Caffeine on Skin Cancer?

[baller4lyfe]

<p>I read recently and heard that drinking caffeine (normally found in coffee) can help sward off skin cancer. my question though is, do we have to drink coffee, or does the caffeine found in energy drinks work too? and how often would we have to drink it? once or twice a week? I doubt anyone would know but, should you know, give it a shot.</p>

[Ch1ck3nPotPi3]

<p>You’re asking a forum mostly populated with teens that are still in high school. Ask this on a medical forum or better yet, ask your doctor.</p>

[rockermcr]

<p>Well, scientifically, caffeine is caffeine. Things like temperature and concentration (obviously) can affect the rate at which it is absorbed into your body, and I would assume that this is all that would vary from one caffeinated drink to another. </p>

<p>I’m very sceptical about caffeine warding off skin cancer. I’m not an expert on cancer treatment or prevention, but something doesn’t sound quite right about that.</p>

[baller4lyfe]

<p>[YouTube</a> - Caffeine and Skin](<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wac7EAem6TA&feature=PlayList&p=FA1026745325D93D&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=2]YouTube”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wac7EAem6TA&feature=PlayList&p=FA1026745325D93D&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=2)</p>

<p>well that link kind of provides something interesting. I wonder if it must be a topical application or an internal consumption (caffeine that is).</p>

[rockermcr]

<p>I read a bunch of scientific articles, and today I found something related to what you said. I’ll give you the abstract of the article (Lapenna, S. and Giordano, A.; Cell cycle kinases as therapeutic targets for cancer. Nature Reviews: Drug Discovery, 9, 547-566), as well as the small section that brings this up.</p>

<p>Abstract:</p>

<p>

Several families of protein kinases orchestrate the complex events that drive the cell cycle, and their activity is frequently deregulated in hyperproliferative cancer cells. Although several molecules that inhibit cell cycle kinases have been developed and clinically screened as potential anticancer agents, none of these has been approved for commercial use, and an effective strategy to specifically control malignant cell proliferation has yet to be established. However, recent genetic and biochemical studies have provided information about the requirement for certain cell cycle kinases by specific tumours and specialized tissue types. Here, we discuss the potential and limitations of established cell cycle kinases as targets in anticancer drug discovery as well as novel strategies for the design of new agents.

</p>

<p>Taken from pages 555-556:</p>

<p>

Unlike normal cells, which rely on a full arsenal of checkpoint responses, the majority of cacer cells lack the DNA-damage checkpoint in the G1 phase and hence depend on checkpoint-mediated arrest in the S phase or G2 phase for DNA repair and cell survival. ATR and CHK1 are key signalling protein kinases in this pathway and could be suitable targets to achieve selective killing of G1 checkpoint-deficient tumour cells. At present, no specific ATR inhibitors have been identified. Existing drugs include caffeine, wortmannin, and pentoxifylline, but these also target ATM and other PI3K-like kinases.

</p>

<p>As cells go through the cell cycle, there are numerous checkpoints that they have to progress through before they are ready to divide. The purpose of these checkpoints is to screen for damaged DNA, and repairing it before the cell can go on. Cancerous cells typically have an overexpression of the protein kinases in charge of these checkpoints, and there is thus no arrest of the cell cycle when DNA damage is found, which means that it never truly gets repaired. Hence, cancerous cells are able to progress through the cell cycle very fast.</p>

<p>In the article, it says that drugs like caffeine might be able to inhibit overexpressed protein kinases (like ATR and CHK1, which are overexpressed in a number of cancers, like colorectal, gastric, and breast cancer, though not skin cancer), thus arresting cells at a specific point in the cell cycle and possibly leading to apoptosis (cell death). However, since caffeine isn’t specific to those kinases, it isn’t an efficient drug and is very difficult to use.</p>

<p>This is really all I’ve seen about this topic. Either way, it appears that caffeine might be useful in fighting cancer, but not really in preventing it.</p>