Linda in Borrego Springs
No, wait. This must be England
As most of you know, I use “Google Alerts” to help me keep
up with developments in the ovarian cancer field. Google Alerts isn’t very selective; it will
feature a lurid apocalyptic article in a British tabloid sandwiched between news from sources that are
so sober and serious as to be the next best thing to an academic journal. Of course, I ignore the splashy stuff (and
puzzle over the rest). Well, between
October 20 and 23 there occurred a flurry of articles concerning a correlation
between IVF (in vitro fertilization) and the probability of contracting ovarian
cancer. In a substantial British study,
women who underwent IVF were about one third more likely to contract OVCA than
women who did not. The researchers hasten
to say that the fault lies not with the IVF procedure itself, but rather the need for
it. In other words, some molecular
mistake contributes both to infertility and ovarian-cancer susceptibility. They are now searching for the causative
link. Good, fundamental biology, I
guess. Nine articles on this same
subject were noted in three days. Here
is the most informative:
http://www.foodworldnews.com/articles/45755/20151021/can-infertility-point-to-ovarian-cancer-risk.htm
It should be
pointed out that several of these articles note that this (British) result
contradicts the findings of a much larger study performed recently in
Sweden, I consider this kind of
thing major drag.
And, if you
have begun to think that cancer researchers all are meticulous, cautious and not
given to premature enthusiasm, read this:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-10/uosc-boc101915.php
It appears
that there is evidence that having a BRCA1 mutation enhances the ability to
smell, in addition to increasing the probability of contracting breast and/or
ovarian cancer. This is the conclusion
of a murine experiment. (Murine means
mouse.) The statistics can’t be too
griping, however: the whole damned thing had an N of 4!
Now here is evidence that at least some people suspect that the IVF procedure itself may be to blame. Sounds fishy to me.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ifreepress.com/4821-ivf-shock-study-treatment-could-increase-risk-of-cancer-by-a-third/