Gullet Cancer Breakthrough

SCIENTISTS have found a link between vitamin A and a type of gullet cancer commonly associated with heartburn.They hope the discovery will lead to new ways of preventing the disease, rates of which have risen eight-fold in the UK in the last 30 years.About 7,500 new cases of gullet, or oesophagus, cancer are diagnosed each year in the UK.The disease is one of the deadliest forms of cancer, with an almost 100 per cent mortality rate. The actor John Thaw, who played Inspector Morse in the popular TV series, was one of its victims. Scientists at the Medical Research Council’s Cancer Cell Unit have now discovered that exposure to vitamin A prompts the change in the tissue of the gullet.

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