Scientists unveil groundbreaking tool that could change how we prepare for weather disasters: 'More knowledge at our disposal than ever before'
They led the U.S. Natural Hazards Climate Change Projections project with a group of researchers to create an interactive dataset with maps and graphs, according to a post by the Earth Institute at Columbia University in Phys.org. The dataset can track and predict climate change-fueled extreme events on a county level.
These detailed estimates provide vital information to governments, city officials, disaster relief organizations, and residents. Better preparation for natural disasters is good for the environment and can mean less expensive damage and fewer injuries and deaths.
In their testing, the researchers found that San Diego and Washington State are both at a high risk for wildfires, and it could get worse. North Dakota and South Dakota could also see an increased risk for wildfires, and the East Coast may soon see more tornadoes.
"While the challenges of climate change and disasters may seem overwhelming, it is also important to note that we have more knowledge at our disposal than ever before," said Jeffrey Schlegelmilch, a climate professor at the Columbia Climate School, per Phys.org.
"By working across sectors and engaging partnerships like this, we can provide data that is empirically rigorous and immediately relevant to stakeholders outside of academia. This helps to foster better decisions, better investments and better resilience for our communities."
The team released the dataset tool in April as open source and available to everyone. It's an important resource in a time when the Trump Administration is cutting funding to FEMA and taking down governmental agency tracking websites.
"By making this data available in an accessible format, we aim to support not just climate scientists and risk modelers, but also urban planners, emergency managers and researchers in other fields, like economics or human mobility," said Simona Meiler, a postdoctoral climate researcher at Stanford University, per Phys.org.
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New York Post
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'We need to think outside of the box to potential environmental exposures that may have affected the currently aging generation, and uterine cancer is a clue to find out what that is,' Doll said. The Disordered State of Screening 'One of the problems for uterine cancers is there are no real widespread recommendations for either screening or prevention for uterine cancer in a majority of the population,' Wright said. Indeed, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and the Society of Gynecologic Oncology, among other clinical organizations, concurred in 2015 guidance that no effective routine screening exists for endometrial cancer in women with no symptoms. The guidance suggests that abnormal postmenopausal bleeding is a trigger for immediate evaluation with biopsy, ultrasound or hysteroscopy-guided screening. Another risk factor is Lynch syndrome, previously known as hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer. Women with the condition are at a 13%-26% increased risk for endometrial cancer, according to the National Comprehensive Cancer Network. For them, ACOG recommends annual endometrial sampling starting at age 30-35. Women who previously took tamoxifen for breast cancer may also have greater risk for endometrial cancer. Its use has long been associated with a heightened risk for endometrial cancer, with the risk increasing the longer a patient is on the drug. But, again, no routine screening is recommended for users with no symptoms, although ACOG has stated that pretreatment screening may have a role before starting tamoxifen therapy. The lack of effective screening tests for uterine cancers and detecting predictors of uterine cancer complicates the outlook, Wright said. 'Neither exist currently,' he said. Endometrial thickness > 4 mm, as measured on transvaginal ultrasound, is a biomarker for endometrial cancer. Despite this, Doll and her coauthors recently found that transvaginal ultrasound may not be reliable for evaluating endometrial thickness in Black women. ' This study underlines the importance of new strategies that do not rely on a patient to have a symptom or a provider to believe them,' Doll said. What Clinicians Can Do Despite the absence of routine screening protocols or preventive strategies for uterine cancers, clinicians must become more astute about warning signs and symptoms, Doll said. These include abnormal menstrual bleeding, which Wright said is a symptom most women diagnosed with uterine cancer have. 'Women that have abnormal bleeding should be evaluated in a timely manner and the clinician, the gynecologist, must recognize the importance of bleeding and rule out uterine cancer,' Wright said. Doll called for primary care providers to actively screen for abnormal and postmenopausal bleeding and provider education about 'the limits of ultrasound triage and the need for tissue biopsy with any concern for endometrial cancer.' 'We need to educate the public, especially those most at risk, about endometrial cancer symptoms and early detection,' she continued. Disproportionate Rise in Black Women Why uterine cancer rates in Black women are rising disproportionately compared with other groups is unclear, according to experts interviewed for this piece. 'Black women have been left behind in the world of uterine cancer research and it shows. Now that we have an increasing epidemic of nonendometrioid cancers — the histology that was always more common among Black women — we are faced with our major knowledge gaps in the etiology of these cancers and the fact our treatments are much less successful for them,' Doll said. Timothy Rebbeck, PhD, a researcher specializing in cancer prevention at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, pointed to some potential explanations. Tumors in Black patients with prostate and colon cancers have unique molecular signatures compared with other ethnic groups, Rebbeck said. 'We think it's probably happening in uterine cancers as well.' Tumors in Black women may be more aggressive, he added. Reproductive history may also come into play. The lack of screening for uterine cancer may also mean that Black women are diagnosed later in the disease course than other groups. It's an area prime for more research, Rebbeck said. The natural model study was supported by the National Cancer Institute. Wright reported receiving grant funding from Merck. Doll and Rebbeck had no relevant disclosures.
