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Gray hairs may unlock mysteries of skin cancer WASHINGTON — No doubt many researchers have gotten gray hair trying to find ways to defeat cancer. Now scientists say gray hair itself may yield clues to fighting the deadly disease. It turns out that melanoma, the most dangerous type of skin cancer, involves melanocytes, the cells that help color hair and skin.So researchers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston decided to investigate what happens when these cells become depleted, allowing hair to go gray.“Preventing the graying of hair is not our goal,” said senior researcher David E. Fisher. “What we...

Scientists at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev have identified why it is good for us to consume large quantities of tomatoes - and say that the best way to eat them is cooked up with some olive oil and cheese. Scientists have long believed that the carotenoids found in fruits and vegetables have a cancer preventive effect. In particular, studies have found that as the consumption of tomato products increases, risk of certain types of cancer decreases - even more so than when a variety of vegetables are eaten. Over the years, studies have found that the risk of up...

CAROTENOIDS MAY PROTECT AGAINST PROSTATE CANCER   Asians are well known to have a low incidence of prostate cancer. Australian and Chinese researchers conducted what is called a "case-control study" in southeast China, the first of its kind in an Asian population. They discovered that dietary lycopene and other carotenoids may protect against prostate cancer.   The researchers compared 130 patients with adenocarcinoma of the prostate to 274 controls - men who were in the hospital for conditions other than prostate cancer. They found that the more carotenoid-rich foods the men ate, the less their risk of developing prostate cancer....

'Research has shown that there are even greater health benefits to people who drink single malt whiskies. Why? Single malt whiskies have more ellagic acid than red wine.' Drinking whisky can help protect you against cancer, a conference of international scientists have heard. Researchers have long hailed the anti-cancer properties of red wine due to its antioxidant content.Delegates at the EuroMedLab 2005 conference in Glasgow have now been told that whisky contains significantly higher levels of a powerful antioxidant that kills cancer cells. Dr. Jim Swan, an independent consultant to the worldwide drinks industry, discussed the art and science...

UIC Researchers Show How Cancer-preventing Foods Work Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago are unraveling the biochemical mechanism by which functional foods combat cancer."Compounds like sulforaphane in broccoli and resveratrol in wine have been shown to prevent cancer," said Andrew Mesecar, associate professor of pharmaceutical biotechnology in the UIC College of Pharmacy. "They do that by signaling our bodies to ramp up the production of proteins capable of preventing damage to our DNA."We now have a good idea how that signal works."The findings are published in this week's Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of...