Test your genes for cancer? 23andme.com

Your 23andMe scan includes genetic analysis on all of the following diseases, traits, and conditions. This list grows every month as new research is published.

Clinical Reports (23)
Clinical Reports give you information about conditions and traits for which there are genetic associations supported by multiple, large, peer-reviewed studies. Those associations must also have a substantial influence on a person's chances of developing the disease or having the trait. Because these associations are widely regarded as reliable, we use them to develop quantitative estimates and definitive explanations of what they mean for you.
Age-related Macular Degeneration
Alcohol Flush Reaction
Bitter Taste Perception
Celiac Disease
Crohn's Disease
Cystic Fibrosis (Delta F508 mutation)
Earwax Type
Eye Color
G6PD Deficiency
Lactose Intolerance
Malaria Resistance (Duffy Antigen)
Muscle Performance
Non-ABO Blood Groups
Norovirus Resistance
Parkinson's Disease
Prostate Cancer
Psoriasis
Resistance to HIV/AIDS
Rheumatoid Arthritis
Sickle Cell Anemia & Malaria Resistance
Type 1 Diabetes
Type 2 Diabetes
Venous Thromboembolism

Research Reports (72)
Research Reports give you information from research that has not yet gained enough scientific consensus to be included in our Clinical Reports. This research is generally based on high-quality but limited scientific evidence. Because these results have not yet been demonstrated through large, replicated studies, we do not perform complete quantitative analyses of their effects. We do, however, explain how they may–if confirmed–affect your odds of having or developing a trait, condition or disease.
Research Reports also includes scientifically accepted, established research that does not have a dramatic influence on a person's risk for a disease.
Alcohol Dependence
Aneurysm
Ankylosing Spondylitis
Antidepressant Response
Asthma
Atrial Fibrillation
Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
Avoidance of Errors
Back Pain
Baldness
Beta-Blocker Response
Bipolar Disorder
Birth Weight
Bladder Cancer
Blood Glucose
Breast Cancer
Breast Cancer
C-reactive Protein Level
Caffeine Metabolism
Celiac Disease
Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia
Cluster Headaches
Colorectal Cancer
Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease
Developmental Dyslexia
Endometriosis
Esophageal Cancer
Eye Color
Food Preference
Freckling
Gallstones
Glaucoma
Gout
HDL Cholesterol Level
HIV Progression
Hair Color
Heart Attack
Height
Heroin Addiction
High Blood Pressure (Hypertension)
Kidney Disease
Larynx Cancer
Longevity
Lou Gehrig's Disease (ALS)
Lung Cancer
Lupus (Systemic Lupus Erythematosus)
Male Infertility
Measures of Intelligence
Memory
Multiple Sclerosis
Neuroblastoma
Nicotine Dependence
Obesity
Obesity
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
Odor Detection
Oral and Throat Cancer
Osteoarthritis
Pain Sensitivity
Peripheral Arterial Disease
Persistent Fetal Hemoglobin
Placental Abruption
Pre-eclampsia
Progressive Supranuclear Palsy
Restless Legs Syndrome
Schizophrenia
Sjögren's Syndrome
Skin Cancer
Stomach Cancer
Tardive Dyskinesia
Tourette's Syndrome
Uterine Fibroids
The genotyping services of 23andMe are performed in LabCorp's CLIA-registered laboratory. The results presented in Health and Traits have not been cleared or approved by the FDA but have been analytically validated according to CLIA standards.

Study: Vitamins E and C Fail to Prevent Cancer in Men

A large clinical trial of almost 15,000 male doctors taking vitamins E and C for up to 10 years has found that neither supplement had any effect on cancer rates, including cancer of the prostate.

The study comes on the heels of a disappointing finding regarding vitamin E reported late last month. After following 35,000 men taking selenium and vitamin E, investigators halted their trial because no benefit was seen and in some supplement users there appeared to be a slight increase in the risk of cancer or diabetes.

An author of the current study, an abstract of which was presented on Monday at the American Association for Cancer Research meeting in Washington, D.C., said his trial found neither risk nor benefit to use of the vitamins.

“The good news is you don’t appear to be hurting yourself ,” said Howard D. Sesso, an assistant professor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. But, he added, “There’s very little evidence to recommend taking these supplements for prevention of cancer, particularly in the case of vitamin E.”

Achilles' Heel Of Pancreatic Cancer Discovered

UC Davis Cancer Center researchers have discovered a metabolic deficiency in pancreatic cancer cells that can be used to slow the progress of the deadliest of all cancers.
Published in the October issue of the International Journal of Cancer, study results indicate that pancreatic cancer cells cannot produce the amino acid arginine, which plays an essential role in cell division, immune function and hormone regulation. By depleting arginine levels in cell cultures and animal models, the team was able to significantly reduce pancreatic cancer-cell proliferation.
"There have been few significant advances in 15 years of testing available chemotherapy to treat pancreatic cancer," said Richard Bold, chief of surgical oncology at UC Davis and senior author of the study. "The lack of progress is particularly frustrating because most patients are diagnosed after the disease has spread to other organs, eliminating surgery as an option. We have to turn back to basic science to come up with new treatments."
Bold explained that average survival time for those diagnosed with pancreatic cancer is just four-and-a-half months, although chemotherapy can extend that prognosis up to six months.
"There is a dire need to find new options for these patients. While our findings do not suggest a cure for pancreatic cancer, they do promise a possible way to extend the life expectancies of those diagnosed with it," Bold said.
Bold and his colleagues hypothesized that pancreatic cancer cells lack the ability to produce arginine. In human pancreatic tumors, they measured levels of an enzyme — argininosuccinate synthetase — required to synthesize arginine.
The enzyme was not detected in 87 percent of the 47 tumor specimens examined, suggesting that the majority of pancreatic cancers require arginine for cell growth because of an inability to synthesize the amino acid.
The researchers then conducted further tests using pancreatic cell lines that represent the varying levels of argininosuccinate synthetase observed in human tumor specimens. Focusing on the lines with lowest levels, the researchers depleted arginine levels in cultures of pancreatic cell lines using arginine deiminase, an enzyme isolated from a Mycoplasma bacteria.
The enzyme was modified by adding polyethylene glycol chains to increase size and circulatory time.
The researchers found that exposing the pancreatic cancer cell lines to the modified arginine deiminase enzyme inhibited cancer-cell proliferation by 50 percent. They then treated mice bearing pancreatic tumors with the same compound and found an identical outcome: a 50 percent reduction in tumor growth. According to Bold, the current study represents a unique approach to cancer treatment in that it is one of the first to identify a metabolic pathway that can be leveraged to interrupt cancer growth.
"Instead of killing cells as with typical chemotherapy, we instead removed one of the key building blocks that cancer cells need to function," Bold said.
Metabolic interruptions like this one are also being studied for their potential in treating cancers of the blood, such as leukemia and lymphoma. In those cases, depleting the amino acid asparagine may be used in slowing cancer-cell growth.
Bold and his colleagues are continuing their laboratory work on the effects of arginine deprivation on pancreatic cancer. They will next be looking for ways to increase pancreatic cell sensitivity to arginine deprivation.
The researchers have also begun designing human clinical trials in cooperation with the manufacturer of arginine deiminase, Polaris Pharmaceuticals.
"We're looking at whether we can combine this treatment with certain kinds of chemotherapy," Bold said. "This additional research is needed to inform the clinical work and move it forward more quickly. The better we understand this process, the more we can use it in the fight against pancreatic cancer."
Additional study authors included Tawnya Bowles, Joseph Galante, Colin Parsons and Subbulakshmi Virudachalam of the UC Davis Department of Surgery; and Randie Kim and Hsing-Jien Kung of the UC Davis Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine.

Epeius Biotechnologies Corporation announced today the expansion of clinical trials using intravenous Rexin-G for pancreatic cancer and breast cancer in Manhattan, New York. Rexin-G is the world's first tumor-targeted genetic medicine that is designed to seek out and destroy both primary tumors and metastatic cancers that have spread throughout the body. Clinical data from on-going studies in Los Angeles, California, indicating dose-dependent tumor control rates and survival benefits with no major toxicity in Rexin-G-treated patients prompted the extension of these clinical trials to the East Coast. Rexin-G has gained orphan drug status from the U.S. FDA for three clinical indications: pancreatic cancer, osteosarcoma and soft tissue sarcoma.
The New York clinical trials will be conducted at the Bruckner Oncology Center in Manhattan, New York with Howard W. Bruckner, M.D. as the Principal Investigator. Dr. Bruckner is a board certified medical oncologist who trained at Yale University School of Medicine and performed research at the NIH with specialists and collaborative groups. Dr. Bruckner is internationally renowned for his work in pancreatic, breast, gastrointestinal, colon, and ovarian cancers and was the first medical oncologist to treat patients with Rexin-G for advanced pancreatic cancer in the United States (Int'l J Oncol 2006). He has served as an Expert Consultant and Safety Monitor for the National Surgical Adjuvant Project for Breast and Bowel Cancers Project (NSABP) sponsored by the National Cancer Institute. For further information concerning these clinical trials in New York, please go to http://www.clinicaltrials.gov and search Epeius-sponsored protocols C07-104 and C07-105.

Digestive Care Completes NDA Submission for Pancreatic Drug

US-based pharmaceutical company Digestive Care has completed the submission of the new drug application for Pancrecarb, used in the treatment of exocrine pancreatic insufficiency, to the FDA.

The FDA has previously granted the product fast track designation and approved a rolling new drug application (NDA) submission schedule.


The company has recently announced results of the completed randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multi-center, crossover study on Pancrecarb.

Tibor Sipos, president and chief scientific officer of Digestive Care, said: "Pancrecarb is a unique bicarbonate buffered enteric-coated formulation of pancrelipase that has been an essential component of the armamentarium for the treatment of exocrine pancreatic insufficiency associated with cystic fibrosis and other diseases affecting the pancreas."

A service of YellowBrix, Inc.

After months of battling pancreatic cancer, actor Patrick Swayze is speaking out about the difficulties that have come with his struggle.

"How do you nurture a positive attitude when all the statistics say you’re a dead man?" Swayze told the New York Times. "You go to work."

The 56-year-old actor and star of upcoming A&E series "The Beast" says that his work has been what has helped him through his struggle with his diagnosis.

While he has been healthy enough to continue working, Swayze told the Times that cancer has been a "battle zone." "Chemo, no matter how you cut it, is hell on wheels."

When the news of Swayze's illness surfaced in March, several reports claimed that he had only weeks to live.

But his physician George Fisher, an associate professor of teaching at Stanford University Cancer Center offered a more optimistic take on the actor's condition.

"Patrick has a very limited amount of disease and he appears to be responding well to treatment thus far. All of the reports stating the timeframe of his prognosis and his physical side effects are absolutely untrue," Fisher said in a statement.

Caught in its advanced stages, pancreatic cancer, which strikes about 30,000 people a year, has a less than 5 percent survival rate for five years. If caught early and treated aggressively with surgery and chemotherapy — and if the cancer has not spread to lymph nodes — the five-year survival rate can go as high as 17 to 25 percent, said Avram Cooperman, surgical director for the Pancreas and Biliary Center at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Manhattan.

"I've made a pretty decent mark so far – nothing to scoff at," he said. "But it does make you think: Wait a minute. There’s more I want to do. Lots more. Get on with it."

cacner

cnn: ibuprofen reduces breast cancer risk

Can taking aspirin or ibuprofen reduce your risk of getting breast cancer? One of the largest studies of its kind suggests that the answer might be yes.

In the past, researchers have flip-flopped on the issue, so they recently combined some of the best data - from 2.7 million women in 38 separate studies - to look for solid evidence. And they found it.

Women who took aspirin had a 13 percent lower risk of breast cancer than those who didn't, while those who took ibuprofen had a 21 percent lower risk.

The findings were published this week in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

While it might be tempting to try to reduce your own risk by popping these over-the-counter pain relievers, known as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), the researchers sound a note of caution: The pills can cause bleeding in your digestive tract. And some types of NSAIDs have been linked to risk of heart problems. Health.com: How aspirin can help your heart

"I would not recommend that women use NSAIDs for breast cancer prevention," says study author Bahi Takkouche, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of Santiago de Compostela in Spain. "NSAIDs may have very strong secondary effects. The results of this study just show that women who are taking NSAIDs for other reasons probably have a lower risk of breast cancer." Health.com: How to cut your breast cancer risk at any age

This type of study can't prove conclusively that NSAIDs are responsible for the lower risk of breast cancer. According to the experts, some other factor could be responsible for the reduction in cancer risk.

Palliative Chemotherapy

"Chemotherapy had been used with one of the two intentions: the hope to cure cancer, and the hope to prolong life. Palliative chemotherapy/care means chemotherapy which is taken without expecting it to be curative. In other words, palliative chemotherapy is a form of medical treatment that concentrates on reducing the severity of the disease symptoms, rather than trying to provide a cure. This means that most of the time, palliative chemotherapy are only offered to patients with incurable cancer, preferably to patients with excellent performance status and a tumor sensitive to chemotherapy.

Just like treating cancer, cytotoxic drugs are also used in palliative chemotherapy. They attack cells during cell divisions. They could be phase specific and cycle specific. Phase-specific drugs kill cells only when they are given during a certain phase of cells’ cycle. By prolonging the treatment using such drugs, the number of cells killed increases because cells divide randomly. Cycle-specific drugs target cells during any phase of the cells’ cycle, thus the number of cells killed increases when the dosage of such drugs increase. Other Antimetabolites are given as well. These anti metabolites could interfere with the incorportation of nucleic acid bases into the DNA.Given the potential toxicities of the chemotherapeutic agents, it is important to educate patients about the side effects of the drugs consumed. The main challenge for both the doctors and patients would be balancing symptom relief and treatment’s side effects. It is also crucial for the doctors to maintain a holistic view of patients with cancer and help patients to achieve the best possible quality of life.

"
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"A group of Melbourne researchers has discovered an important piece in the puzzle of how breast cancer develops.
Through implantation of breast cells in mice, scientists at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research have made two key findings related to the way the Notch pathway of proteins works in breast tissue.

Researchers Toula Bouras, Jane Visvader and Geoff Lindeman identified how the Notch pathway of proteins regulates breast development and function by prompting breast stem cells to switch on the production of breast duct cells.

They also discovered a link between an overactive Notch pathway and the proliferation of immature cells in the breast ducts that can develop into tumours.

''The discovery has really revealed a mechanism by which overactivity of the Notch pathway may contribute to breast cancer,'' Dr Visvader said.

''If drugs can be developed that target this process in an effective way, this offers hope for future generations of patients whose cancers have an overactive Notch pathway.''

Dr Visvader said the Notch pathway played an important role in the development of breast cancer, but more research needed to be done before the development of anti-Notch therapies.

The researchers' findings are in the latest international journal, Cell Stem Cell. AAP"

HPV vaccine required to obtain Green Card

Thanks God that when I applied for an Immigrant Visa this vaccination is still not part of it.

Recently, Federal officials added the Gardasil vaccine to a list of vaccinations that immigrants must have before they can obtain green cards. The cervical cancer vaccine is required of females ages 11 to 26.
The vaccine protects against the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus, or HPV, which causes cervical cancer and genital warts. But the vaccine is one of the most expensive and controversial, primarily because it is given at a young age.

How Does Ellagic Acid Exert An Anti-Cancer Effect On Pancreatic Cancer Cells?

"Ellagic acid was previousely shown to have anticarcinogenic, antioxidant and antifibrosis properties. The anticarcinogenic effect of ellagic acid was shown in several types of cancers including skin, esophageal, and colon cancers. However the mechanisms mediating anti-cancer effect of ellagic acid, in general, remain unknown.

A research article published on 21 June 2008, in the World Journal of Gastroenterology addresses this question. The research team led by Dr. Edderkaoui from West Los Angeles VA Healthcare Center showed that Ellagic acid increases programmed cell death and decreases proliferation of pancreatic cancer cells. They showed that the mechanism through which ellagic acid causes cell death is through decreasing the activity of the pro-survival transcription factor NF-kB. The compound does not affect mitochondria. The results presented in this article show for the first time how this polyphenol regulates cancer cell proliferation and resistance to death and may help surpass the resistance of these cells to radio and chemotherapies. "

"Pancreatic cancer is one of the most lethal human cancers and continues to be a major unsolved health problem. The overexpression of the epidermal growth factor receptor and its ligands correlates with rapidly progressive disease and resistance to chemotherapy."

Austin Texas DUI

Austin Texas DUI

Tech Startups 3.0

Tech Startups 3.0

cancer of the prostate

"Numerous media reports followed a federal task force's announcement this month that there is insufficient medical evidence to assess the risks and benefits of prostate cancer screening in men younger than 75 and that doctors should stop testing men over age 75.
It's important to note that consideration was not given to the overwhelming body of emerging evidence that screening with PSA tests and digital rectal exams saves lives. Rates of death from prostate cancer and rates of diagnosis at advanced stages have decreased markedly since testing became widespread.
As a physician and a researcher specializing in prostate cancer, I worry that this recommendation will result in delays in potentially lifesaving treatment and possibly the unnecessary loss of life.
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force did not even recommend screening for men at higher risk because of race or family history. The task force reasoned that screening might harm more men than it helps and that in men over 75 there was moderate certainty that the harm outweighs the benefits.
Physicians and patients who are concerned about preventing prostate cancer deaths choose to screen with prostate-specific antigen (PSA) tests because an inconclusive but increasingly compelling body of evidence shows that the screening reduces suffering and death from prostate cancer — the second-leading cause of cancer death among men in the United States."

In an Aug. 26 story about a new TV ad linking hot dogs with cancer, The Associated Press, relying on figures provided by a nutrition adviser to the American Institute for Cancer Research, erroneously reported average risks for colon cancer and how eating hot dogs affects those risks. Karen Collins said she misstated the average adult's lifetime risk for getting colorectal cancer, which is about 5 percent, not 5.8 percent.

She said she also miscalculated population-level risks of eating one hot dog a day for several years. That would increase the number of Americans who get colorectal cancer each year from 50 per 100,000 to 60 per 100,000 people — not from 58 per 100,000 to 70 per 100,000, as she had stated.

She said the level of risk is smaller for eating a hot dog once or twice a month but that it can't be precisely quantified. It would not mean up to a 1.4 percent increase in colon cancer risk, as she had indicated.

What makes pancreatic cancer so deadly?: Scientific American

"Gene Upshaw, the executive director of the National Football League Player's Association—the union for NFL players—died late Wednesday evening of pancreatic cancer while vacationing in California's Lake Tahoe. Doctors diagnosed the 63-year-old Hall of Fame offensive lineman with the disease just four days earlier.

Upshaw was a guard for the Oakland Raiders from 1967 to 1981. He played in seven Pro Bowls and three Super Bowls. He served as head of the NFL player's union for 25 years.

According to Bloomberg News, Upshaw's wife, Terri, took him to a hospital on Sunday, August 17th, because he was having trouble breathing. A biopsy revealed, much to everyone's surprise, that he had advanced pancreatic cancer.

In March, actor Patrick Swayze—star of the hit 1980s film Dirty Dancing—revealed he had been diagnosed with the illness in January. Doctors' reports indicated they had caught his cancer relatively early.

The pancreas secretes hormones and enzymes to digest our fats. One of those hormones is insulin, which prompts the body to use sugar in the blood rather than fat as energy. Its levels are low in diabetic patients, who suffer from abnormally high blood sugar."

Happiness may protect against cancer

"YOUNG women exposed to tragic events may be at a higher risk of breast cancer and being optimistic can help protect against the disease, a study has found.

A team of researchers say they may have found a link between a women’s outlook on life and the risk of breast cancer.

After questioning more than 600 women – include 255 breast cancer patients – about life experiences, happiness and depression, researchers found optimists were 25 per cent less likely to develop the disease.

Women who suffered two or more traumatic events in their life, such as losing a loved one, had a 62 per cent greater risk of being diagnosed with breast cancer, the research said.

“Young women who were exposed to a number of life events, should be considered as a risk group for breast cancer and treated accordingly,” the researchers said.

“We can carefully say that experiencing more than one meaningful life event is a risk factor for breast cancer among young women. "

starbucks a savior

"When Howard D. Schultz in 1985 founded the company that would become the wildly successful Starbucks chain, no financial adviser had to tell him that coffee was America’s leading beverage and caffeine its most widely used drug. The millions of customers who flock to Starbucks to order a double espresso, latte or coffee grande attest daily to his assessment of American passions."

Great News: New Prostate Cancer Test is Ready for Commercialization

New Prostate Cancer Test is Ready for Commercialization Following Successful Completion of Final Clinical Trials
Health Discovery Corporation's New Molecular Diagnostic Test for Prostate Cancer Successfully Performs at 90% Sensitivity and 97% Specificity in Double-Blind Clinical Trial