Researchers will discuss polycythemia vera progress
http://standardspeaker.com/news/researchers-will-discuss-polycythemia-vera-progress-1.1161276
Published: June 14, 2011
Researchers on Wednesday will discuss progress on studies begun after they detected a blood-cancer cluster in the region.
The meeting at 6 p.m. in the Tamaqua Community Center, 223 Center St., will bring together researchers from two universities, two state agencies and the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry who are studying polycythemia vera.
Polycythemia vera or PV is an excess of red blood cells that can lead to heart attacks, strokes, headaches and other symptoms and is treated by withdrawing blood periodically.
In 2005, the state Department of Health found a higher incidence of PV cases in Schuylkill and Luzerne counties than in the rest of the state. Next, state officials asked the federal agency to help investigate whether the people actually had PV and to look for other cases in those counties and in Carbon County.
In August 2008, the federal agency made a public report saying 33 cases of PV had been confirmed by detecting a gene mutation in the patients. Some areas studied had higher incidences of PV than the rest of the three-county region, and one of the clusters was statistically significant, the federal agency said.
In May 2010, doctors Kenneth Orloff and Bruce Tierney of the federal agency reported that 1,170 other residents of the three counties had been tested.
Of those, 19 had the gene mutation. Five of them had been diagnosed with PV previously, but the 14 new cases represented an incidence of 1.2 percent out of the total group tested.
Although PV patients frequently have the gene mutation, known as JAK 2, the disease is not hereditary, nor is its cause known.
At Geisinger Health System, researchers are studying how often people with the mutation get the disease and how prevalent the JAK 2 mutation is in Northeastern Pennsylvania.
Researchers at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York City are examining genetic differences between PV patients in Northeastern Pennsylvania and elsewhere. They also are studying the relationship of cells to certain chemicals while looking for links between chemicals and PV.
Employees of Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection are sampling drinking water, dust and soil at the homes of study participants. Also, the department’s workers are testing water and sediment from the McAdoo Superfund Site and cogeneration plants in the area.
Drexel University’s team is looking for risk factors for PV and related diseases in the region.
At the University of Pittsburgh, researchers are studying the number of PV cases in a four-county area and reviewing reports of PV and related diseases.