Deviation of a tumor suppressing gene has been found to be associated with ovarian cancer. The cancerous cells are said to be the result of an endometriosis turning into cancer.  Two different studies have reported similar facts where the mutated form of the gene ARID1A was found in 50% of all clear cell ovarian carcinomas.  The results of one of the studies have also reported finding the particular gene in 30% of all endometrioid carcinomas with none being obvious in serious cases of ovarian cancer.

An abnormal chromatin remodeling has been held responsible by the researchers involved in both the studies. This is being considered as the primary factor for the development of cancer from endometriosis.

David G. Huntsman, MD, author of the online publication of the study result in the New England Journal of Medicine, said that the mutations of the gene ARID1A along with the loss of the BAF250a expressions in the tumors were a surprising find in two of the patients. The same loss in contiguous endometriosis, atypical in nature, was not evident in the distant lesions of endometriosis. This led the researchers to believe that it was, in fact, an early step during the transformation of endometriosis to cancer.

Dr. Huntsman also elaborates on the effectiveness of this study and hopes that the discovery would enable the physicians use it as a tool for screening endometriosis patients who have a high risk of developing ovarian cancer.

Another study by Siân Jones and his team of colleagues associated with Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Cente, Baltimore, Maryland, also reported finding four different mutated genes in ovarian clear cell cancers. Of these, 2 of them had been previously known to scientists while ARID1A and PPP2R1A are new finds in the category. The results of this particular study had been published on the same day as that of the other one in Science.

Source: New England Journal of Medicine  published online on September 8, 2010.

Science. 2010; published online on September 8, 2010

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/728251

A majority of women who have been diagnosed with colon cancer after menopause are likely to die if they do not maintain a healthy body weight before being diagnosed with carcinoma. These findings from a study were reported in the current issue (September) of the Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention. The journal is published by the American Association for Cancer Research.

The researchers discovered that women who did not enjoy good health and were either obese or underweight faced an increased risk of death. The mortality rate also went up for women who had a history of abdominal obesity before being diagnosed with colon cancer.

According to Anna E. Prizment, a post doctoral fellow attached to the epidemiology and community health unit of the University of Minnesota’s Masonic Cancer Center, abdominal obesity can well be an indicator of the rate of mortality from colon cancer.  A healthy body weight is crucial for women who have already had their menopause, she added. It might also help in the treatment of colonic cancer and help the patient to evade death in the eventuality of being diagnosed with cancer later in life. She also stated that it was not clear whether losing weight after the diagnosis actually helped. It might just be a case of ‘too little too late’ by then. It is, therefore, important to keep a check on the body weight throughout one’s lifetime.

Prizment, along with her colleagues, retrieved the data of 1,096 patients from Iowa Women’s Health Study. The study observed 289 of them dying due to colon cancer out of the 493 who eventually died. The patients had been observed over a period of 20 years.  The study results further elaborated on the fact that the mortality rate for obese woman with BMI levels exceeding 30 kg/mg2  was increased by  45% whereas it was found to be over 89% in case of underweight women with BMI levels below 18 kg/mg2.

The study results also hinted at increased hormonal levels leading to a more aggressive form of cancer in obese women particularly those with abdominal obesity. They are also considered to have a higher risk of developing colon cancer.

Prizment has encouraged further studies on the effect of obesity particularly abdominal obesity on the prognosis of colon cancer after the diagnosis.

Source: Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention (September Issue)

http://cebp.aacrjournals.org/rss/recent.xml