An analysis of blood cells may reveal your cancer risk. Blood cells react
positively or negatively to your diet and your lifestyle.
Text and photo: Elisabeth Øvreberg
Your blood reveals
secrets about your
cancer risk
analysis
“I’m studying cells in the blood, in
this case our immune cells. These cells can tell
me a lot about your lifestyle and your diet,”
says Karina Standahl Olsen, a researcher at the
Faculty of Health Sciences at UiT.
But Olsen can tease out far more informa-
tion from your immune cells than just your life-
style. Her PhD research has shown how gene
activity in these cells reacts to smoking, obesity
and omega-3 fatty acids, and more – and her
findings represent important information about
our risk of lifestyle diseases such as cardiovascu-
lar disease, diabetes and especially cancer.
Inflammation and cancer
Most leading cancer researchers in the world
believe that inflammatory reactions in the body
may contribute to causing cancer, and that this
kind of inflammation may promote the growth
of tumours. In view of this, Olsen’s research
results are particularly interesting.
She analysed blood samples and question-
naire replies from 400 healthy, middle-aged
women who were participants in the Women
and Cancer study. When she compared smok-
ers to non-smokers, she found more than 3000
genes in immune cells with differing activity
levels. Smokers had higher gene activity related
to inflammation and the body’s processing of
toxins.
“I also checked the women’s BMIs, and
obesity is actually almost equally important
as smoking for gene activity. The higher the
BMI, the greater the levels of inflammation-promoting gene activity in immune cells,”
explains Olsen.
Omega-3 is good for immune cells
The good news in Olsen’s findings was that
women who had high levels of omega-3 fatty
acids in their blood had lower levels of inflam-
mation-related gene activity. The same was true
for women who consumed enough vitamin D.
“We can only get omega-3 fatty acids from
our diet, so eat fish! This will also give you
vitamin D. You can also get omega-3 from
flaxseed and nuts,” she says, and points out
that her research shows that immune cells are
influenced by lifestyle and diet, even before the
onset of any disease.
Olsen, who successfully defended her PhD
dissertation this autumn, reassuringly says that
we don’t need to be afraid of increasing our risk
of cancer if we struggle with inflammation in
a shoulder or something like that. Instead, we
should focus on having a healthy lifestyle.
“On the other hand, if you have an unhealthy
lifestyle, the inflammatory activity in your body
will be elevated, which can be related to the
development of most major lifestyle diseases,
including cancer,” tells Olsen.
Breast milk is a battleship in the war
on cancer
Blood is not the only place where we have
immune cells. According to UiT Professor Tore
Gutteberg, breast milk also contains immune
cells. His research shows that breast milk does
much more than feed a hungry baby. Breast
milk also has a protective effect and kills viruses,
bacteria and even cancer.
“I cannot say enough about breast milk!
Breast milk is like a liquid battleship,” says
Gutteberg, who has immersed himself in the
study of a protein found in human milk called
lactoferrin and its corresponding peptide, lacto-
ferricin.
Gutteberg discovered something unex-
pected in collaboration with his colleague
Øystein Rekdal, a professor of tumour biology.
“We saw that lactoferricin inhibits and kills
cancer cells,” tells Rekdal.
Rekdal realised immediately that this pep-
tide was quite interesting.
“The peptide inhibited tumours in animal
models. Not only did the peptide eliminate
tumours, but it also protected the animal. Can-
cer could flare up again, but in this case, that did
not happen,” says Rekdal, adding that UiT now
has unique expertise in peptides.
Lactoferricin was the topic of a doctoral dis-
sertation that was defended at UiT this autumn,
and it is hoped that the research at the university
can lead to immune therapy, which may work
locally against cancer, followed by protective
immune responses.
32
labyrint
•
research magazine
from
u
i
t
the
arctic
university
of
norway
