News digest – aspirin to prevent cancer, e-cigarettes, burning hot tea and… asparagus?

• Years of research has pointed to aspirin as a potential way to prevent cancer. But there are still unanswered questions around its safety. That’s why we announced an exciting new project to answer these final questions. The Express has the details.
• E-cigarettes have hogged headlines recently and this week was no different. Public Health England released an updated review of all the research on e-cigarette safety and stats on how people use the devices. Some news outlets picked up on calls to prescribe e-cigs to those looking to stop smoking, and we blogged about research so far shows that e-cigs are much less harmful than tobacco cigarettes.
• Drinking burning hot tea as well as smoking and drinking alcohol could increase the risk of oesophageal cancer, according to Chinese research picked up by the Telegraph and The Sun. People in the study had to remember how hot their tea usually is, which isn’t very accurate. Also, while very hot drinks are popular in other countries, the average UK cuppa is a lot cooler. Not smoking and cutting down on alcohol are more important ways to reduce your risk.
• Scottish scientists suggest that an ageing immune system could play a part in explaining why our risk of cancer increases as we get older. The BBC reported on the early stage work.
• An international clinical trial suggests that a drug called apalutamide can extend the time before advanced prostate cancer that has stopped responding to standard treatment spreads.
• More prostate cancer research: the Mail Online covers ongoing analysis of results from a UK trial showing that taking the chemotherapy drug docetaxel at the same time as hormone therapy could help men live longer with the disease.
• We reported new clinical trial results that show an experimental hormone therapy delays the spread of prostate cancer that has stopped responding to standard treatment.
• For the first time scientists have grown human eggs in the lab. Once they have developed the method, the team say the technique could be used in the future to help young cancer patients preserve their fertility.
• NICE suggest doctors use special scans to help tailor pancreatic cancer treatment. We covered this.
• School programmes designed to tackle childhood obesity aren’t working, reports the BBC and the Guardian. The programmes focused on encouraging healthy eating and giving pupils more opportunity to exercise. Researchers say this proves more widespread and national action is needed to keep children healthy.

And finally

• Headlines claiming that ‘food may influence cancer spread’ were slightly off the mark this week. Our scientists published a study showing that restricting a certain amino acid, called asparagine, from the diets of mice with breast cancer could stop the disease spreading. While the amino acid can be found in foods like asparagus and chicken, the research doesn’t mean that cancer patients should start altering their diets. Scientists now need to work out how this lab work could translate into the real world.
  

  A new study has discovered a way to halt breast cancer spread in mice. Read our blog post to find out what this could mean for people: https://t.co/wTqyxI9lPa pic.twitter.com/BR7W3ZmO7Y

  — Cancer Research UK (@CR_UK) February 8, 2018

To find out how cancer cells can become asparagine-addicts read this blog post.

Gabi