Study: Cancer Prevention Advances

New research that shows certain metabolites initiate some human cancers could lead to better prevention and cancer risk assessment.

Researchers from the University of Kansas and the University of Nebraska found certain metabolites of natural estrogens can react with DNA to cause specific damage that initiates the series of events leading to breast, prostate and other cancers.

Dr. Ercole Cavalieri of the University of Nebraska Medial Center’s Eppley Cancer Institute, a co-author of the study, said eliminating the initiating event could help researchers find ways to prevent cancer.

Estrogens can induce cancer when natural mechanisms of protection do not work properly in our body, and the estrogen quinones are able to react with DNA, he said. In fact, if these protections are insufficient, due to genetic, lifestyle or environmental influences, then cancer can result.

Cavalieri said there is more of a need to asses a person’s risk for cancer and begin treatments to ensure one’s body can block the estrogen metabolites.

The study will be presented at the Southwestern and Rocky Mountain Division of the American Association for the Advancement of Science on April 7.