Free Listening English lessons

New Findings on Surgery for Women With Cancer Genes

November 14th, 2010 at 01:23am Under Health report

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

Every year, one million women around the world are found to have breast cancer. Almost two hundred thousand others are told they have ovarian cancer.

The decisions for treatment are more difficult when the women have abnormal versions of two genes called BRCA1 and BRCA2. The mutations in these genes can increase the risk for other kinds of cancer, including cancer of the cervix, uterus and pancreas.

SANDRA COHEN: “It’s kinds of like you are sitting on a time bomb waiting for cancer to occur, and it really does a number on you mentally to deal with that every single day.”

Sandra Cohen has never had breast cancer or ovarian cancer. But she has the BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations. So she decided to have doctors remove her breasts and ovaries. She made the decision after her mother and grandmother both died from the same kind of cancers.

Doctors have known for several years that preventative surgery reduces the risk of ovarian and breast cancer for women with the mutations. But a new study also shows that these operations help those patients live longer.

The four-year study involved about two thousand five hundred women with the genetic mutations.

One of the researchers was Doctor Susan Domchek at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

SUSAN DOMCHECK: “Women who had their ovaries removed had a decrease in the risk of breast cancer, a decrease in the risk of ovarian cancer and, in addition, they were less likely to die of breast cancer, less likely to die of ovarian cancer and also had an improvement in their overall survival.”

VOA

Doctor Susan Domchek at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine helped lead a 4-year study on preventive surgery in women

The study found that none of the women who had preventative breast removal developed breast cancer. Seven percent later did among those who decided against the surgery.

The rate of breast cancer was also seven percent among women who did not have their ovaries removed. Among those who did, the breast cancer rate was one percent.

The study also found that the women who had ovarian removal lowered their risk of death from ovarian cancer by almost eighty percent. Their risk of death from breast cancer was fifty-six percent lower, says Doctor Susan Domchek.

SUSAN DOMCHEK: “Our conclusion is that removing the ovaries particularly is very beneficial to women with BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations.”

The researchers say women with a strong family history of breast or ovarian cancers should get genetic testing. Sandra Cohen did.

SANDRA COHEN: “Do some research with a genetic counselor. Meet some other women who have gone through it. It really will empower you and give you strength to take some action.”

The study appeared in JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association.

And that’s the VOA Special English Health Report, with reporting by Melinda Smith and sound provided by JAMA. You can find our programs online at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember.

By admin 12 comments

Experts Urge More Efforts to Fight Cancer in Poor Countries

October 13th, 2010 at 12:11am Under Health report

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

Health experts are calling for action to expand cancer care and control in the developing world. A paper published by the medical journal Lancet says cancer was once thought of mostly as a problem in the developed world. But it says cancer is now a leading cause of death and disability in poor countries.

Experts from Harvard University and other organizations urge the international community to fight cancer aggressively. They say it should be fought the way HIV/AIDS has been fought in Africa.

Cancer kills more than seven and a half million people a year worldwide. The experts say almost two-thirds are in low-income and middle-income countries.

They say cancer kills more people in developing countries than AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined. But they say the world spends only five percent of its cancer resources in those countries.

Felicia Knaul from the Harvard Medical School was one of the authors of the paper. She was in Mexico when she was found to have breast cancer. She received treatment there. She says the experience showed her the sharp divide between the rich and the poor in treating breast cancer.

FELICIA KNAUL: “And we are seeing more and more how this is attacking young women. It’s the number two cause of death in Mexico for women thirty to fifty-four. All over the developing world, except the poorest-poorest, it’s the number one cancer-related death among young women. And, I think we have to again say that there is much more we could do about it than we are doing about it.”

Professor Knaul met community health workers during her work in developing countries. She says they were an important part of efforts to reduce deaths from cervical cancer. They were able to persuade women to get tested and to get vaccinated against a virus that can cause it.

The experts say cancer care does not have to be costly. For example, patients can be treated with lower-cost drugs that are off-patent. This means the drugs are no longer legally protected against being copied.

In another new report, the American Cancer Society says cancer has the highest economic cost of any cause of death. It caused an estimated nine hundred billion dollars in economic losses worldwide in two thousand eight.

That was one and a half percent of the world economy, and just losses from early death and disability. The study did not estimate direct medical costs. But it says the productivity losses are almost twenty percent higher than for the second leading cause of economic loss, heart disease.

And that’s the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver with Vidushi Sinha. I’m Barbara Klein.

By admin 21 comments