The Malaysian Insider :: Features
The Malaysian Insider :: Features |
| Male breast cancer rare but can be aggressive, study finds Posted: 19 Oct 2011 06:05 AM PDT NEW YORK, Oct 19 — Men are diagnosed with breast cancer at less than 1 per cent the rate of women, but when they are the disease is often more advanced on average, and they are more likely to die from it, according to an international study. Researchers led by Mikael Hartman at the National University of Singapore combined cancer registries from Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Singapore and Geneva in Switzerland, with cases dating back to 1970. The data included about 460,000 women diagnosed with breast cancer, and about 2,700 men.  Supporters of International Breast Cancer Day form a circle as pink balloons are released at the Plaza Jado in Bilbao, Spain, October 19, 2011. — Reuters pic Over the entire time period, men had a 72 per cent chance of surviving breast cancer in the five years after a diagnosis, compared with 78 per cent in women. "Men who develop a breast lump delay seeing their doctor longer than a comparable woman with similar symptoms," Hartman said in an email to Reuters Health. "Male breast cancer is rare but men can develop the disease and should be aware that they should seek care if a breast lump develops." His team said in the Journal of Clinical Oncology that previous studies had shown that it typically took a few months from when men started getting symptoms until they were diagnosed with breast cancer. Men are most commonly in their 60s or 70s when diagnosed, according to the US National Cancer Institute. Radiation exposure and diseases that increase oestrogen levels, such as liver cirrhosis or the genetic disorder Klinefelter syndrome, are among the factors that raise a man's risk. "It's not surprising that men with breast cancer present with later stages," said Susan Dent, from the Ottawa Hospital Cancer Centre in Canada, who was not involved in the study. "That's just because the awareness of the fact that breast cancer can occur in men is just not as acute. Men aren't as likely to think of it, and health care providers aren't as likely to think of men having breast cancer." Men should be particularly aware of breast cancer, and possibly consider getting screened for it, if they had a family history of the disease, including a predisposition to cancer caused by mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, which were well known to raise women's risk of breast and ovarian cancers, she said. Because of recommendations for regular mammograms in women starting in their 40s or at age 50, depending on the country, many cancers are caught in women before they have any symptoms. But the United States Preventive Services Task Force, a federally supported panel that sets guidelines for cancer screening, does not recommend regular breast cancer screening in men without symptoms. "In total, male breast cancer is still a rare event," said Dent. "Never would I recommend that all men routinely go out and get screened." — Reuters Full content generated by Get Full RSS. |
| Google helps track Nepal typhoid Posted: 19 Oct 2011 06:00 AM PDT  A Nepalese farmer carries pails of water as he returns home in the village of Khokana, on the outskirts of Kathmandu on October 22, 2009. Researchers say they have used GPS signalling and the latest DNA sequencing techniques to plot the course of typhoid – and have discovered the source of outbreaks is usually communal water spouts. – AFP pic The Nepalese capital was described in a 2008 study as "a typhoid fever capital of the world", with thousands of cases a year reported, but outbreaks have been hard to chart in a city where streets are rarely given names. Researchers say they have used GPS signalling and the latest DNA sequencing techniques to plot the course of the disease – and have discovered the source of outbreaks is usually communal water spouts. The research, published in the journal Open Biology on Sunday, was carried out by scientists at the Vietnam-based Wellcome Trust Major Overseas Programme and the Oxford University Clinical Research units in Kathmandu and Ho Chi Minh City. "Until now, it has been extremely difficult to study how organisms such as the typhoid-causing bacteria evolve and spread at a local level," said Stephen Baker, a scientist with Oxford University's Vietnam unit. "Without this information, our ability to understand the transmission of these diseases has been significantly hampered. "Now, advances in technology have allowed us for the first time to create accurate geographical and genetic maps of the spread of typhoid and trace it back to its sources." Health workers visited typhoid patients' homes and used GPS technology to capture the exact location, which was then plotted onto Google Earth, which maps the Earth by superimposing images from satellites and aerial photography. They took blood samples from hospitalised patients to isolate the organism – which mutates as it spreads – and allow analysis of its genetic make-up to identify where the disease had started. The researchers found that people living near communal water spouts and those living at a lower elevation were at by far the greatest risk of contracting the disease. "Improvements in infrastructure are fundamental to the control and elimination of typhoid", said Baker. Recent advances in DNA sequencing have allowed scientists to accurately track the spread of some diseases by measuring mutations in the pathogen's DNA when the DNA replicates. – AFP Full content generated by Get Full RSS. |
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