Health

Bisphenol A Reduces Chemotherapy Effectiveness

by Terri Potratz | October 8, 2008 at 09:10 am

421 views | 6 Recommendations | 6 comments

Bisphenol A, or BPA, can significantly reduce the effectiveness of chemotherapy treatment in cancer patients, say researchers from the University of Cincinnati. The man-made chemical, prolific in many common products including drinking bottles and canned food, inadvertently protects cancer cells from toxic chemotherapy agents.

"Resistance to chemotherapy is a major problem for cancer patients, especially those with advanced or metastatic disease," says Ben-Jonathan, a professor of cancer and cell biology at UC who has studied BPA for more than 10 years. "Finding out what contributes to that resistance can give us an idea of what to target in order to make chemotherapy as effective as possible."

Researchers have suspected that BPA could play a role in cancer because of the chemical's structural similarities to a cancer-promoting compound called diethylstilbestrol (DES). But Ben-Jonathan's team found that BPA isn't exactly mimicking the action of DES.

"BPA does not increase cancer cell proliferation like DES does," she says. "It's actually acting by protecting existing cancer cells from dying in response to anti-cancer drugs, making chemotherapy significantly less effective."

One of the most alarming features of this study is that cancer cells were subject to only a "normal" amount of BPA, levels that would be commonly found in the blood of your average human adult.

These findings not only have positive implications for cancer patients who are inexplicably resistant to treatment, but also lends further credence to the health risks associated with BPA - ample evidence already exists to defend this claim, and new research continues to affirm the dangerous nature of this common chemical.

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raleigh.mike

at 18:28 on October 8th, 2008

One of 300-plus beers available at the 2008 World Beer Festival in Durham NC.. Proceeds of the festival go towards restoration of the historic Carolina Theatre.

raleigh.mike has contributed a photo to this story.

LotusFlower

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 21:36 on October 8th, 2008

Terri Potratz, I like this story. It's good stuff. And it's so widely used. This study in terms of cancer setting aside the other health risks is interesting in that the BPA doesn't cause proliferation of cancer but mitigates against succesful treatment via chemotherapy - even at normal levels - sorry - common levels - normal level should be .... ZERO

Ivana__

at 07:09 on October 9th, 2008

Good story

loucifer_photography

at 03:19 on October 10th, 2008

Taken by Loucifer Photography

loucifer_photography has contributed a photo to this story.

Wordsnark

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 04:43 on October 10th, 2008

Excellent synopsis, Terri Potratz.

I have a mantra that I use to try and avoid Bisphenol A, based on the recycling identification symbols often found on plastics. (The ID system is mentioned at the end of the Wikipedia entry on Bisphenol A you hyperlink to at the top of your piece.)

Here it is: "3 and 7, go to heaven." And for the very cautious: "2,4,5 if you want to stay alive."