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Researchers Report Cancer Breakthrough

New approach may improve both detection and prevention

February 7, 2008

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Early detection usually gives cancer patients a better chance of beating the disease. Now, researchers at the University of Nebraska Medical Center say they may have achieved a significant advancement, not only in detection, but perhaps preventing cancer in the first place.

Researchers in Omaha have assisted in a significant discovery – the understanding of a common mechanism of cancer initiation – that they say could result in better cancer assessment, prevention and detection.

"We have a novel approach to cancer. We know the initiating step," said Ercole Cavalieri, Ph.D., of the University of Nebraska Medical Center. "We think prevention of cancer can be solved by eliminating this initiating step."

Eleanor Rogan, Ph.D., a UNMC research collaborator, said the breakthrough occurred with the discovery of the first step that starts a cell down the road to becoming a cancer cell.

"By preventing this first step from happening, we think we can stop the development of breast or prostate cancer," she said. "The combination of an early detection test for cancer risk with administration of preventing agents should enable us to significantly reduce the number of women and men that develop breast or prostate cancer."

The researchers say they have discovered that certain estrogen derivatives (metabolites) can react with deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) to cause damage that may initiate a series of events leading to breast, prostate and other cancers.

They found evidence in a simple urine test in humans. Estrogens can initiate cancer when natural mechanisms of protection do not work properly in the body, allowing estrogen metabolites to react with DNA.

"If these protections are insufficient, due to genetic, lifestyle or environmental influences, we think cancer can result," Cavalieri said. "Now that we have the basic knowledge about this unifying mechanism of cancer initiation, we have a greater sense of urgency to assess people at risk and, at the same time, begin studies of prevention by using specific natural compounds."

The findings are published in the December issue of the International Journal of Cancer. Findings were confirmed in a second, larger study and presented at a recent gathering of international scientists and physicians in San Antonio, Texas.

The study involves researchers at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Mayo Clinic and the Italian National Cancer Institute. A majority of the study was funded by the U.S. Army Breast Cancer Research Program Center of Excellence Award. Similar findings were reported and published about prostate cancer in the journal The Prostate in 2006.

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