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Scientist in the Spotlight: Henry J. Thompson, Ph.D.
Committed to finding new ways to prevent cancer, Henry Thompson, Professor of Horticulture and Landscape Design at Colorado State University and Director of the University’s Cancer Prevention Laboratory, is one of the leading experts in exploring how physical activity affects cancer risk. He also works with Crops for Health, a unique research program with the goal to prevent disease by improving the major staple crops consumed globally – dry beans, corn, potatoes, rice and wheat.
Dr. Thompson is presenting his latest research on physical activity and cancer prevention at AICR’s annual research conference next week.
Q: Most cancer researchers have appointments in their schools of medicine or health sciences, yet you are a faculty member in your school’s department of horticulture and landscape architecture. Why?
A: Food is the best way to deliver chemicals to the body, yet there is a lack of communication between people in the biomedical sciences and people in agriculture. We believe a cancer prevention laboratory should be located in a place where people make decisions about what is planted. Great science comes from spontaneous interaction when someone’s light bulb goes off. If you want to achieve change, you really need to hang your coffee cup in the same place as the people you want to interact with.
We also need to change the process involved in building environments. People who design need to be with people who plant. We need to talk about how the community is laid out and where we should build the shopping centers. On a practical level, we also need to train students to design communities for the future. Our department makes a lot of sense when you have your big picture hat on.
Q: How did you become interested in cancer prevention and physical activity?
A: When I was a kid, you didn’t speak the word cancer. My aunt was an oncology nurse but we didn’t talk about it. It was a scary topic. Cancer still scares people most out of all of the diseases people can get. It is tough to live with cancer treatment. It is getting better, but we have a long way to go. Prevention makes a lot of sense.
All kids have an interest in being strong. I was always interested in physical activity, and in college I realized I could understand it scientifically. For the first 20 years of my career I focused on laboratory research. In 1993, I was challenged by our then-director to take our laboratory studies and apply them to a population. I took up the challenge. For the last 15 years, I have had the fortune to do clinical work.
Q: What are the goals of your research?
A: We know that many aspects of the environment impact health. What we are trying to better understand is how physical activity and what we eat impacts health. Physical activity is the broadest way to think about the movement of our bodies. When muscles contract, a measurable amount of physical activity results. Everything you do that involves energy expenditure is physical activity. We’re interested in questions of how the intensity, duration and frequency of physical activity could impact the development of cancer.
We’re also interested in how weight loss in breast cancer survivors impacts risk for recurrence. In one study, we require breast cancer patients to take a certain amount of steps per day. We want to know if physical activity, in the form of walking, can increase energy expenditure, lead to weight loss and prevent breast cancer recurrence. We are also looking at the influence of metabolic processes like glucose homeostasis, inflammation and cellular oxidation on cancer recurrence. If they are well-managed, they protect us. If not, they put us at risk for disease.
Q: What has more of an effect on cancer – physical activity or the foods we eat?
A: It’s a pattern of lifestyle since humans don’t regulate one thing at a time. It’s really a blend of both physical activity and what we eat. Both have value. What we are trying to do is understand these things in their simplest elements, but we also need to look at patterns. We need to know when we should look at it from a broader view and when it’s important to drill down.
Q: How do you incorporate your beliefs into your everyday life?
A: I have three grown children and we are a physically active family. My wife and I enjoy gardening together and growing things from seed and we like to go hiking. Colorado is a wonderful place to be outside. If you look at obesity rates, Colorado is one of the lowest of all the states.
It's Here...
AICR’s Annual Conference
Join hundreds of cancer researchers, nutrition experts and health professionals in Washington, D.C., on November 5 and 6, for the 20th annual AICR Research Conference on Food, Nutrition, Physical Activity and Cancer
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This conference remains the premier scientific forum on food, nutrition and physical activity as they relate to cancer prevention, treatment and survival. This year, the conference opens with a discussion of clinical trials in diet and cancer research and ends with a plenary session on physical activity in cancer prevention and control. Presentation topics include:
- Nutrition and health behaviors in cancer survivorship
- The promise and implications of bioenergetics
- Phytochemicals in herbs, spices and fruits
- Transforming cancer prevention policy into action
This year’s conference will also offer numerous networking opportunities with a welcome reception, poster sessions and roundtable discussions.
Research Roundup
A Misplaced Focus on Fats
For people working not to gain weight and having trouble distinguishing their monounsaturated fats from their polyunsaturated, there may be no need. A new study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that low-fat diets did not play a role in weight change.
The study analyzed data from approximately 89,000 people, pulled together from six European studies. Researchers looked at the amount and type of total saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats that participants consumed. After calculating participant’s weight change per year, researchers found no significant link between the amount or type of fat consumed and weight change. These findings suggest that the approach to tackle the obesity epidemic is to reduce total energy intake and promote greater physical activity rather than to emphasize dietary fat alone.
Diet + Genes May Prevent Liver Cancer
In a long-term study comparing two strains of mice, one susceptible to developing cancer and the other not, researchers found that a high fat diet predisposed the cancer-susceptible mice to liver cancer. Switching the mice to a low fat diet early in the experiment reversed signs of an unhealthy liver and prevented the mice from developing the disease.
Published in Human Molecular Genetics, the study notes that a similar change in diet may have important implications for preventing liver cancers in humans. The researchers studied hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), a type of liver cancer associated with obesity and metabolic diseases. At three different points in the 500-day experiment, the mice were started on either a low fat or high fat diet.
The cancer-susceptible animals eating only a high fat diet became obese and developed liver cancer, along with other signs of liver disease. Another group of the same cancer-susceptible mice were also started on a low fat diet at conception, moved to a high fat diet starting at 35 days and switched to a low fat diet at 135 days. These mice became lean and had healthy livers at the end of the study.
Survivors Health in Healthy Habits
Even with the best intentions, older, long-term cancer survivors do not adopt a healthy lifestyle; yet those who do may feel better physically and experience less pain, a recent study shows. Published in the September issue of Cancer, the study points to the potential negative effects of obesity and positive effects of regular exercise and a healthy diet on physical quality of life.
In the study, the researchers analyzed data from 753 long-term survivors of breast, prostate and colorectal cancer. Exercising more minutes per week was linked with an improved physical quality of life, including less pain, and better physical functioning, vitality and social functioning, compared to those who exercised least.
Higher BMIs were linked to increased pain and worse physical functioning. Eating a healthy diet was also linked to improved physical functioning and vitality. Respondents, who were aged 65 or older and primarily overweight or obese, had signed up to participate in a healthy lifestyle intervention study.
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