University of South Australia

SATURDAY, March 29, 2025 -- A new formula made with natural citrus oil could help cancer patients find relief from dry mouth, a common and painful side effect of radiation treatments. The formula was created by researchers at the University of South Australia and Stanford University. It mixes limonene -- a citrus oil found in lemons, limes and oranges -- with healthy fats known as lipids. Mixed together, they make the oil much easier for the body to absorb and reduce common side effects like dry mouth and stomach pain. In lab tests, the new mix was 180 times more soluble than pure limonene. In early trials, it increased absorption in the body by more than 4000%, according to a news release. Dry mouth, or xerostomia, affects up to 70% of patients who get radiation for head and neck cancer. It can make speaking and swallowing very difficult and can lower quality of life. “Cancer patients undergoing radiotherapy and other medical treatments regularly experience dry mouth, which not only prevents them from comfortably swallowing, but can also have other negative and potentially life-threatening outcomes,” said co-researcher Leah Wright , a professor of chemical engineering at The University of Adelaide in Australia. Limonene has long been known to help with saliva production, but high doses were needed to work well. Those doses often caused side effects like indigestion and “citrus burps.” Lead author Clive Prestidge , head of the Nanostructure and Drug Delivery research group at the University of South Australia, says the new formula solves that problem. “The therapeutic benefits of limonene are well known. It’s used as an anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and mood-enhancing agent, and can also improve digestion and gut function. But despite its widespread use, its volatility and poor solubility have limited its development as an oral therapy,” Prestidge said in a news release. Wright added that even though limonene can be ingested directly, it's not well tolerated, especially with folks who have dry mouth. "Plus, its poor absorption prevents it from effectively reaching the salivary glands -- the target site," she added. “This inventive and highly impactful limonene-lipid formulation could provide a simple, effective oral solution for dry mouth, offering cancer patients long-lasting relief and comfort, improved oral health, and a higher quality of life during a difficult time,” Wright said. The findings were recently published in the International Journal of Pharmaceutics . Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.

TUESDAY, Feb. 11, 2025 -- Some risk factors for epithelial ovarian cancer are modifiable, according to a study published online Jan. 6 in the International Journal of Gynecological Cancer . Iqbal Madakkatel, Ph.D., from University of South Australia in Adelaide, and colleagues used a data-driven machine learning approach to identify predictors of epithelial ovarian cancer from 2,920 input features from 221,732 female participants in the U.K. Biobank, with measurements taken 12.6 years before diagnoses. The researchers found that greater parity and ever-use of oral contraception were associated with lower ovarian cancer risk (ever versus never: odds ratio [OR], 0.74). When adjusting for established risk factors, greater height, weight, and greater red blood cell distribution width were associated with increased ovarian cancer risk. Higher aspartate aminotransferase levels and mean corpuscular volume were associated with lower risk. Observational associations between anthropometric/adiposity traits (e.g., body fat percentage per standard deviation; OR inverse-variance weighted [OR IVW ], 1.28) and aspartate aminotransferase (OR IVW , 0.87) were confirmed in Mendelian randomization analyses. There was also genetic evidence for a protective association of higher total serum protein on ovarian cancer, higher lymphocyte count on serous and endometrioid ovarian cancer, and greater forced expiratory volume in 1 second on serous ovarian cancer. "This study shows that certain risk factors for ovarian cancer are modifiable, suggesting that weight reduction and interventions to reduce the number of ovulations may provide potential for future prevention," the authors write.

WEDNESDAY, Feb. 5, 2025 -- The Pill prevents pregnancy -- and maybe ovarian cancer, too, a new study suggests. Women who’ve ever used the contraceptive pill have a 26% lower risk of ovarian cancer, researchers say. Women who used the pill after age 45 benefit even more, with a 43% lower risk of ovarian cancer, according to findings published in the International Journal of Gynecological Cancer . The hormones in the birth control pill work in part by stopping or reducing ovulation , the process by which eggs are released from the ovaries. “This poses the question as to whether interventions that reduce the number of ovulations could be used as a potential target for prevention strategies for ovarian cancer,” investigator Amanda Lumsden , a research fellow with the University of South Australia, said in a news release. The discovery of the Pill’s potential protective powers resulted from an effort to use AI to identify risk factors for ovarian cancer. “Ovarian cancer is notoriously diagnosed at a late stage, with about 70% of cases only identified when they are significantly advanced,” Lumsden said. “Late detection contributes to a survival rate of less than 30% over five years, in comparison to more than 90% for ovarian cancers that are caught early,” she continued. “That’s why it’s so important to identify risk factors.” For the study, researchers analyzed data on more than 221,000 women participating in the UK Biobank, a long-term health research project. During a follow-up of nearly 13 years, 1,441 women developed ovarian cancer . Researchers dug deep to figure out what aspects of their lives and health might have increased their cancer risk. “We included information from almost 3,000 diverse characteristics related to health, medication use, diet and lifestyle, physical measures, metabolic, and hormonal factors, each measured at the start of the study,” lead investigator Iqbal Madakkatel , a research associate in machine learning at the University of South Australia, said in a news release. The analysis also found that women who’d given birth to two or more children had a 39% lower risk of developing ovarian cancer, compared to those who had not had children. Further, researchers discovered some characteristics of red blood cells and liver enzymes in the blood associated with ovarian cancer risk. “It was particularly interesting that some blood measures -- which were measured on average 12.6 years before diagnoses -- were predictive of ovarian cancer risk, because it suggests we may be able to develop tests to identify women at risk at a very early stage,” Madakkatel said. The study also confirmed some risk factors already suspected for ovarian cancer, including excess weight and taller stature. The findings are in line with a theory of ovarian cancer first floated in 1971 which argued that “incessant ovulation” might promote the growth of abnormal pre-cancerous cells, researchers noted. Other mammals only ovulate during breeding seasons, and ovarian cancer is rare among these species, the theory holds. “It is possible that by using the contraceptive pill to reduce ovulations or by reducing harmful adiposity, we may be able to lower to risk of ovarian cancer,” senior researcher Elina Hypponen , a professor of nutritional and genetic epidemiology with the University of South Australia, said in a news release. “But more research is needed to establish the best approaches to prevention, as well as the ways in which we can identify women most at risk,” she concluded. Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.