News Digest – live from inside the human body, a DNA-analysing smartphone attachment, a ‘huge leap’ in prostate cancer testing and… ‘Know your Lemons’?

• Researchers have found that smokers with depression who had successfully quit using stop smoking services also had an improvement in their mental health. Our press release has the details.
• In a world first, Channel 4 teamed up with Cancer Research UK to air a live TV advert from inside the human body. Featuring a live colonoscopy, it generated widespread coverage in several papers including the Guardian, Times, Independent and Mirror. You can watch the video below, which contains graphic content. Alternatively, you can find out more in our blog post.

Live from inside the human body (contains graphic content)

• A study has found that performing an initial MRI scan on men with suspected prostate cancer could help doctors tell the difference between aggressive and less harmful tumours. This could help them work out which men don’t need to have biopsies, and if they do need one, improve accuracy. This made lots of headlines including in the Guardian, Telegraph, Express and BBC News.
• After last week’s Nutella scare, the Independent discussed what makes a good health scare story and how to spot fact from fiction.
• A mathematical model has suggested that one melanoma skin cancer death a week could be due to too much sun exposure at work. Our press release has the details, which was also covered by the Daily Mail, Sun and Scotsman.

Number of the week

5

The number of new cases of melanoma skin cancer every week in the UK predicted to be caused by sun exposure at work

• This week a study suggesting that having a stressful job could increase the risk of cancer was reported on by the Sun, Mirror and Daily Mail. But many previous studies have shown that there’s no link between stress itself and the risk of cancer. Stressful situations might affect how much alcohol we drink, how much we eat, and whether we smoke – all things that strongly affect our cancer risk, but there’s no good evidence that stress itself directly causes cancer.
• As the BBC reported, scientists have built a DNA-analysing smartphone app that could help doctors speed up and reduce the costs of finding the best treatment for cancer patients.

And finally

• Everyone’s bodies are different, and the signs of breast cancer might look or feel different for different people. But a new ‘Know your Lemons’ campaign is raising awareness of some of the possible symptoms (and the fact that it’s not just about lumps) by using the humble lemon, as reported by the Sun, BBC News and Mirror.

Catherine