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By Nancy Lapid
New York: Dark-skinned cancer patients are at higher risk of severe cases of painful side effects from radiation therapy, at least in part because the disease detection tool only works well in patients with dark skin. fair skin, according to a new study.
Of the four million U.S. patients who receive radiation therapy each year, more than 90% will develop burns known as radiation dermatitis. The primary screening tool approved by the National Cancer Institute to detect and assess disease severity looks for redness of the skin.
For this study, researchers screened 60 racially diverse breast cancer patients for radiation dermatitis over the course of a year after starting radiation therapy, using a device known as a spectrophotometer, often used for color analysis in the paint and cosmetics industries.
Unlike fair skin, darker skin does not show redness as radiation dermatitis develops. Instead, it gets darker, according to the new study.
The same research team previously reported that doctors often do not diagnose radiation dermatitis in patients with darker skin until the skin begins to peel and scar.
This leaves patients to treat their pain on their own, with over-the-counter creams and painkillers, said study leader Dr. Juhi Purswani of NYU Langone, who shared the new findings at the meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology in Washington.
The standard screening tool “likely undercovers radiation dermatitis on skin of color” and needs to be modified, the researchers concluded in a summary of the presentation.
To live longer, you may need to rethink the “success” of a diet
Traditional measures of dieting success, such as weight loss and improvement in metabolic problems, may not be the key to a longer life, laboratory experiments suggest.
Among nearly 1,000 mice subjected to periods of calorie restriction or intermittent fasting, those who lost the least weight lived longer than those who lost the most, researchers reported in Nature.
The results of “one of the largest studies of dietary restriction ever conducted in laboratory animals challenge conventional wisdom that dietary restriction increases longevity,” according to a commentary published with the report.
Overall, consuming fewer calories had a greater positive impact on lifespan than periodic fasting. But animals that lost the most weight on these diets tended to have low energy, compromised immune and reproductive systems and shorter lives, the study found.
Moderate levels of calorie restriction could therefore be the way to balance long-term health and lifespan, the researchers said.
Factors most strongly associated with longer lifespan included maintaining body weight during times of stress, good immune cell health, red blood cell-related traits, and high levels of body fat in late life.
Metabolic responses to dietary restrictions, such as lower fasting blood sugar levels, were not associated with longer lifespan.
“The most robust animals maintain their weight even in the face of stress and calorie restriction, and they live the longest,” said study leader Gary Churchill of the Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine. , in a press release.
The results show that genetics have a greater influence on lifespan than dietary restrictions, according to research.
“If you want to live a long life, there are things you can control over the course of your life, like diet, but what you really want is a very old grandmother,” Churchill said. (Reporting by Nancy Lapid; editing by Bill Berkrot)
Disclaimer: The content on this website is provided for educational and informational purposes only.