Breakthrough in cervical cancer detection

RESEARCHERS believe they have found a way to identify women at risk of developing the worst form of cervical cancer, an illness which kills almost 100 Irish women every year.

A major cancer conference taking place in Cork city has heard that new details on how the condition develops means doctors can now clarify whether a patient will become ill or have benign effects by testing certain enzymes.

The joint Trinity College Dublin and Coombe Women and Children’s University Hospital study, led by Irish Cancer Society (ICS) research scholar Christine White, was detailed at the Irish Association of Cancer Research annual general meeting in Rochestown yesterday.

Explaining the findings, ICS official Dr Sinead Walshe said the study, based on 618 female patients, has shown a clear link between smoking, specific enzymes, and the development of the potentially lethal cancer.

“When you look at the human papilloma virus (HPV) which causes the vast majority of cervical cancers, you look at its inactive form and its active form.

“Of the 223 women who smoked in the study, 95 developed the active form, 43%, compared to 113 of the 318 who didn’t, 35%.

“Smoking makes the HPV infection more prolonged and there is a clear affect on particular enzymes.

“This research can help identify women who are at more risk of highly abnormal lesions and cervical cancer,” she said.

ICS spokesperson Jane Curtin said the findings could prove vital in fighting a cancer which is “entirely preventable if caught early enough through screening”.

As many as four out of every five women in Ireland will be infected by HPV at some stage in their life. However, in the majority of cases the virus will not lead to any serious illness.

The most recent national figures, detailed in 2009 by the National Cancer Registry and the Central Statistics Office, show 304 new cases of cervical cancer were identified in Ireland that year, with 93 deaths.

The conference, which continues today, has heard of similar potential breakthroughs relating to other serious cancers, including:

* Why only one in three people with oesophageal (throat) cancer respond to radiotherapy.

* Research attempting to reveal a way to kill cancerous cells while leaving normal cells unharmed

* How cancer cells continue to grow unharmed despite developing more and more DNA flaws as they multiply.

* Ways to restore or extend a patients’ positive response to chemotherapy treatment in ovarian tumours.

* Finding ways to detect ovarian cancer through blood samples, particularly when there are no symptoms.

* And research into the genetic make-up of the highly aggressive child cancer, neuroblastoma.

For further details on the research, see www.ia-cr.ie.

Irish Cancer Society helpline: 1800 200 700.