From the first moment my wife discovered she
had breast cancer, there was a deafening silence from the men I know. Even ones
whose wives, mothers or girlfriends had breast cancer seemed to have received a
gag order from some Central Cancer Command and did little more than mumble
about the experience. Not one to shut up for any known reason, I started this blog…That
was four years ago – as time passed, people searching for answers stumbled across
my blog and checked out what I had to say. The following entry first appeared in
June 2015.
In Germany, a team
of doctors at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University Medical
Center (Freiburg) have applied for a patent for a method they discovered for
simplifying the detection of breast cancer in a urine sample.
With half a million
women dying from breast cancer world-wide, the effectiveness of early
intervention and treatment, and “Up to now, doctors have made the diagnosis by
mammography or ultrasound and confirmed it with tissue samples...methods [that]
have been subject to recurring criticism due to radiation exposure, erroneous
results, and the fact that they involve an invasive intervention,” the
possibility of reaching more women, faster, and cheaper is very much a “golden
ring” in breast cancer research.
While the test was
small (24 women without breast cancer, and 24 women with stage 1, 2, or 3
breast cancer), the test was able to correctly determine whether or not breast
cancer was present 91% of the time. Further testing is being planned even as I
write this.
How does it find
evidence of breast cancer?
By highlighting
certain parts of a cell called “microRNA”. What’s that? In this case, “micro”
refers to how small the piece of RNA is – 20 bits (or nucleotides) long. Not
visible under a regular microscope, for
sure. But visible to tests designed to highlight them, absolutely. What’s RNA?
Most people know
that DNA is the stuff in a cell that makes us who we are. My DNA coded for me
being a Guy, blonde hair, blue eyes, and about six feet tall – as well as all
sorts of other stuff.
When my cells
split, especially while I was growing, a piece of RNA was made from the DNA of
my cells. Then the RNA kicked in, helping in the process of making a protein.
Proteins then transfer messages to cells – in the case of cancer, it directs
the cell to grow without stopping. (If you’re REALLY interested in this, start
with this article, then go to the Science Daily one, and then to the
BioMedCentral Journal article.)
This microRNA then
is floating around in the blood. It turns out that four of those kinds of
microRNA are specific to breast cancer. It’s these bits that this new test has
been able to identify.
Please note, this
has only been successful in ONE trial. The methodology has to be developed into
a real tool that ANYONE can use – in particular, the possibility of it being
used in developing countries and that it does not require invading the body
more than necessary is particularly hopeful!
But we HAVE TO
WAIT!
With great hope.
UPDATE: (April,
2018) “A new method for early and accurate breast cancer screening has been
developed by researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and Soroka
University Medical Center, using commercially available technology…gas-chromatography
mass spectrometry (GC-MS) to quantify substances found in urine…revamped statistical
analyses of urine samples submitted both by healthy patients and those
diagnosed with breast cancer yielded 85 percent average accuracy.” https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/04/180425120253.htm
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