Many women at high risk for breast or ovarian cancer are choosing to undergo surgery as a precautionary measure to decrease their cancer risk, according to a report in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. “Women have their breasts or ovaries removed based on their risk.

Scientists have located a region of DNA that – when altered – can increase the risk of ovarian cancer, according to research published in Nature Genetics. An international research group, including scientists from Moffitt Cancer Center, searched through the genomes of 1,817 women with ovarian cancer and 2,353 women without the disease from across the UK. They analyzed 2.

The following summarizes recent articles on breast and ovarian cancer research.~ Breast cancer: For the first time, a large international breast cancer study to determine the effectiveness of radiation therapy after mastectomy will include 200 Chinese women, the New York Times reports. Asian women traditionally have had relatively low breast cancer rates.

By searching millions of DNA variations in the genomes of thousands of women with and without ovarian cancer, scientists have discovered a previously undetected region of DNA which when altered, can increase a woman’s risk of developing ovarian cancer by 40 per cent. The hope is that this will one day lead to a reliable screening test for a disease that currently has a high mortality rate because it is difficult to detect early.

Ovarian cancer is any cancerous growth that may occur in different parts of the ovary. The majority of ovarian cancers arise from the epithelium (outer lining) of the ovary. According to the American Cancer Society it is the 8th most common cancer among women in the USA (excluding non-melanoma skin cancers). In the UK ovarian cancer is the fifth most common cancer among females, after breast cancer, bowel cancer, lung cancer and uterine cancer (cancer of the uterus).

The following summarizes recent research related to ovarian cancer.~ Early periods linked to lower survival: Women who start menstruating at an early age or experience more menstrual cycles over their lifetimes appear to have a lower chance of surviving ovarian cancer, according to a

Tiny particles carrying a killer gene can effectively suppress ovarian tumor growth in mice, according to a team of researchers from MIT and the Lankenau Institute. The findings could lead to a new treatment for ovarian cancer, which now causes more than 15,000 deaths each year in the United States. Because it is usually diagnosed at a relatively late stage, ovarian cancer is one of the most deadly forms of the disease. The new treatment, reported in the Aug.

Scientists in the US have found a way of slowing the growth of ovarian cancer tumors in mice by using nanoparticles to deliver suicide genes to the exact tumor location without damaging healthy cells. They hope a therapy using this method could be tested in humans within the next two years.

A novel anticancer agent, consisting of a monoclonal antibody linked to a chemotherapy drug, showed substantial antitumor activity in ovarian cancer cell lines and in mice, according to a study published online July 29 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The agent, known as an immunoconjugate, targets a protein, EphA2, which is overexpressed in many human cancers but is absent or expressed at low levels in normal tissues. Anil K. Sood, M.D.

With a novel therapeutic delivery system, a research team led by scientists at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center has successfully targeted a protein that is over-expressed in ovarian cancer cells. Using the EphA2 protein as a molecular homing mechanism, chemotherapy was delivered in a highly selective manner in preclinical models of ovarian cancer, the researchers report in the July 29 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.