So let’s talk about clinical trials. Has anyone out there ever participated in one or know of someone who has? Have you ever thought about participating in one, but held back because you didn’t have enough information about what it would entail?  A lot of people fall into that category – they want to help out, but they don’t know enough about it or if it’s right for them, but I’m getting ahead of myself… Before we go any further, let’s talk about what a clinical trial exactly is.

A clinical trial is basically a scientific term for a test or study of a drug or medical device on people. These tests are done to see if the product is safe and effective for people to use. Health care providers run the tests according to strict rules set by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) which are put in place to make sure that people who agree to be in the studies are treated as safely as possible. Volunteering for these tests is important because 1) you get to try a new treatment that may or may not be better than those that already exist and 2) you may also help others better understand how the treatment works in people of different races and genders.

On Saturday, October 15^th we will be partnering in an event with the Center for Information & Study on Clinical Research Participation (CISCRP) to implement a one-day, free, open to the public education program in Chicago at the Robert H. Lurie Medical Research Center of Northwestern University.  It is entitled AWARE for All – Clinical Research Education Day. The purpose is to raise awareness of clinical research within the community and empower attendees to make educated decisions regarding their participation.  This is not an event to recruit or register people for clinical trials; AWARE for All is simply an educational opportunity for people who want to learn more about clinical research participation.

Along with conducting educational workshops, Aware for All will be providing free health screenings, an information and exhibit area, opportunities to meet local doctors, free raffle and prizes, and a delicious lunch for attendees.  If this seems like it’s right up your alley, please visit www.ciscrp.org to register or to get more information. Women and minorities are particularly encouraged to attend this event as they have historically been under-represented in clinical trials (and you’ll learn more about why it’s important to change this!). We hope to see you there!

Summer Teacher Fellowship Team (L-R): Mark Prosise (Curriculum Developer), Amy Elliott, Kari Bodine, Miranda Bernhardt (Lab Coordinator), Sowmya Anjur, Kristen Perkins (Curriculum Coordinator), Nadia Reynolds (Fellowship Coordinator); not pictured: Qurrat Waheed. Photo by Eugene Galdones.

By Nadia Reynolds – The Oncofertility Summer Research Fellowship (OSRF), a program that brings science teachers and college undergraduates into the Woodruff Lab, was initiated in 2009 with the support of a two-year American Recovery & Reinvestment Act grant.  For the past three years, high school biology teachers and Oncofertility Saturday Academy (OSA) alumnae have been hired to work in the Woodruff Lab over the summer, through the OSRF program.  Two teachers and two OSA alumnae participated in 2009, and five teachers and three OSA alumnae participated in 2010.

This year, OSRF was supported by the main Oncofertility Consortium grant, and four teachers were selected to participate in the program.  The teacher fellows included: Sowmya Anjur, a veteran teacher for Illinois Math & Science Academy, Qurrat Waheed, a new teacher at Westinghouse College Prep, and Kari Bodine and Amy Elliott, both teachers at Lakes Community High School.  The teacher fellows learned about the science behind fertility preservation, the bioethical issues surrounding the field of oncofertility, and participated in the development of new high school science lab modules called the Northwestern University Biology Investigations in Oncofertility, or NUBIO.

NUBIO includes a set of labs that were developed via a collaboration between local high school teachers and researchers in the Woodruff Lab in an attempt to teach students basic biology skills and advanced biotechnology techniques through the context of cancer, reproductive science, and oncofertility.  The teacher fellows expanded upon the already developed NUBIO labs as individual summer projects, which included new units on cancer, bioethics, and patient case studies.

OSRF was a huge success this year, and we wish all of our teacher fellows the best as they return to their schools in the fall to pilot NUBIO!  And next week we welcome the OSA alumnae student fellows into the lab!

A rapidly expanding body of research indicates that many reproductive health problems and cancers may be caused by exposure to chemicals that are widely dispersed in our environment and which we come into contact on a daily basis. These problems include infertility and cancers of reproductive organs. Chemicals are commonly highlighted in media stories and public policy debates due to increasing evidence of exposure in the population and potential health risks. These chemicals are particularly harmful when exposures occur during vulnerable periods of development.

On April 19^th, the Institute for Women’s Health Research hosted Dr. Tracy Woodruff, Associate Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences and Director of the Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Woodruff has done extensive research and policy development on environmental health issues, with a particular emphasis on reproductive and development health in relation to exposure to environmental chemicals.

Recently in the media, we have been inundated with messages about the dangers of environmental chemicals such as Bisphenol A, otherwise known as BPA. BPA is used extensively in producing certain hard plastics made into many products such as baby bottles and canned food lining. It is an endocrine disruptor that in mice causes numerous harmful physiological effects, and some research suggests that corresponding studies in humans produce similar results.  This chemical as well as other environmental contaminates are particularly damaging when exposure occurs during development stages such as in utero and puberty.

According to Dr. Woodruff, “the majority of people in the US have some measurable amount of pesticides and chemicals in their body and the timing that they were exposed is as important, if not more important than how much they were exposed to.” Studies show that children who were exposed to environmental chemicals in utero are more likely to develop childhood leukemia. In addition, women who were exposed to environmental chemicals during significant developmental stages are more likely to suffer from infertility or vaginal cancers.  Coinciding with this evidence, both the Endocrine Society and the National Cancer Institute have released reports concurring that exposure to environmental chemicals can lead to adverse reproductive outcomes, infertility and certain cancers.

So what can we do to avoid the ubiquitous presence of pesticides, BPA and other harmful environmental chemicals? On an individual level, we can reduce our consumption of processed foods. That is to say we should buy less canned and packaged goods and buy more fresh foods whenever possible. When buying fresh foods, we need not break the bank and buy all organic, but there are certain foods with a higher amount of residual pesticides that you should try and buy organic whenever possible. Another way to reduce your exposure to harmful chemicals is by microwaving your food in glass rather than plastic. Finally, you should be especially diligent about reducing your exposure to environmental chemicals if you are pregnant or have small children in an effort to reduce their likelihood for health issues down the line. Through simple lifestyle modifications, we can  minimize our exposure to chemicals which have been linked to both infertility and cancer and reduce our likelihood for adverse health conditions.

When most younger women think of menopause, they think of their mothers having hot flashes at the dinner table or hearing about sleepless nights from their aunts but women dealing with cancer at many ages may experience these symptoms. Menopause can manifest in a variety of ways including hot flashes, mood swings, changes in sex drive, and memory loss. While the average age of menopause in the United States is 51, cancer treatments can induce premature menopause, either permanently or temporarily, in much younger women. Survivors of childhood cancer are also up to 13 times more likely to experience premature menopause than women without a cancer history.

The menopausal change is an important issue at any time in a woman’s life but women who are simultaneously dealing with a cancer diagnosis and treatment are even less prepared than older women. In ageing women, menopause is caused by a gradual shutting-down of the ovaries at the end of the reproductive years. With “the change,” the ovaries stop producing the hormones estrogen and progesterone. This hormonal withdrawal causes many of the symptoms of menopause. Young women undergoing a variety of cancer treatments may experience a sudden onset of menopause and its symptoms.

Chemotherapies that cause damage to the ovaries (and cause permanent or temporary infertility) can cause menopause. Some chemotherapies, such as those with alkylating agents, are more likely than others to increase the risk of infertility and menopause. In addition, radiation therapy to the pelvic areas or the brain can induce menopause by damaging the ovaries directly or disrupting the parts of the brain that control ovarian function. Women with ovarian cancer and some cases of breast cancer may have their ovaries surgically removed, which pushes them into a premature menopause termed “surgical menopause.” Some chemical methods of cancer prevention, such as tamoxifen, are prescribed to young women to reduce the risk for primary breast cancer or relapse. Tamoxifen works by interfering with estrogen signaling in the body that can increase the proliferation of cancerous cells but can also commonly cause menopausal side effects in women, though it does not cause menopause.

As with older women, symptoms for premature menopause due to cancer therapy may vary greatly between women. Cancer survivors with premature menopause experience a longer percentage of their lives without the natural protective effects of estrogens. These hormones are important for maintaining bone and heart health and cancer survivors may be at increased risks of long-term effects of premature menopause such as osteoporosis and cardiovascular disease. A new documentary, called Hot Flash Havoc, aims to explain some of these risks and includes interviews with women who experienced premature menopause in their 30s. The Institute for Women’s Health Research is hosting an event with a panel of experts and pre-screening of the documentary on Wednesday, February 2nd in Chicago, IL.

The National Mall in Washington D.C. was the place to be for inquisitive minds this past weekend–the USA Science and Engineering Festival held there on Saturday and Sunday drew crowds of nearly 1 million people who took part in over 1,500 hands-on activities, exhibits, and science shows.  Our own Institute for Women’s Health Research had one of these exhibits, where Cathryn Smeyers and I were able to share information about the Women’s Health Sciences Program and to help spread the word about Oncofertility.

Did you know that the “pimento” in most cocktail olives isn’t really a pimento at all–it’s actually made from a compound that comes from seaweed?!?  No?  Well you’re not alone–this came as a surprise to most of the 2000 visitors to our booth, each of whom diligently dissected that “little orange thingy” out of an olive and found out what in the world it has to do with women’s health.  They found out that the seaweed compound inside some olives is called alginate, and each visitor got to mix some alginate with a calcium solution and watch what happened.  Even kids as young as 2 were eager to give it a try and to squish the little beads that formed when the alginate came in contact with calcium.  Our slightly older audience members were also very interested to find out how researchers at the Oncofertility Consortium are using these little alginate blobs as a sort-of artificial ovary–allowing ovarian follicles placed inside them to hold their 3D shape as they grow, so that we can learn how to grow healthy eggs outside of the body.  To learn more about this process for yourself, check out this animation at myoncofertility.org.

The Festival was a very exciting and inspiring place to be!  It was invigorating to see so many young people excited about all kinds of science, and to hopefully encourage them to become part of the next generation of leaders in science and medicine.  This Festival was the inaugural run of what will hopefully become an annual event.  Be sure to check out the 2010 Expo Days Recap Video to get a taste of what the Festival had to offer!  In the words of President Obama, “Keep exploring, keep asking questions, keep having fun.  The future of this country and the advancements of the next century are in your hands.”  “My hope is that this festival is just the beginning for all of you–that’s not just the power of science, that’s the promise of America.”

A new blog for the Institute for Women’s Health Research Launched today!   Check it out here.

Established in November of 2007, the Institute for Women’s Health Research was created at Northwestern University to help accelerate basic science and clinical research that will advance our knowledge of women’s health. Their mission is to increase the women’s health research portfolio at Northwestern University and their clinical affiliates; they focus on 5 ambitious goals to accomplish this mission:

• To foster research that explores the sex and gender determinants of health and disease with an emphasis on women
• To encourage interdisciplinary research, diversity inclusiveness and a comprehensive approach to women’s health research
• To prepare researchers, scientists and clinicians who understand the sex and gender determinants of health and disease; develop leadership among women and girls interested in science
• To accelerate the translation of basic science research into clinical practice
• To become the authoritative resource for the community on women’s health issues and provide opportunities for the community to engage in the advancement of women’s health