(Press-News.org) INDIANAPOLIS - An Indiana University cancer researcher and her colleagues have identified genetic markers that may help determine who benefits from regular use of aspirin and other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs for lowering one's risk of developing colorectal cancer.
Previous studies have shown that regular use of aspirin and NSAIDs lower one's risk of colorectal cancer, but their use is not recommended as a way to prevent the disease because of uncertainty about the risks and benefits. Thus, the researchers set out to examine the interrelationship between genetic markers and the use of aspirin and NSAIDs to learn who actually benefits from their use. They did so by conducting a genome-wide analysis of gene by environment interactions.
Hongmei Nan, M.D., Ph.D., research associate professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health at IUPUI and a researcher at the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center, and her colleagues found that colorectal cancer risk differed according to genetic variation at two single nucleotide polymorphisms -- more commonly known as SNPs -- at chromosomes 12 and 15. Interestingly, for the SNP at chromosome 12, they found that aspirin and/or NSAID use was associated with a lower risk of colorectal cancer among individuals with a specific genotype, while a higher risk was found among those with other genotypes.
Their study was published March 17 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
"These novel findings have substantial clinical significance," Dr. Nan, the lead author, said. "Our findings, if validated in additional populations, may facilitate targeted colorectal cancer prevention strategies and contribute to precision medicine."
This study is the first and largest genome-wide analysis of gene by environment interactions between SNPs and regular use of aspirin and/or NSAIDs in relation to colorectal cancer risk. In this case-control study using the Colon Cancer Family Registry and the Genetics and Epidemiology of Colorectal Cancer Consortium, the authors included 8,634 colorectal cancer cases and 8,553 non-cancerous controls.
Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in the United States, according to the National Cancer Institute. In 2014, it was estimated that there would be 136,830 new cases of colorectal cancer and an estimated 50,310 people would die from the disease.
INFORMATION:
Collaborators included Ulrike Peters, Ph.D., M.P.H., and Li Hsu, Ph.D., both of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center; and Andrew Chan, M.D., M.P.H., of the Massachusetts General Hospital.
This study was supported, in part, by the National Institutes of Health under grant numbers CA137088, CA059045, CA122839, CA097735, CA074783, CA074794, CA48998, CA055075, CA167552, CA137178, CA151993, CA127003, DK098311, CA074783, CA076366, and CA154337.
New research published with the support of the FP7 large-scale bioinformatics project Building the European Biodiversity Observation Network (EU BON) and the Alien Challenge COST action reveals the importance of open data in the study and control of invasive alien species. The study was published online in open access in the journal Management of Biological Invasions.
Invasive alien species cause a wide variety of problems, including issues related to conservation; to human and animal health; to agriculture and to fisheries management. But how can science be useful to ...
Cramping abdominal pains, diarrhea, bloody stools--these are common symptoms of chronic inflammatory bowel disease. Every year, up to 1470 children and adolescents in Germany develop the disease. But chronic inflammatory bowel disease is mostly diagnosed too late in these patients, as Stephan Buderus, Dietmar Scholz, and colleagues show in an original article in the current issue of Deutsches Ärzteblatt International (Dtsch Arztebl Int 2015; 112: 121-7). The average delay between initial symptoms and diagnosis is four to six months. In most cases, the inflammation ...
DETROIT - New animal studies at Henry Ford Hospital found that sildenafil, a drug commonly used to treat erectile dysfunction, may be effective in relieving painful and potentially life-threatening nerve damage in men with long-term diabetes.
The research targeted diabetic peripheral neuropathy, the most common complication of diabetes, affecting as many as 70 percent of patients.
The study was recently published online in PLOS ONE.
Lei Wang, M.D., the Henry Ford neuroscientist who led the research, said that although numerous drugs have been shown to be effective in ...
CLEVELAND, Ohio (March 17, 2015)--Hormones may not protect women from heart disease or stroke after menopause, but when combined with cholesterol-lowering statin drugs, they may help protect women from these killers, shows a population study from Sweden to be published in the April issue of Menopause, the journal of The North American Menopause Society (NAMS). During the study, women who took both hormones and statins had a significantly lower risk of dying of any cause and a moderately lower risk of dying of cardiovascular disease.
Using health information from national ...
CLEMSON, S.C. -- Placing less reliance on monitoring software and modifying new media training to align with student-athletes' habits and input will promote more positive and responsible usage of social networks.
This is the key finding by researchers from Clemson University, Baylor University and the University of Florida and published in the International Journal of Sport Communication.
The study explored college athletes' social media use and their experiences with and attitudes about a rising trend in college athletics: social media education.
Given the media ...
This news release is available in French. Researchers at the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital -The Neuro, at McGill University and the MUHC, are working to develop a much needed tool for helping diagnose concussions or mild traumatic brain injuries suffered by thousands of young Canadians ---hockey and football players among them. Post-concussion symptoms can include physical ailments, emotional disturbances and sleep disruption. Objective methods for predicting how severely mild brain trauma can affect a young person's brain are sorely needed. The potential ...
For Arctic marine mammals, the future is especially uncertain. Loss of sea ice and warming temperatures are shifting already fragile Northern ecosystems.
The precarious state of those mammals is underscored in a multinational study led by a University of Washington scientist, published this week in Conservation Biology, assessing the status of all circumpolar species and subpopulations of Arctic marine mammals, including seals, whales and polar bears. The authors outline the current state of knowledge and their recommendations for the conservation of these animals over ...
The prices of leading cancer drugs have risen at rates far outstripping inflation over the last two decades, according to a new study co-authored by an MIT economist -- but the exact reasons for the cost increases are unclear.
Since 1995, a group of 58 leading cancer drugs has increased in price by 10 percent annually, even when adjusted for inflation and incremental health benefits, the study finds. More specifically, in 1995, cancer drugs in this group cost about $54,100 for each year of life they were estimated to add; by 2013, such drugs cost about $207,000 per each ...
WASHINGTON, March 17, 2015 -- Apart from their style, sunglasses have changed very little in the last few decades. Photochromic lenses that change from clear to tinted in sunlight were a big breakthrough. Now new research from ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces could give that technology a big boost. Researchers at Georgia Tech have developed a polymer coating that changes colors with the push of a button. John Reynolds, Ph.D. and his team explain these "sunglasses on demand" in the latest episode of ACS Headline Science available here: https://youtu.be/RlfOcSUpyAA.
Subscribe ...
Queen's University professor Allyson Harrison has uncovered anomalies and issues with the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Fourth Edition (WAIS-IV), one of the most widely used intelligence tests in the world. IQ scores are used to predict educational success, to help identify intellectual disabilities or intellectual giftedness and to establish whether a person has a specific learning disability.
For her research, Dr. Harrison and her colleagues examined the differences between Canadian and American WAIS-IV scores from 861 postsecondary students from across Ontario. ...
