Category Archives: Transhuman News

New versions of the Pap smear that check cells in the cervix for cancer may also identify malignancies of the ovaries and endometrium, a finding that could broaden the preventive benefits of the test.

In the study published today in the journal Science Translational Medicine, researchers found genes of cancer mutations in samples of cervical cells and secretions from Pap smears they tested. The DNA tests accurately detected all endometrial cancers and 41 percent of ovarian cancers.

No routine screening exists for endometrial or ovarian cancers, which were responsible for 47,000 and 22,000 new illnesses respectively in 2012, according to the National Cancer Institute. The Pap smear is routinely administered to women of reproductive age, and since its introduction has reduced the incidence and mortality of cervical cancer by 75 percent. Todays study may provide the first steps widening its success to more reproductive cancers, researchers said.

Even if tumors were identified at an advanced stage, detection of presymptomatic ovarian cancers could be of benefit, the authors wrote in the study. The earlier these advanced-stage ovarian cancers are diagnosed, the lower the overall tumor burden.

The investigators focused on 12 of the most common types of ovarian and endometrial cancer mutations. They were able to identify mutations in the DNA of Pap smear specimens in all 24 of the endometrial cancers surveyed, and 9 of 22 ovarian cancers.

More research needs to be done before this test can be broadly applied in gynecologists offices, the authors wrote. Todays findings may lead toward more routine testing.

The studys lead author was Isaac Kinde, a graduate student at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore. The work was funded by Across America, The Commonwealth Fund, and the Hilton-Ludwig Cancer Prevention Initiative, among others.

To contact the reporter on this story: Elizabeth Lopatto in San Francisco at elopatto@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reg Gale at rgale5@bloomberg.net

Excerpt from:
Pap Smear DNA Analysis May Find More Cancers, Study Shows

TORONTO - A man who believes he's the son of former prime minister John Diefenbaker is pleading to have his mother confirm his paternity, now that he's drawn a disappointing blank in his latest bid for genetic certainty.

Exhaustive DNA tests on a tooth found in a museum in Saskatoon were unable to come up with a definitive match to end George Dryden's quest once and for all.

"Unfortunately, so many people have mishandled the material over the years that it has been compromised to the point where it is impossible to obtain a clear DNA profile of Mr. Diefenbaker," the testing company said in a letter this week to Dryden.

"The evaluation we were able to do indicated some matching markers, but the results are inconclusive."

Dryden, 44, who bears a striking resemblance to Canada's 13th prime minister, has been on a two-year quest to nail down his paternity since discovering that Gordon Dryden, the man he always thought was his dad, was not his biological father.

His mother, Mary-Lou Dryden, was a known confidante of Diefenbaker, who was prime minister from 1957 to 1963 and died in 1979. She may have had an affair with the PM that produced Dryden, although Diefenbaker has always been believed to have been childless.

Dryden called the latest DNA dead end "disappointing."

"We're looking for a needle in a haystack trying to get DNA from somebody who's been dead for almost 35 years," Dryden said Tuesday.

"We've pretty much come to the end of the road if we can't get it off his tooth."

The Toronto businessman said the most obvious and viable next step is to find out from his mother who his father really was.

Continue reading here:
Disappointed 'Diefenbaby' draws DNA paternity blank; pleads to have mom asked

A day after an exhaustive national report on cancer found the United States is making only slow progress against the disease, one of the country's most iconic - and iconoclastic - scientists weighed in on "the war against cancer." And he does not like what he sees.

James Watson, co-discoverer of the double helix structure of DNA, lit into targets large and small. On government officials who oversee cancer research, he wrote in a paper published on Tuesday in the journal Open Biology, "We now have no general of influence, much less power ... leading our country's War on Cancer."

On the $100 million U.S. project to determine the DNA changes that drive nine forms of cancer: It is "not likely to produce the truly breakthrough drugs that we now so desperately need," Watson argued. On the idea that antioxidants such as those in colorful berries fight cancer: "The time has come to seriously ask whether antioxidant use much more likely causes than prevents cancer."

That Watson's impassioned plea came on the heels of the annual cancer report was coincidental. He worked on the paper for months, and it represents the culmination of decades of thinking about the subject. Watson, 84, taught a course on cancer at Harvard University in 1959, three years before he shared the Nobel Prize in medicine for his role in discovering DNAs double helix, which opened the door to understanding the role of genetics in disease.

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Other cancer luminaries gave Watson's paper mixed reviews.

"There are a lot of interesting ideas in it, some of them sustainable by existing evidence, others that simply conflict with well-documented findings," said one eminent cancer biologist who asked not to be identified so as not to offend Watson. "As is often the case, he's stirring the pot, most likely in a very productive way."

There is wide agreement, however, that current approaches are not yielding the progress they promised. Much of the decline in cancer mortality in the United States, for instance, reflects the decline in smoking, not the benefits of clever new therapies.

"The great hope of the modern targeted approach was that with DNA sequencing we would be able to find what specific genes, when mutated, caused each cancer," said molecular biologist Mark Ptashne of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. The next step was to design a drug to block the runaway proliferation the mutation caused.

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DNA pioneer attacks cancer researchers

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A day after an exhaustive national report on cancer found the United States is making only slow progress against the disease, one of the country's most iconic - and iconoclastic - scientists weighed in on "the war against cancer." And he does not like what he sees.

James Watson, co-discoverer of the double helix structure of DNA, lit into targets large and small. On government officials who oversee cancer research, he wrote in a paper published on Tuesday in the journal Open Biology, "We now have no general of influence, much less power ... leading our country's War on Cancer."

On the $100 million U.S. project to determine the DNA changes that drive nine forms of cancer: It is "not likely to produce the truly breakthrough drugs that we now so desperately need," Watson argued. On the idea that antioxidants such as those in colorful berries fight cancer: "The time has come to seriously ask whether antioxidant use much more likely causes than prevents cancer."

That Watson's impassioned plea came on the heels of the annual cancer report was coincidental. He worked on the paper for months, and it represents the culmination of decades of thinking about the subject. Watson, 84, taught a course on cancer at Harvard University in 1959, three years before he shared the Nobel Prize in medicine for his role in discovering the double helix, which opened the door to understanding the role of genetics in disease.

Other cancer luminaries gave Watson's paper mixed reviews.

"There are a lot of interesting ideas in it, some of them sustainable by existing evidence, others that simply conflict with well-documented findings," said one eminent cancer biologist who asked not to be identified so as not to offend Watson. "As is often the case, he's stirring the pot, most likely in a very productive way."

There is wide agreement, however, that current approaches are not yielding the progress they promised. Much of the decline in cancer mortality in the United States, for instance, reflects the fact that fewer people are smoking, not the benefits of clever new therapies.

GENETIC HOPES

"The great hope of the modern targeted approach was that with DNA sequencing we would be able to find what specific genes, when mutated, caused each cancer," said molecular biologist Mark Ptashne of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. The next step was to design a drug to block the runaway proliferation the mutation caused.

But almost none of the resulting treatments cures cancer. "These new therapies work for just a few months," Watson told Reuters in a rare interview. "And we have nothing for major cancers such as the lung, colon and breast that have become metastatic."

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DNA pioneer James Watson takes aim at "cancer establishments"

STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich. (AP) DNA from a Detroit-area man charged with killing four suspected escorts was found under the fingernails of one of the women, a scientist testified Wednesday.

More than a year later, a judge must determine whether James Brown will stand trial for first-degree murder in the December 2011 deaths.

The women were found in pairs in car trunks in Detroit, six days apart. Two of the victims were burned beyond recognition in a car that was set on fire. Doctors who performed autopsies believe all four died of asphyxiation.

Jennifer Jones, a Michigan State Police scientist, said Brown's DNA was under the fingernails of Renisha Landers and it can't be ruled out from evidence gathered from the nails of Demesha Hunt.

The blood of another victim, Natasha Curtis, was discovered on a closet door in Brown's Sterling Heights home and likely was on a pillow, Jones testified.

Dr. Francisco Diaz, an assistant Wayne County medical examiner, performed autopsies on Landers and Hunt. He found no signs that would suggest a physical struggle such as broken nails or contusions.

He said it's possible for someone to be asphyxiated without a struggle, especially if the attacker is larger than the victim. Brown is muscular, more than 6 feet tall and weighs more than 200 pounds.

Dr. Carl Schmidt, the county medical examiner, testified that Curtis and Vernithea McCrary were burned beyond recognition. But he believes they, too, were victims of asphyxiation before the fire.

"Clearly they were killed somewhere and the bodies were placed in trunks of cars. ... We don't know what happened, but we know something bad happened to them," Schmidt said.

At least three of the four women promoted themselves as escorts-for-hire on Backpage.com, which carries classified and personal ads.

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Man's DNA linked to 1 of 4 slain suspected escorts