The Life Extension Editorial Staff
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 Even in the United States, with the known success of Pap tests for cervical cancer screening, each year about 15,000 women will learn that they have cervical cancer (NCI 2001). Some women decide to not have screening because they think they are not at risk. Other women have weakened immune systems, particularly women who are positive for the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and the human papillomavirus (HPV). HPV has been implicated as the primary cause of 90% of cervical cancers (NCI 2001). |
| Overall, x-ray mammography is considered the gold standard of bteast cancer screening according to the Institute of Occupational Medicine (Rollins 2001). Mammography can detect tumots at an early stage when they are small and most responsive to treatment.
High-Risk Screening
Regulat screening is especially important fot women who are at high risk of breast cancer. A woman can be placed in the high-risk categoty if she possesses eithet a single factor that greatly increases her risk or a combination of lesser factots that togethet increase risk. |
| COLORECTAL cancer screening AND DETECTION
Once polyps are removed, they are sent to the laboratory for analysis. A pathologist determines if the polyps are cancerous by microscopic examination. Colorectal cancer found in this early stage, before symptoms develop, is the most curable form, and it is for this reason that screening in asymptomatic individuals is so important.
In later stages, colorectal cancer can cause symptoms such as blood in the stool, changes in normal bowel habits, narrowing of the stool, abdominal pain, weight loss, or constant fatigue. |
James A. Duke, Ph.D.
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 Cancer Research Funding Dries Up
By 1981, my laboratory's annual budget for the cancer screening program was a half-million dollars, and I was doing such exciting work that I didn't notice the storm clouds gathering in the Reagan Administration.
Instead, I visited China with Dr. James Reveal of the University of Maryland, with a goal of collecting as many medicinal plants as possible. But once again, the Chinese had a different idea. We only got to collect in one real forest in Kunming in southwest China. |
Samuel S. Epstein, M.D.
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 Work is contracted out to the Medical Research Council, but on a much smaller scale, and the only current systematic research program is attempting to validate short-term cancer screening tests. The HSE does not have — and does not seem to want — the resources to perform the kind of research work in which NCI, NTP and NIOSH have been engaged.
5. The regulation of new substances
Like most industrialized countries, Britain has at last begun to draw up schemes for pre-market testing of industrial chemicals. |
Gary Null, Ph.D.
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 Serum samples taken from 22,000 men attending a cancer screening center were collected and stored in this study. In 271 men who were subsequently identified as having cancer, the concentration of vitamin E was measured and compared to cancer free controls. Results showed cancer subjects diagnosed as having the disease prior to the elapse of one year from the time of initial blood collection had significantly lower concentrations of vitamin E than controls. The authors argue that such findings are likely a result of the cancer rather than a factor influencing its development.
—N.J. Wald, et al. |
James A. Duke, Ph.D.
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| While in each of these countries, I also talked with local experts about all the other local medicinal plants that they used for purposes other than cancer treatment.
The cancer screening project was a huge effort, and my own interest in other medicinal plants made it even more ambitious. I needed a way to catalog and easily retrieve the information I was gathering from both folk medicinal and scientific sources. That led to my now-huge medicinal plant computer database, the source for much of the information in this book. |
Arthur C. Upton, M.D.
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| LCf
Box 7.4 cancer screening TESTS (continued)
If detected early, malignant melanoma can be surgically excised, which offers an excellent chance of cure.
To detect malignant melanoma before it has spread beyond the skin, be alert to changes in a mole or pigmented spot on the skin. Consult a dermatologist immediately if any of the warning characteristics appear in a mole or pigmented spot (see Figure 4.3, p. 77).
Box 7.5 CANCER PREVENTION
To prevent cancer, each person must reduce or eliminate his or her exposure to carcinogens. |
James A. Duke, Ph.D.
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| From 1977 to 1982,1 was involved with the NCI's cancer screening program, a multiyear effort that investigated the cancer treatment potential of thousands of plant compounds and gave us the ones mentioned above. I've also been involved with the embryonic Designer Food Program of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is attempting to design foods high in healthful phytochemicals that prevent cancer.
I have a greater respect for the potential of the food program than I do for the results of the drug-finding program. |
Arthur C. Upton, M.D.
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| Women need to be sure that they get a mammogram at a facility with
(continued)
Box 7.4 cancer screening TESTS (continued) equipment that produces a high-quality image at the lowest possible radiation dose. With a poor-quality image, the benefit of mammography may be lost. Repeating the examination because of poor quality doubles the radiation dose.
Modern equipment produces a high-quality mammogram at a dose as low as 0.1 rad (see p. 577 for definition of rad). A mammogram delivering 0. |
Samuel S. Epstein, M.D.
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| The effectiveness of brest cancer screening by mammography in younger women," Online J. Current Clin. Trials 193, No. 32, 1993.
57. A.N. Corps and K.D. Brown. "Stimulation of intestinal epithelial cell proliferation in culture by growth factors in human and ruminant mammary secretions," /. Endocrinol. 113:285-290,1987.
58. R.J. Playford et al. "Effect of Luminal Growth Factor Preservation on Intestinal Growth," Lancet 2:843-848,1993.
59. O.P. Chaurasia et al. "Insulin-like Growth factor-1 in Human Gastrointestinal Exocrine Secretions," flegw/. Pept. 50:113-119,1994.
60. H. Olanrewaju, L. |
Bradley J. Willcox, D. Craig Willcox, and Makoto Suzuki
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 A Note on Screening
We concentrate here on lifestyle factors, particularly those seen in our studies of the Okinawans, but medical tests for cancer screening are very important for all of us and save lives. Particularly effective screening strategies have been developed for colon, breast, and cervical cancer (not thought to be hormone-dependent). Screening tests are also available for prostate cancer. (See Appendix A, page 401, for further details. |
Neal Barnard, M.D.
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 But it is essential that women and their families have information about more than cancer screening techniques. Diet and all the other factors you have just read about are vitally important ways to reduce the risk that cancer will ever start.
Better Survival
Foods not only help prevent cancer, they can also improve survival for those who have cancer. The more the diet is plant-based and the lower its fat content, the better the odds. |
Dr. Vern Cherewatenko and Paul Perry
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 Varioius cancer screening tests may also be recommended based on your age and gender, like a mammogram for women and a sigmoidoscopy or hemoccult testing to look for colon cancer for both sexes.
The clinical examination and the history are added to a comprehensive evaluation of blood tests that are performed by a laboratory. Basic blood and urine testing will look at over fifty values of different things occurring in your body, including:
• Fasting plasma glucose levels.
• Total cholesterol.
• HDL (good) cholesterol.
• LDL (bad) cholesterol.
• Triglycerides. |
Arthur C. Upton, M.D.
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| Here are some guidelines on cancer screening tests:
Colon and Rectal Cancers
The American Cancer Society recommends three tests for the early detection of colon and rectum cancer in individuals without risk factors:
• A digital rectal examination, which is performed by a physician during an office visit, should be done every year after the age of forty.
• A stool blood test is recommended annually every year after fifty.
• A proctosigmoidoscopy examination should be carried out every three to five years after the age of fifty following two annual exams with negative results. |
Jane M. Orient, M.D.
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 Cervical cancer screening cost about $25,000 per life saved in 1975. Due to increased federal regulation of Pap smears, the cost of a Pap smear has at least tripled. Correcting for this as well as inflation, the cost is about $175,000 today, perhaps somewhat less due to an increased incidence of abnormal Pap smears. (That means that there are more lives at risk so you don't have to look as far to find someone to save.)
The publicity campaign about cholesterol is having a tremendous effect. |
James A. Duke, Ph.D.
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| Working witk Medicinal Herks
In 1977, I got a medicinal herbalist's dream job as chief of the USDA Medicinal Plant Laboratory, whose main function was to collect medicinal plants from around the world for the cancer screening program being run cooperatively by the USDA and the National Cancer Institute.
I inherited a team of scientists who had been involved in collecting potentially cancer-fighting plants for nearly two decades. (One was Judi duCel-lier, who became my career-long right-hand woman. She's still with me. She rode herd on this book through the entire editorial process. |
| Nevertheless, we visited Harbin, Beijing, Chunking, Kunming, Nanjing and Shanghai and returned with some 300 species for the cancer screening program.
Shortly after we got back, Ronald Reagan shut the program down and my laboratory along with it. (I continued to research botanical approaches to cancer treatment, but I did it at home on my own time.)
After a brief, unhappy stint working on trying to improve wheat's disease resistance by breeding domestic wheat with several wild species, in 1982 I returned to the narcotics program at the USDA. |
Bob LeBow, M.D., M.P.H.
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 Coupons to clip in the Sunday papers for discounts on colon cancer screening. Half-price purple pills (flown in from Mexico). The possibilities are limitless.
What About Poor Folks? Charity Care to the Rescue
But what would happen to poor folks? The people without even enough money to buy the Sunday paper to clip the coupons? Or the homeless folks without a mailing address to receive the junk mail with money-saving health care specials?
We will look to our past and the great American tradition of charity care. |
Ronald L. Hoffman, M.D.
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 Although colon cancer screening is important, prevention is even more important. Diet plays the largest part in the prevention of colon cancer. Here are the recommendations:
• Fiber. Fiber decreases the intestinal transit time: the amount of time that feces stays in the colon. This seems to counteract the effects of fats and carcinogens on the intestine. Fiber in your diet can also prevent the development of colon polyps, some of which are precancerous.
• Low-fat. Excess fat in the diet is a known risk factor not only in colon cancer but in many types of cancer.
• Add vegetables. |
Rhonda D. Orin
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 Prostate cancer screening for men between the ages of 40 and 75 (Sec. 15-825).
Treatment of cleft palate and cleft lip (Sec. 15-818).
Well-child care to at least specified minimums (Sec. 15-817).
No exclusion of outpatient benefits for all expenses arising from in vitro fertilization procedures, according to certain conditions (Sec. 15-810).
Treatment of mental illness and emotional disorders, with specified minimum benefits (Sec. 15-802).
Medical foods prescribed by doctor for therapeutic treatment of inherited metabolic disease (Sec. 15-807). |
| Colorectal cancer screening (Sec. 27-8-14.8-3).
Anesthesia and hospitalization charges for dental procedures if warranted by the insured's mental or physical condition (Sec. 27-8-5-27).
Offer of coverage for nonexperimental surgical treatment of morbid obesity (Sec. 27-8-14.1-4).
IOWA
Baseline mammograms for women ages 35-39, mammograms every 2 years for women ages 40-49, and mammograms every year for women age 50 and over (Sec. 514C.4). |
| Prostate cancer screening for men age 40 and over in high risk category and for all men age 50 and over (Sec. 27-8-14.7-4).
Treatment of cleft lip and cleft palate for newly born children (Sec. 27-8-5.6-2).
No exclusion for a drug on grounds that the drug is being used for other purposes than approved by the FDA if the drug treatment is recognized in at least one standard reference compendium (Sees. 27-8-20-7).
Equipment, supplies, and self-management training for the treatment of diabetes (Sec. 27-8-14.5). |
| Colorectal cancer screening with sigmoidoscopy or fecal occult blood testing once every 3 years for persons age 50 or over, or for younger persons who are classified as high risk (Sees. 5/ 356x; 125/5-3).
Infertility expenses, including in vitro fertilization (Sec. 5/ 356m).
Prosthetic devices or reconstructive surgery incidental to mastectomies (Sees. 5/356g; 5/356t).
No exclusion for treatment of alcoholism (Sec. 5/367). Training and education on diabetes self-management, equipment, and supplies (Sees. 5/365w; 125/5-3). |
| Prostate cancer screening (Sec. 10-16-104(10)).
Correction of, or treatment for, cleft lip or cleft palate or both, in newborn children (Sec. 10-16-104(1)).
Mental illness, with specified minimum benefits. Biologically based mental illness is to be covered comparably to other types of physical illness. Mental illnesses that are to be covered include schizophrenia, schizo-affective disorder, major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, panic disorder, and pervasive developmental disorder or autism (Sees. 10-16-104(5); 10-16-104(5.5)). |
| Annual prostate cancer screening for men age 45 or over, or age 40 and over when ordered by physician (Sees. 33-29-3.2; 33-30-4.2).
Periodic review of child's physical and emotional status, including immunizations, from birth through age 5, exempt from deductibles (Sees. 33-30-4.5; 33-29-3.4).
Treatment of mental disorders to the same extent as treatment for physical illnesses (Sees. 33-24-28.1; 33-24-29).
No exclusion for treatment of temporomandibular joint disorders (Sees. 33-29-20; 33-30-14). |
J.D. Kleinke
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 The study found that uninsured adults were far more likely not to have had a routine checkup over the two-year study period; their "deficits in cancer screening, cardiovascular risk reduction, and diabetes care were most pronounced among long-term-uninsured adults"; and they were "less likely to receive potentially life-saving preventive care such as cholesterol screenings" and mammograms (Ayanian and others, 2000, p. 2061).
This may be exactly how we as a society want it, at a collective unconscious level that manifests itself in public policy and government funding choices. |
James A. Duke, Ph.D.
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| She rode herd on this book through the entire editorial process.) The cancer screening program eventually analyzed 10 percent of the world's known plant species for anti-tumor activity and helped point the way to the development of several chemotherapeutic agents now in use, including Taxol from the yew tree, which is used for fighting advanced breast and ovarian cancer.
I dug right into the Medicinal Plant Lab, excited about my first formal job that was fully devoted to medicinal plants. |
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