Odds Of Getting Cancer

Family Cancer Syndromes

Cancer is such a common disease that it is no surprise that many families have at least a few members who have had cancer. Sometimes, certain types of cancer seem to run in some families. Sometimes, this is because family members have certain risk factors in common, such as smoking, which can cause many types of cancer. It can also be due in part to other factors, like obesity, that tend to run in families and influence cancer risk.

But in some cases the cancer is caused by an abnormal gene that is being passed along from generation to generation. Although this is often referred to as inherited cancer, what is inherited is the abnormal gene that can lead to cancer, not the cancer itself. Only about 5% to 10% of all cancers result directly from gene defects (called mutations) inherited from a parent. This document focuses on those cancers.

DNA, genes, and chromosomes

Cancer is a disease of abnormal gene function. Genes are pieces of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid). They contain the instructions on how to make the proteins the body needs to function, when to destroy damaged cells, and how to keep the cells in balance. Your genes control things such as hair color, eye color, and height. They can also affect your chance of getting certain diseases, such as cancer.

Every cell in your body has all of the genes you were born with. Although all cells have the same genes and chromosomes, different cells (or types of cells) may use different genes. For example, muscle cells use a different set of genes than skin cells use. The genes that the cell doesn't need are turned off and not used. The genes that the cell is using are activated or turned on.

An abnormal change in a gene is called a mutation. The 2 types of mutations are inherited and acquired (somatic).

• An inherited gene mutation is present in the egg or sperm that formed the child. After the egg is fertilized by the sperm, it created one cell called a zygote that then divided to create a fetus (which became a baby). Since all the cells in the body came from this first cell, this kind of mutation are in every cell in the body (including eggs or sperm) and so can be passed on to the next generation.
• An acquired (somatic) mutation is not present in the zygote, but is acquired some time later. It occurs in one cell, and then is passed on to any new cells that are the offspring of that cell. This kind of mutation is not present in the egg or sperm, and so cannot be passed on to the next generation. Somatic mutations are much more common than inherited mutations. Most cancers are caused by acquired mutations.

You have 2 copies of most genes – one from each parent. When someone has inherited an abnormal copy of a gene, their cells already start out with one mutation. If the other copy of the gene stops working (because of an acquired mutation, for example), the gene can stop functioning altogether. When the gene that stops working is a cancer susceptibility gene, cancer can develop. Some cancer susceptibility genes function as tumor suppressor genes. Tumor suppressor genes are normal genes that slow down cell division, repair DNA mistakes, or tell cells when to die (a process known as apoptosis or programmed cell death). When tumor suppressor genes don’t work properly, cells can grow out of control, which can lead to cancer. Many family cancer syndromes are caused by inherited defects of tumor suppressor genes.

Someone who isn’t born with a bad copy of a gene would have to acquire 2 different mutations for that gene not to work. Acquiring 2 mutations in the same gene takes longer than acquiring one, which is why cancers that are caused by inherited gene mutations tend to occur earlier in life than cancers of the same type that are not.

More information about gene changes that can lead to cancer can be found in our document Genes and Cancer.

Family cancer syndromes - when should I worry?

When many cases of cancer occur in a family, it is most often due to chance or because family members have been exposed to a common toxin, such as cigarette smoking. Less often, these cancers may be caused by an inherited gene mutation causing a family cancer syndrome. Certain things make it more likely cancers in a family are caused by a family cancer syndrome, such as

• Many cases of an uncommon or rare type of cancer (like kidney cancer).
• Cancers occurring at younger ages than usual (like colon cancer in a 20 year old)
• More than one type of cancer in a single person (like a woman with both breast and ovarian cancer)
• Cancers occurring in both of a pair of organs (both eyes, both kidneys, both breasts)
• More than one childhood cancer in a set of siblings (like sarcoma in both a brother and a sister)
• Cancer occurring in the sex not usually affected (like breast cancer in a man)

Before you decide that cancer runs in your family, first gather some information. For each case of cancer, look at:

• Who is affected? How are we related?
• What type of cancer is it? Is it rare?
• How old was this relative when they were diagnosed?
• Did this person get more than one type of cancer?
• Did they smoke or have other known risk factors?

Cancer in a close relative, like a parent or sibling (brother or sister), is more cause for concern than cancer in a more distant relative. Even if the cancer was from a gene mutation, the chance of it passing on to you gets lower with more distant relatives.

It is also important to look at each side of the family separately. Having 2 relatives with cancer is more concerning if the people are related to each other (meaning that they are both on the same side of the family). For example, if both relatives are your mother's brothers it means more than if one was your father's brother and the other was your mother's brother.

The type of cancer matters, too. More than one case of the same rare cancer is more worrisome than cases of a more common cancer. For some very rare cancers, like cancer of the adrenal cortex, the risk of a certain family cancer syndrome is relatively high with even one case.

Having the same type of cancer in many relatives is more concerning than if it is several different kinds of cancer. Still, in some family cancer syndromes, a few types of cancer seem to go together. For example, breast cancer and ovarian cancer run together in families with hereditary breast and ovarian cancer syndrome (HBOC). Colon and endometrial cancers tend to go together in a syndrome called hereditary non-polyposis colorectal cancer (HNPCC), also known as Lynch syndrome.

The age of the person when the cancer was diagnosed is also important. For example, colon cancer is rare in people under 30. Having 2 or more cases in close relatives under 30 could be a sign of an inherited cancer syndrome. On the other hand, prostate cancer is very common in elderly men, so if both your father and his brother were found to have prostate cancer when they were in their 80s, it is less likely to be due to an inherited gene change.

Certain kinds of benign (not cancer) tumors and medical conditions are sometimes also part of a family cancer syndrome. For example, people with the multiple endocrine neoplasia, type II syndrome (MEN II), have a high risk of a certain kind of thyroid cancer. They also often have hyperparathyroidism (overactive parathyroid glands) and may develop adenomas (benign tumors) of the parathyroid glands and can also can get tumors in the adrenal glands called pheochromocytomas, which are usually benign.

When many relatives have the same type of cancer it is important to notice if the cancer could be related to smoking. For example, lung cancer is commonly caused by smoking, so many cases of lung cancer in a family of heavy smokers is more likely to be due to smoking than to an inherited gene change.

I recognize these and still my cancer snuck up on me!  No wonder there is such hate and dread of the C word, it is the nastiest disease I've ever had to deal with.

Ed

Seraching For Drought Hearty Genes In Soybeans

Recent research has found ways to produce soybean seeds that have improved yields under drought conditions. A group of researchers published their research in the November-December issue of Agronomy Journal. The researchers were M. Jyostna Devi and Thomas Sinclair, North Carolina State University; Pengyin Chen, University of Arkansas; and Thomas Carter, Jr. USDA-ARS, Raleigh, NC.

Soybeans are the third largest crop in the United States, after corn and wheat, and drought is one of the greatest threats to crop profitability. A limitation in developing soybean varieties with higher yields under drought conditions is that the genetic base of elite U.S. soybean breeding programs is narrow. The new study focused on three specific characteristics that could make crops more drought tolerant and result in yield increases:

1. The transpiration rate of the plants under dry-air conditions (i.e., how much water the leaves lose);
2. How quickly the transpiration rate changed as soil conditions became more dry; and,
3. How well the plants fixed nitrogen in drying soil.

Scientists first observed soybean lines with delayed wilting under drought conditions in the 1980s. This wilting delay indicated a resistance to drought. Yet, there was no clear understanding of what allowed these lines to be drought-tolerant. Thus, breeding drought-resistant soybean was difficult.
Most soybean types have been found to lose more water through their leaves under dry-air conditions.

Previous research by Sinclair suggests that some varieties limit water use early in the season under dry-air conditions. This saves water for later in the growing season to “complete crop growth and potentially increase crop yield.”  In this new study, the researchers identified new soybean varieties developed in breeding programs that express this water-savings characteristic.

Sinclair’s previous research showed that nitrogen fixation is the most important drought tolerant trait. Increased “drought tolerant nitrogen fixation” was predicted to result in yield increases in 85% or more of the years in most areas of the United States.

I am thinking this morning this year will be nothing like 13 and 14.  These ideas might actually get tested again this year.

Ed

Land Price Vs. Wages

"All the doom and gloom got me to thinking about what a guy's gonna need to do to get through it. So I got out my handy dandy excel program again. So its obvious that one of the best ways to weather the storm is to increase revenues for your family. That means getting a job, or sending the wife to get one. But will that make much of a difference? Lets look at how many acres that job would have paid for in years past.  A full time job right now pays for only 5 acres per year...while a full time job in the 80's paid for 18 acres a year.  But today's ratio is actually pretty close to the boom of the 70's.

The wages are from this source:

http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/COLA/AWI.html

You local wages may differ, but its changes in the ratio we are looking at, so consistency is all that matters.

The prices were for my LOCAL area, and quite frankly anything before '84 I'm completely guessing.  I wasn't alive then, and my dad isn't alive now, but I'm probably pretty close.  And the years might not be specifically accurate to the rise and fall of prices. during the '70's and '80's but they should catch the general move of the era........quit nitpicking.....I'm taking about 15 minutes to do this and gotta get other work done.



What jumps out to me is how that ratio falls during periods of excess, and rises again during periods of strife.  I'll bet if I actually wanted to dig deep and analyze this ratio more accurately I'd find that for my area the average ratio might be around 12-15.  What does that portend?  If we extrapolate another 10 years out to 2024.  The average wage should be about 62,000.  And we took that 62,000 and divided it by the ratio of 12-15 we might be looking at an average land price about:  $4133-5166  in 2024

Anybody throwing up yet?

Some of the um....more experienced operators...... can shed some light on historical land prices and throw up their ratios to see if the trend matches.  Every local area might have different numbers, but the trends in the ratios will probably be similar.

I'll be back later with some popcorn......

Discuss away............."

Ed

Shut The Barn Door!

We just got the you-know-what scared out of us.  We were both in a deep sleep when her cell phone rang.  It never rings at night unless there is an emergency.  LuAnn looked at her phone and said it's the Sheriff's Office.  That can only mean one thing at 2 am and it's not good.

A young deputy was cruising our barnyard, which she had requested for safety when I was in the hospital and saw two barn doors open.  He looked around but didn't know what might be missing.  He asked if we would meet him at the barn which is VERY unusual.  We got our coats on finally and by that time he was standing on the porch.  We had left one open getting wood out of the 1870's barn and the other had blown open after loading out corn last week.

We had a nice exchange and updated each other on activity.  He said there were break ins nearby and we knew he was just doing his job.  Now I could have gotten real mad for being awoken on a night I could finally sleep but I admired the young officer and told him so.  The worst thing is LuAnn getting woken because she needs every ounce of sleep she can muster.

Sable got a compliment because he said he called back to have us come look because he knew we had a German Shepherd!  I told him we haven't seen any activity but was glad he checked with us.  We had smartly locked Sable in the utility room before opening the door so there wouldn't be a big bark out and possibly shots fired!

Here I sit in the middle of the night again but this time I am thinking I have to get 3 entrance doors replaced.  They all can blow open and probably did the other night in the howling winds.  The are few of things we haven't replaced since 2004.  We have replaced and repaired every other door on this farm.

How many people have this kind of police protection?  We know them and they know us.  They have kept this place safe during all of our travels in 11 years and we have been gone up to 60 days per year.

Hat's off to the Clinton County Sheriff's Office for watching out for us and the whole county.  We know they are under a lot of duress all the time and thankful to have good people to work with.

I turned EWTN TV on so maybe I can get back to sleep.

I hope you are enjoying a good sleep at 2 AM.  It's cooling off but still near 50 degrees on this February night which has been unusual, too.

Ed Winkle

Should I Treat My Soybean Seed?

We had a discussion on Crop Talk recently whether farmers should treat or purchased treated soybean seed this year.  Treatment products have become better but also very expensive.  My local seed house dropped the Rancona products because their customers just won't pay the added price.

"Many farmers may be questioning whether their soybeans need a fungicide seed treatment this planting season. But that depends on many factors – from weather and planting date to drainage and seed costs. If conditions or a field’s history do not dictate the use of a fungicide seed treatment, then it may not be the best option for you.

The soy checkoff funds seed-treatment research, providing U.S. soybean farmers with practical production knowledge and helping protect their yields against seedling diseases.

Applying seed treatments is a rapidly growing trend. In fact, the soybean industry estimates that 60 to 70 percent of the 2014 soybean seed planted had a seed treatment. That’s compared with 30 percent in 2008 and 8 percent in 1996, according to Gary Munkvold, Ph.D., plant pathology and microbiology professor at Iowa State University.

But despite the rise in seed treatment use, it might not be the best option for your operation. Here are six things to consider:

1. Farmers with poorly drained or no-tilled fields, continuous-soybean or soybean-corn rotations and a history of replanting are the most likely to see the added benefit of using a seed treatment, according to The Ohio State University.


2. When spring conditions are cool and wet and when planting occurs in late April to early May, seed-treatment fungicides are an effective tool, according to Shawn Conley, soybean extension specialist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.


3. The use of a seed treatment is most impacting in fields with a history of post-planting problems, such as minor soil crusting, temporary flooding, soil compaction or poorly drained soils, according to the University of Kentucky. Treatments are also useful when farmers use low seeding rates and when farmers plant seed with a moderate germination rate or when the germination rate is unknown.


4. Using a fungicide treatment on soybean seeds will increase the probability of achieving a satisfactory stand and will enhance the early-season vigor of established seedlings, according to the Mississippi Soybean Promotion Board.


5. With the increase in cost of seed, many farmers don’t want to overplant. As a result, according to Iowa State University and University of Wisconsin-Madison, some are decreasing their seeding rate and using the money they save on seed treatments instead.


6. Fungicide seed treatments showed an average yield increase of 2.5 bushels per acre over an eight year period, according to Kansas State University Research and Extension.


Always remember to separate treated seed and harvested soybeans to protect the integrity of the U.S. soybean supply. This will avoid putting the U.S. soybean industry’s relationship with customers beyond the elevator in jeopardy.

This concurs with my thinking.  What do you think?

Ed

Ten Bible Verses For Cancer

Matthew 10:30-31 - And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

Isaiah 41:10 - So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Matthew 28:20 - and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with youalways, to the very end of the age.

Psalms 62:6-8 - Truly he is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken. My salvation and my honor depend on God; he is my mighty rock, my refuge. Trust in him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.

Exodus 14:14 - The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.

Psalms 139:17 - How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them!

Isaiah 43:1 - But now, this is what the Lord says— he who created you, Jacob, he who formed you, Israel: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine.

Jeremiah 29:11 - For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Psalms 55:22 - Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken.

I Peter 5:7 - Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

Becky sent these to me  one morning and I have to report they help my faith in this new endeavor.  I've quoted the first verse most of my life and it is just as true today as the first time I read it.

Something really lifted my spirits last night.  It is so difficult to stay positive.  I've got my give a darn attitude back and it is the best for me.  It admits I can't change or effect very little but what I do is really important.

We tried to Skype the Cleveland, Ohio kids but that didn't work so Liam and I just old stories on the phone.  That lifts me up even more.  I took Sable to Brown's General Store and bought a Power Ball ticket, a candy bar for LuAnn and I and Sable got her Milk Bone treats.  I hope this good feeling carries on through the night.

I wish you all a blessed Sunday and thank you sincerely for your notes, your thoughts and most importantly your prayers.

Ed Winkle

First 100 bu Beans and 400 bu Corn, One Farmer

One farmer produced 100 bu soybeans and 400 bu corn in 2014! He broke the all time yield barrier of 500 bu per acre with irrigation.  He gives a lot of credit to Advanced Biological Marketing inoculants.  No matter how you slice it, that is pretty amazing!

"Dowdy had intended to plant in mid-April. But 30 inches of rain from March 15 on soaked the field. The farm also recorded a 12-hour, 6-inch rain just as the crop was emerging. That didn't help.

All varieties had an ABM liquid inoculant applied in-furrow.  In-furrow is the most effective but most expensive way to apply inoculants.  We used to call them soil or furrow drench.  At those yields, cost is not prohibitive and the end goal is yield for the yield contest.

This is America’s Best Inoculant system for soybeans contains a rhizobia strain for high yields. Priaxor was sprayed in-furrow to combat seed and seedling rot.

Dowdy applied Avail with preplant phosphorus. Avail makes phosphorus more available to the plant. The preplant fertilizer was coated with Nu-Trax P+ to help supply the plant with N, phosphorus (K), zinc (Zn) and manganese (Mn). He applied 50 pounds per acre of N with NutriSphere through his irrigation system in three applications, beginning at pod elongation. NutriSphere-N Nitrogen Fertilizer Manager reduces long-term volatilization of N. The team applied Biostart in-furrow. Biostart is a root and foliar growth stimulant.

Dowdy believes insect thresholds for normal soybean production don’t hold true with high-yield beans. He’s not content with even a few pests. “If they are eating my leaves, they are eating my factory,” he says.

Dimlin, Belt and Prevathon provided pest control for worms. Stinkbugs were treated with Fastac. Dowdy looked to control downy mildew and soybean rust with Aproach Prima and Stratego YLD.
Brandt’s B Moly was applied with Brandt Smart Trio to supply foliar N, boron and molybdenum. Smart Trio also includes sulfur, Mn and Zn."

Southern States agronomist Eddie McGriff announced Dowdy’s Sept. 11 record by way of email: “Today, Brooks County Extension Agent Ben Shirley documented Randy Dowdy’s soybeans at 110.66 bushels per acre with [Southern States] 4917N R2. This is the first time that 100 [bushel-per-acre] soybeans have been made in Georgia. … This makes Randy the first farmer in the world to make 400 [bpa] corn and 100 [bpa] soybeans.”

They were “big, beautiful beans,” McGriff says of the full-season, late-Group IV indeterminate variety. The yield monitor bounced up and down from 75 to 140 bushels along the 30-inch rows—evidence of nematode damage.

In-furrow is the most effective but most expensive way to apply inoculants.  We used to call them soil or furrow drench.  At those yields, cost is not prohibitive and the end goal is yield for the yield contest.

I thought I would have met Randy by this time but I haven't.  Maybe I will get the chance to meet him yet.

Ed