Daily Women's Health Policy Report Summarizes Research In Breast, Ovarian Cancer

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. However, that trend is reversing in China, where breast cancer is on the rise because of rapid urbanization, pollution and diet changes. In addition, China"s one-child policy could be contributing to the trend, as breast cancer is less common in women with more children. Chief researcher Ian Kunkler, a professor at the Edinburgh Cancer Research Center, said that although pharmaceutical companies have done clinical trials of chemotherapy drugs in China, "no patient in China has ever been recruited into a randomized controlled trial for breast radiotherapy." Kunkler"s trial will include about 3,700 participants overall from Australia, Britain and other parts of Europe, Japan and Singapore (Caryn Rabin, New York Times, 8/3).~ Ovarian cancer: Two recently published studies have provided new insight into the early stages of ovarian cancer, potentially increasing the likelihood of developing better diagnostic tests, the Wall Street Journal reports. A study published in the journal Nature Genetics has identified a common gene variation called BNC2. Scientists predict that when BNC2 is combined with other gene variations, the result dramatically increases the risk of ovarian cancer. Researchers involved in a study published in the online journal PLoS have determined that ovarian tumors of the BRCA1 mutation exist in the body for about four years before metastasizing but remain less than one centimeter in diameter during that time. They also found that only about half of the tumors grow to be three centimeters in diameter when they do spread (Beck, Wall Street Journal, 8/4).