Weighing Brown DwarfsManoa's Michael Liu and Trent Dupuyuse ultra-sharp images to determine the mass of brown dwarf stars. Read moreBirth Control Pills and Ovarian CancerManoa's Galina Lurie, Lynne Wilkens and Marc Goodman find oral contraceptives can protect against ovarian cancer. Read more
Student Films in ShanghaiAcademy for Creative Media students showcase their work at the Shanghai Film Festival. Read more
UH in PrintHilo’s Ron Amundson, Marta deMaintenon, Terrance Jalbert, Shari Tresky and Manoa’s James Heasley, Christopher Lepczyk, Qing Xiao Li and Juanita Liu. Read more
Ocean Observation FundingNOAA awards more than $2 million to the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology. Read moreAlumni Business ScholarshipsShidler College of Business alumni living in Asia donate $250,000. Read moreNew Geography ScholarshipHilo alumnus Ron Terry establishes the Geography Founders scholarship. Read more
UH EventsManoa’s KIDS FIRST! film festival, Jean Charlot exhibit and Brewbaker and Schroeder lectures. Read more
Birth Control Pills and Ovarian Cancer
Researchers at Manoa’s Cancer Research Center of Hawai'i found that oral contraceptives can protect women from the most common kind of ovarian cancer—epithelial, affecting cells on the outer surface of the ovary—even with short-term use. Lead researchers for the study from the CRCH were Galina Lurie, Lynne Wilkens and Marc Goodman. The results of their study were published in the March 2008 issue of Epidemiology.
While the role of oral contraceptives in reducing ovarian cancer risk has been proven by previous studies, this was the first time comprehensive information on time-related characteristics of contraceptive use—duration of use, recency of use, and age at initiation and cessation of use—was evaluated while accounting for formulation potency and age at first and last pregnancy. These are factors that may affect protective qualities of contraceptive hormones.
The mechanism for the protective influence of oral contraceptives against epithelial ovarian cancer remains unclear. One hypothesis is that high levels of hormones during pregnancy and steroidal contraceptive use leads to the clearing of cancerous ovarian epithelial cells. This hypothesis, based on evidence for growth-regulating effects of steroid hormones, is supported by recent studies that have demonstrated enhanced ovarian cancer cell death in the presence of progesterone, a component of oral contraceptive pills.