelly and so on.

　　4. Vitamin A and C can prevent cancerization and proliferation of cells and increase the stability of epithelial cells. Additionally, vitamin C can prevent some general symptoms of radiation injury and raise the leukocytes levels; vitamin E can promote cell division and delay cell aging; vitamin B1 can promote patient’s appetite, relieve symptoms caused by radiation therapy. Hence, it’s helpful to eat more foods containing vitamins as mentioned above, for example, fresh vegetable, fruits, sesame oil, legume and some pluck, etc.

　　5. Diet should be diversification of color, smell, taste and shape, which can promote patient’s appetites; when cooks food, it can use steaming, boiling and stewing methods. Avoid taking hard-digested foods and alcohol.

　　6. Patient with difficulty in mastication, swallow, digestion, absorption caused by surgery in tumors of various parts of body and special nutritional deficiencies should take different foods and supplement the lacking element accordingly. If necessary, diet of compound necessary nutritional elements should be adopted to enhance patient’s immunity.

General Physical Examination Is Very Important to Cancer Detection

In Beijing, an average of 104 people have been diagnosed with cancer patients every day. 104 a day! When catching the first sight of this number, what we want to know first is how to predict the pathological changes of our body and prevent the occurrence of cancer?

Examination is an important means to find tumor. For instance, 80% lung cancer patients haven been in the late stage when they noticed the happening of the disease and eventually diagnosed in the hospital, while 11% of the lung cancer patients are discovered by routine physical examinations. So general investigation and routine physical examination are very important to the detection of cancer.

People who are younger than 45 years old are suggested to undergo a general physical examination at least every two years, those who are older than 45 years old should do that every 1 year, and those who are more than 60 years old every half a year.

Eight signals of cancer:

1, rapidly growth painless mass;

2, unexplained weight loss and anorexia;

3, abdominal pain without incentive factors;

4, unknown reasons of black stool or bloody stool;

5, size, shape or color changes of the moles;

6,intestinal obstruction in old people;

7, unexplained irritating cough and hemoptysis;

8, burst of irregular upper abdominal pain.