August, 2007
Happiness is good scenery, a good dessert, and her sister nearby
Well, I have been feeling bad about giving up on Dr. Auersperg’s
important paper – and the bumptious way I (sort of) dissed her in the appended
Comment. So I made another attempt. Turns out the article isn’t all that hard to
follow – if you have a computer at your right elbow to enable you to look up
every fourth word. I make no pretense of
“translating” the whole article, but here is a stab at its conclusions. One is pretty important.
The subject is the origin of HGSOC – high grade serous
ovarian cancer. The question: where does it originate? The answer: probably both in things called
OSE cysts (OSE stands for ovarian surface epithelium), and in other things
called ovarian fimbriae. The latter are
tentacle like objects that extend from
the fallopian tube toward the ovary. (Contrary
to my former visualization, fallopian tubes and ovaries are not physically attached. Apparently, during ovulation these fimbriae gently
stroke the ovary, inducing it to cough up one of more eggs, then ever so gently sweep
the egg into the fallopian tube – and hence onward, to greater glory.)
The conclusion: HGSOC can arise in both places. Why is this surprising? Because cancers arising in both places are
identical, genetically speaking. This is
unusual: cancers arising in different organs usually are genetically
distinct. Dr. Auersperg’s suggestion:
They both arise from developmentally identical tissue – the Mullerian duct if
you must know. Moreover, they have not
fully “differentiated”; that is, they retain some aspects of stem cell
(pluripotent) behavior. Which is bad, I
guess.
Okay, so what do we learn from this? For one thing – this stuff is so complicated
that, at my present rate of progress it will take me 25 years to get up to
speed. That would make me the world’s
first 106-year-old Nobel Laureate
More important, it seems to me to be saying that surgery to
prevent ovarian cancer better take out both ovaries and fallopian tubes. At times in the past I think I have suggested
otherwise. It seems that I was wrong.
Ha! The Turks are at it again. So far this week my blog has received 107 "hits" from the United States, 11 from the rest of the world except Turkey - and 87 from Turkey! Tis a puzzlement.
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