Breast and Cervical Cancer Prevention and Detection Project

Location:
Wednesday, December 20th, 2006

Details:

The Center for Border Health Research (CBHR) has brought together colleagues from New Mexico State University (NMSU) College of Health and Social Services, and FEMAP-SADEC (Salud y Desarollo Comunitario) to collaborate on a pilot project to research the basic cellular mechanisms of breast and cervical cancer with the hopes of pinpointing breast and uterine cancer biomarkers. Biomarkers are unique proteins in the blood that may signal the presence of cancer at its earliest stages.

CBHR brings together this multidisciplinary group of health professionals and provides a forum for the exchange of ideas and approaches to breast and cervical cancer research interdisciplinary research and pilot research project support. The group has begun collaborating on their research of basic cellular mechanisms of cancer development, risk factors, genetics, diagnosis, early detection, prognosis, prevention, counseling and treatment.

The researchers are lead under the scientific leadership by Dr. John Monaros, Dr. Yelena Bird and Sasha King from NMSU and Dr. Gustavo Martinez and Lic. Alma Perez Barron from FEMAP-SADEC. NMSU provides expertise in whole-protein analysis, bioinformatics, marker discovery and antibody technology.
?One of our goals is that this research will set the foundation to some day reduce the terrible toll exacted by one of the most common and dreaded cancers in women.

We all know the prognosis is best for patients diagnosed in the earliest stages of cancer," said Lic. Alma Perez Barron project coordinator and researcher for FEMAP-SADEC. "However, because many cases aren't caught early, most of the efforts to date have focused on improving and extending the lives of patients with advanced disease."

"Through this collaboration, we aim to fast-track the development of blood tests for screening purposes, which in turn could help dramatically improve cancer-survival rates," said Sasha King, NMSU graduate student and project coordinator. The Breast and Cervical Cancer Prevention and Detection Project is a component of NMSU?s outreach program focused on the discovery of biomarkers and the development of new technologies to identify these proteins in body fluids and the support or innovative research, education and outreach directed to the development of more effective approaches to the early diagnosis, treatment and prevention of all women's cancers.

?In regards to cervical cancer, this cancer is generally very curable in its early stages, but there is a fraction of tumors with more aggressive properties that invades and metastasizes very early,? explains Perez Barron. ?Any new criteria that provide the ability to determine which cancers are likely to metastasize may be very helpful in deciding the best course of treatment.?

The second part of this pilot project is conducting individual interviews and questionnaires to glean information that reveals attitudes and knowledge about these diseases and their course of treatment. ?The information from the questionnaires will be used to develop an educational campaign that addresses prevention and treatment,? explains Perez Barron. ?Our goal is to be able to create a culture of prevention among this population. Currently, there is good information about breast cancer in the communities we serve, but we do not have a lot of information on cervical cancer which is on the rise in our population. There are a lot of misconceptions about treatment as well, and we need to ensure all these issues are addressed.?

Once biological markers are obtained at Hospital de la Familia, the samples are sent to NMSU. The proteins that herald early stage breast and uterine cancer are isolated in order to detect them in blood serum. The resulting knowledge could change the emphasis of cancer care away from treatment of advanced disease and toward prevention of full-blown cancer in persons known to be susceptible or just starting to develop the disease. Early detection may be the single most important factor in preventing deaths from breast and cervical cancer. For example, the five-year survival rate for breast-cancer patients whose cancer has metastasized (spread) is only 22 percent, in contrast with 85 percent to 95 percent in patients with early stage disease.
Findings are return to the hospital to do health comparisons and increase knowledge of these diseases. Women who test positive for cancer are provided with free or deeply discounted medical services.

Patients are referred by community health workers, doctors and many hear about it through friends. ?Many women from El Paso are participating because of the services provided, which in turn helps our project more,? says Perez Barron.