(dailyRx)
Amino acids are the body’s building blocks for protein. Essential amino acids, which aren’t produced by our bodies, are found in meat, fish and dairy products that are involved in a number of different cell functions.
The amino acid methionine and vitamin B6 may reduce the risk of ovarian cancer, according to recent research.
Holly R. Harris, MD, of the Obstetrics and Gynecology Department at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and colleagues looked at the relationship between ovarian cancer and the intake of methionine, folate (a B vitamin), and vitamins B6 and B12 .
Earlier studies have shown that people who do not have enough of these nutrients tend to be at increased risk of breast, endometrial and colon cancer. On the other hand, another study associated high folic acid supplementation with a higher risk of prostate cancer.
Research looking at these nutrients and ovarian cancer has offered mixed insights.
For this investigation, researchers analyzed the impact of folate, methionine, vitamin B6, vitamin B12 and alcohol among 1,910 women with ovarian cancer and 1,989 women without the disease who served as controls.
The case-control study was conducted in eastern Massachusetts and New Hampshire between 1992 and 2008.
Diets were assessed from food frequency diaries participants kept by the subjects. The women were also asked to remember what their diet was a year before the diagnosis.
Researchers found that dietary vitamin B6 and methionine intake were inversely associated — that is, those who had sufficient levels of these nutrients were on the lower end of the risk spectrum.
The dietary vitamin B6 association was strongest for serous borderline and serous invasive ovarian cancers.
The study found no associations between folate and ovarian cancer risk.
Researchers concluded that methionine and vitamin B6 may lower a woman’s risk of developing ovarian cancer.
This research, which was funded by the National Cancer Institute and the Department of Defense Ovarian Cancer Academy, was published in the August 2012 issue of the International Journal of Cancer.
The American Cancer Society estimates that each year in the United States, 22,000 women will be newly diagnosed with ovarian cancer, and over 15,000 women will die from it, making it the fifth-leading cause of cancer death in women.
Ovarian cancer begins in the ovaries, the organs of the female reproductive tract that produce eggs for fertilization. There is no known definitive cause of ovarian cancer, but there are several risk factors, the most prominent being advanced age. Most deaths from ovarian cancer are in women over age 55. Other risk factors for developing ovarian cancer include estrogen-only hormone replacement therapy, a personal history of breast cancer, and a family history of breast or ovarian cancer. Risk of ovarian cancer decreases with the more children a woman has, and the earlier she has her first pregnancy. Oral contraceptives also decrease the risk of ovarian cancer.
Symptoms of ovarian cancer are often subtle, and unfortunately may not present until the cancer has spread. The most common symptoms will be feelings of bloatedness, pelvic and abdominal pain, and a change in appetite. Other common symptoms often mimic common problems, like digestive symptoms (constipation, gas, nausea, vomiting) and common menstrual complaints (pelvic heaviness, swollen abdomen, vaginal bleeding, weight gain). Unexplained hair growth and sudden changes in genital appearance can also be specific symptoms.
Ovarian cancer may be suspected when a physician does a physical exam and feels a tumor through the abdomen or through a pelvic exam. Ascites, or fluid in the abdomen, is a common sign of abdominal cancer. Diagnosis is confirmed with transvaginal ultrasound, CT scan, and ultimately biopsy. A blood test for a protein called CA-125 is useful in making a diagnosis and following the progress of the disease, but it is not reliable as a cancer screening tool.
Treatment of ovarian cancer almost always includes surgery, such as removal of the ovaries alone in cases when it is caught early, but more commonly requires a total hysterectomy (removal of all reproductive organs), and sometimes removal of other abdominal tissues. Chemotherapy is often necessary, and paclitaxel (Taxol) is usually given with carboplatin or cisplatin. Research shows that chemotherapy regimens that contain these drugs are effective in preventing recurrence of ovarian cancer and improving a woman’s chance of surviving her cancer. Radiation therapy is rarely used.
Unfortunately there is no reliable screening test for ovarian cancer.
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