Truemors
You're in the shower soaping yourself up, when you think you feel a lump in your breast. You feel a knife enter your heart as you raise your arm and begin your normal, thorough, monthly breast check.
Thoughts of washing have left your mind as you take a deep breath and try to remain calm. Your trembling hand moves in slow but firm circular motion, as the water pours over you - and you try not to deliberately avoid the area where you first felt the lump.
This is every woman's fear, though it's not strictly a women's disease. Men get breast cancer too. And not only men and women - but dogs too. Vets even recommend spaying dogs before their first heat in order to protect our precious pets from contracting breast cancer in later life.
In 2006, the American Cancer Society estimated that 212,920 new cases of invasive breast cancer would occur - and of those, 41,970 people would die. That's a horrifying number!
According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer in France, the most common cancer of women worldwide is breast cancer, with more than a million new cases reported each year.
However .....
Proteins have been identified in saliva that can flag breast cancer.
Earlier this month, researchers at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston, announced a new study which has conclusively proved that a saliva test can identify specific protein markers in human saliva. When someone has breast cancer, the normal type and amount of proteins in glandular secretions is altered.
Streckfus and colleagues found about 130 proteins altogether. 49 of them were differently expressed between the healthy control pool and the two tumor pools.
One saliva sample was taken from those people in the study who had benign breast tumors; another sample was taken from those who had a malignant breast tumor and the last was a control sample taken from people who were perfectly healthy.
The research involved looking for differential expressions of proteins, using isotope tagging. Both tumor groups were compared to the healthy control group. One hundred and thirty proteins were found, but amazingly forty-nine of them were differently expressed between those that were healthy and the two control groups that had tumors.
Unbelievably, they also managed to find unique proteins that occur in a particular benign tumor called fibroadenoma, which is the most common type of benign breast tumor found. Streckfus explained:
"This is a unique finding, as it targets both the benign and malignant tumor, which could potentially reduce the number of false positives and false negatives associated with current cancer diagnostics".
Who are the researchers?
While The UT Health Science Center (Houston;) The University of Texas M.D; Anderson Cancer Center and the Texas Medical Center fostered and collaborated on the study, the following people actually made up the research team:
Lead researcher: Charles Streckfus, D.D.S., Professor of diagnostic sciences, with expertise in salivary function and molecular epidemiology;
Co-researcher: William P. Dubinsky;
Biochemist: William Dubinsky, Ph.D., Professor of integrative biology and pharmacology at University of Texas Medical School;
Clinical Research Professor: Lenora Bigler, Ph.D., at UT Dental Branch.
Kudos everyone!
When asked where and how would these tests be administered to patients: Streckfus offered:
"Why not the dentist?
Most folks, especially women and children, visit the dental office way more often than they ever see the physician. Saliva is a non-invasive, quicker way for detection."
Now, that's a major point. It's long been known that early detection is the key to killing cancer. We could just go along to the dentist and be tested for breast cancer the same day we're having our teeth cleaned, or at any other appointment.
Apparently, testing saliva is a better indicator (because it's clear and colorless,) than testing blood, which can change in color and skew test results. The other plus for some people, is that it's a safer procedure than taking blood. There are no needles or puncture wounds; it's not invasive and it's pain free.
Saliva holds the codes to a plethora of medical secrets and can be used as an indicator for all kinds of illnesses. According to Dubinsky:
"Saliva is a complex mixture of proteins. We go through a process that compares different samples by chemically labeling them in such a way that we cannot only identify the protein, but determine how much of it is in each sample."
Device? What device?
The researchers are now working on a diagnostic device which is currently the size of a refrigerator. However, they're confident that they'll be able to reduce it's bulky size to one that's more convenient - such as a cell phone.
A working prototype, would be a tool for dentists in evaluating a patient's saliva sample. This could easily be accomplished as part of a normal teeth cleaning appointment and will negate the need for any laboratory work on the sample.
Then depending on the results, the dentist will give his patient a big ol' smile and say "Your all clear this month!" or, he'll tell you that you need to go to your doctor as soon as possible.
Research into salivary diagnostics, will continue in the hopes that it will also be useful in detecting ovarian, endometrial, cervical, neck and head cancers. Should you wish to know more, the study was published on January 10th, 2008 in the journal, Cancer Investigation.
So how does the future for a breast cancer cure, look?
It's getting better, though still bleak, progress is being made. The Susan G., Komen for the Cure Foundation, advises us that over the next twenty-five years, twenty-five million women will die from breast cancer.
Streckfus believes that the ability to distinguish between benign and malignant tumors chemically through a saliva test, will also eliminate any false-positive results. Many women have had suffered thinking they were clear, only to be met with heartbreak when they find out that the opposite result is true.
"Dentistry has entered an exciting new era" said Catherine M. Flaitz, D.D.S., dean of the UT Dental Branch in Houston. She went on to say:
"On every front, our researchers are exploring links between oral health and the overall health of patients, often with astonishing findings."
The significance of oral biomarkers in predicting health and disease, is more than likely going to need a lot more research but with such a startling discovery, who knows what else our saliva can indicate in terms of ill health.
This is why research is so important, this is why they continually need funding for without it, many millions of people are still doomed to die.
Sources:
MSNBC
Science Daily
New Medical.net
Medical News Today!
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