Lancet reports yearly screening for ovarian cancer, using a pelvic ultrasound and checking a blood marker CA125, might reduce deaths from ovarian cancers. The study was done in UK in over 200,000 post menopausal women with no family or personal history of ovarian cancer and they were followed for a period of 11 years.

During the follow-up, the incidence of ovarian cancer mortality was not significantly lower in the screening group  than in the no-screening group. However, the effect of screening became significant after 7 years. In addition, in a prespecified secondary analysis that excluded women with CA125 levels suggesting cancer at baseline, screening was associated with a 20% reduction in ovarian cancer mortality relative to no screening.

Nicotinamide (a form of vitamin B3, Niacin) reduces the incidence of nonmelanoma skin cancers in high-risk adults. High risk was defined as having had 2 cases of skin cancer- either squamous cell or basal cell, in the past 5 years.

This study was done on over 400 adults in Australia, who were randomized to receive oral niacin (500 mg) or placebo twice daily for a year. During the study, the average number of new skin cancers was significantly lower with vitamin B3. Significant reductions were observed for both squamous cell and basal cell cancers. In addition, the number of actinic keratoses, which can turn cancerous, was significantly lower among niacin recipients as early as 3 months after supplementation began. Adverse events did not differ between the groups.

The authors conclude that “nicotinamide is widely accessible as an inexpensive over-the-counter vitamin supplement and presents a new chemopreventive opportunity against non-melanoma skin cancers.”

The American College of Physicians has made the following recommendations on screening for five common cancers.

• Breast: For women aged 40-49 years, mammography screening every 2 years should be offered if a woman requests it after a discussion of the potential benefits and harms. For women aged 50-74 years who are in good health, mammography should be encouraged every 2 years.
• Cervical: For women aged 21-29 years, Pap smears are recommended every 3 years. For those aged 30-65, Pap smears with HPV testing can be done every 5 years (instead of Pap smears alone).
• Colorectal: For patients aged 50-75 years, one of the following strategies should be encouraged: high-sensitivity stool blood testing (FOBT) or stool immunofluorescence testing (FIT) annually; sigmoidoscopy every 5 years; combined high-sensitivity FOBT or FIT every 3 years plus sigmoidoscopy every 5 years; or optical colonoscopy every 10 years.
• Ovarian: Screening isn’t recommended.
• Prostate: For men aged 50-69 with a life expectancy of at least a decade, discuss screening’s benefits and risks. If patients prefer screening, order prostate-specific antigen testing no more than once every 2-4 years.

Women who have a first-degree relative with prostate cancer are at increased risk for developing breast cancer, suggests an article in the journal Cancer. 

Roughly 78,000 postmenopausal women from the Women’s Health Initiative Observational Study provided family cancer histories at baseline. Roughly 4% of women were diagnosed with breast cancer over a median 11 years’ follow-up.

Having a first-degree relative with prostate cancer was slightly more common among women with breast cancer than among those without (11.6% vs 10.1%). The association persisted after adjusting for family history of breast. Women who had family histories of both breast and prostate cancers had higher risk,  and African American women with family histories of both types of cancer had even greater risk.

The authors conclude: “Risk communication between the physician and the patient as well as the dissemination of this information from the patient to immediate relatives would be important in shaping the health behaviors (such as screening for early detection) of those family members, even among those of the opposite sex.”