Scientists have found a gene which can increase the risk of male breast cancer by 50 per cent, after the world's largest study into the disease.
Screening of the genetic codes of more than 800 male breast cancer patients, mainly from the UK, has revealed that mutations in one particular gene play a role in the disease, and could herald the development of new treatments specifically for men.
Very little is known about the causes of male breast cancer, which is diagnosed in 350 men in the UK every year, compared with 48,000 women. Previously researchers uncovered that faulty BRCA2 genes are involved in around 10 per cent of male breast cancer cases but they have now established that faulty RAD51B genes, which have also been found to increase the risk of breast cancer in women, also play a role in the disease in men.
Dr Nick Orr, a group leader at the Breakthrough Breast Cancer Research Centre at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, and one of the study's authors, said: "This study represents a leap forward in our understanding of male breast cancer."
The research published today in Nature Genetics will help doctors predict whether men are more at risk of developing breast cancer. " For a general man in the population this latest news isn't that significant because the risk of breast cancer in males is already so low," Dr Orr said. "But for people who are already at high risk of breast cancer, for example men who have mutations in the BRCA2 gene, having this extra information could really help our ability to predict whether they are going to get the disease or not."
Scientists from the Breakthrough Breast Cancer Research Centre were part of an international research team involved in the Genome-Wide Association Study (GWAS), which investigated 447,000 alterations in the DNA of participants as part of a wider four-year-long study. Scientists now hope to build on the success of the GWAS' findings to identify further causes of both male and female breast cancer.
Case study
Andrew Tokely, 47, is a horticulturalist from Capel St Mary, Suffolk. He is now in remission after being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2009.
When I was diagnosed with breast cancer I didn't even know men could get the disease. A lot of people didn't know what to say, so they didn't say anything. But most people were shocked because, like me, you just don't hear of men with breast cancer. One charity calls it 'the women's fight,' and very few mention that it can happen to men. There's stupid things too, like the medication we're put on afterwards, tamoxifen. Nothing on that leaflet or packet gives you a side-effect for a man.
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) ? A hearing will be held next month on whether Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel, who was convicted of killing a neighbor in 1975, should be released from prison, a state official said Monday.
Skakel's first parole hearing has been scheduled for Oct. 24, John DeFeo, executive director of the Connecticut Board of Pardons and Parole, told The Associated Press. Skakel is eligible to be released next March if the three-member board approves it, DeFeo said.
Skakel, a nephew of Ethel Kennedy, is serving 20 years to life for fatally beating Martha Moxley with a golf club in Greenwich when they were 15-year-old neighbors. Skakel is a nephew of Robert F. Kennedy's widow, Ethel Kennedy.
Moxley's mother, Dorthy Moxley, said she would oppose Skakel's release.
"If it were up to me, I'd leave him in jail for the rest of his life," she said.
A message left with Skakel's attorney wasn't immediately returned.
Skakel was convicted in 2002. He is eligible for parole consideration because of laws in place at the time of the crime such as good behavior credits, officials have said.
In March, Skakel lost his bid for a reduction in his prison sentence. A three-judge panel rejected Skakel's request, saying there was nothing inappropriate or disproportionate about the sentence.
The 52-year-old Skakel insisted on his innocence at the hearing, citing so-called truth serums he has taken that are used to help people remember.
"Give me a polygraph," Skakel told the judges. "I've passed three sodium pentathol tests. I don't know what else to say."
Dorthy Moxley rejected Skakel's claims of innocence.
"I truly believe he is the one who murdered Martha," she said. "I'm sure he's the one who swung the golf club."
Moxley said she will ask her friends to write to the parole board.
Asked about the impact of the crime, Moxley said, "When you lose a loved one, it just never goes away."
The state Supreme Court ruled in 2010 against Skakel's bid for a new trial, saying a claim implicating two other men in the killing wasn't credible. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the case. Skakel has a habeas corpus appeal pending in state courts, accusing his trial attorney, Michael Sherman, of doing a poor job, a claim Sherman has rejected.
Skakel, who was arrested in 2000, has not had any disciplinary issues in prison, said Brian Garnett, spokesman for the state Department of Correction.
Climate is changing the Great Barrier ReefPublic release date: 24-Sep-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Natalie Ban Natalie.Ban@jcu.edu.au 61-042-032-8858 ARC Centre of Excellence in Coral Reef Studies
Satellite measurement of sea surface temperatures has yielded clear evidence of major changes taking place in the waters of Australia's Great Barrier Reef over the past 25 years, marine scientists have found.
The changes have big implications for the future management of the GBR and its marine protected areas say Dr Natalie Ban and Professor Bob Pressey of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and James Cook University, who led the study with Dr Scarla Weeks from the University of Queensland.
"When we looked back at satellite data collected since 1985, we found evidence that most of the regions of the GBR are changing significantly, in terms of sea surface temperature especially in the southern part of the reef," Dr Ban, who is the lead author of a new scientific paper on the issue, says.
"Risk of coral bleaching increases with higher water temperatures. Across the whole reef we found water temperatures increasing by an average of 0.2 of a degree over a quarter of a century but the increase was significantly more in some areas.
"For example, off Rockhampton the water has warmed by about half a degree over the last 25 years."
The changes were also altering the seasonal patterns of water temperature at particular places along the reef, Dr Ban says. "In some areas summer is coming earlier and lasting longer; in others, both summers and winters are warmer than in the past. This all affects the sea life."
The research has revealed temperature conditions are dynamic, with warmer waters moving in both space and time posing new questions for the management of Green Zones and other protected areas which tend to be fixed.
"Some people think we ought to have the highest levels of protection for areas that are changing the least, so they remain as refugia to recharge the surrounding reef areas," Dr Ban says.
"Others argue the opposite that the greatest protection should be afforded to the most vulnerable areas.
"Others still argue that Green Zones and other types of restrictions should migrate geographically along with the climate that their boundaries should change gradually in line with trends in water temperature and reef biology.
"Our aim in publishing this paper on what is actually happening is to stimulate and inform this discussion, so that we can come up with the best and most flexible system for managing the GBR through what will undoubtedly be momentous environmental change."
The present Green Zones, where fishing is prohibited, cover the same temperature ranges as the whole reef, she says but the debate on what to do next is only now getting under way.
With a view to encouraging discussion, the team has put forward three alternative scenarios for how the temperature data can be used to design appropriate management strategies for protected areas.
"We need to understand what we are managing for, to have the best management plan," she explains.
Australia is recognised as a world leader in managing coral reefs, and was again leading global thinking about how to best manage them as waters warm and conditions change. "We hope that our research will also prove valuable to countries of the Coral Triangle who are trying to manage the world's centre of coral diversity through this challenging period," she says
###
Their paper "Conservation Objectives and Sea-Surface Temperature Anomalies in the Great Barrier Reef" by Natalie C.Ban, Robert L Pressey and Scarla Weeks, appears online in the journal Conservation Biology at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1523-1739.2012.01894.x/full.
More information:
Dr Natalie Ban, CoECRS and JCU, ph +61 (0) 420 328 858 or +61 (0)7 4781 6067
Professor Bob Pressey, CoECRS and JCU, ph +61 (0) 418 387 681
Jenny Lappin, CoECRS, +61 417 741 638
Jim O'Brien, James Cook University Media Office, +61 (0)7 4781 4822 or 0418 892449
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Climate is changing the Great Barrier ReefPublic release date: 24-Sep-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Natalie Ban Natalie.Ban@jcu.edu.au 61-042-032-8858 ARC Centre of Excellence in Coral Reef Studies
Satellite measurement of sea surface temperatures has yielded clear evidence of major changes taking place in the waters of Australia's Great Barrier Reef over the past 25 years, marine scientists have found.
The changes have big implications for the future management of the GBR and its marine protected areas say Dr Natalie Ban and Professor Bob Pressey of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and James Cook University, who led the study with Dr Scarla Weeks from the University of Queensland.
"When we looked back at satellite data collected since 1985, we found evidence that most of the regions of the GBR are changing significantly, in terms of sea surface temperature especially in the southern part of the reef," Dr Ban, who is the lead author of a new scientific paper on the issue, says.
"Risk of coral bleaching increases with higher water temperatures. Across the whole reef we found water temperatures increasing by an average of 0.2 of a degree over a quarter of a century but the increase was significantly more in some areas.
"For example, off Rockhampton the water has warmed by about half a degree over the last 25 years."
The changes were also altering the seasonal patterns of water temperature at particular places along the reef, Dr Ban says. "In some areas summer is coming earlier and lasting longer; in others, both summers and winters are warmer than in the past. This all affects the sea life."
The research has revealed temperature conditions are dynamic, with warmer waters moving in both space and time posing new questions for the management of Green Zones and other protected areas which tend to be fixed.
"Some people think we ought to have the highest levels of protection for areas that are changing the least, so they remain as refugia to recharge the surrounding reef areas," Dr Ban says.
"Others argue the opposite that the greatest protection should be afforded to the most vulnerable areas.
"Others still argue that Green Zones and other types of restrictions should migrate geographically along with the climate that their boundaries should change gradually in line with trends in water temperature and reef biology.
"Our aim in publishing this paper on what is actually happening is to stimulate and inform this discussion, so that we can come up with the best and most flexible system for managing the GBR through what will undoubtedly be momentous environmental change."
The present Green Zones, where fishing is prohibited, cover the same temperature ranges as the whole reef, she says but the debate on what to do next is only now getting under way.
With a view to encouraging discussion, the team has put forward three alternative scenarios for how the temperature data can be used to design appropriate management strategies for protected areas.
"We need to understand what we are managing for, to have the best management plan," she explains.
Australia is recognised as a world leader in managing coral reefs, and was again leading global thinking about how to best manage them as waters warm and conditions change. "We hope that our research will also prove valuable to countries of the Coral Triangle who are trying to manage the world's centre of coral diversity through this challenging period," she says
###
Their paper "Conservation Objectives and Sea-Surface Temperature Anomalies in the Great Barrier Reef" by Natalie C.Ban, Robert L Pressey and Scarla Weeks, appears online in the journal Conservation Biology at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1523-1739.2012.01894.x/full.
More information:
Dr Natalie Ban, CoECRS and JCU, ph +61 (0) 420 328 858 or +61 (0)7 4781 6067
Professor Bob Pressey, CoECRS and JCU, ph +61 (0) 418 387 681
Jenny Lappin, CoECRS, +61 417 741 638
Jim O'Brien, James Cook University Media Office, +61 (0)7 4781 4822 or 0418 892449
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
JERUSALEM (AP) ? The forecast for Israel on Sunday: balmy late-summer temperatures, uncomfortable humidity along the Mediterranean coast and ... darkness at 6 p.m.?
Israel moves its clocks back by an hour overnight, putting the country on its winter clock more than a month ahead of Europe and the U.S. and adding to the rising anger that many mainstream Israelis feel toward an ultra-Orthodox minority.
Many Israelis believe the time change, meant to make it easier to fast on the upcoming Yom Kippur holy day, unnecessarily disrupts life and costs the economy millions of dollars. They say the early onset of darkness raises electricity costs, causes more car accidents and gives children less time to play after school.
While the custom has long bred resentment, the premature arrival of winter hours comes at an especially sensitive time, given the rising backlash against what is widely seen as religious coercion by ultra-Orthodox leaders.
"It's ridiculous. It's just a power play by the ultra-Orthodox to show who's in charge. There is no reason for it being this early," said Raanan Lidji, a 34-year-old high-tech worker from Tel Aviv.
The move to winter time ahead of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement and holiest date on the Jewish calendar, has been standard practice for decades and enshrined in law since 2005.
Yom Kippur, which begins on Tuesday evening, is marked by a sundown-to-sundown fast. Orthodox religious parties, which have always held key swing votes in Israel's political system, are behind the time change, wanting to decrease the number of waking hours for those fasting.
Although the length of the fast doesn't change, the sun sets an hour earlier with the winter clock, shortening the more difficult end of the fast. In a similar custom, neighboring Muslim countries sometimes adjust their clocks, even in the middle of summer, during Ramadan to make the monthlong fasting period easier to manage. But the clocks are returned to summer time after Ramadan ends.
In Israel, the seemingly premature clock change elicits complaints every year from secular and modern Orthodox Israelis, who make up some 90 percent of Israel's Jewish population. But this year, the anger has been heightened by a variety of factors.
Yom Kippur, which falls on a different date each year based on the Jewish calendar, arrives relatively early this year, making the change all the more noticeable.
It also comes against the backdrop of rising tensions between the secular masses and the politically powerful ultra-Orthodox minority. Much of the anger is being directed at Interior Minister Eli Yishai, whose ultra-Orthodox Shas Party has played a key role in shaping the law.
Yishai has resisted repeated calls to push back the change. In 2010, when it came even earlier in September, nearly 400,000 people signed a petition urging him to change the system.
Following the outcry, Yishai appointed a committee to study the matter. But its recommendation that the summer clock remain in effect until early October was never implemented.
"He simply wants to build up the special form of regime to be found in Israel ? a religious 'minocracy,' Not a democracy that represents the majority and takes the minority into account, but rather a minority that controls the majority and does not care a damn about it," wrote Nehemia Shtrasler, an economics affairs columnist at the Haaretz daily.
A spokesman from the Shas party did not immediately return messages seeking comment. A spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also had no immediate comment.
Ultra-Orthodox parties such as Shas, while representing less than 10 percent of the general population, have long served as kingmakers in Israel's fragmented political system.
With this power, rabbinical authorities control the rules for marriages, divorces and burials, and ultra-Orthodox males have long received exemptions from compulsory military service in order to pursue religious studies.
Ultra-Orthodox men often continue their studies well into adulthood, living off welfare subsidies as their secular counterparts work and pay taxes.
The draft exemptions and study subsidies have become a central issue in Israeli politics. Early this year, the Supreme Court ruled the exemptions illegal and ordered the government to change the law.
But attempts in parliament to reform the nation's draft law deadlocked, causing one of Netanyahu's coalition partners to quit, and the government missed a deadline to draw up new legislation. With religious leaders saying they will resist any change to the old arrangement, Defense Minister Ehud Barak is currently struggling to figure out a new draft system.
Adding to the tensions, extremist sects within the ultra-Orthodox community have come under fire in recent months for attempts to ban the mixing of sexes on buses, sidewalks and other public spaces. In Jerusalem, advertisements depicting women have been removed from billboards and buses because of fears that extremists will vandalize them.
These attempts at coercion have fueled a brewing cultural clash between two Israels. On one hand, the country continues to be a high-tech powerhouse with liberal values that have turned Tel Aviv into a gay mecca. On the other hand, the ultra-Orthodox, with their high birthrates, have grown increasingly outspoken and assertive.
With Netanyahu expected to call early parliamentary elections in the coming months, the country's opposition is likely to use the controversies over the draft and religious coercion against him.
"Israel is proving once again that it is living in the dark," said Ronit Tirosh, a lawmaker from the opposition Kadima Party.
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Public release date: 24-Sep-2012
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