research

New research shows how alcohol damages DNA and increases cancer risk

Scientists have shown how alcohol damages DNA in stem cells, helping to explain why drinking increases your risk of cancer, according to research part-funded by Cancer Research UK and published in Nature today.

"While some damage occurs by chance, our findings suggest that drinking alcohol can increase the risk of this damage.” - Professor Ketan Patel

Much previous research looking at the precise ways in which alcohol causes cancer has been done in cell cultures. But in this study, researchers have used mice to show how alcohol exposure leads to permanent genetic damage.

Scientists at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (link is external), Cambridge, gave diluted alcohol, chemically known as ethanol, to mice. They then used chromosome analysis and DNA sequencing to examine the genetic damage caused by acetaldehyde, a harmful chemical produced when the body processes alcohol.

They found that acetaldehyde can break and damage DNA within blood stem cells leading to rearranged chromosomes and permanently altering the DNA sequences within these cells.

It is important to understand how the DNA blueprint within stem cells is damaged because when healthy stem cells become faulty, they can give rise to cancer.*

These new findings therefore help us to understand how drinking alcohol increases the risk of developing 7 types of cancer including common types like breast and bowel.**

Professor Ketan Patel, lead author of the study and scientist, part funded by Cancer Research UK, at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, said: “Some cancers develop due to DNA damage in stem cells. While some damage occurs by chance, our findings suggest that drinking alcohol can increase the risk of this damage.”

The study also examined how the body tries to protect itself against damage caused by alcohol. The first line of defence is a family of enzymes called aldehyde dehydrogenases (ALDH). These enzymes break down harmful acetaldehyde into acetate, which our cells can use as a source of energy.

Worldwide, millions of people, particularly those from South East Asia, either lack these enzymes or carry faulty versions of them. So, when they drink, acetaldehyde builds up which causes a flushed complexion, and also leads to them feeling unwell.

In the study, when mice lacking the critical ALDH enzyme - ALDH2 - were given alcohol, it resulted in four times as much DNA damage in their cells compared to mice with the fully functioning ALDH2 enzyme.

The second line of defence used by cells is a variety of DNA repair systems which, most of the time, allow them to fix and reverse different types of DNA damage. But they don’t always work and some people carry mutations which mean their cells aren’t able to carry out these repairs effectively.

Professor Patel added: “Our study highlights that not being able to process alcohol effectively can lead to an even higher risk of alcohol-related DNA damage and therefore certain cancers. But it’s important to remember that alcohol clearance and DNA repair systems are not perfect and alcohol can still cause cancer in different ways, even in people whose defence mechanisms are intact.”

This research was funded by Cancer Research UK, Wellcome and the Medical Research Council (MRC).

Professor Linda Bauld, Cancer Research UK’s expert on cancer prevention, said: “This thought-provoking research highlights the damage alcohol can do to our cells, costing some people more than just a hangover."

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Research Provides Treatment Breakthroughs For Lymphoma

Blood cancers, including the main types leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma, are the third leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States, according to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. While there are no means of preventing or screening for most blood cancers, recent breakthroughs for lymphoma treatment are improving quality of life and survival.

Lymphomas are cancers of the lymphocytes, a type of white blood cell of the lymphatic system which play a key role in the body’s immune system. The two main types of lymphoma are Hodgkin lymphoma, in which there is a particular type of abnormal lymphocyte called a Reed-Sternberg cell in the lymph nodes, and non-Hodgkin lymphoma, in which there is an absence of Reed-Sternberg cells. There are many different subtypes of non-Hodgkin lymphoma that can be either slow or fast growing.

Treatment for Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphoma depends on the type, stage and unique biological features of the cancer. In addition to existing chemotherapy and radiation, new treatment developments include targeted antibody therapies, immunotherapies, enzyme inhibitors, medications that slow tumor growth and gene therapies. In many cases, these new procedures offer substantial improvements over existing therapies because they are more effective, have fewer side effects and do not carry the same risks.

This year alone, the Food and Drug Administration approved two medications that significantly expand treatment options for lymphoma. The first is an immunotherapy drug called pembrolizumab, which can be used to treat for refractory Hodgkin lymphoma in children and adults who have been treated with at least three prior therapies. The second options is the enzyme inhibitor copanlisib which treats adults with relapsed follicular lymphoma, a type of slow-growing non-Hodgkin lymphoma, who have received at least two prior lines of systemic therapy.

Additionally, a chemotherapy-free treatment regimen for follicular lymphoma is showing promise in clinical trials and may provide a reasonable alternative to chemotherapy for some patients.

As treatment developments for lymphoma and other hematologic cancers continually advance, it's important to be diagnosed and treated at a comprehensive cancer center. NewYork-Presbyterian is leading groundbreaking research initiatives to enhance the diagnosis and treatment of lymphoma.

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Exercising Decreases Risk of Dying from Lymphoma, Mayo Clinic Study Shows

Exercising reduces the risk of dying from lymphoma, a Mayo Clinic study reports.

Dr. Priyanka Pophali, a blood disease specialist at the Rochester, Minnesota-based healthcare organization, presented the findings at the 59th American Society of Hematology annual meeting, in Atlanta, Dec. 9-12. The title of the presentation was “The Level of Physical Activity before and after Lymphoma Diagnosis Impacts Overall and Lymphoma-Specific Survival.

Scientists agree that exercise can prolong people’s lives.

Pophali and her colleagues wondered how it would affect lymphoma patients’ lifespan. In particular, they wanted to know if a person would live longer by exercising more after being diagnosed with lymphoma.

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Shut-off Switch for Lymphoma?

Safety switches that automatically stop the device for example before it overheats are built into many electrical appliances. Cells are also equipped with such "emergency stop" functions. They make sure that a defective cell doesn't become a tumor cell. A team from Technical University of Munich has now discovered such a switch in T cells. These results can help to find new therapies against T cell Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma triggered by defective immune cells.

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