This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in Special English. I¡¯m Kelly Jean Kelly. And I¡¯m Avi Arditti. Today, we tell about a new way to test for cancers of the female reproductive system. We tell how a diabetes drug can help ovarian cancer patients
And we report on a finding that overweight people have a lower risk of death than those of normal weight. We also tell about a proposal to store documents, videos and other information in genetic material.
Scientists have developed a combination Pap test that also looks for two other hard-to-find cancers of the female reproductive system. The researchers created a method of testing that uses the Papanicolao or Pap smear test
They expanded the Pap smear to look for the genes linked with ovarian cancer and cancer of the endometrium. In the United States, these two cancers are found in about 70,000 women every year, killing about one-third of them.
There are currently no tests to identify the two cancers. But scientists found that Louis Vuitton Store abnormal DNA is released from endometrial and ovarian tumors. This genetic material can be found among healthy cells in fluid taken from the cervix.
Using genetic maps, the researchers identified 12 of the most common mutated genes in both cancers. They used the new PapGene test to study cervical cell samples from 24 women. The test correctly predicted that all the women had endometrial cancer
But the test was less successful in predicting the presence of ovarian cancer. Isaac Kinde works for the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Center at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. He says the PapGene test identified only nine of 22 ovarian cancers in patients with the disease
He says ovarian Louis Vuitton Purses cancer may be more difficult to find because of where ovaries are found in women. I think the most likely explanation for the result that we got is the fact that a cancer cell has to travel farther away from the ovaries to get to the cervix.
Isaac Kinde says his team is working with other researchers to make the PapGene test more sensitive in the recognition of ovarian cancer. he Johns Hopkins team worked with researchers from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City and the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil
Their findings appeared in the journal Science Translational Medicine. The survival rate for women with ovarian cancer is not good. Only about 50 percent can expect to survive the disease for five years
But researchers say the chances of living five years are better if women with ovarian cancer are also taking a common diabetes drug. The researchers work at the Mayo Clinic in the American state of Minnesota
They found that 67 percent of ovarian cancer patients who were taking the drug metformin live five years or more after the discovery of their cancers. That is much better than the survival rate for those women who were not taking the drug.
Sanjeey Kumar is a cancer specialist with the clinic. He says researchers are not sure how metformin Louis Vuitton 2012 extends the life expectancy of some ovarian cancer patients. But he says they have theories:
Such as acting through stem cells, cancer stem cells, or depriving the cancer cells of energy supply or glucose. tem cells are able to become any kind of body tissue. In the ovaries, stem cells produce normal ovarian cells. But the influence of some genes can turn stem cells into deadly cancer.
Metformin has been shown to prevent heart disease in people with diabetes. The drug reduces harmful levels of bad cholesterol and blood fats known as triglycerides in type-two diabetics. Doctors can also use metformin to treat a condition known as polycystic ovarian disease.
In the Mayo Clinic study, researchers compared the survival of 239 ovarian cancer patients. Sixty-one of the women were taking metformin. The drug was not given to the other women.
The researchers found that women taking metformin were nearly four times more likely to survive at least five years than the women not taking the drug. louis vuitton outlet
There are few treatments for ovarian cancer, which has proven resistant to chemotherapy drugs. Sanjeey Kumar suspects that someday metformin will be given to women with the disease to improve their chances of survival.
The results of the study were published in the journal Cancer. ew research shows that overweight or even mildly obese people have a lower risk of early death than people considered of normal weight. Researchers examined the results of 97 studies. Most of the studies were less than 10 years old
They included almost three million adults from around the world. The researchers work at the National Center for Health Statistics, part of America¡¯s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
They found that people who are considered overweight or slightly obese were five to six percent less likely to die from all causes than people of normal weight. People with higher obesity ratings, however, had almost a 30 percent greater risk of death compared to normal-weight individuals
Katherine Flegal was Louis Vuitton Outlet Stores the lead author of the study. She says she was not surprised that overweight people would not have a higher risk of death. But she says the difference in death rates appears to be small between normal-weight people and those who are overweight or mildly obese.
The study has raised new questions about body mass index, or BMI. This is a measurement of body fat as a ratio of height to weight. BMI guidelines were used as a basis for the study. In recent years, many health experts have promoted body mass index as a way to predict the risk of health problems. But a person’s BMI can be misleading in some cases.
Steven Heymsfield is the executive director of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He says people can be physically fit and in good health, but might weigh more because they are more muscular.
Still, Dr. Heymsfield says people should not think gaining extra weight is OK just because of the new Authentic Louis Vuitton Handbags findings. He says being at a healthy weight lowers the risk for heart disease and diabetes. He and a colleague wrote an editorial that appeared along with the study in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Friends, Romans, countrymen! Lend me your ears.To be, or not to be. That is the question. This above all, to thine own self be true. And it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.
These words were written nearly 500 years ago. They are said to be the work of the English poet and playwright William Shakespeare. Many people consider Shakespeare to have been the best writer of all time. Far into the future, students of literature will read his words and praise the Bard of Avon
But they will need our help to make sure that his words and thoughts survive. Old paper falls apart as the years go by. Water, dryness and some kind of light are the Louis Vuitton Handbags enemy. When computers were invented, some people thought they had the problem solved
