Broken bones, the Pill, and ovarian cancer
Unexpected discovery may lower ovarian cancer risk
By Dawn Stapleton
What do bone fractures, breast infections, the use of oral contraceptives, and gynecologic surgeries have in common? The answer: All these seemingly disparate occurrences may lower a woman's risk of developing ovarian cancer by inducing some degree of immunity against the disease.
This protection, as recently described by scientists in Dana-Farber's Women's Cancers Program, comes about because these events stimulate antibodies against a protein named epithelial mucin 1—or MUC1—that signals the body's defenses to attack the cancer. This protein might point the way to a much-needed vaccine to prevent ovarian cancer.
The connection between these varied events and protection against ovarian cancer "is a surprising, but credible association," comments Daniel Cramer, MD, ScD, director, Obstetrics and Gynecology Epidemiology, Brigham and Women's Hospital and gynecologist and co-director of the Familial Ovarian Cancer Clinic, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, who led the study published in the May 2005 issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers, and Prevention.
The research connected the dots between two separate observations: One, that women with a history of some of the above experiences had a lower risk of ovarian cancer; and two, that ovarian cancer patients tended to survive longer if their blood harbored large numbers of antibodies against the MUC1 protein. The presence of the antibodies, which recognize and attack tumor cells that are heavily coated with MUC1, meant that patients had at some time mounted an immune response against the protein.
What does all this have to do with ovarian cancer? It turns out that MUC1—though in a slightly different form—is overproduced by ovarian cancer cells (and other cancers, such as breast). It would make sense, then, that women with high levels of MUC1 antibodies, triggered previously by one or more of the events identified by Dr. Cramer, could be benefiting from those antibodies attacking ovarian cancer precursors, preventing them from becoming cancerous.
"The implications are profound," explains Dr. Cramer, "because this research may eventually offer new avenues for ovarian cancer prevention through vaccines to stimulate immunity against MUC1 and perhaps other proteins associated with ovarian cancer."
- Next: A new perspective
- Page: 1 | 2 | 3 | Illustration: MUC1 to the defense
