health & wellness

Study Calls For BRCA Screening
For All Ashkenazi Women

p

rofessor Ephrat Levy-Lahad,
director of the Fuld Family
Department of Genetics at
Shaare Zedek Medical Center in
Jerusalem, was the senior author of a
new study that recommends that all
women of Ashkenazi backgrounds
receive routine screenings for the
BRCA mutation that causes breast
cancer.
Until now, Ashkenazi women have
only been tested for the BRCA1 and
BRCA2 genes if a close blood relative
developed breast or ovarian cancer,
or was identified as a carrier of the
gene.
The study was published on Sept.
5, in the Proceedings of the National

It may be beautiful on the
outside but it's what's o
inside that counts

Academy of Sciences.
University of Washington breast
cancer geneticist Dr. Mary-Claire
King, who discovered BRCA1, a gene
that in a mutated form increases
vulnerability, was also an author
of the study, which was funded in
part by the Breast Cancer Research
Foundation.
"This should be offered as a uni-
versal screening test," said Levy-
Lahad.
"We should be testing people who
are still healthy at a stage when we
can prevent the disease!"
Many of the women identified by

Ephrat Levy-Lahad

the researchers in Israel would never
have known they were mutation car-
riers, if they had not received screen-
ings as part of the study.
"The Fuld Family Department of
Genetics at Shaare Zedek Medical
Center in Jerusalem has made many
contributions in the past to better
understanding of the implications of
cancer genes on human health and
disease!' said Professor Jonathan
Halevy, Shaare Zedek director-gen-
eral.
"This recent publication in a very
prestigious scientific journal is the
fruit of another original research
coming out of this department. This
finding is original, new and signifi-
cant!"

❑

How Sweet from page 78

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either way.
Elinav believes that certain bac-
had a means to test this as well.
teria in the guts of those who devel-
As a first step, they looked at data
oped glucose intolerance reacted to
collected from their Personalized
the chemical sweeteners by secreting
Nutrition Project, the largest human
substances that then provoked an
trial to date to look at the connection inflammatory response similar to
between nutrition and microbiota.
sugar overdose, promoting changes
Here, they uncovered a significant
in the body's ability to utilize sugar.
association between self-reported
"The results of our experiments
consumption of artificial sweeteners,
highlight the importance of person-
personal configurations of gut bac-
alized medicine and nutrition to
teria and the propensity for glucose
our overall health:' Segal said. "We
intolerance.
believe that an integrated analysis
They next conducted a controlled
of individualized 'big data' from our
experiment, asking a group of vol-
genome, microbiome and dietary
unteers who did not generally eat or
habits could transform our ability
drink artificially sweetened foods to
to understand how foods and nutri-
consume them for a week, and then
tional supplements affect a person's
undergo tests of their glucose levels
health and risk of disease:'
and gut microbiota compositions.
According to Elinav, "Our relation-
The findings showed that many —
ship with our own individual mix of
but not all — of the volunteers had
gut bacteria is a huge factor in deter-
begun to develop glucose intolerance
mining how the food we eat affects
after just one week of artificial sweet-
us. Especially intriguing is the link
ener consumption. The composition
between use of artificial sweeteners —
of their gut microbiota explained the
through the bacteria in our guts — to
difference: The researchers discovered a tendency to develop the very disor-
two different populations of human
ders they were designed to prevent;
gut bacteria — one that induced glu-
this calls for reassessment of today's
cose intolerance when exposed to the
massive, unsupervised consumption
sweeteners and one that had no effect
of these substances:'

❑

80 September 25 • 2014

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