CODGER CONFRONTS DNA METHYLATION

Linda in Thebes

Thank God I’ve found it!  There is an outfit called Two Minute Medicine that boils things down to such short-but-pithy, fact-loaded dimensions that even my fast-depleting store of energy can deal with them.  The article below tosses out some important facts that you all should  consider,  First, some background:

                Methylation:  An epigenetic process whereby a methyl group (CH₃) is attached to the DNA molecule.  The effect of methylation usually is to prevent the proper functioning of a gene.

                Promoter:  A segment of DNA which tells the mechanism that translate the DNA sequence constituting a gene into RNA where and when to start.

                Familial cancer:  A cancer that “runs” in a family, with no known inheritable mutated DNA source.  (A purist might cringe at that definition.)

So what they have found is that women with unmutated BRCA1 genes may still be abnormally susceptible to OVCA IF the promoter region of their BRCA gene is methylated.  Sounds reasonable, right?  Furthermore, they have found that the condition of methylated BRCA promoters can be inherited.   Voila!  Familial ovarian cancer.

It seems to me that this discovery adds even more to the case for universal screening of female infants, as well as gives us one more thing to test for.

Read this:

https://www.2minutemedicine.com/normal-tissue-brca1-methylation-associated-with-risk-for-high-grade-ovarian-cancer/

BLOGGER RETURNS FROM THE DEAD

Linda in Cairo

It has been 38 days since I last added something new to this blog.  Part of that extended hiatus is owing to  ten days in Alaska, first admiring my beautiful granddaughter receiving her RN certification, and then observing Christmas with my extended Cordova, Alaska, family, now swollen to a “go forth, be fruitful, and multiply” level of nine, if you include boyfriends.  However, upon returning to sunny Bellingham I have been engaged in a struggle with some kind of crud – not flu, but close.  For most of that time I have felt like the man described in a famous Yukon poem: “When into the din and the glare, there stumbled a miner fresh from the creeks, dog dirty but loaded for bear (that last doesn’t apply).  He looked like a man with a foot in the grave, with scarcely the strength of a louse….”*

Well, I am up to at least two-louse strength, so I am going to attempt a few cancer blogs, before I travel to Borrego Springs for the balance of the winter – probably next week.  However, at 2-louse strength about all I am up for is to direct you to a couple of important web sites:

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https://www.news-medical.net/news/20180118/Study-devises-efficient-and-economical-strategy-to-screen-breast-and-ovarian-cancer-gene-mutations.aspx

It has long been known that mutations of BRCA 1, or BRCA2, make women far more susceptible to breast and ovarian cancer.  The prevailing policy, however, has been not to offer testing to the general population, on the grounds that it would not be “cost effective”  (How I hate that term where cancer is concerned!)  Well, an authoritative study in the UK, using “complex mathematical models” indicates it is, in fact, demonstratively cost-effective.  Every woman should be offered that test, free of charge (fat chance.)   Hell, my wife died of ovarian cancer and I don’t even know whether she carried the BRCA mutations, or not.  Linda has several close female relatives, so it would be nice to know!

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https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/891412

Another new wrinkle in OVCA therapy.  If this had been available nine tears ago I might have had Linda for one more year.

 *Name the poem and the author