E-pocrates News

Genome Of West Nile Mosquito Decoded By International Team Of Scientists

2010-10-01T11:39:00.000-07:00

The genome, or DNA code of the mosquito (Culex pipens quinquefasciatus) that transmits West Nile virus has been decoded by scientists from various countries, an article published in Sciencereveals. The mosquito also transmits the St. Louisencephalitis virus as well as the tiny worm which causes elephantiasis.

Researchers from 39 universities in the USA and Europe reported in two separate papers published in the journal Science that they had mapped the DNA of the Southern House Mosquito(Culex pipens quinquefasciatus), all the 18,883 genes.

Co-author, Stephen Higgs, a professor at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB), said:

Culex pipiens quinquefasciatus is the most widely distributed mosquito in the world, and in terms of disease transmission to humans it's one of the three most important mosquito species. This work gives us a terrific platform to improve our understanding of the dynamics of infection, which has to be done if we're going to find ways to interrupt disease transmission.

Higgs had identified the genome of the malaria-transmitting mosquito Anopheles gambiae, which was published in 2002, and the yellow-fever and dengue fevertransmitting mosquito Aedes aegypti, which was published in 2007.

Co-author, UTMB assistant professor Dana Vanlandingham, said:

This is really exciting for us, because we can finally perform experiments that we've wanted to do for seven or eight years. Our basic question is why do certain mosquito species transmit a particular virus and other mosquito species do not? Why don't they all carry all the viruses? We don't know, but now we have three different systems for comparative studies to investigate interactions between viruses and mosquitoes.

By identifying all the 18,883 genes of the mosquito that transmits West Nile virus, scientists will have greater insight into what determines its behavior and how its immune system reacts to bacterial, viral and parasitical infections.

Higgs said:

Culex quinquefasciatus is the main vector* for West Nile - it's common here along the Gulf Coast of Texas, but closely related species are found all over the country, and it bites both birds and humans. There have been about a million human infections with West Nile in the United States and, presumably, hundreds of millions of bird infections. Almost every one of those infections was started by a mosquito bite.

‘Firefly’ stem cells may help repair damaged hearts

2010-09-30T14:33:00.000-07:00

Stem cells that glow like fireflies could someday help doctors heal damaged hearts without cutting into patients’ chests.

In his University of Central Florida lab, Steven Ebert engineered stem cells with the same enzyme that makes fireflies glow. The “firefly” stem cells glow brighter and brighter as they develop into healthy heart muscle, allowing doctors to track whether and where the stem cells are working.

Researchers are keenly interested in stem cells because they typically morph into the organs where they are transplanted. But why and how fast they do it is still a mystery. Now Ebert’s cells give researchers the ability to see the cells in action with the use of a special camera lens that picks up the glow under a microscope.

“The question that we answered was, ‘How do you follow these cells in the lab and find out where they’re going?’” said Ebert, an associate professor in UCF’s College of Medicine.

If doctors can figure out exactly how the cells repair and regenerate cardiac tissue, stem cell therapies could offer hope to more than 17.6 million Americans who suffer from coronary disease. The glow of the enzyme also means therapies would no longer require cutting into patients’ chest cavities to monitor the healing.

The study, funded by the National Institutes of Health and the American Heart Association, is a featured cover story in this month’s highly ranked Stem Cell and Development Journal.

Now that scientists can track the stem cells, Ebert said he hopes to use them in disease models to determine how they heal a damaged heart and what conditions are most suitable for the stems cells to thrive.

Scientists discover a new way our bodies control blood pressure: the P450-EET system

2010-09-30T14:29:00.000-07:00

New research in the FASEB Journal suggests that increasing the level of the P450 protein causes the creation of molecules called EETs, which lower blood pressure

If you are one of the millions of Americans with high blood pressure, more help is on the way. That’s because a new research study published in the October 2010 print issue of The FASEB Journal(http://www.fasebj.org) shows that a protein, called P450, metabolizes arachidonic acid in our blood vessel walls to create a tiny molecule with a big nameAepoxyeicosatrienoic acid (EET)Awhich in mice, turns off genes responsible for vascular inflammation and ultimately relaxes blood vessels to lower blood pressure. This protein and genes are also present in humans.

“We hope these results will help advance the development of new blood pressure lowering agents that increase EETs,” said Craig R. Lee, M.D., from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in Research Triangle Park, N.C. “In particular, we hope that targeted-use of these new therapies in individuals with a poorly functioning P450-EET system will ultimately prove to be an effective treatment for patients with high blood pressure.”

Lee and colleagues discovered this new protein using genetically modified mice with human P450 present in the cells lining the blood vessels, and using normal mice as a control group. The scientists found that the P450 caused the mice to produce EETs, which in turn caused the relaxation of blood vessels and lower blood pressure. When the mice were exposed to substances that increased blood pressure, the P450 mice had lower blood pressure and less damage to the kidneys than the normal mice. These results show that the P450-EET pathway is a target for the development of new blood pressure medications, and these findings may influence drug development for other diseases, such as coronary artery disease, stroke, and cancer.

“Whether you’re a Type A personality, overweight and out of shape, or genetically wired to have high blood pressure, this research offers real hope,” said Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal “Having discovered a pivotal role for the P450-EET system, scientists can now develop a new class of drugs not only for lowering blood pressure, but also for preventing strokes and heart attacks.”

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Receive monthly highlights from The FASEB Journal by e-mail. Sign up athttp://www.faseb.org/fjupdate.aspx. The FASEB Journal (http://www.fasebj.org) is published by the Federation of the American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB). The journal has been recognized by the Special Libraries Association as one of the top 100 most influential biomedical journals of the past century and is the most cited biology journal worldwide according to the Institute for Scientific Information.

FASEB comprises 23 societies with more than 90,000 members, making it the largest coalition of biomedical research associations in the United States. FASEB enhances the ability of scientists and engineers to improveAthrough their researchAthe health, well-being and productivity of all people. FASEB’s mission is to advance health and welfare by promoting progress and education in biological and biomedical sciences through service to our member societies and collaborative advocacy.

Key leukemia defense mechanism discovered by VCU Massey Cancer Center!

2010-09-30T14:25:00.000-07:00

Richmond, Va. (September 30, 2010) A Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center researcher Steven Grant, M.D., and a team of VCU Massey researchers have uncovered the mechanism by which leukemia cells trigger a protective response when exposed to a class of cancer-killing agents known as histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACIs). The findings, published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, could lead to more effective treatments in patients with leukemia and other cancers of the blood.

“Our findings provide new insights into the ways such cancer cells develop resistance to and survive treatment,” says Grant, associate director for translational research and professor of medicine. “This knowledge will now allow us to focus our efforts on strategies designed to prevent these self-protective responses, potentially rendering the cancer cell incapable of defense and increasing the effectiveness of therapy.”

The discovery centers on modification of a protein known as NEMO. Researchers have known for some time that HDACIs trigger a protective response in leukemia cells by activating a survival signaling pathway known as NF-IºB, which limits the ability of HDACIs to initiate a cancer cell suicide program known as apoptosis. However, it was previously thought this process occurred through activation of receptors residing on the cancer cell surface. What VCU Massey researchers discovered was that HDACIs initially induce DNA damage within the cell nucleus, leading to modification of the NEMO protein, which then triggers the cytoprotective NF-IºB pathway. By disrupting modifications of the NEMO protein, NF-IºB activation can be prevented, and as a consequence, the cancer-killing capacity of HDACIs increases dramatically.

HDACIs represent an approved form of treatment for certain forms of lymphoma, and VCU Massey Cancer Center has been working for over seven years to develop strategies designed to improve their effectiveness in leukemia and other blood cancers. Grant’s team is now focusing on ways to capitalize on this discovery by designing strategies that interrupt NEMO modifications through the use of pharmacologic agents and other means.

“Our goal is to move these findings from the laboratory to the bedside as quickly as we possibly can. There are currently several drugs in early stages of development that hold promise in disrupting the NEMO-related NF-IºB pathway, but further research defining their safety and effectiveness will be required before we can incorporate them into new therapies,” says Grant.

A Possible Vaccination for HIV?

2010-09-30T14:21:00.000-07:00

There are 31.1 million adults and 2.1 million children living with HIV in the world. There is no cure for the disease. But what if there was a vaccine that could be administered to everyone to stop the spread of HIV? The HIV/AIDS epidemic would be over.

One way to produce an HIV vaccination is to teach the immune system to recognize certain protein structures on the surface of the HIV virus and produce antibodies that will bind to the structures and neutralize HIV. To do this, scientists must identify a certain viral structure, cut it off, and then find some way to present them to the immune system. However, when some parts of the surface of HIV is remove antibodies don’t recognize it or bind to them. A research team at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) has developed a way to avoid this problem.

The team has found a way to extract a portion of the surface of HIV that is recognizable to the antibody, known as an epitope, into a computer designed protein scaffold. The scaffold locks the epitope shape recognized by the immune system. The scientists believe that when this epitope is injected into an animal, and eventually a human, it will be recognized by the immune system. The immune system will make antibodies against it. These antibodies could serves as an army ready to attack the virus from invading the body.

To demonstrate this scaffolding technique, the scientists applied it to a shape-changing epitope on the surface of HIV that is recognized by an HIV-neutralizing antibody known as 2F5. The epitope is a helical or spiral shape when removed from the surface of HIV, but the 2F5 antibody-recognizable version of this epitope has an irregular, kinked shape. The scientists placed copies of the kinked epitope into scaffolds that locked it in that form. Then the researchers injected these scaffold-bound epitopes into guinea pigs. The animals' immune systems made antibodies very similar to 2F5 that bound tightly to the epitope.

This study demonstrates that the making of protein scaffolds can be a potentially useful approach in vaccine design. The NIAID researchers are continuing to refine this technique and apply it to the design of vaccines for HIV/AIDS as well as other infectious diseases.

A Big Step for Nanotechnology

2010-09-30T14:16:00.000-07:00

Scientists can now learn how drugs work in clinical trials thanks to an innovative technological advance that makes nanoscale protein measurements.

"We are making progress toward the goal of understanding how drugs work in different individuals," which Alice C. Fan, M.D., instructor in the division of oncology at Stanford University School of Medicine, was quoted as saying. "Using new technologies makes it possible to measure effects of therapeutic agents in tumor cells and different cell populations within our patients. Now that we can make these measurements, we are one step closer to being able to tailor therapy for each patient."

Research on cancer agent activity currently requires patients to undergo numerous invasive biopsies to generate enough cells required for testing. Dr. Fan and colleagues developed the nano-immunoassay (NIA), a highly sensitive test that can make nanoscale protein measurements in cells from invasive blood draws or fine needle aspirates.

NIA was studied in several clinical trial settings by Dr. Fan and her team of researchers. Diagnostic testing results showed that protein profiles in the RAS and MAP kinase pathways could help distinguish tumor cells from normal cells, and later be used to group different types of tumors.

Proteins in cells from patients with lymphoma or yelodysplastic syndrome were analyzed by researchers. According to Fan, two novel treatments for these diseases had a measureable effect on protein activity in tumor cells.
The team then used NIA in conjunction with flow cytometry to determine a drug's differential effects in tumor cells vs. normal cells within each patient.

"These results have immediate application because they can identify which drugs actually hit protein targets in patient cells," Dr. Fan added.
Nanoscale approaches may eventually affect all stages of cancer care.
"The ability to make meaningful protein measurements using minute quantities of tissue will allow for earlier discovery of tumors, characterization of small amounts of residual disease and detection of recurrence," Fan concluded.

NIA could be predominantly beneficial in studying rare cell populations such as circulating tumor cells and cancer stem cells.

Tumor Cells May Provide Information on a Patient’s Disease

2010-09-30T14:14:00.000-07:00

Circulating tumor cells may create a new alternative and non-invasive source for biomarker assessment a new study shows.

According to the National Cancer Institute, the major cause of mortality in patients with cancer is caused by tumor cells that escape from the primary tumor into the bloodstream and travel through the circulation to distant sites where they develop into secondary tumors. These are called circulating tumor cells or CTC, and they provide a link between the primary tumor and metastatic sites.

“The basic idea is that CTCs can provide real time information about a patient’s current disease state, acting as a “liquid biopsy,” Siminder Kaur Atway, PhD, senior research associate at Genentech was quoted saying. “ They are much less invasive than tumor biopsies because they can be detected from a blood draw and don’t require surgical intervention.”

Researchers at Genentech compared the CTC capture efficiency of the drug CellSearch with two biochip platforms using tumor cell lines spiked into whole blood. They tried to detect EGFR protein in patients with lung cancer and HER2 in patients with metastatic breast cancer.

Results showed that in some cases, CTC might offer a real time view of a patient's biomarker status that is different from diagnostic tissue. Researchers say some improvements are necessary before the technology can be generally useful in clinical biomarkers and future studies will look for other biomarkers in CTCs to determine if they represent a patient's tumor.

Unique Gastroenterology Procedure Developed In Adults Shows Promise In Pediatrics

2010-09-28T10:24:00.000-07:00

The use of device-assisted enteroscopy, a technique that allows complete examination of the small bowel, may be just as successful pediatrics as it has been in adult medicine, according to a study from Nationwide Children's Hospital.

One of these techniques known as Double-Balloon Enteroscopy (DBE), a procedure readily available in adults, allows doctors to reach parts of the small intestine that cannot be reached using standard endoscopic procedures. Due to access issues and size limitations, DBE is rarely considered an option in pediatrics. As a result, little is known about this technique in children.

"Since the introduction of fiberoptic endoscopy in the 1950s, gastrointestinal endoscopy has undergone dramatic progress in how it can aid in the diagnosis and treatment of patients," said Steven H. Erdman, MD, gastroenterologist and at Nationwide Children's Hospital and one of the study authors.

Yet, even with this progress, endoscopic examination and treatment in the small intestine has remained a challenge, especially in children. "Small intestinal enteroscopy in the pediatric population remains relatively unknown and underutilized," said Dr. Erdman, also a professor of Clinical Pediatrics at The Ohio State University College of Medicine.

To shed light on the indications and possible benefits of DBE in children, physicians from Nationwide Children's reviewed the outcomes of DBE cases performed at the hospital during a two-year period. The physicians performed a total of 13 DBE procedures on 11 pediatric and adolescent patients. Prior to the DBE, all patients underwent a detailed diagnostic evaluation including laboratory testing and diagnostic radiologic imaging along with upper endoscopy, colonoscopy and capsule endoscopy (CE) tests. Abnormal small intestinal CE findings or continued small bowel disease symptoms without diagnosis by conventional methods were used as indications for DBE.

Two of the patients underwent DBE for treatment of small intestinal polyps associated with Peutz-Jeghers Syndrome which dramatically improved their symptoms of abdominal pain and bleeding. Another patient's DBE was done to remove a bleeding small intestinal vascular malformation that had caused years of symptoms resolving chronic anemia. Two other patients had histories of bloodydiarrhea, anorexia and weight loss; lower DBE provided evidence leading to the diagnosis of Crohn's disease when other medical techniques had been unsuccessful.

DBE can be associated with abdominal discomfort following the procedure due to gaseous distention as was seen in five of the 13 procedures. Utilizing carbon dioxide rather than regular air to fill the intestine during this procedure has eliminated this issue.

Noting the limitations of this study on a small number of patients from a single institution, Dr. Erdman says that DBE appears to hold promise for pediatrics. "Our experience suggests that DBE shows great potential in the diagnosis and management of pediatric small intestinal disease without undue risk," he said. Since completion of the original report, eight additional DBE procedures have been completed with similar positive outcomes.

Although DBE shows great potential, Dr. Erdman warns that pediatric centers may not be able to devote the necessary resources and time needed to provide this type of service. "DBE remains a resource-intensive procedure requiring multiple staff, general anesthesia and extended procedure time in addition to cost outlays for equipment," he said. "These instruments were designed for use in adults and size is a limitation that remains to be address before DBE can become a more standardized tool in pediatric gastroenterology."

Study Finds Preventive Care Poses Dilemma For Emergency Departments

2010-09-28T10:22:00.000-07:00

People go to emergency departments when they've broken a leg, been stabbed or otherwise need urgent care. But a new study from the Stanford University School of Medicine finds that 90 percent of EDs nationwide also offer preventive-care services.

The high prevalence was surprising, said M. Kit Delgado, MD, the study's lead author and a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford's Center for Primary Care and Outcomes Research, and it likely stems from less-than-ideal conditions.

"It's more evidence that our health-care system is dysfunctional," said Delgado, who is also an emergency-medicine physician at Stanford Hospital & Clinics. "Emergency departments have evolved to compensate as the 'safety net' for patients failed by a system unable to guarantee accessible primary care."

Indeed, the study, to be published online in the Annals of Emergency Medicine, illustrates a dilemma faced today by many emergency departments: the desire to address underlying illnesses and unhealthy behaviors without compromising the quality of acute care, which is their primary mission.

It is the first known study to provide an overall picture of the scope of preventive care in U.S. emergency departments, measuring the availability of 11 such services - including influenza vaccinations, counseling for tobacco addiction and screening forHIV - in 277 randomly sampled EDs from 46 states. The median number of preventive services offered was four.

At 66 percent, screening for domestic violence was the most common, though the study points out that it probably should have been higher. The Joint Commission, the major accrediting agency for U.S. health-care organizations, mandates hospitals and clinics to have policies and procedures for this type of screening. The figure suggests that many EDs may not be in compliance.

At 19 percent, HIV screening was the least common service. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released guidelines in 2006 recommending HIV tests be done at EDs.

There is some incentive for EDs to offer preventive services. "Basically, it's about how 'an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,' and we try to do all we can for patients," said Robert Norris, MD, chief of emergency medicine at Stanford Hospital, who was not involved in the study. "One thing that is notable about emergency medicine is that we are often presented with teachable moments. So, for example, people who come in with an alcohol-related injury - we can discuss with them why this happened and how much worse the consequences could have been, and then help to get them set up in a treatment program."

Stanford Hospital's ED is ahead of the curve, providing about a half-dozen innovative preventive services, including:

The award-winning nurse callback program, which helps discharged patients to coordinate follow-up appointments and get access to primary or specialty care.
A public insurance enrollment program (run in collaboration with San Mateo County) that has enabled thousands of children to get insurance since it began in 2004.
"Farewell to Falls," a free, home-based fall-prevention program for older adults that was recognized in 2007 by the Home Safety Council and National Council on aging.

In addition, doctors and nurses in the ED screen patients for domestic violence and alcohol abuse and offer intervention services through ED social workers.

But echoing a major finding of the study, Norris said that cost is a key factor determining which and how many preventive services can be offered at Stanford's ED. "When you're in a resource-constrained environment, you have to pick and choose," he said.

For example, Delgado cited two key factors that discourage EDs from offering HIV tests: One, they add to unreimbursed costs, and two, studies have shown that, if mandated, they can result in longer waiting times for patients.

Sixty-four percent of ED directors expressed concern that preventive services would increase patients' length of stay, leading to overcrowding.

While three-quarters of ED directors surveyed do not oppose offering preventive services, the same number worries that doing so could financially hurt their departments. The government and insurance companies do not reimburse emergency departments for the cost of most preventive services, Delgado said. "Our findings imply that more widespread dissemination of ED preventive services will likely be contingent on improved reimbursement," the authors write in the study.

Delgado referred to recent reports in the Journal of the American Medical Association and from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that find patients with poor access to primary care, even those with insurance, are the largest rising segment of the patient population showing up at EDs.

Unsurprisingly, a system to link emergency department patients with primary care providers topped the wish list among directors, followed closely by a system to cover uninsured patients with some form of medical insurance.

The authors conclude that more research is needed on the cost-effectiveness of ED preventive services, as well as on their effect on patient flow, to help determine the best way to invest ED resources.

Ultimately, however, emergency departments are not well-designed for providing preventive care, Delgado said.

"The goal for health-care reform should go beyond increasing access to health insurance to ensuring that primary care is actually accessible," he said. "This would free up ED resources to handle rising volumes of patients for acute care visits and would ensure that benefits from prevention efforts are sustained over the long run."

Surgery For Aggressive Prostate Cancer Gives 92% 10-year Survival Rate

2010-09-28T10:18:00.000-07:00

Patients with the most aggressive form of prostate cancer who have surgery - radical prostatectomy - were found to have a 10-year cancer-specific survival rate of 92%, which is high, and a 77% overall survival rate, according to researchers from the Fox Chase Cancer Center and the Mayo Clinic, USA. This compares to an 88% 10-year cancer specific survival rate and 52% overall survival rate for those who underwent radiotherapy without surgery. The findings were presented at the American Urological Association's 84th Annual Meeting, Chicago.

Stephen Boorjian, M.D., a urologist at the Mayo Clinic, said:

It's long been believed that patients with aggressive prostate cancer are not candidates for surgery. We found that surgery does provide excellent long-term cancer control for this type of prostate cancer. In addition, by allowing the targeted use of secondary therapies such as androgen deprivation, surgery offers the opportunity to avoid or at least delay the potentially adverse health consequences of these treatments.

Their study included 1,847 individuals with aggressive prostate cancer. Between 1988 and 2004 1,238 of them underwent a surgical procedure to have their prostate taken out (radical prostatectomy) at the Mayo Clinic, while 609 received radiotherapy at the Fox Chase Cancer Center. 344 of the patients who received radiotherapy were also given androgen deprivation therapy.

The investigators worked out their overall and cancer-specific survival rates:

Patients who underwent surgery had a 92% cancer-specific survival rate, as did those who received radiotherapy plus androgen deprivation therapy (hormone therapy)
77% of those who had surgery had a 77% overall survival rate
Those who received radiotherapy plus hormone therapy had an overall survival rate of 67%
Patients who had just received radiation therapy (radiotherapy) had an overall survival rate of just 52%

Dr. Boorjian said:

Patients with radiation and hormone therapy were 50 percent more likely to die than patients who had surgery. This was true even after controlling for patient age, comorbidities and features of the tumors. These results suggest that use of hormone therapy in patients who received radiation therapy may have had adverse health consequences.

We want to stress that surgery provides excellent long-term control for high-risk prostate cancer patients. Limiting the need for hormones may avoid adverse health consequences. Further studies evaluating the differing impacts of treatments on quality of life and non-cancer mortality are necessary before we can determine the best approach for patients with aggressive prostate cancer.

Mindfulness Meditation May Ease Fatigue, Depression, Quality Of Life For MS Patients

2010-09-28T10:14:00.000-07:00

A new study from Switzerland suggests that learning mindfulness meditation easedfatigue, depression and quality of life for multiple sclerosis (MS) patients compared with patients who received standard medical care.

The study was the work of Dr Paul Grossman, of the Department of Psychosomatic Medicine, in the Division of Internal Medicine at the University of Basel Hospital, and colleagues, and is published in the 28 September issue ofNeurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

Grossman and colleagues recruited 150 patients with relapsing-remitting or secondary progressive multiple sclerosis, and randomly assigned them to receive either standard medical care (74 patients) or undergo eight weeks of training in mindfulness meditation (76 patients).

The mindfulness training comprised weekly classes of 2.5 hours, an all-day retreat, and 40 minutes per day of personal practice.

The approach of mindfulness meditation trains a person to develop non-judgemental awareness of the present moment, such as focusing the attention on sensory information rather than what it means. Thoughts of a judgemental nature, triggered memories and worries about the future, are nudged aside as attention is devoted to "here and now" sensations and messages.

The results showed that the patients who underwent the training had improved quality of life and reduced fatigue and depression after the course and also at a six-month follow up, compared to their counterparts who only received the standard medical care.

Very few patients pulled out of the training before it finished (only 5 per cent), and those who completed it improved on nearly every measure of fatigue, depression (symptoms of depression went down by over 30 per cent), and quality of life, whereas the patients who received the standard medical care declined slightly on most measures.

Some of the biggest improvements in the mindfulness group was among the 65 per cent or so patients who showed the highest levels of depression or fatigue before they started the course. By the end of the course this risk group had reduced by a third, and the proportion was sustained at the six-month follow up.

The other benefits of the mindfulness training were also still there at the six-month follow up, although in some cases the levels were lower than they were right after the end of the course. In the case of fatigue however, the results showed the reductions at the end of the course were at the same levels six months later.

In an accompanying editorial, Drs Jinny Tavee and Lael Stone of the Cleveland Clinic, Ohio, US, wrote that because the study did not compare the mindfulness group against another active group (using a different type of intervention), we cannot be certain that the benefits accrued specifically as a result of mindfulness training.

A pot belly increases your risk of bowel cancer

2010-09-20T03:28:00.000-07:00

That beer belly or a “muffin top” your friends find cute is more dangerous than it appears—it can dramatically increase the risk ofbowel cancer, according to a study.

A shocking study revealed that for every inch above a healthy waist measurement, the likelihood of the fatal disease rises by three per cent.

While the link between excess fat and the chances of bowel cancer is known but the new study provides the strongest evidence so far that waist size is a significant contributing factor.

According to researchers, even slim people whose weight is normal are still at risk if they carry a bulge.

They say a healthy waist measurement is less than 31.5in for women, less than 37in for white and black men and under 35in for Asian men.

Scientists have recommended that people should try to stay as slim as possible without becoming underweight.

They estimate this could prevent more than 2,700 cases of bowel cancer in the UK every year.

“As well as confirming the link between body fat and bowel cancer, this study has strengthened the evidence that where we carry the fat is also important. This means that people with large waists should try to lose that flab even if they are otherwise in the normal body mass index range,” the Daily Express quoted Professor Martin Wiseman of the WorldCancer Research Fund, which paid for the study, as saying

“In fact, scientists now say that, after not smoking, maintaining a healthy weight is the most important thing for cancer prevention,” he added.

Experts at Imperial College London and the University of Leeds reviewed seven research papers, all of which showed tummy fat as a predictor for bowel cancer.

Dr Teresa Norat, lead researcher, said: “This study indicates that people should pay attention to abdominal fatness even if they are in the normal range of weight and it confirms that being overweight increases the risk of this type of cancer. “More research is needed to understand how abdominal fatness can be prevented.”

The results will be presented at an international conference in London. (ANI)

Pacemaker implanted in brain at Delhi hospital

2010-09-20T03:24:00.000-07:00

Doctors in a Delhi hospital implanted a pacemaker in the brain of a woman suffering from a psychiatric disorder - probably performing the unusual surgery for the first time in Asia.

The pacemaker implant in the brain for the 48-year-old woman suffering from obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) was performed bydoctors in Vimhans hospital here.

"The 48-year-old patient from New Delhi who suffered from the disease for 21 years became the first OCD patient who has been implanted a brain pacemaker," hospital officials said.

"The patient had an obsession of being contaminated by drain water, doubts that she may be dirty, and performed elaborate rituals while cleaning herself and while cooking. She preferred to stay immobile when her family were away, not even going to toilet as she feared contamination," he added.

According to doctors, one to three percent of the world's population suffers from OCD. In India, OCD is one of the common psychiatric disorder. However, the awareness about the disease,symptoms and treatment options is extremely low. Since patients feel embarrassed about the disease, they refuse to acknowledge it. (IANS)

After 4 years of silence, Fatima can hear herself

2010-09-20T03:21:00.001-07:00

Doctors at a Delhi hospital Monday succesfully operated on a four-year-old Iraqi girl suffering from deafness since birth to restore her hearing. The girl was responding to sounds after the surgery.

A doctors at the Apollo Hospitals, where Fatima Ali underwent the surgery, said: "The girl was born without the auditory nerve, the tool of hearing. We have carried out an operation to put an electronic device in her brain to restore hearing sensation."

"It takes at least two months before the brain can respond to the chip and can be switched on," senior surgeon of the Apollo Hospitals Ameet Kishore, who conducted the surgery, told IANS.

The internal chip’s electrodes stimulate the brain to produce sounds.

A team of surgeons and neurologists conducted the operation, the average cost of which ranges from Rs. 10 lakh to Rs. 15 lakh depending on the price of the equipment. (IANS)

Chances of cancer begin even before conception

2010-09-20T03:18:00.000-07:00

A person's chances of developing cancer begins even before his or her conception.Medical experts have long linked cancer risk with their genes and lifestyles as adults.

But Professor Rocardo Uauy claims that factors of a mother's life such as whether she smokes, drinks, or is overweight all play key roles.

It is believed that environmental factors that encourage obesity and weight-gain in children can increase their risk of getting cancer, reports the Daily Mail.

"Someone's risk of developing cancer starts from before the time of conception. The risk factors are already operating in the mother's eggs before conception," said Uauy in The Observer newspaper.

"Yes, cancer is a genetic disease, but your chances of getting cancer are affected by the environment in which you live. So it's not just about if you smoked from the age of 12."

"But did your mother smoke? What was the water like that she drank? Is she exposed to toxins such as dioxins, which are found in the environment, and did she pass them on to her baby through her breast milk?"

Uauy has been a leading advisor to the United Nations and the World Heath Organisation for several years and is believed to have compiled one of the most detailed pictures of cancer prevention yet.

He recommends that parents reduce their baby's cancer risk by eating less tinned food and reducing exposure to certain cancer-causing chemicals.

Women should stop smoking before they conceive as cigarettes can increase the risk of children having a low birth weight.

Research suggests that underweight children put on weight quickly around their middles in early years which adds to the risk of cancer later on.

He added: "Mothers-to-be only need to consume an extra 150 calories a day during the nine months of pregnancy and should not eat for two."

Uauy recently highlighted the growing evidence of how early-life factors affect cancer risk at a World Cancer Research Fund conference.(IANS)

Study finds mothers' education levels affect child mortality

2010-09-20T03:13:00.000-07:00

A study published in the journal Lancet on Friday found that "a mother's education level has a huge, if indirect, effect on the health of her children," the Washington Post reports.

"Half the reduction in child mortality over the past 40 years can be attributed to the better education of women, according to the analysis ... Worldwide, there were 8.2 million fewer deaths in 2009 among children younger than 5 than there were in 1970. Of those 'averted deaths,' 4.2 million were the result of better-educated mothers," the newspaper writes (Bown, 9/16).

The study, conducted by researchers from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington, "shows that education is rising in every region. Most dramatically, average years of schooling for women of reproductive age (ages 15 to 44) in developing countries have grown from 2.2 years to 7.2 years," states an IHME press release. At the same time, according to the release, in "six countries - Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Niger, and Yemen-women receive less than one year of schooling" (9/16).

Researchers obtained results by using "915 censuses and surveys from 175 countries tracking education, economic growth, HIV rates and child deaths from 1970 to 2009," the Associated Press reports (Cheng, 9/16).Study co-author Christopher Murray explained that a mother's education affects the health of her children in many ways, the Washington Post writes. "According to Murray, better-educated women are more likely to understand disease-prevention measures such asvaccines and mosquito nets, and to use them. They are more likely to take a sick child to a clinic early and to follow treatment instructions. They are more likely to understand germ theory and set clean water and sanitation as household priorities. With more schooling, women tend to have fewer children and space births more widely, both of which also reduce child mortality."

Al Bartlett, a child health expert at USAID, said the findings are not unexpected, "but the magnitude is impressive." Bartlett added, "It clearly justifies what many have been saying for a long time - that one of the investments we need to make is girls' education" (9/16).

AP notes that "not everyone was convinced that the study's conclusions were right."

"Education is not much good if the health facilities and infrastructure don't exist," said Philip Stevens, a senior fellow at the International Policy Network. "If a country is massively misgoverned, like Sierra Leone, no amount of education is going to put bread on the table for children."

William Easterly, an economics professor at New York University, said, "It sounds plausible that education is related to child mortality, but finding a correlation does not prove causation."

H1N1 influenza increases neurological complications in children: Study

2010-09-20T03:05:00.000-07:00

A recent study by researchers at the University of Utah determined that the 2009 pandemic influenza A (H1N1) caused a higher rate of neurological complications in children than the seasonal flu. The most common complications observed were seizures and encephalopathy. Full details of the study, the most extensive evaluation of neurological complications following H1N1 flu in children, are published in the September issue of Annals of Neurology, a journal of the American Neurological Association.

The H1N1 virus (swine flu) was identified in Mexico and the U.S. in April 2009 and quickly spread worldwide, prompting the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare the novel influenza A virus a pandemic. According to estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 43 million to 89 million Americans were infected with H1N1 between April 2009 and April 10, 2010, with approximately 14 million to 28 million of those cases in children 17 years of age and younger. On August 10, 2010 the WHO International Health Regulations Emergency Committee officially declared an end to the 2009 H1N1 pandemic.In their retrospective study, Josh Bonkowsky, M.D., Ph.D., and colleagues examined neurological complications in children with H1N1 compared to the seasonal flu. Children (younger than 19 years of age) who were hospitalized with H1N1 and neurological complications between April 1 and November 30, 2009 were included in the study. In the comparison group, the research team used records of children hospitalized with seasonal flu and neurological complications from July 1, 2004-June 30, 2008. Neurological complications observed included seizures, febrile seizures, status epilepticus, encephalopathy, encephalitis, myositis, myalgia, aphasia, ataxia, neuropathy, Gullain-Barre syndrome, or other focal neurological complaints.

Researchers identified 303 children who were hospitalized with 2009 H1N1 of which 18 experienced neurological complications. Eight-three percent of these pediatric patients had an underlying medical condition-primarily neurological issues (66%). The research team found the most common neurologic symptoms in this group were seizures (67%) and encephalopathy (50%). More than half of those children who experienced seizures presented in a life-threatening state known as status epilepticus, where continuous seizure activity occurs for more than 5 to 30 minutes1.

The comparison group included 234 children who were hospitalized for seasonal flu with 16 patients experiencing neurological issues. In the seasonal flu cohort only 25% patients had underlying medical conditions. The researchers also noted that none of the patients with seasonal flu and neurological complications had encephalopathy, aphasia, or focal neurological deficits.

Compared to seasonal influenza, patients with H1N1 were more likely to have abnormal electroencephalogram (EEG) findings. "We found that more pediatric H1N1 patients had neurological deficits and required ongoing treatment with anti-epileptic medications upon discharge from the hospital," commented Dr. Bonkowsky.

Additionally, researchers found the use of steroids or intravenous immunoglobulin was not beneficial in the treatment of encephalopathy. "The absence of proven treatments for influenza-related neurological complications underlines the importance of vaccination," said Dr. Bonkowsky. For protection against the flu, the CDC recommends yearly flu vaccination and the U.S. 2010-2011 seasonal influenza vaccine will protect against an H3N2 virus, influenza B, and the 2009 H1N1 virus.

Manganese in water can harm children’s IQ: Study

2010-09-20T02:55:00.000-07:00

A team of researchers led by Maryse Bouchard, adjunct professor at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Biology, Health, Environment and Society (CINBIOSE) of the Universit- du Qu-bec - Montr-al and a researcher at Sainte-Justine University Hospital, and Donna Mergler, professor emerita in the Department of Biological Sciences and a member of CINBIOSE, recently completed a study showing that children exposed to high concentrations of manganese in drinking water performed worse on tests of intellectual functioning than children with lower exposures. Their results are published in the prestigious scientific journal Environmental Health Perspectives, in an article entitled "Intellectual Impairment in School-Age Children Exposed to Manganese from Drinking Water".

Manganese: toxic in the workplace but harmless in water?

The neurotoxic effects of manganese exposure in the workplace are well known. This metal is naturally occurring in soil and in certain conditions is present in groundwater. In several regions of Quebec and Canada and in other parts of the world, the groundwater contains naturally high levels of manganese. Does it pose a danger? What effect might it have on children's health? This is the first study to focus on the potential risks of exposure to manganese in drinking water in North America.

2010-09-20T02:51:00.000-07:00

An international consortium of scientists has discovered new genetic variants in five regions of the genome that affect the risk of ovarian cancer in the general population, according to two separate studies published today (Sunday), online in Nature Genetics.

The consortium, including scientists from the U.S., Europe, Canada and Australia, based the new work on their earlier research comparing 10,283 women withovarian cancer to 13,185 women without the disease. That effort had found a stretch of DNA on chromosome 9 containing single DNA letter variations (SNPs) associated with ovarian cancer risk.

The researchers have now found additional stretches of DNA on chromosomes 2, 3, 8, 17 and 19 after grouping patients according to the type of ovarian cancer they had developed. Four out of five of the new DNA variations were more common in women who had developed the most common and aggressive form of disease, known as serous ovarian cancer.

Andrew Berchuck, MD, professor of gynecologic oncology at Duke University Medical Center and head of the steering committee of the international Ovarian CancerAssociation Consortium (OCAC), says the associations of these genetic variants withovarian cancer were discovered using genome-wide association studies (GWAS).

"Since the critical validation of these findings was performed by a large consortium of investigators from around the world, we see this research as a triumph of science without borders for the benefit of women everywhere."

Ovarian cancer is the fifth most common cancer among women in developed countries, and often detected in later stages when the chances of cure are small. As a result, the disease claims more lives in the U.S. than all other gynecological cancers combined. Every year, about 13,000 women in the U.S. and 130,000 worldwide die from the disease.

Scientists develop microscopic gas-filled spheres of silica to locate breast cancers

2010-09-20T02:45:00.000-07:00

A new material could help surgeons more accurately locate breast cancers, reduce the need for second surgeries and minimize pre-surgical discomfort for patients. Microscopic gas-filled spheres of silica, a porous glass, can mark the location of early-stage tumors to show their position using ultrasound imaging in the operating room.

A team of chemists, radiologists and surgeons at the University of California, San Diego, created the new material, which they describe in a forthcoming issue of the journal MedChemComm.

The X-rays used to make mammograms reveal calcium deposits associated with breast cancer even in tumors too small to be felt. But surgeons can't use X-rays while operating. Instead, radiologists place guide wires into tumors hours or even the day before surgery. The wires don't mark depth well and can shift. Patients find them both uncomfortable and unsettling.

As an alternative, the researchers created spheres of silica and filled them with perfluoropentane, a gas that has been used before in short-lived contrast materials for medical imaging. The rigid silica shells help the new material last longer.

"These little gas-filled microbubbles stick to human breast tissue for days and can be seen with ultrasound," said William Trogler, professor chemistry. "If doctors placed them in early stage breast cancer, which is difficult to see during surgery, they could help surgeons remove all of it in the first operation."

Improper biological clocks tend to develop diabetes and obesity: Research

2010-09-20T02:42:00.000-07:00

Biologists have found that a key protein that regulates the biological clocks of mammals also regulates glucose production in the liver and that altering the levels of this protein can improve the health of diabetic mice.

Their discovery, detailed in this week's advanced online publication of the journal Nature Medicine, provides an entirely new biochemical approach for scientists to develop treatments forobesity and type 2 diabetes. It also raises the interesting possibility that some of the rise in diabetes in the U.S. and other major industrialized countries could be a consequence of disturbances in sleep-wake cycles from our increasingly around-the-clock lifestyles.

"We know that mice that don't have good biological clocks tend to develop diabetesand obesity," said Steve Kay, Dean of the Division of Biological Sciences at UC San Diego and one of the lead authors of the research study. "And we know that mice that have developed diabetes and obesity tend not to have very good biological clocks. This reciprocal relationship between circadian rhythm and the maintenance of a constant supply of glucose in the body had been known for some time. But what we found that's so significant is that a particular biological clock protein, cryptochrome, is actually regulating how the hormone that regulates glucose production in the liver works in a very specific way."

"We used to think that our metabolism was regulated primarily by hormones that are released from the pancreas during fasting or feeding. This work shows that the biological clock determines how well these hormones work to regulate metabolism," says Marc Montminy, a professor in the Clayton Foundation Laboratories for Peptide Biology at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. "The study may explain why shift workers, whose biological clocks are often out of kilter, also have a greater risk of developing obesity and insulin resistance."

Cryptochrome was first discovered by scientists as a key protein regulating the biological clocks of plants. It was later found to have the same function in fruit flies and mammals. But its role in regulating glucose production in the liver came as a complete surprise to the UCSD and Salk team, which included scientists from theGenomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation in San Diego, the University of Memphis and the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shanghai.

Research Could Improve Detection Of Liver Damage

2010-09-20T02:37:00.000-07:00

Research at the University of Liverpool could lead to faster and more accurate diagnoses of liver damage.

The team used paracetamol as the basis for the study: research indicates that paracetamol can place temporary stress on the liver in around a third of people who take a normal dose (4g per day) but the liver returns to normal when the drug has left the system. Overdoses of the drug are a major cause of liver failure in both the UK and US.

Scientists have discovered that the presence of specific proteins in the blood are indicative of early liver cell damage and can determine the point at which cell death occurred, the type of cell death, and the extent of any damage. This could lead to liver damage being assessed faster and more accurately in the future - information which could prove valuable when treating people following drug overdoses.

The current blood test used by clinicians to assess liver function simply indicates whether liver enzymes leaking from dying cells can be detected in the blood. The test is not always reliable because positive results are often, but not always, an indicator of serious underlying liver problems.

Scientists induced a mild paracetamol overdose in mice and discovered that proteins released by cells in the liver - HMGB1 and keratin 18 - provided a detailed picture of the level of cell damage. The release of HMGB1 was associated with necrosis - a process in which a cell bursts and dies - while the release of different types of keratin 18 was associated with both apoptosis - a process of normal cell renewal - and necrosis. This latter combination of both types of cell death is significantly less traumatic for the liver than necrosis alone in paracetamol overdose.

Pharmacologist, Dr Dominic Williams, from the University's Medical Research Council Centre for Drug Safety Science, said: "The findings are significant because knowing how the cells die will allow development of medicines to help them survive, and may also distinguish patients who have severe injury and require intensive care from those who have mild injury.

"The research has implications for determining how much stress has been placed on the liver in patients who are worried about an accidental overdose, as well as the more serious overdose cases."

For Leukemia Patients A Scientific Breakthrough Could Be The First Step In A Better Treatment

2010-09-20T02:35:00.000-07:00

A discovery made by Dr. Tarik Moroy, President and Scientific Director and Director of the Hematopoiesis and Cancer research unit at the Institut de recherches cliniques de Montreal (IRCM), and his team was recently published in Blood, the official journal of the American Society of Hematology. The researchers found that a protein can regulate certain characteristics of blood stem cells, which could lead to a better treatment for leukemia patients. Dr. Cyrus Khandanpour, medical doctor and postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Moroy's laboratory, is the study's first author.

The transplantation of blood stem cells in used worldwide as a therapy for patients suffering from leukemia and other blood diseases. "The blood stem cells given to leukemia patients are capable of renewing the entire blood producing system and all its blood cells, including white cells, red cells and platelets," explains Dr. Möröy.

Patients with leukemia or a blood disease are initially treated with chemotherapy, which destroys their entire blood forming system along with the disease. Blood stem cells can then be used in two different ways. The first is to harvest them from the patient before chemotherapy, and give the patient his/her own stem cells back after the treatment so they can rebuild blood cells. "One of the problems with this therapy is that blood stem cells normally reside in a niche between the bone and surrounding cells, and are in a dormant state," explains Dr. Khandanpour. "To obtain a sufficient number of stem cells, they have to be mobilized from their bone marrow niche so they can enter the bloodstream where they can be readily collected."

The second possibility is to harvest blood stem cells from a healthy donor and give them to a patient following the chemotherapy treatment. These foreign cells will then rebuild the patient's blood system and regenerate its blood cells. "However, this therapy still fails in about 10% to 20% of cases," adds Dr. Khandanpour. "Among other reasons, these patients die because the transplanted stem cells do not generate new blood cells quickly enough, which leads to infection and death."

"We have found a protein (called Gfi1b) that seems to regulate the stem cells' activity level and where they reside in the bone," says Dr. Khandanpour. "In our mouse model, we were able to turn off the gene coding for Gfi1b. When we did this, the stem cells became activated, started expanding drastically, left their bone marrow niche and entered the bloodstream without losing their function. The ability to manipulate blood stem cells in this manner would significantly increase the efficiency of stem cell therapy."

According to the researchers, the inactivation of Gfi1b in the transplanted stem cells could accelerate the production of new blood cells, thus making stem cell therapy more efficient and less dangerous for the patient. However, the mechanisms regulating stem cell dormancy and mobilization are not well understood.

"Our next goal is to investigate the precise molecular mechanisms achieved by the ablation of Gfi1b, and to study in more detail how Gfi1b regulates the location and activation of blood stem cells," adds Dr. Möröy. "Our project will contribute to a better understanding of the biology of stem cell mobilization and dormancy, which could lead to the design of better treatment regimens for transplant donors and patients."

According to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of Canada, one person is diagnosed with a blood cancer every four minutes and someone dies from a blood cancer every 10 minutes. This statistic represents over 54,000 people per year. Leukemia causes more deaths than any other cancer among children and young adults under the age of 20.

Research Into Chronic Pain, The Winning Project Of The Pharmacology Award Presented By Almirall And The Spanish Pharmacology Society

2010-09-20T02:32:00.000-07:00

The 9th Pharmacology Award, given jointly by Almirall and the Spanish Pharmacology Society (SEF) was presented today. The award aims to promote research in the Pharmacology area and is the only award in Spain that recognises the quality of a future research project in this field rather than an already completed work. The award was announced during the 32nd SEF Congress, which was held in León from 15 to 17 September.

The winning project this year was "Mechanisms involved in the protective action of citoquines belonging to the family of Transforming-beta growth factors in the development of chronic pain", by Dr. María Amor Hurlé from the University of Cantabria. The prize, of 9,000 euros, is for research in the project during the period 2010-2011.

The jury was made up of doctors Teresa Tejerina (President of the SEF and Professor of Pharmacology at the University Complutense Madrid), Pilar D'Ocon (Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Valencia and member of the Board of Directors of the SEF) and Amadeu Gavaldà (Head of Integrative Pharmacology at Almirall). Dr. Gavaldà commented: "After nine years this award has become a reference point in the Pharmacology area in Spain. It has facilitated important contributions to treat pathologies such as Parkinson's disease, hypertension or hyperlipidemia, which affect a large number of people in our society. This year the winning project by Dr. Hurlé will study progress in the treatment of chronic pain, which has a negative impact on all vital aspects of sufferers. It is estimated that around 19-37% (1) of the Spanish population experiences moderate to severe chronic pain".

Breast Cancer Risk Linked To Other Genes

2010-09-20T02:29:00.000-07:00

A large international team of researchers led by the Mayo Clinic in the US has discovered that some individuals whose risk ofbreast cancer may be increased by carrying a variant of the BRCA1 gene may also possess other gene variants that can modify that risk, bringing closer the day when it will be possible to determine individual risk for breast cancer in carriers of BRCA1.

You can read about the findings that led to this discovery, and other insights, in a paper published online on 19 September in the journal Nature Genetics.

Among the 180 co-authors who contributed as individuals and as members of several consortia are first author Dr Antonis Antoniou of the Centre for Cancer Genetic Epidemiology, Department of Public Health and Primary Care at the University of Cambridge in the UK, and senior study investigator Dr Fergus Couch of the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, in the US.

People who carry certain mutations of the BRCA1 gene are known to have a higher risk of developing breast cancer.

Couch told the media that their findings should be "useful in helping determine individual risk for breast cancer in BRCA1 carriers".

"It also provides insights into hormone-receptor-negative breast cancer in the general population," he added.

For the study, Couch and colleagues conducted four phases of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) that altogether involved 20 research centers in 10 North American and European countries and Israel.

For the first phase, to identify candidate gene variants, they scanned the genomes of 1,193 carriers of BRCA1 mutations who were under 40 and had invasive breast cancer and compared them to scans of about the same number of controls: BRCA1 carriers of similar age who did not have breast cancer.

In comparing the genomes from the two populations the researchers examined over half a million genetic alterations. They found 96 pieces of DNA called SNPs, or "snips", short for single nucleotide polymorphisms, that they thought would be likely candidates because they differed between the two populations.

To narrow down the list, they moved into the second phase of the study, where they looked at just the 96 SNPs in another two groups: one of about 3,000 BRCA1 carriers with breast cancer and a matched group of carriers without breast cancer. From this second phase they narrowed the 96 SNPs down to five linked to breast cancer. The five SNPs were all in a region of chromosome 19p13.

In a third phase, where the researchers examined the genomes of 6,800 breast cancer patients who did not have the cancer-linked BRCA1 mutations, they found links between the newly discovered five SNPs and estrogen-receptor-negative (ER-) disease (ER- cancer is where the tumors don't possess estrogen receptors).

And in a fourth phase, the researchers found that the same five SNPs were also linked to another aggressive form of breast cancer known as triple-negative breast cancer, which occurs in around 12 per cent of breast cancers. For this phase they scanned the genomes of 2,300 triple-negative cases and 3,949 controls. (Triple negative breast cancer tumors don't express genes for estrogen or progesterone receptors or Her2/neu).

The researchers also determined that the five SNPs were not linked to higher risk ofovarian cancer among carriers of the breast cancer-prone variants of BRCA1.

The researchers concluded that by identifying these five SNPs, we are in a better position to understand the mechanisms behind the development of breast cancer, and if further risk-modifying SNPs are found (the team is continuing the search), it may one day be possible to identify which BRCA1 carriers are at lower risk of developing breast cancer, and who may be at higher risk, giving them the opportunity to change their approach to cancer prevention.