Additionally, the results suggested that dietary fiber intake may decrease the risk of both premenopausal and postmenopausal breast cancers, cancernetwork.com reported.

“The reduction in risk appears to be similar for the intake of all sources of fiber (cereal, fruit, vegetable, and legume), although statistical significance was not reached, except for fruit fiber,” the authors wrote. “A high intake of fiber was [also] found to be inversely, but not significantly, associated with ER+/PR+ and ER-/PR- breast cancers.”

Researchers searched the MEDLINE and Excerpta Medica dataBASE (EMBASE) through July 2019 for prospective studies that reported on the association between fiber consumption and incident breast cancer. The pooled relative risk (RR) and 95 percent confidence intervals (CI) were then estimated by comparing the highest versus the lowest category of total and types of fiber consumption, using a random-effects meta-analysis.

According to the study, in the US, dietary fiber usually comes from whole grains and cereals (44.8 percent), vegetables (22.6 percent), fruits (11.1 percent), legumes, nuts, and seeds (7.2 percent), and other foods (14.3 percent). Given this substantial contribution of fiber sources to the American diet, the researchers expanded the analysis to include the intake of these different dietary sources of fiber as exposure variables.

Overall, the researchers identified 17 cohort studies, two nested case-control studies, and one clinical trial study. Total fiber consumption was found to be associated with an 8 percent lower risk of breast cancer (comparing the highest versus the lowest category, pooled RR, 0.92; 95 percent CI, 0.88-0.95 [I2 = 12.6 percent]). Moreover, soluble fiber was significantly inversely associated with risk of breast cancer (pooled RR, 0.90 [95 percent CI, 0.84-0.96; I2 = 12.6 percent]) and insoluble fiber was suggestively inversely associated with risk of breast cancer (pooled RR, 0.93 [95 percent CI, 0.86-1.00; I2 = 33.4 percent]).

Higher total fiber intake was correlated with a lower risk of both premenopausal and postmenopausal breast cancers (pooled RR, 0.82 [95 percent CI, 0.67-0.99; I2 = 35.2 percent] and pooled RR, 0.91 [95 percent CI, 0.88-0.95; I2 = 0.0 percent], respectively). Further, the researchers observed a nonsignificant inverse association between intake of total fiber and risk of both estrogen and progesterone receptor-positive and estrogen and progesterone receptor-negative breast cancers.

“Several biological mechanisms may explain the beneficial effects of dietary fiber on breast cancer risk. Fiber may decrease incident breast cancer by controlling blood glucose and improving insulin sensitivity,” the authors wrote. “In addition, fiber may increase serum concentrations of sex hormone-binding globulin, as well as affect the composition of intestinal microbiota and inhibit colonic β-D-glucuronidase activity. Thereby, dietary fiber may reduce deconjugation and reabsorption of estrogen, and then reduce circulating levels of estrogen.”

Notably, because the associations between fiber intake and breast cancer were evaluated mainly using prospective studies in North American and Europe, the findings may not be generalizable to other geographic regions, which may differ across racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, and cultural factors. Additionally, the amounts in fiber intake in the highest and lowest categories were not consistent across studies.

“Although we found inverse associations between intake of different sources and type of fiber and breast cancer risk, only soluble fiber and fruit fiber demonstrated significant associations,” the authors wrote. “The current study findings support the American Cancer Society’s dietary guidelines to consume foods rich in total fiber, including fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.”

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World Cancer Day is an initiative of the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC), on
4 February 2000. Each year hundreds of activities and events take place around the world
to raise worldwide awareness, improve education and collect government action.
We had an interview with Dr. Fatemeh Varshoee, Medical Director of Reza Radiotherapy and
Oncology Center (RROC) and Radiation Oncologist at RROC, which is affiliated with
Mashhad Cancer Charity (MCC). At the beginning of the interview, she explained that cancer is
the uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells in the body which divide and spread rapidly to other
part of the body and damage normal cells. She added that there are many possible reasons to cause
cancer, but unfortunately most of them have not been recognized until now.

What is screening?
Medical Director of RROC defined screening as certain diagnostic tests to detect cancer before
a person has any symptoms and continued that screening helps find and detect specific types
of cancer at an early stage. She added that the negative result of screening makes people sure
about the health of the body. While in the situation that screening test result appears to be
abnormal, it is usually needed to be checked out through additional tests. When the
complementary tests confirm cancer, treatment is hopeful because cancer is found early and
the chance of cure is high. The purpose of screening is early detection and treatment. As a
result, the process of treatment becomes easier and more effective and reduces the chance of dying
from that cancer and ensures survival.

Causes of Cancer

Regarding the causes of cancer, Dr. Varshoee said that cancers can be caused by a number of
different factors. The most common risk factors for cancer include aging, tobacco, sun
exposure, radiation exposure, chemicals, and other substances, some viruses and bacteria,
certain hormones, family history of cancer, alcohol, poor diet, lack of physical activity, or being
overweight.

Warning Signs of Cancer

Dr. Varshoee stated that detecting cancer early is one of the most powerful ways to save lives.
There are so many types of cancers with different symptoms. Yet, there are common signs and
symptoms of cancer. But experiencing any signs and symptoms doesn’t necessarily mean
having cancer. She emphasized that if people experience any warning signs, they should visit
medical doctors in order to be examined.
She mentioned the cancer signs and symptoms as unusual lumps or swallowing; persistent
coughing, breathlessness or difficulty swallowing; change in bowel habits or blood found in
stool; needing to urinate; unexpected bleeding from vagina or anal passage; unexplained or
unintentional weight loss over a short period; fatigue and extreme tiredness; a new mole or
change to a mole in terms of size, shape or color; unexplained or ongoing pain; feeling less
hungry than usual for a prolonged period; and heavy night sweats.

Preventable Cancers

According to Medical Director of RROC, cancers including breast, cervical, colorectal and
the prostate can be screened.
Screening of breast cancer should begin at age 20 and be performed monthly by self-examination and women between 40 and 70 have the option to start screening with a
mammogram every year.
Cervical cancer screening test is Pap smear which is recommended for women at age 21 or
more than 3 years of sexual activity.
Colorectal Cancer screening includes colonoscopy, every 10 years starting at age 40; and
the Fecal Occult Blood test (FOBT), a lab test used to check stool samples for hidden (occult)
blood.
Prostate Cancer screening is the exam typically involves a digital rectal exam (DRE) and a test
for prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels, starting at age 50, which doctor tests the blood for
PSA levels to screen for prostate cancer. PSA is a protein that helps liquefy semen.
At the end of the interview, Dr. Varshoee stated that RROC with the help of advanced medical
diagnostic and treatment facilities such as Digital Radiology, Sonography, Mammography,
MRI, CT scan, Chemotherapy (27 equipped beds), Radiotherapy (5 linear accelerators) ,
Brachytherapy, Nuclear Medicine and Gastroenterology provides the best healthcare services at
affordable price and offers all services with public tariff

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TEHRAN (Iran News) – AI, as a computer program, can identify breast cancer from routine scans with greater accuracy than human experts, researchers say in what they hope could prove a breakthrough in the fight against the global killer. 

Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers in women, with more than two million new diagnoses last year alone.

Regular screening is vital in detecting the earliest signs of the disease in patients who show no obvious symptoms.

In Britain, women over 50 are advised to get a mammogram every three years, the results of which are analyzed by two independent experts.

But interpreting the scans leaves room for error, and a small percentage of all mammograms either return a false positive — misdiagnosing a healthy patient as having cancer — or false-negative — missing the disease as it spreads.

Now researchers at Google Health have trained an artificial intelligence model to detect cancer in breast scans from thousands of women in Britain and the United States.

The images had already been reviewed by doctors in real life, but unlike in a clinical setting, the machine had no patient history to inform its diagnoses.

The team found that their AI model could predict breast cancer from the scans with a similar accuracy level to expert radiographers.

Further, the AI showed a reduction in the proportion of cases where cancer was incorrectly identified — 5.7 percent in the US and 1.2 percent in Britain, respectively.

It also reduced the percentage of missed diagnoses by 9.4 percent among US patients and by 2.7 percent in Britain.

“The earlier you identify a breast cancer the better it is for the patient,” Dominic King, UK lead at Google Health, told AFP.

“We think about this technology in a way that supports and enables an expert, or a patient ultimately, to get the best outcome from whatever diagnostics they’ve had.”

Computer ‘second opinion’

In Britain, all mammograms are reviewed by two radiologists, a necessary but labor-intensive process.

The team at Google Health also conducted experiments comparing the computer’s decision with that of the first human scan reader.

If the two diagnoses agreed, the case was marked as resolved. Only with discordant outcomes was the machine then asked to compare with the second reader’s decision.

The study by King and his team, published in Nature, showed that using AI to verify the first human expert reviewer’s cancer diagnosis could save up to 88 percent of the workload for the second clinician.

“Find me a country where you can find a nurse or doctor that isn’t busy,” said King.

“There’s the opportunity for this technology to support the existing excellent service of the (human) reviewers.”

Ken Young, a doctor who manages mammogram collection for Cancer Research UK, contributed to the study.

He said it was unique for its use of real-life cancer diagnosis scenarios from nearly 30,000 scans.

“We have a sample that is representative of all the women that might come through breast screening,” he said. “It includes easy cases, difficult cases and everything in between.”

The team said further research was needed, but they hoped that the technology could one day act as a “second opinion” for cancer diagnosis.

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A man who noticed a lump “the size of a frozen pea” has urged men to check for breast cancer symptoms.

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