WEDNESDAY, April 23 (HealthDay News) -- A protein that stops the spread of breast cancer tumors in mice can predict which malignancies might spread, a new study suggests.

The gene, called bromodomain protein (Brd4), when added to breast cancer cells in mice, produced a unique gene signature, which was also detected in human breast cancer patients.

"We have identified that this particular gene seems to be associated with outcomes in breast cancer," said lead researcher Kent W. Hunter, a senior investigator at the U.S. National Cancer Institute. "This gene may be something we want to investigate in more detail."

Understanding how the new gene functions may lead to a better understanding of what makes breast cancer metastasize, Hunter said. "This will help identify patients who will have a better or worse outcome," he added.

The report was published in this week's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

In the study, Hunter's team inserted the gene for the Brd4 proteins into mouse breast cancer tumor cells that are known for their ability to metastasize.

However, tumor cells that contained Brd4 produced smaller tumors that did not metastasize as readily. In addition, Brd4 changed many other genes, resulting in a unique genetic signature.

The researchers then mapped the signature genes to corresponding human genes, and compared the human Brd4 signature with patient data from five large groups of breast cancer patients.

In all five groups, those patients who had the Brd4-positive signature lived longer and had a lower incidence of metastatic tumors, the researchers found. This indicates that the Brd4 gene expression signatures could accurately predict the severity of breast cancer, the researchers said.

These findings may lead to new treatments, Hunter said.

"We may not only be able to find a prognostic signature, but we can identify other genetic elements that are driving prognosis, so we may also be able to develop additional therapeutic strategies," Hunter said. "We may be able to find new drugs or strategies to improve quality of life and extend life span."

One expert doesn't think this gene makes a contribution to predicting the prognosis of breast cancer.

"This is a marker study looking at a novel gene and its expression, and suggests that the gene expression may predict outcome in node-negative, estrogen-positive breast cancer," said Dr. Harold J. Burstein, an assistant professor of medicine at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

"There are already multiple, commercially available gene expression array tests such as Oncotype DX, MammaPrint, with more extensive clinical support for similar patients," Burstein said. "Most investigators believe that multiple gene assays are more informative than single gene assays."

"Finally, the clinical validation in this experience is drawn from small sets of patients, and the strength of the data suggest modest, if any, real contribution for this gene," Burstein said.

More information

For more on breast cancer, visit the U.S. National Cancer Institute.

SATURDAY, April 19 (HealthDay News) -- Pregnancy has long been considered a kind of gastronomical free-for-all. After all, a pregnant woman has to nourish two bodies with the food she eats, right?

The problem is, the baby's nutritional needs are only around 300 calories a day, and extra weight gain can increase the risk of pregnancy complications for both mother and child.

And, weight concerns don't stop after the baby is born, because extra weight gain after pregnancy increases the risk of complications in subsequent pregnancies, even if a woman never gains enough to be considered overweight.

"Women think they have carte blanche to eat whatever they want during pregnancy, but that's not a good idea," said Dr. Miriam Greene, a clinical assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at New York University Medical Center and the author of the book, Frankly Pregnant: A Candid, Week-by-Week Guide to the Unexpected Joys, Raging Hormones, and Common Experiences of Pregnancy.

"If you eat for two, you'll end up with complications you didn't need to take on. Eat what your appetite tells you to eat, and eat slowly, so you can tell when you're full," advised Dr. Marjorie Greenfield, an obstetrician at MacDonald Women's Hospital at Case Medical Center, University Hospitals in Cleveland, and author of the book, The Working Woman's Pregnancy Book.

During pregnancy, an average-weight woman should gain about 25 to 35 pounds, according to Greene. "You don't want your weight gain to be less than 15 or greater than 40," she said.

But many women aren't heeding that advice. A recent report from the Institute of Medicine (IOM) found that about one-quarter of American women gain more than 40 pounds during their pregnancy. The IOM is currently reviewing its guidelines on pregnancy weight gain and expects to issue new guidelines during the summer of 2009.

In the meantime, the IOM recommends that women with a body mass index (BMI, a ratio of weight to height) of less than 18.5 should gain 28 to 40 pounds during pregnancy, while women with an average BMI -- 18.5 to 24.9 -- should keep weight gain between 25 and 35 pounds. Overweight women with BMIs of 25 to 29.9 should try to gain between 15 and 25 pounds throughout their pregnancy, and obese women with BMIs over 30 need only gain 15 pounds.

Gaining too much weight during pregnancy puts both baby and mom at risk of complications, such as gestational diabetes and high blood pressure, labor complications, stillbirth and delivery of a large-for-gestational age baby, according to the March of Dimes.

Greene said about two-thirds of her patients manage to stay within the guidelines. And those who don't are very disappointed at how hard the weight is to get off afterward.

She recommends that her pregnant patients eat well-balanced diets and that they don't give in to every food craving. "It's not healthy to gain weight eating pints of ice cream," she said.

Greenfield is also a fan of most exercises during pregnancy. Not only can exercise help you stave off pregnancy weight gain, it improves overall well-being as well, she said.

"Pregnancy is a special time when a lot of women will take better care of themselves to take care of the baby. It's a golden opportunity to take care of yourself, and you may have an impact on your health and your baby's health in the long run," Greenfield noted.

And, it's not just during pregnancy that women have to be concerned about extra pounds. A recent study found that every one or two point increase in a woman's BMI between pregnancies translated to an increased risk of gestational diabetes, high blood pressure and delivering a large baby by 20 percent to 40 percent. Women who increased their BMI more than three points between pregnancies had a 63 percent increased risk of delivering a stillborn baby.

The increases in the risks of complications held true even if the BMI changes didn't place a woman into the overweight or obese category, the study found.

More information

To learn more about weight gain during pregnancy, visit the American Pregnancy Association  .

FRIDAY, April 11 (HealthDay News) -- Three-quarters of the 68 countries most in need of improving mother and child mortality rates have made little, if any, progress in meeting internationally set goals over the past three years, according to a series of new reports.

The Countdown to 2015 for Maternal, Newborn and Child Survival, an international group that monitors these goals, still holds hope that progress can be made quickly in these underachieving nations, according to reports this week in a special edition of The Lancet.

The medical journal looks at the group's efforts in 68 "priority" or "countdown" countries, where 97 percent of the maternal and child-under-5 deaths occur worldwide. The group has set goals to reduce child mortality rate by two-thirds and maternal deaths by three-quarters by 2015.

In a commentary, Lancet Editor Dr. Richard Horton calls the Countdown project's overall progress "strikingly inadequate" and concludes, "children and mothers are dying, because those who have the power to prevent their deaths choose not to act. This indifference -- by politicians, policy makers, donors, research funders and civil society -- is a betrayal of our collective hope for a stronger and more just society."

Of the priority countries, only 16 are on track to reach the goal of reducing the mortality rate in children. Three -- China, Haiti and Turkmenistan -- had made demonstrable progress to improve maternal, newborn and child survival since the countdown began in 2005. The others were either already on track when the countdown was launched or were added onto the list only recently.

Most of the countries that have made no progress, or even taken steps backward, are in sub-Saharan Africa.

Another report in The Lancet states that most of the countries being watched have made some progress since 1990 to reduce the coverage gap for four key interventions -- family planning, maternal and newborn care, immunization and treatment of sick children. Yet the study, by the Countdown 2008 Equity Analysis Group, said the pace needs to be more than doubled if they hope to meet goals for 2015.

While actual maternal mortality was still high or very high in 56 of 68 countries, one report suggests some key parts of the solution are in place. These include consensus on priority interventions (such as immunization and antenatal care), various health-care policies and funding increases.

For example, donor funding increases have nearly doubled funding per child in the 68 countries, according to one report in The Lancet. Child-related disbursements increased from a mean of $4 per child in 2003 to $7 in 2006. Those for maternal and neonatal health increased from $7 per live birth in 2003 to $12 per live birth in 2006.

However, the report noted that funding still dropped in several countries, stifling attempts for governments to make long-term commitments to health improvements.

"In the seven years until 2015, the next two years before the next Countdown Report will be the most crucial," the study's authors wrote. "With strategic decisions and investments, and a focus on partnerships for results, we have the opportunity to see unprecedented progress in these 68 countries. Or will the 2010 report show more of the same gaps and lives lost?"

Some of the other findings in the special edition include:

• Policy gaps in many of the countries are hindering their progress along with financing woes and human resources issues.
• Tanzania is one of the few African nations on track to meet the goal of reducing child mortality, showing a 24 percent decline from 2000 to 2004. The report credits good program funding and several initiatives such as insecticide-treated nets to prevent malaria, vitamin A supplementation, immunization and exclusive breast-feeding.
• South Africa is suffering major setbacks in meeting its goals because of pregnancy and childbirth complications, newborn illness, childhood illness, HIV and AIDS, and malnutrition. It is one of just 12 countries globally where the child mortality rate has risen since 1990.

More information

Here's more about Countdown to 2015  .

THURSDAY, April 10 (HealthDay News) -- Sexual dissatisfaction in postmenopausal women isn't associated with cardiovascular disease, say U.S. researchers.

It's known that sexual dysfunction in some men is predictive of cardiovascular disease but this association has never been examined in women.

In this study, researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) and Boston Medical Center (BMC) analyzed data collected from more than 93,000 sexually active postmenopausal women, aged 50 to 79, in the Women's Health Initiative Observational Study.

The women, recruited at 40 clinical centers across the United States, were followed for eight to 12 years. They were classified as either sexually satisfied or dissatisfied based on their responses to a baseline survey.

The researchers looked for information about cardiovascular disease -- acute myocardial infarction, stroke or coronary revascularization procedure -- and related cardiovascular problems such as congestive heart failure, peripheral artery disease and angina.

The study did find a modest association between sexual dissatisfaction and having peripheral artery disease. It also found that women who were sexually dissatisfied had a lower rate of angina. However, the researchers found no association between sexual dissatisfaction and any other form of cardiovascular disease.

The study was published in the April issue of The American Journal of Medicine.

"In men, erectile dysfunction is a manifestation of cardiovascular disease and can predict the development of adverse cardiovascular outcomes such as heart attack," researcher Dr. Jennifer McCall-Hosenfeld, a fellow in the department of general internal medicine at BMC and Women's Health at BUSM, said in a prepared statement.

"In our study, we used decreased sexual satisfaction as a rough proxy measure for sexual dysfunction and controlled for lifestyle issues and other factors that might impact sexual satisfaction. We did not find that sexual satisfaction predicted cardiovascular disease in the future," she said.

More information

The U.S. National Women's Health Information Center has more about heart disease.