LASER SCAN TESTED FOR BREAST CANCER
Johns Hopkins University researchers have tested a laser scanning technique that could lead to the earliest detection yet of breast cancer. At present, only 50 percent of breast cancers are localized when diagnosed, due in part to the limitations of screening tools. The technique, called surface-enhanced laser desorption/ionization, or SELDI, uses microchips coated with molecular "bait" designed to capture specific organic molecules, such as breast cancer tumor proteins. The chips are exposed to patients' blood or urine and then "read" with rapid pulses of laser energy, which generate digital images of captured molecules. The Hopkins researchers tested 169 blood samples, including 103 samples from breast cancer patients at different clinical stages, 41 samples from women free of cancer, and 25 from women with benign breast disease. Researchers said SELDI was 93 percent accurate for all cancer patients and 91 percent accurate for the control group.
GENE MAY BE BREAST CANCER MARKER
A gene called MGA that has been linked with breast cancer might be a chemical marker for the disease, just as prostate-specific antigen, or PSA, in the blood can help detect prostate cancer. Researchers from Ireland tested MGA plus two similar genes, MGB and LPB, in different types of breast and non-breast tissues, both cancerous and non-cancerous. Among the cancer samples tested, 41 percent were positive for MGA, MGB and LPB, and 78 percent expressed at least one of these genes. Among 24 non-cancerous non-breast tissues, researchers found MGA in only one sample. The findings could have "monumental consequences for breast cancer screening," the researchers said. MGA is unusual because it mostly is confined to breast tissue, so the gene could be a breast cancer marker. It could help detect the disease in the lymph nodes, peripheral blood and bone marrow and offer a new means for early detection.
BETTER FOREST FIRE RISK MANAGEMENT
U.S. Forest Service researchers are studying ways to reduce catastrophic wildfires in southern forests. Summer 1998 was one of the worst fire seasons for Florida, for example. Some 2000 wildfires burned more than 494,000 acres in the north and central parts of the state, with total damages estimated at $880 million. Although low-intensity fires every few years are the ideal means for limiting fuel and rejuvenating pine forests, prescribed fires have become unpopular with the South's human population. So researchers applied computer models to prescribed burning and two alternate fire-management strategies: whole-tree thinning and herbicides. They found combining the strategies uses "the strengths of different practices and (avoids) some of their weaknesses. An example is using an initial prescribed fire followed by herbicides." The fire reduces fuel and helps to re-germinate the forest, while the herbicides keep the environment open for a longer period of time.
OREGON CRAB DEATH CAUSE FOUND
Oregon State University researchers think they have identified what has caused the recent mysterious and sudden die-off of numerous crabs, fish and other marine animals off the central Oregon coast. Hypoxic water -- water with very low oxygen levels -- appears to be the culprit. From spring through early fall, normal upwelling from the deep ocean brings colder and more oxygen-depleted water close to shore. But when summer winds are weak, surface waters grow warmer, resulting in reduced mixing of oxygen from the surface to the bottom. This allows the low-oxygen water zone to persist and spread, smothering much of the sea life in the area. At present, the researchers said they are not yet sure how widespread the hypoxic zone is, the extent of its damage to sea life, or how long it will last.
(Editors: For more information on SELDI and MGA, contact Donna J. Krupa at 407-685-4215 or [email protected]. For FIRES, Zoe Hoyle at 828-257-4388 or [email protected]. For HYPOXIC WATER, Jane Lubchenco at 541-737-5337 or [email protected])
