Men carry breast cancer genes too
Sat, 15 Dec 2007 13:17:44 GMT
By MARILYNN MARCHIONE, AP Medical Writer
SAN ANTONIO - Doctors are encouraging a new group of people to consider getting tested for genes that raise the risk of breast cancer: men. Male relatives of women with such genes often do not realize that they, too, may carry them, and face greater odds of developing male breast cancer, as well as prostate, pancreatic and skin cancer, new research suggests.
"Everyone thinks of breast and ovarian cancer and just assumes it's all women. They don't even realize these genes can be inherited from the father's side of the family," said Dr. Mary Daly of Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia.
After seeing breast cancer in several male patients who did not know they were at risk, Daly conducted a small study, which was presented Friday at a conference in Texas. She now is trying to convince more fathers, sons and brothers of women with the genes to get tested.
"Very few of them want to," she said.
Breast cancer is the most common major cancer in American women. More than 178,000 new cases, and more than 40,000 deaths from it, are expected in the U.S. this year.
But men get it, too — about 2,030 cases are estimated to occur this year, accounting for about 1 percent of all breast cancer cases, according to the American Cancer Society. About 450 of these male cases will prove fatal.
The BRCA-1 or BRCA-2 genes markedly raise the risk of breast cancer and are most prevalent among those of Eastern European Jewish descent. In men, they double the normal risk of prostate cancer, triple the risk of pancreatic cancer and make breast cancer seven times more likely to develop.
As part of a larger study on perceptions of genetic risk, Daly surveyed 24 close blood relatives of women who had tested positive for one of these genes and had told their male kin the results.
Six men said they hadn't been told, or had forgotten. Of the other 18, two mistakenly said the test had been negative. Seven did not think the results revealed anything about their own cancer risk. Only five understood they, too, might carry the genes.
Of the six who expressed any interest in being tested themselves, three said they were doing so mostly for their children's sake.
"We try to reach out to the men in these families, particularly men who have little children," Daly said. "If they were to die without being tested, their children would grow up without that information" that they, too, were at risk, she said.
Dr. Steven Vogl, a cancer doctor in private practice in New York, said he recognized that potential when his neighbor was dying of lung cancer and told him how many female relatives had suffered or died of breast and other cancers.
"Being a good doctor, I took a history," and realized the man, an Eastern European Jew, probably had the gene.
"At least it will help his granddaughter" to know of the risk, Vogl said.
Women, too, need to realize they are doing male relatives and their descendants a favor when they reveal their own genetic risk from BRCA genes.
"They don't realize they are at risk," or that their grandchildren may be, Daly said.
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On the Net:
Breast cancer meeting: http://www.sabcs.org
National Cancer Institute: http://www.cancer.gov
American Cancer Society: http://www.cancer.org
Bird flu flares again in Asia
Sat, 15 Dec 2007 08:31:38 GMT
By MARGIE MASON, AP Medical Writer
HANOI, Vietnam - Bird flu has resurfaced in parts of Asia, with human deaths reported in Indonesia and China and fresh outbreaks plaguing other countries during the winter months when the virus typically flares.
Indonesia, the nation hardest hit by the H5N1 virus, announced its 93rd death on Friday. A 47-year-old man died a day earlier in a Jakarta hospital, said Health Ministry spokesman Joko Suyono. The man fell ill on Dec. 2 and was admitted with flu-like symptoms, becoming Indonesia's 115th person infected with the disease.
The World Health Organization also confirmed Myanmar's first human case. A 7-year-old girl from the eastern Shan State became ill Nov. 21 in an area where poultry outbreaks had earlier been reported. She was hospitalized and has since recovered.
The WHO hailed the secretive country for its transparency and swift action in alerting outside health officials about the case. Myanmar's ruling junta has been under international fire since September for killing and arresting pro-democracy protesters, with dissident groups putting the death toll about 200.
"They handled it very, very well," said Shima Roy, spokeswoman for WHO's regional office in New Delhi. "They actually did house-to-house surveillance, especially in the area where there had been an outbreak of avian influenza in poultry."
In China, the military in eastern Nanjing banned the sale of poultry this week after a father and son came down with the disease earlier this month. Health officials confirmed the 24-year-old man died from the virus a day before his father, 52, became sick. It was the country's 17th bird flu death.
The two were believed to have eaten a traditional dish known as "beggar's chicken," in which the bird is wrapped in lotus leaves and baked. However, the cause of infection remained unclear.
Most human cases have been linked to contact with sick birds, and experts say that no human bird flu cases have ever been traced to eating properly cooked poultry or eggs.
The father is recovering after taking the antiviral Tamiflu, said Hans Troedsson, World Health Organization representative in China. More than 80 people who had contact with the family were being monitored for symptoms.
Local animal health officials said last week no H5N1 outbreaks had been detected among the province's poultry, but Troedsson said sick birds typically are not reported prior to human deaths in China — a sign the country's surveillance systems need to be improved.
The virus has killed 208 people worldwide since it began ravaging Asian poultry stocks in late 2003, according to the WHO.
Scientists say it is impossible to predict what the H5N1 virus will do, but more bird flu outbreaks often occur when temperatures drop as winter sets in.
Officials in Pakistan were investigating the country's first suspected bird flu cases Friday after two poultry farm workers died this week after being hospitalized with flu-like symptoms in Peshawar, said Khushdil Khan, medical superintendent of the Khyber Teaching Hospital.
Blood samples were sent to the Health Ministry in Islamabad for testing, but the results have not been confirmed, Khan said. Pakistan has grappled with bird flu outbreaks among poultry for the past two years, but no human cases have been reported.
Meanwhile, the disease has resurfaced in several provinces across Vietnam in recent months, killing or forcing the slaughter of thousands of birds. So far, 46 people have died from the virus nationwide.
Hong Kong closed its famed Mai Po bird sanctuary to the public for three weeks starting Friday after a wild gray heron discovered nearby tested positive for the virus. Russia and Poland also have experienced recent outbreaks among poultry, but neither have detected human cases.
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Associated Press writers Irwan Firdaus in Jakarta, Indonesia; Audra Ang in Beijing; and Riaz Khan in Peshawar, Pakistan contributed to this report.
Myanmar reports 1st human bird flu case
Sat, 15 Dec 2007 09:36:22 GMT
YANGON, Myanmar - The World Health Organization has confirmed Myanmar's first human case of bird flu and praised the secretive country for its quick and open handling of the infection.
The U.N. body and the country's health ministry found that a 7-year-old girl from Keng Tung in northeastern Myanmar had been infected with the deadly H5N1 virus, WHO said on its Web site Friday. She has since recovered.
The WHO hailed Myanmar's transparency and swift action in alerting outside health officials about the case. Myanmar's ruling junta has been under international fire since September for killing and arresting pro-democracy protesters, with dissident groups putting the death toll at about 200.
"They handled it very, very well," said Shima Roy, spokeswoman for the organization's regional office in New Delhi. "They actually did house-to-house surveillance, especially in the area where there had been an outbreak of avian influenza in poultry."
State media reported the girl was hospitalized on Nov. 27 and released on Dec. 12 in good condition after being treated with the antiviral drug Tamiflu.
Bird flu has recently resurfaced in parts of Asia, with human deaths reported in Indonesia and China and fresh outbreaks in poultry plaguing other countries during the winter months when the virus typically flares.
According to the WHO, there have been 340 cases of bird flu in humans worldwide since 2003 — 208 of them fatal.
Experts believe most human victims of the virus were infected through direct contact with sick birds. Although bird flu is difficult for humans to catch, experts fear it could mutate into a form that spreads easily among people and spark a flu pandemic.
The young victim, Nan Kham Than, was among four people suspected of having the virus during an outbreak of the disease in poultry in mid-November, the state-controlled New Light of Myanmar newspaper said. Laboratory tests confirmed that only the girl was infected.
The Health Ministry for 10 days closely monitored 689 persons who were involved in culling chickens or lived near the affected farms, and found that no other people were infected, the newspaper said.
Myanmar reported its first bird flu outbreak in March 2006 in the central part of the country, but until now had reported no human infections.
H5N1 began ravaging Asian poultry stocks in late 2003, leading to the death or slaughter of millions of birds.
