Latest news with #PaulOberstein
Yahoo
a day ago
- Health
- Yahoo
'Western diet' blamed for growing risk of GI cancers among young adults
The rates of gastrointestinal (GI) cancers are rising among young adults, with a new peer-reviewed study pointing to the American diet and lifestyle as the primary culprits. The rising risk in younger generations may be linked more to environmental factors than genetics, stated the report, which was recently published in the British Journal of Surgery. "Some shared risk factors for early-onset (EO) GI cancer include obesity, sedentary lifestyle, excessive alcohol consumption and smoking," lead researcher Sara Char, M.D., at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, told Fox News Digital. Rare Cancer Diagnoses Surge Dramatically Among Millennials And Gen X The study notes that recent generations are more likely to adopt a "Western-pattern diet" and a "sedentary lifestyle." Colorectal is the most common type of early-onset GI cancer, but pancreatic, esophageal, gastric, biliary, appendiceal and neuroendocrine cancers are also rising in adults under 50, Char noted. Read On The Fox News App Adults born in 1990 have twice the risk of colon cancer and four times the risk of rectal cancer compared to those born in 1950, according to a previous study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Paul Oberstein, M.D., director of the Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology Program at NYU Langone's Perlmutter Cancer Center, told Fox News Digital that a person's diet does indeed impact the risk of colon cancer. Your Favorite Alcoholic Beverage Could Be Linked To Deadly Form Of Cancer, Study Finds "It is reported from previous studies that when someone has a higher amount of foods typical of a Western diet, they have a higher risk of colon cancer," said Oberstein, who was not involved in the research. A "Western diet" typically includes a higher intake of red and processed meats, processed and added sugars, and highly processed and refined grains, according to the oncologist. Processed deli meats, sugary drinks and processed grain snacks are also commonly associated with this type of diet. While the incidence of colon cancer in this group overall remains low, Oberstein recommends investing in more research to explore which factors are causing the increase. "We need to conduct more research on whether diet, vitamin supplements, alcohol or other things we ingest or use are contributing to this increase," he said. Click Here To Sign Up For Our Health Newsletter The expert also emphasized the importance of following the recommended colon cancer screening guidelines, which begin at 45 years old for most people, and seeking medical attention if any symptoms appear. Common warning signs include changes in bowel habits, blood in the stool, unexplained back or abdominal pain, or unintentional weight loss, all of which warrant speaking to a doctor for an "urgent evaluation," according to Char. For more Health articles, visit The researcher added that younger individuals can take preventative measures such as not smoking, avoiding excessive alcohol, limiting red meat consumption, staying physically active and maintaining a healthy body article source: 'Western diet' blamed for growing risk of GI cancers among young adults Solve the daily Crossword
Fox News
4 days ago
- Health
- Fox News
'Western diet' blamed for growing risk of GI cancers among young adults
The rates of gastrointestinal (GI) cancers are rising among young adults, with a new peer-reviewed study pointing to the American diet and lifestyle as the primary culprits. The rising risk in younger generations may be linked more to environmental factors than genetics, stated the report, which was recently published in the British Journal of Surgery. "Some shared risk factors for early-onset (EO) GI cancer include obesity, sedentary lifestyle, excessive alcohol consumption and smoking," lead researcher Sara Char, M.D., at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, told Fox News Digital. The study notes that recent generations are more likely to adopt a "Western-pattern diet" and a "sedentary lifestyle." Colorectal is the most common type of early-onset GI cancer, but pancreatic, esophageal, gastric, biliary, appendiceal and neuroendocrine cancers are also rising in adults under 50, Char noted. Adults born in 1990 have twice the risk of colon cancer and four times the risk of rectal cancer compared to those born in 1950, according to a previous study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Paul Oberstein, M.D., director of the Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology Program at NYU Langone's Perlmutter Cancer Center, told Fox News Digital that a person's diet does indeed impact the risk of colon cancer. "It is reported from previous studies that when someone has a higher amount of foods typical of a Western diet, they have a higher risk of colon cancer," said Oberstein, who was not involved in the research. A "Western diet" typically includes a higher intake of red and processed meats, processed and added sugars, and highly processed and refined grains, according to the oncologist. Processed deli meats, sugary drinks and processed grain snacks are also commonly associated with this type of diet. While the incidence of colon cancer in this group overall remains low, Oberstein recommends investing in more research to explore which factors are causing the increase. "We need to conduct more research on whether diet, vitamin supplements, alcohol or other things we ingest or use are contributing to this increase," he said. The expert also emphasized the importance of following the recommended colon cancer screening guidelines, which begin at 45 years old for most people, and seeking medical attention if any symptoms appear. Common warning signs include changes in bowel habits, blood in the stool, unexplained back or abdominal pain, or unintentional weight loss, all of which warrant speaking to a doctor for an "urgent evaluation," according to Char. For more Health articles, visit The researcher added that younger individuals can take preventative measures such as not smoking, avoiding excessive alcohol, limiting red meat consumption, staying physically active and maintaining a healthy body weight.
Yahoo
14-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
4 grocery store items colon cancer doctors avoid — and 3 they love
Diet isn't the only factor that contributes to colon cancer, but it often plays a role. Some of the clearest links have been drawn to sugar and red meat. Experts love coffee and cruciferous greens with anti-inflammatory properties. One of the most common questions that doctors treating colon cancer get is: "What else can I do?" Since colon cancer starts in the digestive tract, the food we put in our bodies is — rightly or wrongly — one of the first places people look, wondering: Is there some food I can eat that will help fight cancer, or some cancer-causing thing I should eliminate from my diet, stat? The truth is that how cancer emerges inside a body is quite complex. There isn't usually one single thing a person can do to stop it. While attending the world's biggest cancer conference earlier this month, I figured I'd cut through some of the noise out there and ask top colon cancer doctors directly what they generally recommend. Dr. Paul Oberstein, a medical oncologist at NYU Langone who specializes in gastrointestinal cancers, says his patients are often hunting for a winning superfood that can combat colon cancer. He fields questions routinely about the merits of avocados, pine nuts, and other items. Could adding those single items to the grocery cart help? While he says he's "doubtful" any single food can really make the difference in cancer recurrence, there are a few well-trodden truths doctors live by. These are backed by reams of study data from around the world. We still can't say for sure whether there's one specific diet that is best to combat cancer, and especially one diet that's best for you in particular. Plus, people with seemingly "clean" diets do get digestive cancers, even in their 30s and 40s. That being said, these four foods are consistently included in diets that seem to lead to cancer diagnoses later on, so oncologists warn against them. Sorry to everyone firing up the grill this summer! Study after study suggests that there really is something about red meat (and especially processed meats like hot dogs and deli cuts) that does the kind of DNA damage that can lead to colon cancer. Oberstein says patients often want to get prescriptive about it: Can I have red meat once a week? Twice a month? He's not really comfortable getting that granular with his advice, based on the data available. "We just don't have the quantification and the confidence to say it's either for sure going to help, or you can't have it ever," he told Business Insider. Dietician Lindsey Wohlford from MD Anderson Cancer Center created a chart in 2016 that recommends eating no more than two softballs' worth (18 oz.) of red meat per week. It's common knowledge in the medical community that over-consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages — including fruit juices, flavored coffees, and soda — can sharply up a person's risk of all kinds of diseases, from diabetes to colon cancer. Sugary drinks are more potent than sweet foods because liquid sugar is absorbed very fast — sometimes too fast. It can saturate the small intestine, spilling excess sugar into the colon. There's also evidence from animal studies that excess fructose — abundant in sugar and high fructose corn syrup — can escalate tumor growth. The latest research on young colon cancer also suggests that young people who report eating more sugary foods tend to have a higher risk of developing late-stage colon cancer. Dr. Andrea Cercek, co-director of the Center for Young Onset Colorectal Cancer at Memorial Sloan Kettering, is leading this research. She said it's not exactly a new idea that sugar can drive cancer growth. "There's even data in animal models that fructose can lead to polyps," Cercek told BI. Her latest find opens up new questions about what might be prompting more aggressive cases of young colon cancer. "Is sugar maybe somehow driving and accelerating this process?" Cercek asked. In a very basic sense, alcohol is just fermented sugar, and it seems to carry a lot of the same cancer risks. Additionally, our liver breaks down alcohol into acetaldehyde, a known cancer-causing chemical that can damage DNA. Finally, alcohol dampens nutrient absorption and can kill off good bacteria in your gut. In study after study, alcohol consumption is linked to more colon cancer diagnoses, and in general the more you drink, the greater your risk. Evidence suggests there might be something especially harmful about binge drinking or drinking on an empty stomach, when it comes to colon cancer. Most cancer doctors are not going to insist you can't enjoy a glass of wine or beer now and then, but they would probably say it's best to have it with a meal. If you're feeling hopeless now, buck up! There are a few tried-and-true items cancer doctors recommend adding to your shopping cart. Leafy salad greens are rich in all kinds of nutrients that are great at fighting off cancer, like folate and fiber. A special shout-out should go to the cruciferous green veggies like broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and kale, which are called "brassicas." They harbor bioactive compounds which are released when we chew them that have anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer effects. Fiber has a reputation for being great at keeping folks full and regular. But that's not all that it does. It also picks up debris in your gut, helping clear out the junk, and dropping off good guy bacteria. That's why Dr. Pashtoon Kasi, a medical oncologist at City of Hope who specializes in GI cancers, said it's "not just fiber for fiber's sake." He says it's underappreciated how fiber is "ameliorating or modulating the microbiome" in ways that may help prevent cancer in the long run. "Coffee comes up in every study," Oberstein said. This is great news for him personally, because he runs on the stuff. (But he says you don't need to feel pressured to start drinking coffee if you don't enjoy it.) There seems to be something deeply beneficial about the anti-inflammatory properties of coffee. Studies show that coffee isn't just good at preventing colon cancer (in one study, coffee drinkers had roughly 26% lower odds of contracting colon cancer) — people with colon cancer diagnoses who drink several cups of coffee a day also lower their odds of death. If you're looking for more widespread dietary advice, the National Comprehensive Cancer Care network guidelines for colon cancer patients recommend sticking to a "low glycemic load" diet, which means choosing more foods that are slow to digest and pack a fiber-rich punch. Low-glycemic foods include all kinds of fruits, veggies, nuts, beans, and whole grains. Dr. Kimmie Ng, a medical oncologist at Dana-Farber, where she is the founding director of the young-onset colorectal cancer center, says her recommendations fit this basic framework: "A diet less in red meat and processed foods and more in healthy proteins and fruits and vegetables is generally what we recommend," she told BI. "We know that that's typically anti-inflammatory and just healthier overall for a variety of chronic diseases, including cancer." Read the original article on Business Insider
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
I attended the world's biggest cancer conference. Doctors gave standing ovations to 2 major breakthroughs.
The biggest cancer conference in the world — ASCO — wrapped up earlier this month in Chicago. Stunning new data suggested exercise, if done the right way, can be a colon cancer treatment. AstraZeneca was a perennial star, with new uses for its drugs in early-stage disease. Recently, I landed on what felt like another planet. Planet cancer research. Technically, this planet was within the city of Chicago, inside the biggest convention center in North America, McCormick Place, which straddles two sides of a highway. It was filled to the brim with premier cancer experts from around the world. At the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting, 44,000 doctors, drugmakers, scientists, and patients, gathered both in person and online, spent four days collecting, sharing, and debating the best ways to prevent, treat, and attack cancer. There were two big announcements that rose above the rest and brought attendees to their feet, cheering and clapping in appreciation. Doctors were buzzing afterwards, with a few telling me they were inspired to think about new ways to treat their cancer patients. Both breakthroughs pave the way towards a smarter, more targeted future for treating and preventing all kinds of cancer. There was one talk at ASCO this year that stunned, invigorated, and even angered some doctors. A team of Canadian scientists showed that a methodically-prescribed exercise routine, performed consistently three to four times per week, could outperform ongoing chemotherapy treatments for patients who'd had colon cancer and gone through initial treatment. "This is so new and different and really incredible," Dr. Paul Oberstein, a medical oncologist specializing in gastrointestinal cancers at NYU Langone, told Business Insider. Doctors routinely recommend exercise to their cancer patients, but there hasn't been a rigorous scientific trial studying the effects. Until now. The researchers, from Queens University in Ontario, studied nearly 900 colon cancer patients in a gold-standard randomized trial. Each patient's cancer had been removed, and they'd gone through chemotherapy. The goal of the exercise program was to prevent high-risk stage 2 and stage 3 colon cancer from coming back, and to keep the patients alive. Half of the patients, a control group, were given the same exercise advice that cancer patients often hear from their doctors. The other half were written an exercise prescription. They were given a trainer or physical therapist who designed a personalized exercise regimen that each patient liked, and that they were likely to stick with for the three-year study. Some kayaked, others biked or swam, but most of the patients (median age of 61) embarked on just a few more walks each week — 45 to 60 minutes at a brisk pace. After three years of prescribed, sustained exercise, patients saw results that were just as good as — in some cases better than — disease-free survival rates for the chemotherapy drugs that are typically used to treat cancer in this same context, to prevent recurrence. Oxaliplatin is a common colon cancer chemotherapy drug which costs $3,000 to $6,000 per treatment — cheap in the context of cancer care. The drug delivers an overall 10-year survival boost of 5%. The exercise program? 7% survival boost after eight years. Patients who were just given the fitness advice had significantly more cancer recurrence, and more deaths than the exercise group. "For every 16 patients exercising, exercise prevented one case of cancer," Chris Booth, a medical oncologist and the lead researcher of the study, said while presenting his results at ASCO. "For every 14 people that were on the exercise program, exercise prevented one person from dying." Doctors attending ASCO were stunned. After Booth's presentation, a surge of excitement simmered through the crowd of oncologists. A standing ovation began slowly, then swelled to thunderous and enthusiastic sustained applause. Some of the attendees wondered if this strategy could ever work for their own patients. Could they ever really be motivated to make this kind of change? For Booth, the study provides a powerful lesson. "Knowledge alone is likely to be insufficient to allow most people to make meaningful and sustained change," Booth said. Exercise needs to be treated like a drug, he said. A prescription needs to be filled out, a trainer allotted, and a schedule adhered to. Oberstein, the NYU Langone oncologist, told Business Insider that the panel had a profound impact on him. He's already talking internally about how his cancer center could implement this kind of program, perhaps with grants from major cancer philanthropy groups or patient support groups who would be willing to pay for tools like wearable trackers and virtual trainer sessions. "It's a lot easier to get a drug that costs $200,000 a year," Oberstein said. "Than to get insurance or someone to pay for a trainer to help someone do exercise." The other big insight in cancer treatment that shone through at ASCO was in immunotherapy. Doctors and drugmakers are starting to use these drugs to harness the immune system against earlier-stage cancers, with promising results. The star of the show was drugmaker AstraZeneca, which had an impressive slate of top-level plenary talks geared toward using drugs earlier on for breast, gastric, and lung cancer survival. The biggest splash I saw was from AstraZeneca's drug Imfinzi (durvalumab), which trains a patient's body to attack a protein in their cancer. Imfinzi's already routinely used in some late-stage, recurrent and metastatic cancers (in the treatment of solid lung and liver tumors, for example), but it hasn't been a go-to treatment for earlier-stage cancers. In results from the company's late-stage phase-3 "Matterhorn" trial presented at the conference, Imfinzi, taken with chemo after surgery, boosted gastric cancer patients' two-year survival rates from 70% (without the immunotherapy) to nearly 76% — a significant jump. The news — just one of AstraZeneca's big wins at the conference — highlights a growing trend in cancer treatment. Increasingly, drugmakers are pursuing early immune therapy treatments. These treatments can either complement — or even, in rare cases, completely replace — radiation and chemotherapy. The goal is to minimize the lifelong side effects of toxic cancer treatment (like lifelong organ damage and fertility issues) while also improving treatment outcomes. In April, doctors at Memorial Sloan Kettering published results showing a monoclonal antibody treatment that's typically reserved for advanced-stage mismatch repair-deficient rectal tumors can completely replace chemo in earlier stages of disease. "What was amazing, and is still amazing, is that all the patients in the rectal group had a complete response to just immunotherapy," Dr. Andrea Cercek, a medical oncologist at MSK, told BI during ASCO. "Everyone's organs were completely preserved — very minimal toxicity." AstraZeneca senior vice president Mohit Manrao, head of the company's US oncology program, told BI that he envisions immunotherapy treatment as a great complement to traditional cancer treatment. Old-school treatments like chemotherapy and radiation go after cancer directly, aiming to kill cancer cells, while the newer drugs "engage the immune system to do better work." "We cannot just keep treating metastatic cancer patients," Manrao told BI. "We've got to ensure, yes, we serve them, but we need to start getting into early disease where the possibility to cure is really, really high." Read the original article on Business Insider
Business Insider
11-06-2025
- Health
- Business Insider
I attended the world's biggest cancer conference. Doctors gave standing ovations to 2 major breakthroughs.
The biggest cancer conference in the world — ASCO — wrapped up earlier this month in Chicago. Stunning new data suggested exercise, if done the right way, can be a colon cancer treatment. AstraZeneca was a perennial star, with new uses for its drugs in early-stage disease. Recently, I landed on what felt like another planet. Planet cancer research. Technically, this planet was within the city of Chicago, inside the biggest convention center in North America, McCormick Place, which straddles two sides of a highway. It was filled to the brim with premier cancer experts from around the world. At the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting, 44,000 doctors, drugmakers, scientists, and patients, gathered both in person and online, spent four days collecting, sharing, and debating the best ways to prevent, treat, and attack cancer. There were two big announcements that rose above the rest and brought attendees to their feet, cheering and clapping in appreciation. Doctors were buzzing afterwards, with a few telling me they were inspired to think about new ways to treat their cancer patients. Both breakthroughs pave the way towards a smarter, more targeted future for treating and preventing all kinds of cancer. 1. Exercise outperformed expensive chemo in a groundbreaking trial There was one talk at ASCO this year that stunned, invigorated, and even angered some doctors. A team of Canadian scientists showed that a methodically-prescribed exercise routine, performed consistently three to four times per week, could outperform ongoing chemotherapy treatments for patients who'd had colon cancer and gone through initial treatment. "This is so new and different and really incredible," Dr. Paul Oberstein, a medical oncologist specializing in gastrointestinal cancers at NYU Langone, told Business Insider at the conference. Doctors routinely recommend exercise to their cancer patients, but there hasn't been a rigorous scientific trial studying the effects. Until now. The researchers, from Queens University in Ontario, studied nearly 900 colon cancer patients in a gold-standard randomized trial. Each patient's cancer had been removed, and they'd gone through chemotherapy. The goal of the exercise program was to prevent high-risk stage 2 and stage 3 colon cancer from coming back, and to keep the patients alive. Half of the patients, a control group, were given the same exercise advice that cancer patients often hear from their doctors. The other half were written an exercise prescription. They were given a trainer or physical therapist who designed a personalized exercise regimen that each patient liked, and that they were likely to stick with for the three-year study. Some kayaked, others biked or swam, but most of the patients (median age of 61) embarked on just a few more walks each week — 45 to 60 minutes at a brisk pace. After three years of prescribed, sustained exercise, patients saw results that were just as good as — in some cases better than — disease-free survival rates for the chemotherapy drugs that are typically used to treat cancer in this same context, to prevent recurrence. Oxaliplatin is a common colon cancer chemotherapy drug which costs $3,000 to $6,000 per treatment — cheap in the context of cancer care. The drug delivers an overall 10-year survival boost of 5%. The exercise program? 7% survival boost after eight years. Patients who were just given the fitness advice had significantly more cancer recurrence, and more deaths than the exercise group. "For every 16 patients exercising, exercise prevented one case of cancer," Chris Booth, a medical oncologist and the lead researcher of the study, said while presenting his results at ASCO. "For every 14 people that were on the exercise program, exercise prevented one person from dying." Doctors attending ASCO were stunned. After Booth's presentation, a surge of excitement simmered through the crowd of oncologists. A standing ovation began slowly, then swelled to thunderous and enthusiastic sustained applause. Some of the attendees wondered if this strategy could ever work for their own patients. Could they ever really be motivated to make this kind of change? For Booth, the study provides a powerful lesson. "Knowledge alone is likely to be insufficient to allow most people to make meaningful and sustained change," Booth said. Exercise needs to be treated like a drug, he said. A prescription needs to be filled out, a trainer allotted, and a schedule adhered to. Oberstein, the NYU Langone oncologist, told Business Insider that the panel had a profound impact on him. He's already talking internally about how his cancer center could implement this kind of program, perhaps with grants from major cancer philanthropy groups or patient support groups who would be willing to pay for tools like wearable trackers and virtual trainer sessions. "It's a lot easier to get a drug that costs $200,000 a year," Oberstein said. "Than to get insurance or someone to pay for a trainer to help someone do exercise." 2. AstraZeneca's new immunotherapy drug stole the show The other big insight in cancer treatment that shone through at ASCO was in immunotherapy. Doctors and drugmakers are starting to use these drugs to harness the immune system against earlier-stage cancers, with promising results. The star of the show was drugmaker AstraZeneca, which had an impressive slate of top-level plenary talks geared toward using drugs earlier on for breast, gastric, and lung cancer survival. The biggest splash I saw was from AstraZeneca's drug Imfinzi (durvalumab), which trains a patient's body to attack a protein in their cancer. Imfinzi's already routinely used in some late-stage, recurrent and metastatic cancers (in the treatment of solid lung and liver tumors, for example), but it hasn't been a go-to treatment for earlier-stage cancers. In results from the company's late-stage phase-3 "Matterhorn" trial presented at the conference, Imfinzi, taken with chemo after surgery, boosted gastric cancer patients' two-year survival rates from 70% (without the immunotherapy) to nearly 76% — a significant jump. The news — just one of AstraZeneca's big wins at the conference — highlights a growing trend in cancer treatment. Increasingly, drugmakers are pursuing early immune therapy treatments. These treatments can either complement — or even, in rare cases, completely replace — radiation and chemotherapy. The goal is to minimize the lifelong side effects of toxic cancer treatment (like lifelong organ damage and fertility issues) while also improving treatment outcomes. In April, doctors at Memorial Sloan Kettering published results showing a monoclonal antibody treatment that's typically reserved for advanced-stage mismatch repair-deficient rectal tumors can completely replace chemo in earlier stages of disease. "What was amazing, and is still amazing, is that all the patients in the rectal group had a complete response to just immunotherapy," Dr. Andrea Cercek, a medical oncologist at MSK, told BI during ASCO. "Everyone's organs were completely preserved — very minimal toxicity." AstraZeneca senior vice president Mohit Manrao, head of the company's US oncology program, told BI that he envisions immunotherapy treatment as a great complement to traditional cancer treatment. Old-school treatments like chemotherapy and radiation go after cancer directly, aiming to kill cancer cells, while the newer drugs "engage the immune system to do better work." "We cannot just keep treating metastatic cancer patients," Manrao told BI. "We've got to ensure, yes, we serve them, but we need to start getting into early disease where the possibility to cure is really, really high."
