A. A New Way To Predict
A Recurrence Of Breast Cancer
Narrator: This is Science Today. There may
be a new way to predict whether or not a woman will
have a recurrence of breast cancer after surgery.
Researchers at the University of California, San
Francisco are working on a new laboratory test which,
professor of medicine Ira Goldfine says, measures
the amount of proteins called insulin receptors.
Goldfine: It's very important to have normal
insulin regulation in mammary tissue for the mammary
tissue to develop and do its thing. So, there are
insulin receptors there. It's a situation where
insulin not only regulates glucose uptake, but the
manufacture of proteins and the normal metabolism
of the cell taking up substances and putting out
substances and building itself up.
Narrator: The study found breast cancers
were less likely to return within five years of
surgery if the tumor cells contained normal levels
of insulin receptors.
Goldfine: I think it could be a very powerful
guide to one, predicting who is going to have a
relatively poor outcome and who will not. And two,
I think it'll probably be a guide for certain types
of chemotherapy. 197 So we think it's going to have
predictive value and therapeutic value.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa
Branin.
B. An Underlying Cause of Chronic
Halitosis
Narrator: This is Science Today. There are
many reasons why one may develop chronic halitosis,
or bad breath. While the most common cause is bacteria,
Dr. Glenn Clark, who runs the UCLA Fresh Breath/Halitosis
clinic, says sometimes the cause is an underlying
illness.
Clark: Diabetes, liver disease, any number
of metabolic or endocrine disorders. So we'll review
their medical history in a thorough fashion. If
we feel it's necessary, we'll send them to their
internist to have a more thorough medical work up
as well.
Narrator: Too often, patients won't seek
professional help for their halitosis.
Clark: It doesn't seem that they will talk
about this problem to their dentist or to their
physician unless it's really, really bad. Most people
just won't discuss it, but when they go to a clinic
that is specifically set up, they will then discuss
it. It is the reason they're there. Sort of like
psychological problems. You don't talk to your physician
about your depression, your anxiety, unless it's
a crisis.
Narrator: Yet the sooner you get help, the
sooner you'll get rid of this embarrassing problem.
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
C. The Facts About Women And Heart
Disease
Narrator: This is Science Today. Women die
of heart disease five times more than they do of
breast cancer. Yet Barbara Drew, an associate professor
at the University of California, San Francisco's
School of Nursing, says there's still a perception
that heart disease is a man's disease.
Drew: However it is the number one killer
in women and women of all ethnic groups. 241 And
women have poorer outcomes from heart disease than
men do. They have poorer outcomes after cardiac
surgery and after most procedures.
Narrator: Drew says there are many theories
why that is.
Drew: Women tend to be older by the time
they develop heart disease and that may have something
to do with it. They may have smaller coronary arteries
which are harder to work with and women have been
noted to have atypical chest pain symptoms sometimes,
which cloud what is wrong with the person and make
diagnosis more difficult.
Narrator: It's estimated one out of nine
women aged 45-64 will develop heart disease and
after 65, one out of three. For Science Today, I'm
Larissa Branin.
D. Potassium: The Good Salt
Narrator: This is Science Today. Contrary
to popular belief, it may be the chloride in table
salt and not the sodium, which raises blood pressure.
Curtis Morris, director of the University of California,
San Francisco's General Clinical Research Center,
found in a rat study that potassium salts from fruits
and vegetables lowered blood pressure, whereas a
potassium salt combined with chloride caused an
increase in hypertension.
Morris: I think it's very possible that
there are a number of people who have so-called
borderline or high/normal blood pressures whom hypertension
might be prevented or delayed by increasing dietary
intake of potassium and reducing the dietary intake
of salt.
Narrator: Morris says the best way to get
this source of potassium, a so-called good salt,
is to eat more fruits and vegetables.
Morris: Fruits and vegetables are very rich
sources of dietary potassium and that potassium
is not potassium chloride which, in some people,
probably is a benefit.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa
Branin.
E. Sorting Through Alzheimer's
Disease Research
Narrator: This is Science Today. There's
so much information coming out about new treatments
and possible cures for Alzheimer's Disease that
Carl Cotman, director of the University of California,
Irvine's Institute of Brain Aging and Dementia,
says the public needs help weeding out what's accurate
and what's not.
Cotman: There's just not enough neurologists,
psychiatrists and specialists to ever see the bulk
of the people and so really, this has to be translated
ultimately to family medicine. That's really where
the working grassroots basis is for so much of the
health care and the elderly today.
Narrator: There's also a need for more experimentation.
Cotman: What would happen if a person was
on estrogen plus an ibuprofen plus an antioxidant?
This is kind of an educational cycle. Some of these
dietary interactions among the elderly are still
fairly undescribed and unexplored and we're constantly
asked by our families and patients, well, how much
should we take? When should we take it? And you
know sort of what's wrong but then you gotta figure
out what's right for these individuals.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa
Branin.
