April 23rd, 2010 by Chris Hitchcock
When I was pregnant and then learning to breast-feed my daughter, my doula told me that breast milk had great anti-biotic properties, and that it was good to use on eye-infections and cuts. Turns out that there is science behind that. Not only that, but now scientists have shown that breast milk contains substances that may kill cancerous cells. They’re calling the extracted substance HAMLET – not sure why a substance extracted from lactating women would be named after a grieving, tortured young man struggling with suicidal and homicidal thoughts, but I’ll leave more thoughts on that to those who are better at post-modern analysis.
It reminds me of the idea of harvesting stem-cells from menstrual blood. And also some questions about that. Like, is this one of the cases where it matters what produced the menstrual blood? Not all episodes of menstrual bleeding are the same. So how does stem cell quality differ among these different sources of uterine blood?
- a normal ovulatory cycle
- normal-length but anovulatory cycle
- very long or irregular cycles, which tend to be anovulatory
- withdrawal bleed when you are on the pill
- or even a post-menopausal vaginal bleed from taking sequential hormone therapy
I don’t even know if anyone is asking these questions, because there is relatively little interest or appreciation in the varieties of sources of menstrual blood and how it might change its quality.
Tags: blood, breast milk, C'elle, cancer, HAMLET, hormone therapy, life-giving fluids, Menstruation, ovulation, science, Shakespeare, stem cells, vaginal bleeding
Posted in anatomy, Menstruation, New Research | 3 Comments »
January 26th, 2010 by Elizabeth Kissling
Researchers in Italy have recently completed a study comparing the effectiveness of DNA testing for HPV (human papillomavirus) to the commonly used Pap smear for detecting cervical cancer. Their findings suggest that more cases of cervical cancer can be prevented with HPV testing than with the conventional Pap smear, especially for women over 35.
There are, however, some disadvantages to using DNA tests to detect HPV. For example, the test is less specific, which means that there are more false positives in the results. This means more women have to return for further testing. In practice, HPV screening has a callback rate of about 25-30%, compared to a callback rate of about 5-7% for Pap smears, according to Dr. Mark Einstein, a gynecologic oncologist and director of clinical research at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City.
Health News Review points out that although the HPV test is more effective in the sense that it prevents invasive cervical cancer by detecting persistent high-grade lesions earlier and providing a longer low-risk period for older women, replacing Pap smears with it is not necessarily more cost-effective for patients, given the costs of the additional colposcopies that result from the higher callback rate from HPV testing.
Tags: cancer, cervix, economics, Health Care, HPV
Posted in Health Care, New Research | 3 Comments »
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