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Smaller sibling protein calls the shots in cell division

ScienceDaily (Jan. 3, 2012) ? Scientists have found at least one instance when the smaller sibling gets to call the shots and cancer patients may one day benefit.

The protein Chk1 has long been known to be a checkpoint in cell development: it keeps normal cells and damaged cells from dividing until their DNA has been fully replicated or repaired. Now scientists at Georgia Health Sciences University and the California Institute of Technology have discovered a shorter form they've dubbed Chk1-S ("S" stands for short) that essentially neutralizes its longer sibling so cell division can proceed.

That shorter form is in higher levels in cancer cells as well as fetal tissue, both of which require accelerated cell division. But the scientists also have shown that very high levels of Chk1-S actually reduce tumor growth and prompt premature cell division and death in other cells.

"Chk1 is needed for division of all cells, even cancer cells, so if you inhibit it completely by over-expressing Chk1-S, those cells also will not grow," said Dr. Navjotsingh Pabla, a postdoctoral fellow at Caltech. Chk1-S expression is nearly zero in normal, non-dividing cells.

These findings, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, point toward the short form's potential to help diagnose and/or treat cancer, they said. Chk1 inhibitors, which promote abnormal cell division -- and likely cell death -- to occur before DNA replication/repair is complete, already are being tested on patients.

"Chk1-S is only expressed at a time when DNA is replicated or repaired so it binds to its sibling protein, Chk1, antagonizing it so now the cell can divide," said Dr. Zheng Dong, cell biologist at GHSU and the Charlie Norwood Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Augusta. "The question that has been hanging on for many years is: How is Chk1 regulated?"

They found that significantly increasing levels of Chk1-S induces cell division regardless of whether DNA replication or repair is complete. Incomplete DNA replication or repair can result in spontaneous cell suicide but also can result in chromosomal or genetic defects leading to cancer cell production. Additionally, cancer cells purposefully mutate to resist treatment. Pabla speculates that expression of the shorter version may be awry in cancer cells. "We are very interested in pursuing that."

"It's exciting to have found an important regulator of such an important protein that we think may contribute to cancer as well as its treatment," Dong said.

Chk1 and Chk1-S are made by the same gene they are just spliced differently. One way Chk1 gets turned on is by phosphorylation, or adding phosphate, which can activate or deactivate a protein. The level of phosphorylation of Chk1 is particularly dramatic when DNA repair is needed. Chk1, in turn, works to temporarily halt the cell cycle by phosphorylating another protein. Interestingly, Chk1-S cannot bind to its sibling when Chk1 is phosphorylated. It's known that mental retardation can result from mutation of ATR, a DNA damage-sensing protein that phosphorylates Chk1.

While the biggest burst of cell division occurs during development, it continues lifelong in areas such as the blood, skin and gastrointestinal tract where cell turnover is high. "Lots of tissues need to regenerate," said Dong.

Dong is a Regents Professor at GHSU and a faculty member in the university's Medical College of Georgia and College of Graduate Studies. He is a Research Career Scientist and Director of Research Development at the Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center. Pabla worked at GHSU with Dong on the study.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Georgia Health Sciences University. The original article was written by Toni Baker.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.


Journal Reference:

  1. N. Pabla, K. Bhatt, Z. Dong. Checkpoint kinase 1 (Chk1)-short is a splice variant and endogenous inhibitor of Chk1 that regulates cell cycle and DNA damage checkpoints. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2011; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1104767109

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120103135456.htm

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Obama vows US will stay world's top military power (AP)

WASHINGTON ? President Barack Obama vowed Thursday the United States will remain the world's pre-eminent military power even as the Pentagon scales back spending, shrinks the Army and Marine Corps and pulls back from Europe.

In a rare appearance at the Pentagon, Obama said the U.S. is "turning a page" after having killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, withdrawn troops from Iraq and begun to wind down the war in Afghanistan. He outlined a vision for the future that would ensure an uncompromised U.S. military strength operating with less money.

"Our military will be leaner, but the world must know the United States is going to maintain our military superiority," Obama said, with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey at his side.

Obama said his administration would not repeat the mistakes made after World War II and Vietnam when defense reductions left the military ill-prepared.

"As commander in chief, I will not let that happen again," he said. "Not on my watch."

Both Panetta and Dempsey said they anticipate heavy criticism of their new strategy, which is meant to guide future defense budgets, including the 2013 spending plan that Obama will submit to Congress in February.

The criticism from Republicans came quickly.

Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon, R-Calif., chairman of the House Armed Services, issued a statement saying, "This is a lead-from-behind strategy for a left-behind America." He called it a "retreat from the world in the guise of a new strategy."

Dempsey praised the strategy and the work of crafting it, calling it inclusive and comprehensive.

"It's not perfect," the general said. "There will be people who think it goes too far. Others will say it doesn't go nearly far enough. That probably makes it about right. It gives us what we need."

Obama said the strategy overhaul is designed to contend with hundreds of billions of dollars in budget cuts and refocus the United States' national security priorities after a decade dominated by the post.-Sept. 11 wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The strategy, devised through a comprehensive review by civilian and military leaders, centered on the military the country needs after the "long wars of the last decade are over," Obama said.

Panetta said that smaller military budgets will mean some trade-offs and that the U.S. will take on "some level of additional but acceptable risk." But Panetta said that at this point in history, in a changing world, the Pentagon would have been forced to make a strategy shift anyway. He says the money crisis merely forced the government's hand.

The president announced that the military will be reshaped over time with an emphasis on countering terrorism, maintaining a nuclear deterrent, protecting the U.S. homeland, and "deterring and defeating aggression by any potential adversary."

Those are not new military missions, and Obama announced no new capabilities or defense initiatives. He described a U.S. force that will retain much of its recent focus, with the exception of fighting a large-scale, prolonged conflict like the newly ended Iraq mission or the ongoing war in Afghanistan.

"As we end today's wars and reshape our armed forces, we will ensure that our military is agile, flexible and ready for the full range of contingencies," the president wrote in a preamble to the new strategy, entitled, "Sustaining U.S. Global Leadership: Priorities for 21st Century Defense."

The strategy strongly suggests a reduced U.S. military presence in Europe, notwithstanding a continuing close relationship with NATO, and says Asia will be a bigger priority. It also emphasizes improving U.S. capabilities in the areas of cyberwarfare, missile defense, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.

Obama's decision to announce the strategy himself underscores the political dimension of Washington's debate over defense cuts. The administration says smaller Pentagon budgets are a must but will not come at the cost of sapping the strength of a military in transition, even as it gets smaller.

In a presidential election year, the strategy gives Obama a rhetorical tool to defend his Pentagon budget-cutting choices. Republican contenders for the White House already have criticized him on a wide range of national security issues, including missile defense, Iran and planned reductions in ground forces.

Obama also wants the new strategy to represent a pivotal point in his stewardship of defense policy, which has been burdened throughout his presidency by the wars he inherited and the drag these conflicts have placed on military resources.

The new strategy moves the U.S. further from its longstanding goal of being able to successfully fight two major regional wars ? like the 1991 Gulf War to evict Iraqi forces from Kuwait or a theoretical ground war in Korea ? at the same time.

The document released Thursday made clear that while some current missions of the military will be curtailed, none will be scrapped entirely.

"Wholesale divestment of the capability to conduct any mission would be unwise, based on historical and projected uses of U.S. military forces and our inability to predict the future," the document said.

It said the U.S. will maintain a robust nuclear arsenal but hinted at reductions.

"It is possible that our deterrence goals can be achieved with a smaller nuclear force, which would reduce the number of nuclear weapons in our inventory as well as their role in U.S. national security strategy," the strategy said.

The administration and Congress already are slashing projected defense spending to reflect the closeout of the Iraq war and the drawdown in Afghanistan. The massive $662 billion defense budget planned for next year is $27 billion less than Obama wanted and $43 billion less than Congress gave the Pentagon this year.

The Pentagon announced no specifics on the size of expected troop reductions; the Army and Marine Corps already are set to shrink beginning in 2015. The document said the Pentagon will have to find savings in pay and health care benefits for members of the military, but it offered no specifics.

Factors guiding the Obama administration's approach to reducing the defense budget are not limited to war-fighting strategy. They also include judgments about how to contain the growing cost of military pay and health and retirement benefits. The administration is expected to form a commission to study the issue of retirement benefits, possibly led by a prominent retired military officer.

The administration is in the final stages of deciding specific cuts in the 2013 budget, which Obama will submit to Congress next month. The strategy to be announced by Panetta and Dempsey is meant to accommodate about $489 billion in defense cuts over the coming 10 years, as called for in a budget deal with Congress last summer. An additional $500 billion in cuts may be required starting in January 2013.

A prominent theme of the Pentagon's new strategy is what Panetta has called a renewed commitment to security in the Asia-Pacific region.

The administration is not anticipating military conflict in Asia, but Panetta believes the U.S. got so bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan after 9/11 that it missed chances to improve its strategic position in other regions.

___

Ben Feller and Pauline Jelinek in Washington contributed to this report.

? Robert Burns can be reached on Twitter at http://twitter.com/robertburnsAP

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/usmilitary/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120105/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_defense_strategy

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Aging-related degeneration caused by defects of energy metabolism in tissue stem cells?

Aging-related degeneration caused by defects of energy metabolism in tissue stem cells?

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Aging-related tissue degeneration can be caused by mitochondrial dysfunction in tissue stem cells. The research group of Professor Anu Suomalainen Wartiovaara in Helsinki University, with their collaborators in Max Planck Institute for Biology of Aging, Karolinska Institutet and University of Wisconsin reported on the 3rd January in Cell Metabolism their results on mechanisms of aging-associated degeneration.

Stem cells are called the spare parts for tissues, as they maintain and repair tissues during life. They are multipotent and can produce a variety of different cell types, from blood cells to neurons and skin cells. Mitochondria are the cellular engine: they transform the energy of nutrients to a form that cells can use, and in this process they burn most of the inhaled oxygen. If this nutrient 'burning' is inefficient, the engine will produce exhaust fumes, oxygen radicals, which damage cellular structures, including the genome. Antioxidants target to scavenge these radicals.

Already in 2004 and 2005 a research model was created in Sweden and USA, which accumulated a heavy load of mitochondrial genome defects. This led to symptoms of premature aging: thin skin, graying of hair, baldness, osteoporosis and anemia.

In the current publication, scientist Kati Ahlqvist in Professor Suomalainen Wartiovaara's group showed that these symptoms were partially explained by stem cell dysfunction. The number of stem cells did not reduce, but their function was modified: the progeny cells in blood and the nervous system were dysfunctional. The researchers also found out that these defects could be partially prevented by early antioxidant treatment.

"This suggests that oxygen radicals can regulate stem cell function and that these cells are very susceptible for mitochondrial dysfunction. These findings may also be important to understand mechanisms of mitochondrial disease", Professor Suomalainen Wartiovaara says.

The results are a breakthrough in revealing the unexpected importance of energy metabolism in regulating stem cell function and tissue maintenance. These findings increase the understanding of mechanisms of aging-related degeneration.

###

University of Helsinki: http://www.helsinki.fi

Thanks to University of Helsinki for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/116382/Aging_related_degeneration_caused_by_defects_of_energy_metabolism_in_tissue_stem_cells__

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Ron Paul Energizing First-Time Caucusers In Iowa

"He's one of the only honest politicians left," one voter says of Dr. Paul.
By Gil Kaufman, with reporting by Andrew Jenks


Ron Paul meets with supporters in Iowa
Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

DES MOINES, IOWA — There's a very good reason that long-serving Texas Congressman and Tea Party Godfather Ron Paul has rocketed up the ranks in this crucial early caucus state: passion. Specifically, the kind of wide-eyed enthusiasm and dedication he inspires in young first-time caucusers like Carl Bisenius and his friends.

"I've made my decision and I'm going to vote for Ron Paul," said Bisenius, 19, of neighboring Ankeny, Iowa. "Mostly because he seems the most honest. He's got the best record out of all of them and I really agree with everything he says." Bisenius said he's been absorbing as much information as he can about the Republicans vying for the nomination while volunteering at a Paul call center in his hometown and he's convinced that the libertarian fire starter is the one who can beat President Obama.

"A lot of people are sick of politicians lying all the time, and he's one of the only honest politicians left," said Bisenius.

As he huddled around a table on Sunday night at Mullet's, a beer and burgers joint in the shadow of the state capitol in downtown Des Moines, Bisenius' confidence was bolstered by some cold, hard facts from friend Jay Fieser, 20, of Iowa City. A political science major the University of Iowa, Fieser said he paid "a bit" of attention to the 2008 election in which Paul also ran and has since learned enough about early 20th century foreign policy that he believes Rep. Paul is the man for the job.

"I think it would be interesting to see the United States going back to some kind of policies like that ... ending the policing of the world," said Fieser about Paul's isolationist arguments. As he spoke, an endless barrage of commercials from candidates Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry flashed by on the bar's flat screen TVs as the top candidates made a final, furious push to woo Hawkeye State voters.

"His foreign policy is what really drew me to him ... I don't like the two-party system here and he doesn't seem heavily invested in the Republican Party and they don't seem to like him that much. People are saying if he gets elected there will be a reshuffling of the parties and I'd like to see that."

Paul has drawn attention for a number of his beliefs, inlcuding not intervening in international conflicts, voting against the Iraq war, withdrawing from the United Nations, rejecting amnesty for illegal aliens and eliminating such federal government agencies as the Departments of Education, Energy, Commerce and IRS.

And, in some ways, Fieser said it is precisely because the rank-and-file of the GOP and the mainstream media have ignored or ridiculed Dr. Paul that he is so interested in the former obstetrician's views. "People are kind of sick of what's been going on in Washington for so long ... I think they're really staring to look at Ron Paul because of that," he said.

It is one of Paul's more radical ideas — returning the U.S. to the gold standard — that caught the eye of first-time caucuser Daniel Swenson, 18. "He seems to be the really only candidate that his voting record reflects his policies and principles he stands for. That's what really draws me to him," he said, citing Paul's claims that returning to the standard the country abandoned in 1933 in order to emerge from the Great Depression could help turn around our current economic crisis.

Like his friends, Danielson said he planned to do his part in the days leading up to Tuesday's vote by talking to his family and other undecided voters about Paul's policies and trying to sway them to cast a vote for the second-time presidential candidate.

MTV is on the scene in Iowa! Head to Iowa.MTV.com for all our Iowa caucus coverage, and stick with PowerOf12.org throughout the presidential election season to follow Andrew Jenks on the campaign trail.

Related Videos

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1676638/iowa-caucus-ron-paul-supporters.jhtml

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Ecologists call for screening imported plants to prevent a new wave of invasive species

ScienceDaily (Jan. 4, 2012) ? A recent analysis led by ecologist Bethany Bradley at the University of Massachusetts Amherst suggests that climate change predicted for the United States will boost demand for imported drought- and heat-tolerant landscaping plants from Africa and the Middle East. This greatly increases the risk that a new wave of invasives will overrun native ecosystems in the way kudzu, Oriental bittersweet and purple loosestrife have in the past, members of the international team say.

The kudzu invasion of the past few decades saw whole forests overgrown in the Southeast, along with hedgerows, power lines and even houses. In wetlands across the nation, purple loosestrife is crowding out native marsh plants, and Oriental bittersweet, if left unchecked, shades and chokes out native trees, bushes and shrubs along streams, forest and field edges.

Bradley and colleagues recommend that U.S. authorities adopt proactive management practices, in particular pre-emptive screening of nursery stock before new plants are imported, to prevent such an explosion of new invasives. Their conclusions appear in an early online edition of the Feb. 1 issue of Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment.

As the UMass Amherst environmental conservationist and lead author explains, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has proposed the Not Authorized Pending Pest Risk Analysis (NAPPRA) rule to regulate the industry. The rule would require importers to notify the USDA of proposed imports. USDA scientists would then conduct a timely risk assessment and issue a recommendation to allow or curtail the import.

"Our study identifies climate change as a risk, which combined with other factors is likely to increase demand for imported heat- and drought-tolerant plants, but this emerging threat is one that policy can effectively address," Bradley says. "The USDA has tools to reduce import risk and we advocate that now is the time put them in place. Pre-import screening has been tested in Australia for about 10 years now and it's not foolproof, but it seems to have done a good job of separating the really bad import ideas from more benign introductions."

Not all imported plants become invasive, but those that do can become a significant threat to native plants and we should not be complacent about the current situation, she says. About 60 percent of plants now considered invasive were introduced deliberately through the plant trade. The other 40 percent are human-related accidental introductions such as seeds stuck in cargo or shipping containers. Only a tiny fraction of non-native introductions are from natural causes such as blowing in with a hurricane, Bradley says.

She and colleagues point out that rising average temperatures in certain regions of the U.S. are already shifting plant hardiness zones northward and the trend is expected to continue globally. Their study suggests that with the earlier onset of spring, warmer winters, economic globalization and increased trade with emerging economies in Asia and Africa, we may face a significant new wave of invasive plant introductions.

For this analysis of the intersection of global trade and climate change, the ecologists used import values from 1989 to 2010 to identify emerging trade partners, because earlier studies had established a clear link between increased trade and the number of invasive species. They found 42 emerging trade partners poised to supply new nursery plant varieties including Thailand, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Ecuador, Argentina and several in equatorial Africa.

The rate of introduction is steepest in the early stages of new trade relationships, the authors say. "Unfortunately, increasing the variety and availability of non-native, drought-tolerant species could also increase the probability of introducing species capable of invading dryland regions." Bradley adds, "In the desert Southwest this has already been happening with xeriscaping, which is becoming more and more popular." Xeriscaping refers to gardening with low or no need for watering.

Bradley and colleagues' work focuses on introduction, the first of three stages of invasion, because "stopping invasions before they start is the most effective way of preventing widespread ecological and economic impacts," she says. "Globalization has accelerated the rate of introduction from a few species at the first colonization of North America to now, when we probably see thousands of new species each year. All we need is another kudzu to have a big impact."

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation's National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.


Journal Reference:

  1. Bethany A Bradley, Dana M Blumenthal, Regan Early, Edwin D Grosholz, Joshua J Lawler, Luke P Miller, Cascade JB Sorte, Carla M D'Antonio, Jeffrey M Diez, Jeffrey S Dukes, Ines Ibanez, Julian D Olden. Global change, global trade, and the next wave of plant invasions. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 2011; : 111202080547004 DOI: 10.1890/110145

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/oX2KvFCVaB0/120104153735.htm

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Mayo Clinic studies identify risk factors in rising trend of liver cancer

[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 3-Jan-2012
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Contact: Nick Hanson
newsbureau@mayo.edu
507-284-5005
Mayo Clinic

ROCHESTER, Minn. Doctors have known for years that the incidence of deadly liver cancer is on the rise, but what is causing that trend has remained a mystery. Two recent Mayo Clinic studies published in the January issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings offer a clearer picture of the rise of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), or liver cancer, which has tripled in the U.S. in the last three decades and has a 10 to 12 percent five-year survival rate when detected in later stages.

"The studies illuminate the importance of identifying people with risk factors in certain populations to help catch the disease in its early, treatable stages," said W. Ray Kim, M.D., a specialist in Gastroenterology and Hepatology and principal investigator of one study.

Dr. Kim's research group looked at several decades of records in the Rochester Epidemiology Project, a database that accounts for an entire county's inpatient and outpatient care. The study found the overall incidence of HCC in the population (6.9 per 100,000) is higher than has been estimated for the nation based on data from the National Cancer Institute (5.1 per 100,000). The study also found that HCC, which two decades ago tended to be caused by liver-scarring diseases such as cirrhosis from alcohol consumption, is now occurring as a consequence of hepatitis C infection.

"The liver scarring from hepatitis C can take 20 to 30 years to develop into cancer," Dr. Kim says. "We're now seeing cancer patients in their 50s and 60s who contracted hepatitis C 30 years ago and didn't even know they were infected."

Eleven percent of cases were linked to obesity, in particular fatty liver disease.

"It's a small percentage of cases overall," Dr. Kim says. "But with the nationwide obesity epidemic, we believe the rates of liver cancer may dramatically increase in the foreseeable future."

Another study looked exclusively at the Somali population, which is growing in the U.S., particularly in Minnesota, where as many as 50,000 Somalis have settled in the last two decades. The East African country is known to have a high prevalence of hepatitis B, a risk factor for HCC.

Researchers investigating records in the Mayo Clinic Life Sciences System confirmed that hepatitis B remains a risk factor, but they were surprised to find that a significant percentage of liver cancer cases in the population are attributable to hepatitis C, which had not been known to be significantly prevalent.

"The study suggests that screening for hepatitis C would be helpful for the Somali population and would enable close surveillance of liver cancer among those at risk," says lead author Abdirashid Shire, Ph.D., a Mayo Clinic researcher. "That would greatly improve treatment and survival of Somalis with this type of cancer."

###

The studies were funded by the National Institute of Health and the Mayo Clinic Center for Translational Science Activities.

About Mayo Clinic

Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit worldwide leader in medical care, research and education for people from all walks of life. For more information, visit www.mayoclinic.com and www.mayoclinic.org/news.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 3-Jan-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Nick Hanson
newsbureau@mayo.edu
507-284-5005
Mayo Clinic

ROCHESTER, Minn. Doctors have known for years that the incidence of deadly liver cancer is on the rise, but what is causing that trend has remained a mystery. Two recent Mayo Clinic studies published in the January issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings offer a clearer picture of the rise of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), or liver cancer, which has tripled in the U.S. in the last three decades and has a 10 to 12 percent five-year survival rate when detected in later stages.

"The studies illuminate the importance of identifying people with risk factors in certain populations to help catch the disease in its early, treatable stages," said W. Ray Kim, M.D., a specialist in Gastroenterology and Hepatology and principal investigator of one study.

Dr. Kim's research group looked at several decades of records in the Rochester Epidemiology Project, a database that accounts for an entire county's inpatient and outpatient care. The study found the overall incidence of HCC in the population (6.9 per 100,000) is higher than has been estimated for the nation based on data from the National Cancer Institute (5.1 per 100,000). The study also found that HCC, which two decades ago tended to be caused by liver-scarring diseases such as cirrhosis from alcohol consumption, is now occurring as a consequence of hepatitis C infection.

"The liver scarring from hepatitis C can take 20 to 30 years to develop into cancer," Dr. Kim says. "We're now seeing cancer patients in their 50s and 60s who contracted hepatitis C 30 years ago and didn't even know they were infected."

Eleven percent of cases were linked to obesity, in particular fatty liver disease.

"It's a small percentage of cases overall," Dr. Kim says. "But with the nationwide obesity epidemic, we believe the rates of liver cancer may dramatically increase in the foreseeable future."

Another study looked exclusively at the Somali population, which is growing in the U.S., particularly in Minnesota, where as many as 50,000 Somalis have settled in the last two decades. The East African country is known to have a high prevalence of hepatitis B, a risk factor for HCC.

Researchers investigating records in the Mayo Clinic Life Sciences System confirmed that hepatitis B remains a risk factor, but they were surprised to find that a significant percentage of liver cancer cases in the population are attributable to hepatitis C, which had not been known to be significantly prevalent.

"The study suggests that screening for hepatitis C would be helpful for the Somali population and would enable close surveillance of liver cancer among those at risk," says lead author Abdirashid Shire, Ph.D., a Mayo Clinic researcher. "That would greatly improve treatment and survival of Somalis with this type of cancer."

###

The studies were funded by the National Institute of Health and the Mayo Clinic Center for Translational Science Activities.

About Mayo Clinic

Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit worldwide leader in medical care, research and education for people from all walks of life. For more information, visit www.mayoclinic.com and www.mayoclinic.org/news.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-01/mc-mcs010312.php

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UK police inquiry focuses on missing women (AP)

LONDON ? Police trying to identify the body of a young woman found on Queen Elizabeth II's Sandringham estate say they are focusing on cases of women who have gone missing in recent months.

A spokesman said Wednesday that more information about the murder mystery should be made available in the afternoon.

DNA samples are expected to provide some vital clues.

The body was discovered on New Year's Day in a forest three miles from the queen's house. Police say the body had been there for between one and four months.

British newspapers have focused on several missing women, but police say they cannot speculate about the woman's identity.

The queen and her husband, Prince Philip, were in residence at the estate when the body was found.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/britain/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120104/ap_on_re_eu/eu_britain_human_remains

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