Environmental Cancer Research Program (ECRP)
Environment and Cancer
The environment, when defined in the broadest sense, is a significant cause of cancer. Not only exposure to pollution can cause cancer, but also exposures associated with diet, occupation, residence, and personal habits. Each of these environmental exposures can add to the burden of carcinogens for a person, increasing cancer risk. The substances in environmental samples that cause cancer are called “carcinogens”. They largely cause cancer by attacking the DNA of our genes, giving “DNA adducts”. In this attack, the carcinogens adduct (firmly attach) to the nucleotides of DNA, giving damaged nucleotides referred to as “DNA adducts”. Because these DNA adducts tend to initiate cancer, they are also referred to as “DNA CANCER SEEDS”.
War Against Cancer
The ECRP is part of the war against cancer. For this war the ECRP is building a new weapon. The weapon is a powerful, new technology, based on mass spectrometry, for detecting DNA CANCER SEEDS. Both environmental samples and people can be tested. To test a worrisome environmental sample such as polluted air or chemically-treated well water, the ECRP exposes a culture of human cells to the environmental sample. The human cells, which have DNA, are then tested for DNA CANCER SEEDS with the technology of the ECRP.
People are tested for DNA CANCER SEEDS by furnishing a urine specimen. Urine is where the body mainly dumps its DNA CANCER SEEDS.
For both the cell culture and biosample testing, the chemicals making up the DNA CANCER SEEDS are identified by the ECRP. This information guides actions to mitigate the cancer risk.
DNA CANCER SEEDS
When it comes to cancer, our body is like a garden. Our body can be invaded by cancer, and a garden can be invaded by weeds. For the garden, the invasion begins with “weed seeds”, while cancer often begins with DNA CANCER SEEDS (DNA adducts).
A DNA CANCER SEED, also called a “DNA adduct”, is a carcinogenic (cancer-causing) chemical attached to one of our genes, like a piece of gum stuck in our hair. A DNA CANCER SEED can “grow” into a mutation, and mutations are at the heart of all cancer.
There are many sources of DNA CANCER SEEDS such as unhealthy diets, environmental (including occupational) pollution, and bad habits such as smoking. Knowing your DNA CANCER SEEDS can reveal their sources. With this information, you can change your exposures in a way that can lower your cancer risk.
Some people have elevated DNA CANCER SEEDS because of inherited defects in DNA repair. They need to be extra concerned about their environment, and undergo testing more frequently for DNA CANCER SEEDS and cancer. Differences in metabolism among people can also give differences in levels of DNA CANCER SEEDS.
Cancer Prevention
For over 40 years, hundreds of scientists have been working on the dream of an DNA CANCER SEED TEST that can be applied to a noninvasive biosample such as urine, and broadly reveals a person’s DNA CANCER SEEDS. This can guide the individual in making their lifestyle less carcinogenic. The work goes on.
The idea is similar to the usefulness of the cholesterol test. If the amount of cholesterol in your blood is high, the doctor may tell you to cut back on saturated fats, or take a statin drug, to lower this cholesterol and thereby reduce your risk for a heart attack. However, it is much easier to test for cholesterol than DNA CANCER SEEDS.
There has been much progress in the war against cancer, but the dream of a test for DNA CANCER SEEDS, as a new weapon against cancer, remains unfulfilled. When it comes to cancer, nothing beats primary prevention (don’t get it in the first place).
At last a team of cancer prevention researchers has created a blueprint to build this new weapon, and begun to build it.
Which DNA CANCER SEEDS are excessive in your body? You don’t have a clue. Answering this question for people in general requires a comprehensive test for DNA CANCER SEEDS. This new weapon can help to prevent much cancer, in part by discovering cancer-causing pollution as soon as it begins.
Cancer Threat
In a typical cancer toxic tort case, a community of people sue a company, claiming excess cancer from exposure to the company’s pollutants. It can be tough for the plaintiffs to win their case, since the cancer incidence usually is pretty low. Sometimes the exposure goes on for years before it is discovered (e.g. Camp Lejeune), because cancers develop slowly. A powerful test for DNA CANCER SEEDS, that can efficiently and precisely test thousands of people for such injury from hundreds of chemicals, and immediately reveal the carcinogenic exposure, is greatly needed.
WHAT MAKES ECRP SPECIAL
The ECRP is special because of its special skills in ultrasensitive mass spectrometry technology for detection of DNA CANCER SEEDS. The ECRP designs, builds, and applies this technology in collaboration with scientists and clinicians at other institutions.
Sometimes an idea is ahead of its time, like walking on the moon. This has been true for the idea of a practical, comprehensive test for DNA CANCER SEEDS. Nevertheless, at last there is a blueprint, and some work has started, for this new weapon against cancer.