Early detection is key in the fight against ovarian cancer

Saturday 21 September 2013

Islamabad, Sep 22 (Newswire): Ovarian cancer is a rare but often deadly disease that can strike at any time in a woman's life. It affects one in 70 women and in the past was referred to as a silent killer, but researchers have found there are symptoms associated with ovarian cancer that can assist in early detection.

Experts at Northwestern Memorial say the best defense is to make use of preventive methods, understand the risks and recognize potential warning signs of ovarian cancer.

"Currently, there is no reliable screening test to identify early ovarian cancer. Women need to focus on good health habits, listen to their bodies and tell their doctor if a change occurs," said Diljeet Singh, MD, gynecological oncologist and co-director of the Ovarian Cancer Early Detection and Prevention Program at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

Catching ovarian cancer early increases five-year survival odds from 30 percent to more than 90 percent. But the symptoms of ovarian cancer often mimic other less dangerous conditions making it difficult to recognize. Singh says women should be aware of possible early warning signs.

Doctors say it is not clear what causes ovarian cancer but there are factors that increase the odds of developing the disease including carrying a mutation of the BRCA gene, having a personal history of breast cancer or a family history of ovarian cancer, being over the age of 45 or if a woman is obese. If a woman is high-risk, doctors recommend screening begin at age 20 to 25, or five to 10 years earlier than the youngest age of diagnosis in the family. In addition, there are genetic tests available that can identify women who are at a substantially increased risk.

While ovarian cancer is difficult to detect, specialized centers such as the Northwestern Ovarian Cancer Early Detection and Prevention Program, a collaborative effort between the hospital and the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University, have strategies for monitoring women at risk. Patients are monitored with physical examinations, ultrasound and blood tests every six months. "The goals of the program are to help women understand their personal risks and what they can do to decrease their risk, to help develop methods of early detection and prevention and to identify women who would benefit from preventive surgery," said Singh, also an associate professor at the department of obstetrics and gynecology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and member of the Lurie Cancer Center.

Studies have shown there are ways to reduce the risk of developing the disease. Women who use birth control pills for at least five years are three-times less likely to develop ovarian cancer.

In addition, permanent forms of birth control such as tubal ligation have been found to reduce the risk of ovarian cancer by 50 percent. In cases where women have an extensive family history of breast or ovarian cancer, or who carry altered versions of the BRCA genes, may receive a recommendation to remove the ovaries and fallopian tubes which lowers the risk of ovarian cancer by more than 95 percent.

"Eating a diet rich in fruits and vegetables, getting regular exercise, maintaining a normal body weight and managing stresses are all ways women can help decrease their risk of ovarian cancer," added Singh.

Treatment for ovarian cancer usually begins with surgery to determine if the cancer has spread. Doctors at Northwestern Memorial also use a form of chemotherapy called intraperitoneal chemotherapy, which is injected directly into the abdominal cavity and has been linked to a 15-month improvement in survival.

"The best scenario would be to prevent this cancer entirely but until that day comes women need to focus on good health behaviors, listen to their bodies and know their family history" stated Singh.

Continue Reading | comments

Not tonight deer: A new birth control vaccine helps reduce urban deer damage

Islamabad, Sep 22 (Newswire): A new birth control vaccine for white-tailed deer -- a growing nuisance in urban areas for gardens and landscaping -- eliminates the dangerous reproductive behavior behind the annual autumn surge in automobile-deer collisions.

The vaccine, just becoming commercially available in some U.S. states, was the topic of a report in Denver at the 242nd National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS).

Named GonaCon™, the vaccine also shows promise for reducing or eliminating some of the undesirable behaviors in household pets and farm animals that have not been spayed or neutered. Among them: scent-marking, fighting, caterwauling and wandering in cats, and aggressive behavior in horses. That's because GonaCon™ blocks the action of the male and female sex hormones, testosterone and estrogen, that spark such behaviors. It also has potential applications in prairie dogs, wild horses and feral dogs.

David A. Goldade, who reported on the vaccine, said that blocking action is one of GonaCon™'s multiple advantages over other birth control methods developed to cope with the population explosion of white-tailed deer in many parts of the country. In addition to the damage to gardens and expensive landscaping plants, deer in urban areas can attract mountain lions and other predators into residential areas. And on both urban and rural roads, 1.5 million deer-auto collisions kill at least 150 people annually and cause more than $1 billion in property damage.

"Other birth-control vaccines using porcine zona pellucida (PZP) also can prevent deer from producing offspring, but PZP-vaccinated animals still exhibit mating behaviors," Goldade explained.

He is with the U. S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service/Wildlife Services National Wildlife Research Center (NWRC) in Fort Collins, Colo., where GonaCon™ was developed. "That opens the door to dangerous situations in which males chase females across the highway. With GonaCon™, however, vaccinated deer don't even try to mate," Goldade continued.

Goldade explained that GonaCon™ blocks a biological signal that triggers reproductive behavior in deer and many other mammals in temperate areas of the world. As day length decreases in autumn, the reproductive systems in these animals "turn on." Testosterone levels rise in males, and females go into estrus, or "heat." Gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH), produced in a gland at the base of the brain, issues the biochemical orders for increased production of the sex hormones estrogen, progesterone and testosterone. Without GnRH, the body makes little or none of those hormones.

The GnRH vaccine induces the body to make antibodies against its own GnRH, thus destroying the signal for sex and inducing infertility in both males and females. USDA studies with white-tailed deer and other animals -- free-ranging California ground squirrels, captive Norway rats, domestic and feral swine and wild horses -- established the effectiveness of a single injection of GnRH. The effects in penned white-tailed deer lasted up to five years without a booster vaccination.

To use the vaccine on wild deer populations, the researchers first had to register it with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). One requirement for registration is data on the concentration of the active ingredient, in this case, GnRH. Goldade's team developed a test using a standard laboratory technique called mass spectrometry to do just that.

GonaCon™ is the only EPA-registered multi-year, single-injection wildlife contraceptive for female white-tailed deer population control, but don't expect to see it on store shelves next to the deer and squirrel repellents.

It also has to be registered in a state and must be administered by a USDA or state game and fish department staff member, who captures, tranquilizes and injects deer one by one. So far, only Maryland and New Jersey have approved it for use within their borders.

Continue Reading | comments

Learning how gut bacteria influence health: scientists crack sparse genome of microbe linked to autoimmunity

Islamabad, Sep 22 (Newswire): Scientists have deciphered the genome of a bacterium implicated as a key player in regulating the immune system of mice.

The genomic analysis provides the first glimpse of its unusually sparse genetic blueprint and offers hints about how it may activate a powerful immune response that protects mice from infection but also spurs harmful inflammation.

The researchers, led by Dan Littman, the Helen L. and Martin S. Kimmel Professor of Molecular Immunology at NYU School of Medicine and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, and Ivaylo Ivanov, PhD, of Columbia University Medical Center, published their findings in the Cell Host and Microbe.

The study suggests that the gut-dwelling microorganism, named segmented filamentous bacteria (SFB), is genetically distinct from all 1,200 bacterial genomes studied so far, reflecting its relatively unique role in the gut.

Although SFB was first identified more than 40 years ago, it wasn't until 2009 that Dr. Littman and an international team of collaborators discovered that it can recruit specialized T cells, called Th17 cells, in the small intestine of mice. These potent immune cells, they subsequently found, protected the mice from disease-causing Citrobacter rodentium bacteria, but also made them more susceptible to inflammation and autoimmune arthritis. Those initial results suggested other intestinal bacteria might also regulate immune function.

"What has become clear in the last couple of years is that individual bacteria can specifically influence particular branches of the immune system," says Dr. Littman. In the new study, his team deciphered SFB's 1.57 million letters of DNA, almost 2,000 times smaller than our own genome and about one-third the size of its closest relative.

The microbe's sparse genome lacks many genes needed for its own survival, such as ones for making amino acids and other essential nutrients. As a result, it is dependent on other gut-dwelling bacteria or its host for food, according to the study. The examination of its 1,500 genes, however, suggests it is well adapted to the small intestine, where it clings to the thin lining and may help prevent other microbes from breaching the barrier.

Although the study didn't uncover any definitive signs of the SFB living within us, Dr. Littman suspects the resourceful bacteria have adapted to certain human populations. Even if it isn't found in our intestinal tract, scientists could apply what they have learned to obtain insights into the function of similarly acting microorganisms within us.
"Maybe in humans, there is another bacterium that is different from SFB but behaves functionally in the same way," says Dr. Ivanov, who conducted the latest analysis as a postdoctoral researcher in Dr. Littman's lab.

Recently, Japanese researchers found intestinal bacteria in humans that can boost development of regulatory immune cells in mice, thereby keeping the inflammatory activity of Th17 cells in check. Dr. Littman and his NYU collaborators may have also uncovered a microbe in the intestinal tract of rheumatoid arthritis patients that alters immune function. These emerging results underscore the need to understand how the microbes living in our bodies may impact our health.

"This research brings us the potential genetic mechanisms that trigger differentiation of Th17 cells which we have long believed to have a strong role in the development of autoimmune diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis (RA), psoriatic arthritis (PsA), and Crohn's disease," said Steven Abramson, MD, professor, Departments of Medicine and Pathology and director of the Rheumatology Division at NYU Langone Medical Center.

"With more than 50 million Americans suffering from at least one autoimmune disease, this research gives scientists and clinicians a greater ability to apply knowledge gained in the laboratory to actual clinical cases, moving it from 'bench-to-beside' to give patients a tremendous advantage and physicians the ability to fine-tune medications and protocols based on patient response."

Continue Reading | comments