Source: malaymail.com<\/p>\n
NEW YORK, Dec 25 \u2014 American researchers at the Mayo Clinic have identified a vaginal microbiota signature linked to endometrial cancer, which they believe to be partly promoted by postmenopause.<\/p>\n
Endometrial cancer is detected when there is an abnormal proliferation of cells on the lining of the uterus. People who are obese, overweight, diabetic or post-menopausal are most at risk of developing this form of cancer.<\/p>\n
As they are sensitive to these risk factors, the vaginal microbiota, i.e. all the microorganisms that populate the vagina, could play a role in screening for this cancer, particularly in post-menopausal women, say scientists at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, United States, authors of a new research study published in\u00a0Scientific Reports.<\/p>\n
In 2017, this same team of researchers discovered differences in the uterine and vaginal microbiomes between patients with and without endometrial cancer in a uterine microbiome study, which was published in the review Genome Medicine.<\/p>\n
Postmenopause is a key risk factor for endometrial cancer<\/strong><\/p>\n This new research aims to understand the impact of patients’ risk factors (post-menopause and obesity) on the composition of vaginal microbiota. Based on the results obtained in the previous study, the researchers recruited women who had undergone a hysterectomy following endometrial cancer or a benign uterine condition at the Mayo Clinic.<\/p>\n Overall, the team reviewed and confirmed the major known risk factors for endometrial cancer (post-menopausal status and obesity) and identified high vaginal pH as an additional risk factor for endometrial cancer.<\/p>\n All these factors were found to impact the reproductive tract microbiome by increasing its diversity and reducing the dominance of lactobacilli species. The team also identifed postmenopause as a key factor of several microbiota associated with EC.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have determined that all of these factors impact the reproductive tract microbiome, further identified post menopause as a key factor, and are looking ahead to discuss potential translational applications of this knowledge, which may bring new approaches to address current health disparities in endometrial cancer,\u201d said Dr Walther-Antonio, who led the study. \u2014 AFP-Relaxnews<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3637,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[87,311,1901,222],"class_list":["post-3636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-american","tag-cancer","tag-endometrial","tag-researchers"],"yoast_head":"\n