The female ovaries are the key part of female reproductive system. These are situated in the pelvic region. The size of ovary is almost equal to a size of rich almond.

Ovaries, under the influence of endocrine system release the sex hormone i.e. estrogen and progesterone. The function of the ovaries is to release egg that travel through the fallopian tube to the uterus.

During the menopause, the ovaries stop egg production and release very minute level of hormones.

Ovarian cancer an overview

Almost all types of cancer grow at the cellular level. It’s a natural process that body form new cells through cell multiplication when the old cells die. These new cell replace the old dead cells and keep the body in proper working condition. If some how, the cells start to replicate without the need of the body and unable to replace the old cells, a mass of tissues called “tumor” would be produced.

A new research study published on Monday in Journal Cancer has revealed that pregnant women do not have death risk on a higher level than non-pregnant breast cancer patients. The study was lead by Dr. Beth Beadle of the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.

The study was aimed to find out whether pregnant women are hardly hit by cancer than the others or not. Surprisingly, the new research results have contradicted the previous study results which in past pointed to a higher death risk for pregnant women.

The study included data of 652 women aged 35 and younger. All these were treated at M.D. Anderson from 1973 through 2006 for cancer. The patients included in the study were 104. Amongst them, 51 patients had breast cancer during their pregnancy and 53 developed it afterwards, almost within a year.

The cancer screenings must get doubled, across the continent, to meet bottom line, approved by the associated states, European Union said.

Cancer has become the second deadliest cause after heart diseases. The ratio in 2006 was two out of ten deaths in women and three out of ten for man.

“Investments putted in cancer-screening plan will pay long-term dividends,” Androulla Vassiliou European Health Commissioner said.

Each year 3.2 million people are diagnosed with different types of cancer in Europe alone. According to the static’s of 2006, the women died due to breast cancer were about 90,000 and fifteen thousand died of cervical cancer. In case of colorectal cancer, it took lives of 78,000 men and 68,000 women in the same year.

Those countries of the EU, which have validated screening programs on larger scale, have seen 80 percent reduction in cases of cervical cancer and 35 percent reduction in mortality of the breast cancer.

Screening for colorectal cancer is relatively new but Britain and Finland are aggressively promoting the program.

The report motivates the twenty-seven member states for the improvement and expansion in the screening program for target group without considering symptoms. In the continent 22 countries have such screening programs for breast, 15 for cervical cancer and 12 for the cancer of rectum and colon.

A new study suggests that women, who have higher levels of insulin in blood, are more prone to breast cancer that the women with its lower levels.

Higher levels of insulin are already linked with obesity and according to a team from Albert Einstein College, New York City it may also serve as a link between breast cancer and obesity.

In their study, the researchers made a comparison of insulin levels of 835 women who had breast cancer with 816 women who hadn’t developed the disease. All the participants of the study were taking part in the study of Women’s Health Initiative. The researchers found that women with higher levels of insulin had a considerable higher risk for breast cancer than the women with lower levels of insulin.

A new study that included 287,000 women and noticed their mammogram habits, says that increasing weight can boost the risk of developing breast cancer in older women.

Dr. Karla Kerlikowske, who led the study, says: “There are higher levels of circulating estrogens in women have increased body weight that leads to promote tumor growth in them.”

In another study, Kerlikowske and team have examined postmenopausal women with hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and they have found higher risk of breast cancer in them.

In this new study, they looked at postmenopausal women who didn’t receive HRT. The study is to be published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Dec.3 issue.

Scientists have found a key reason for the failure of drug tamoxifen in some women with breast cancer.

Scientists, from the Cancer Research UK, identify a molecular imbalance that doesn’t allow the drug to work.

The researchers believe that this detailed understanding will help to develop some more effective treatments for women with breast cancer. Similarly, they added that the finding would also help to explain other examples of drug resistance.

In UK, almost 45,000 new cases of breast cancer are diagnosed every year and around two-thirds are prescribed the drug. Women often take it for five year after diagnosis.

Almost 25 to 30% women develop resistance to the treatment after some time and it shows that their cancer is more likely to return.

Scientists have been trying to develop ways to identify these women so their treatment may be better tailored without wasting time.

In the study that included 100 breast cancer patients, the researchers found that tamoxifen can work by switching of the breast cancer gene HER2 through a protein known as PAX2.

A report in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute says that calcium or vitamin D supplements don’t seem to decrease the risk of invasive breast cancer in postmenopausal women.

Dr. Rowan T. Chlevbowski (from the University of California, Los Angeles) and colleagues note that the results of observational studies associate higher calcium and vitamin D levels with a lower risk of breast cancer, but yet this topic has not been addressed in a different type of trial.

In this study, 36282 women participants randomly received calcium 1000 mg plus vitamin D 400 IU per day or placebo for 7 years to find the effect of these supplements on hip fractures. A secondary endpoint of the study was the supplements’ effect on invasive breast cancer.

The researchers found that there wasn’t any significant difference in the number of patients who developed invasive breast cancer in the supplement group and the placebo group, as it was 528 versus 546.

A new study says that women with silicone breast implants may develop a rare form of lymphoma.

The study has been published in the Nov.5 issue of the Journal of the American Medical and its Dutch authors say that the absolute risk of developing this rare form of lymphoma is quite small and it can appear in 0.1 to 0.3 per 100,000 women with silicone implants every year.

Dr. Mitchell Smith, who is head of the lymphoma service at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, says: “Doctors must keep this fact in mind, however, women shouldn’t worry about it, as women with implants have one in many hundreds of thousands or even one in million chances to develop that cancer.”

According to Smith, this finding may prove helpful for scientists to understand the biology of this specific malignancy.

A new study says that coffee or other caffeine-rich foods do not seem to raise breast cancer risk.

Dr. Shumin M. Zhang, who is one of the authors of the study, says: “Caffeine doesn’t appear to boost overall risk of breast cancer.

However Dr. Zhang warned, “ if a high amount of caffeine or more than four cups of coffee are daily consumed by the women who have begin breast disease or breast tumors, they have higher risk of breast cancer.”

The study has been sponsored by the National Institutes of Health and it was published in the Archives of Internal Medicine Oct.13 issue.

The researchers noticed that caffeine found in coffee, tea, soft drinks, chocolate and several drugs is considered the commonest ingested drug in the world.

Women remain irritated about the exact way to check their breasts for early on symptoms of breast cancer, according to aid organization.

The medical doctors say there is no proof that meticulous monthly self-examination mitigates breast cancer mortalities and it can lead to redundant biopsies.

In the UK, the focal point is on breast consciousness rather than more multifaceted and implicated checks.

However, Breast Cancer Breakthrough said, “A number of UK women trust over the US-based websites recommending self-investigation”.