Feature: MSU Researchers Focus on Women's Health
Cross-disciplinary teams of MSU researchers are gaining recognition for their pioneering solutions to the health challenges faced by women. Community leaders across the world have long understood that women’s health has a direct impact on the well-being of children and families, the stability of the workforce and, ultimately, the quality of life for nations.
Though MSU has been involved in exploring women’s health issues for many decades, in recent years that research has broadened to include all aspects of women’s health, from unlocking the secrets behind breast cancer to studying how to help women recover from violence and other traumas. “We are fortunate to have top researchers at MSU who are looking at women’s health issues from many different perspectives,” says J. Ian Gray, vice president for research and graduate studies. “The quality of their work has generated federal, state and private funding, accolades from their peers and substantial media attention. “These studies will greatly impact women’s health. Some of our scientific breakthroughs won’t begin to improve women’s health and women’s lives for several years—that’s the rigorous course of science. But when you consider what we are doing right now, you can’t help but be excited by our potential and our progress.”
MSU has been at the forefront of cancer research since the 1960s, when chemistry professor Barnett Rosenberg and his colleagues made discoveries that led to the development of the well-known cancer-fighting drugs cisplatin and carboplatin. In recent years, MSU’s College of Human Medicine has recruited researchers from across the country to tackle a variety of major diseases. Among them is John I. Risinger, associate professor and director of gynecologic oncology research in the Dept. of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology. Risinger, whose work is molecular profiling of gynecological cancers, recently received funding from the U.S. Dept. of Defense for a Gynecologic Cancer Center of Excellence through 2015.
MSU scientists have made significant progress in breast cancer research. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, breast cancer is the most common cancer among American women, causing more than 40,000 deaths each year and making it a priority among women’s health issues. “For many of us in the MSU community, the fight against breast cancer has become a personal crusade as well as a scientific challenge,” says Gray. “We are proud of the advances our researchers have made in understanding and controlling cancer in its many forms. However, when it comes to breast cancer, much of our energy—and our hopes—are now focused on prevention.”
Just recently a multi-institutional team of researchers led by Ellen Velie, associate professor in the College of Human Medicine’s Dept. of Epidemiology, was awarded $14 million by the National Institutes of Health to identify risk factors for breast cancer in young women. The five-year study, which will focus on growth, diet, physical activity and body size during a woman’s lifetime, includes the largest sample in the United States of black women younger than 50 years of age diagnosed with breast cancer.
Velie’s work complements the research undertaken at MSU’s Breast Cancer and the Environment Research Center, established in 2003 and funded through 2010 by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the National Cancer Institute. Last year, physiology Professor Sandra Haslam, director of the center, and Richard Schwartz, microbiology professor and associate dean in the College of Natural Science, found that girls eating a high-fat diet during puberty, even those who do not become overweight or obese, may be at a greater risk of developing breast cancer later in life. Haslam and Schwartz are now expanding that research with a new, five-year, $2.3 million federal grant to study the impact of prenatal-to-adult environmental exposures that predispose women to breast cancer. A collaborative team of 10 scientists led by Haslam and Schwartz also found exposure to the hormone progesterone activates genes that trigger inflammation in the mammary gland, a key factor in increasing the risk of breast cancer in menopausal women.
These critical findings about cancer risks could lead to cancer prevention strategies. But new information can only have an impact if doctors, mothers and young girls understand what they can do to change their behaviors and improve their health habits. That’s where Karen Patricia Williams’ research comes in. Williams, an associate professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive biology in MSU’s College of Human Medicine, is the lead author of a study of 341 Arab-American, African-American and Latina women that examined levels of medical mistrust and assessed the impact on whether the participants received recommended breast cancer screenings. She found that nearly 70 percent of minority women agree that health care organizations sometimes deceive or mislead patients, which can prevent women from getting breast cancer screenings.
Health communications researcher Kami Silk, associate professor in the College of Communication Arts and Sciences, is studying the most effective strategies for communicating breast cancer prevention messages to young girls. Adolescent girls are a primary target audience for messages about the importance of regular mammograms, self-examination and a healthy lifestyle, because early adoption of healthy behaviors may help reduce the risk of getting cancer later in life.
MSU researchers are also studying how women live with cancer. Barbara Given, University Distinguished Professor and associate dean for research in the MSU College of Nursing, is a pioneer in oncology nursing who has received millions of dollars in federal funding during her 44-year tenure with MSU. She has spent her career developing interventions aimed at helping patients and their family caregivers manage symptoms from cancer disease and treatment at home. Given and her husband, College of Human Medicine Professor Bill Given, have developed a web-based symptom management toolkit that links cancer patients’ symptoms and their reports of severity with intervention strategies directed toward patients.
Professor Gwen Wyatt of MSU’s College of Nursing found that biological-based therapies such as diet supplements and vitamins are the most popular complementary and alternative medicines (CAM) for women recovering from breast cancer. She is using the results of this study, which was funded by the U.S. Dept. of Defense, to help women identify which therapies will be most effective for them. Her colleague in nursing, Assistant Professor Costellia Talley, is studying differences in the quality of life experienced by African American breast cancer patients 50 years of age and older. Despite the lower incidence of breast cancer in African American women, they are still more likely to be diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer and have higher mortality rates from breast cancer than white women. Older African American cancer survivors experience poorer functional status and have more symptoms than other ethnic groups. Because of these health disparities, she anticipates that breast cancer affects African American women’s quality of life differently than white women’s.