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‘Overeating causes colorectal cancer’

By Chukwuma Muanya, Assistant Editor (Head Insight Team, Science & Technology)
20 January 2016   |   1:10 am
*Excess calories turn off hormone in intestine that blocks colon tumour as male pattern baldness increases risk<em CAN overeating especially late at night cause colorectal cancer? Yes, says new study. A new study published in the journal Cancer Research revealed that a high-calorie diet turns off a key hormone in the intestine. That leads to…
Overeating.... A new study published in the journal Cancer Research revealed that a high calorie diet turns off a key hormone in the intestine. That leads to deactivation of a tumor suppressor pathway – which allows colon tumours to form. PHOTO CREDIT; google.com/search

Overeating…. A new study published in the journal Cancer Research revealed that a high calorie diet turns off a key hormone in the intestine. That leads to deactivation of a tumor suppressor pathway – which allows colon tumours to form. PHOTO CREDIT; google.com/search

*Excess calories turn off hormone in intestine that blocks colon tumour as male pattern baldness increases risk<em

CAN overeating especially late at night cause colorectal cancer? Yes, says new study.

A new study published in the journal Cancer Research revealed that a high-calorie diet turns off a key hormone in the intestine.

That leads to deactivation of a tumor suppressor pathway – which allows colon tumours to form.

However, scientists found that gene replacement could be used to ‘turn the suppressor back on’ and prevent cancer development.

It has long been known that obesity is associated with an increased risk of colon cancer.

Yet, scientists had never been able to identify the reasons for the link – until now.

Senior study author Dr. Scott Waldman, of Thomas Jefferson University, United States (U.S.), said: “Our study suggests that colorectal cancer can be prevented in obese individuals with use of hormone replacement therapy – much as other diseases associated with hormone deficiency, such as loss of insulin in diabetes, can be treated.”

Obese people have a 50 per cent higher risk of developing colorectal cancer, as compared to lean people.

Scientists had thought the relationships was based on the amount of fat tissue and unknown metabolic processes of excess calories that fuel cell energy and growth.

A team of scientists from Thomas Jefferson, Harvard University and Duke Medical School used genetically engineered mice to investigate the association.

They found that obesity – either from excess fat or carbohydrate consumption, or both – is associated with the loss of the hormone guanylin.

That hormone is produced in the intestine’s epithelium – which are the cells lining the organ.

Guanylin turns on its receptor – guanylyl cyclase C (GUCY2C), which regulates regeneration of the intestinal epithelium.

Waldman said: “The lining of the intestines is very dynamic and continuously being replaced, and GUCY2C contributes to the choreography of the key processes needed for this regeneration.”

In colorectal cancers, it is common for the guanylin gene to be deactivated.

And, morbidly obese patients have an 80 per cent decrease in guanylin gene expression compared to lean people.

The scientists found that guanylin’s receptor acts as a growth-controlling tumor suppressor. Without that hormone, the receptor is silenced.

Waldman said: “This happens extremely early in development of the cancer. When the receptor is silenced, the epithelium becomes dysfunctional, setting up the conditions for cancer development.”

The scientists then created mice that carried a transgene that would not allow guanylin to be shut off.

Meanwhile, a new first-of-its-kind study has found a link between certain types of male pattern baldness and increased risk of colorectal polyps. Such polyps can be precursors to colorectal cancer.

In men with frontal baldness (a receding hairline) and with frontal-plus-mild-vertex baldness (receding hairline plus slight baldness on the crown of the head), researchers found approximately 30 per cent increased risk of colon cancer relative to men with no baldness, said NaNa Keum, research fellow in the Department of Nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and lead author of the study, in a January 14, 2016 interview in MedicalResearch.com.

“It may be prudent for males with frontal-only-baldness or frontal-plus-mild-vertex-baldness at age 45 years, although their elevated risk is modest, to consult physicians about colonoscopy screening guidelines,” Keum said.

For the study, published January 12, 2016 in the British Journal of Cancer, researchers followed about 33,000 men over an average of nearly 16 years who were participants in the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study.

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