
Endometriosis
What is Endometriosis?
Endometriosis can be described as the presence of cells normally found within the uterus (endometrial lining) that grow outside the uterus. This common condition is estimated to affect 10% of individuals that are genetically female, and have an intact uterus, during childbearing years. Symptoms are varied: some individuals experience few symptoms; others may have severe, chronic, or cyclic pelvic pain; others may have issues conceiving (infertility).
Endometriosis symptoms may subside after menopause, but this isn’t always the case. Treatments also have different results for different people. For some contraceptive pills and over the counter pain medication will be sufficient. Others will face a struggle to get a clear diagnosis and find a management plan that works. Treatments can include counseling, pain medications, drugs that affect hormone levels and responses, and could include surgery to remove endometriosis lesions or even hysterectomy. Doctors and caregivers have no reliable tools to identify which treatments might work best for which individuals. There is no cure.
Endometriosis is characterized by chronic inflammation and cells typically respond to sex hormones like estrogen and progesterone. Endometriosis lesions often show signs of chronic inflammation and can spread within the peritoneal cavity, and sometime even to distant sites. Like cancers, endometriosis can invade into tissues and organs, recruit its own blood supply, and caries cancer mutations in some cells. Our group was one of the first to identify cancer-mutations inside of endometriosis cells. We know now roughly half of individuals with endometriosis will have endometriosis that carries a cancer mutation. Despite this, the risk of developing a full-fledged cancer from endometriosis remains low.
A major theme in our research is to understand how cancer mutations affect endometriosis, why these affect some people more than others, how they affect endometriosis growth and response to therapies, and to understand if we can use mutations as a target for treatments – something that is more common in precision medicine for cancer.
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Read More About Endometriosis:
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Edge Research Studies on Endometriosis [PubMed]
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Selected Reviews from World Experts:
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Endometriosis: recent advances that could accelerate diagnosis and improve care
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Endometriosis: Improvements and challenges in diagnosis and symptom management
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The Known, the Unknown and the Future of the Pathophysiology of Endometriosis
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Endometriosis is a chronic systemic disease: clinical challenges and novel innovations