Cancer Resources

Breast cancer is the most common cancer and the second leading cause of cancer deaths in women in the United States. In 2008, approximately 184,450 patients were estimated to be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer, and an estimated 40,930 were estimated to die of this disease. Furthermore, over 50,000 female carcinoma in situ breast cases would have been diagnosed. The etiology of breast cancer is poorly understood with multiple genetic and environmental factors involved in the initiation and progression of cancer.

Scandinavian Twin Study: For years, there has been a hot debate as to whether the cause of breast cancer is genetic or environmental. Then in 2000, Lichtenstein and his colleagues at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden published their study of 44,788 pairs of twins from the Swedish, Danish, and Finnish twin registries. In this study, they looked at cancer risk with 28 different types of cancers and did statistical modeling of genetic and hereditary contributions in eleven different cancer types. Continue reading ‘Genetic Risk Factors In Breast Cancer’ »

The leading cause of death from genital malignancies in women is ovarian cancer. It accounts for almost 4% of all cancer deaths in women although not the highest incidence among reproductive tumors. Over time, the mortality rates have increased, this is most likely because of lack of early detection methods. Caucasian women show higher incidence rates of ovarian cancer than African-American women.

The cause of ovarian cancer is not known. The risk factors includes age, women older than 40 years old; Family history, also heredo-familial disease can be a major risk factor; null parity, a woman who has not given birth to an infant capable of survival; history of infertility; history of dysmenorrhea; and the use of ovulation-stimulating medications increase the risk that the p53 which is a tumor suppressor gene to mutate. Continue reading ‘Ovarian Cancer – The Facts You Need to Be Aware Of’ »