The Surgeon

Penn State scientists are the first to observe in living cells a key step in the creation of adenine and guanine, two of the four building blocks that comprise DNA. Also called purines, the two building blocks are essential for cell replication. The findings, which will be published in the 4 April 2008 issue of the journal Science, could lead to new cancer treatments that prevent cancer cells from replicating by interfering with their abilities to make purines.
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Choline, an essential nutrient found in foods such as eggs, is associated with a 24 percent reduced risk of breast cancer, according to a study supported by a grant from the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), to be published in The FASEB Journal’s print issue in June.(1) This study adds to the growing body of evidence that links egg consumption to a decreased risk of breast cancer.

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In a new collaborative study, the BC Cancer Agency, an agency of the Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA), is trying to determine if a test for Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) can replace the standard Pap test as the primary method of cervical cancer screening, allowing women to be screened more effectively and less frequently.

The HPV FOCAL Study – the first long term and largest study of its kind in North America” is conducted in collaboration with another PHSA agency, the BC Centre for Disease Control, as well as the UBC Department of Family Medicine and the Faculty of Medicine, McGill University department of Epidemiology, and about 100 family doctors in Greater Vancouver.

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Millions of post-menopausal women use hormone replacement therapy (HRT) as a method to reduce symptoms associated with menopause. In a recent University of Missouri study, researchers found that one of the hormones used in HRT, a synthetic progestin, could be a major factor in promoting breast cancer. At the same time, the researchers have compelling evidence that using an antibody that prevents new blood vessel formation in tumors, or a small molecular drug, known as PRIMA, with similar properties as the antibody may be effective in treating or preventing the negative effects of progestin.
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A new breast cancer study comparing Herceptin with Tykerb aims to develop a new model for global cancer research. The trial, dubbed ALTTO (Adjuvant Lapatinib and/or Trastuzumab Treatment Optimization), will track all care and data collection in a standardized format, regardless of where patients are being treated.

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Regular monitoring with positron emission tomography (PET) scanning – which detects changes in the function of cells – achieves earlier detection of recurrences of colorectal cancer than conventional scanning that simply looks at the structure of body tissues, a prospective study has shown.

Colorectal cancer – cancer affecting the lower part of the digestive tract – is the second most common cause of cancer-related deaths in Western countries. Most people newly diagnosed with the disease undergo surgery to completely remove their tumour. However, approximately half of people who have curative surgery go on to develop recurrent disease. The median survival after surgery is two years. Adjuvant chemotherapy – anticancer drug treatment given just after surgery – improves the prognosis, but one-third of patients having this treatment still suffer a recurrence within two years after surgery.
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Scientists have for the first time discovered that people with the same cancer susceptibility genes respond differently depending on their race. Their results are published in Nature Genetics* .

The team from the University of Edinburgh has shown that a genetic marker is associated with an increased the risk of colon cancer in Europeans, but not in the Japanese population. But this genetic variant was associated with a similar risk of rectal cancer in both populations.

While dietary differences are already well known to be important, this discovery shows for the first time that genetic factors might explain some of the differences in bowel cancer risk between populations**.
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