A Flinders University, Adelaide(South Australia) study is exploring the role of oestrogen as a weapon in oesophageal cancer whish is one of the deadliest forms of gastrointestinal carcinomas.
Dr Olga Sukocheva, a research fellow based in the Flinders Centre for Cancer Prevention and Control, is undertaking a new project to see whether oestrogen, the female sex hormone, can protect against, or halt the progression of, oesophageal cancer.
Dr Sukocheva said scientists have traditionally shied away from investigating oestrogen as an anti-cancer agent because it actually stimulates the growth of 70 per cent of oestrogen receptor positive breast tumours in women.
As men are eight times more likely than women to be diagnosed with oesophageal cancer and to die from it, Dr Sukocheva said there was a strong chance oestrogen could be used as a defence mechanism to prevent or slow the disease.
When women are diagnosed it’s often after menopause, when oestrogen levels have significantly decreased, so there’s every chance oestrogen can protect against oesophageal cancer.
