As scientists begin to learn what substances cause cancer of the esophagus, new research has surfaced linking the disease with certain professions, such as the hotel and restaurant trades, animal handling, mining and carpentry.

Jesus Vioque, lead researcher at Miguel Hernandez University in Alicante, Spain, studied the relationship between occupations and three types of cancers: esophageal, pancreatic and stomach. His study, which was recently published in the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine, paid specific attention to squamous cell cancer and adenocarcinoma.

Vioque analyzed cases involving 185 men who were recently diagnosed with esophageal cancer and 285 cases of healthy men.  Each man answered a questionnaire about diet, profession and lifestyle.  Age and educational level, along with alcohol and tobacco consumption were also taken into account.

Overall study findings suggested ionizing radiation led to increased risk for squamous cell cancer, while serious exposure to volatile sulphur and lead increased adenocarcinoma risk.  High levels of asbestos exposure could also triple the overall risk of esophageal cancer, according to the study.

Vioque suggests workers in high risk professions take protective measures, such as wearing goggles or masks.

While scientists have identified some risk factors for esophageal cancer, the exact cause is unknown. Learn more about esophageal cancer risks.

Researchers in Houston have discovered that higher levels of two specific proteins increase ovarian cancer survival rates.

Doctors from the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center looked specifically for the Drosha and Dicer proteins in 111 women diagnosed with advanced epithelial ovarian cancer.

Women who had ovarian tumors with high levels of the proteins survived a median of 11 years, while those with lower levels survived for a median of approximately 2.6 years.

Both proteins play a key role in RNA interference, a naturally occurring cell system that turns genes on and off.

CNN reports that the study is the largest to link RNA interference with cancer survival rates, and that researchers also found that higher levels of Dicer protein meant higher survival rates for breast and lung cancer patients.

The study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

A study of body compositions found lean muscle mass benefits obese cancer patients.

Lancet Oncology published the University of Alberta study, which found body composition played a direct role in survival rates, activity levels during illness and reaction to chemotherapy treatment.

Researchers studied the computed tomography images of 250 obese cancer patients. They found people with sarcopenic obesity, a depletion of lean muscle mass, paired with being severely overweight, shortened life spans by an average of 10 months.

Women who were obese, but had lean muscle mass fared better.

Study authors say their findings suggest the importance of taking body composition into account during cancer treatment.

Scientists say extra-virgin olive oil can kill breast cancer cells.

Dr. Javier Menedez from the Catalan Institute of Oncology in Girona, Spain and Antonio Segura-Carretero from the University of Granada recently led a research team to investigate which parts of olive oil were most beneficial in fighting cancer.

Menedez says that complex phenols found in extra-virgin olive oil "drastically suppress overexpression of the cancer gene HER2 in human breast cancer cells."

Extra-virgin olive oil results from pressing olives without heat or chemicals, which Menedez says helps retain phytochemicals otherwise lost during refining.

The Spanish researchers, however, quickly pointed out that women shouldn't increase their olive oil consumption based on these findings. The levels used in the study are highly concentrated.

But the researchers hope their findings can help produce more effective anti breast-cancer drugs.

The study is published in current issue of BMC Cancer.

Obese breast cancer patients could benefit from an older class of drugs called epithelial growth factor receptor inhibitors, which block stimulatory effects of hormones.

A study published in this month's Cancer Research said obese breast cancer patients produce more leptin, a hormone that is produced by fat cells and helps regulate appetite, bone formation and reproductive functions.

Leptin combined with heightened levels of insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) was shown by the study to stimulate breast cancer cell growth, reports ScienceDaily.

Researchers found that drugs inhibiting epithelial growth factor blocked the effects of leptin and IGF-1.  Study authors noted more tests in animal models is necessary to strengthen findings.

A recent study suggests that among United States Latinas those with European genetic ancestry have an increased risk of breast cancer.

Scientists from the University of California, San Francisco, studied the genetic ancestry of 440 Latinas with breast cancer and 597 Latinas without the cancer.

What they found was that women with more European history had increased risk of breast cancer. This increase is attributed to a combination of known risk factors and possible genetic factors.

Study findings were published in the December 1 edition of Cancer Research.

Researchers from the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom are studying a precious metal's capabilities of treating various forms of cancer.

According to an article in ScienceDaily the researchers believe osmium, a metal related to platinum, could potentially help with several types of cancer, including ovarian and colon.

They are working to develop new compounds using Osmium that would act as combination therapies with existing drugs such as cisplatin.

University of Warwick researchers from the Department of Chemistry are scheduled to showcase their most current findings at today's Bioversity 2008 conference in London.

Men with wives or a significant other living with them are more likely to get prostate cancer screening that could save their lives. That's according to a recent study published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

The University of Michigan conducted the study, which had 2,447 Caucasian men from Olmstead County, Minnesota, ages 40-79, complete questionnaires about family history of prostate cancer, concerns with getting the disease and marital status.

Researchers found that men with a history of prostate cancer or who were worried about getting the disease were 50% more likely to be screened.  However the likelihood those men with a family history would get screened decreases by 40% if they lived alone.

An international study suggests adding lapatinib to paclitaxel to treat metastatic breast cancer in HER-2-positive patients.

Dr. Angelo Di Leo, of Prato Hospital in Prato, Italy, and colleagues evaluated 579 women who were randomly given paclitaxel along with either lapatinib or a placebo.

Researchers reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology that there was no overall difference in response between the two groups in HER-2-negative or HER-2-untested patients.

However, 86 HER-2-positive patients in the paclitaxel-lapatinib group had significant improvements in time to progression, objective response rate, clinical benefit rate, and event-free survival (4 of 5 end points being recorded).

Evaluation of the study's findings concerning HER-2-positive breast cancer patients is ongoing.

A recent study of breast cancer patients suggests reducing stress and seeking psychological support with coping and improving health behaviors can help those patients live longer.

Ohio State University researchers conducted the study based on a theory that cancer patients undergo significant amounts of stress during and after treatment, and that mental health services may improve patient survival rates.  To test that theory, Ohio State researchers followed 227 newly-diagnosed breast cancer patients treated for an average of 11 years.

Overall the study found women seeking psychological intervention had fewer cancer reoccurrences and deaths than women not seeking intervention.  Women participating in the intervention groups were 55% less likely to have cancer reoccurrence and those suffering a reoccurrence were cancer-free six months longer. Also women in the intervention group had a 45% reduced risk of death from all causes, not just cancer.

Study authors suggest that psychological interventions affect secondary stress hormones that promote cancer growth or metastasis. Furthermore, study authors suggest that it's important for patients to receive psychological treatment along with anti-tumor medications.

The study was published in the online version of Cancer, which is published on behalf of the American Cancer Society.