In a win for ladies afflicted with endometriosis, scientists have successfully mapped the cellular changes related to the disease.

The findings of the study, published within the journal Nature Genetics, will help improve therapeutic strategies for the tens of millions of girls affected by the cancer-like disease.

“Endometriosis has been an understudied disease partly due to limited cellular data that has hindered the event of effective treatments,” Kate Lawrenson, an associate professor within the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Cedars-Sinai medical center in Los Angeles, was quoted as saying by The Guardian.

Endometriosis affects roughly 1 in 10 women worldwide.  It’s characterised by uterus-like cells growing in parts of the body apart from the uterus. These cells mostly grow on the ovaries, fallopian tubes, and within the abdominal cavity. Its symptoms include chronic pain, infertility, headaches, fatigue and bowel and bladder dysfunction.

“The disease can travel throughout the body, so in some ways, it behaves like cancer. But why does endometriosis behave like cancer while rarely becoming cancer?” Lawrence said.

For the study, the researchers analyzed greater than 400,000 cells from 21 patients. While a number of the participants had endometriosis, others didn’t. The scientists mapped the molecular changes related to endometriosis and profiled different cell types involved.

“Large-scale next-generation sequencing projects have been incredibly helpful in understanding how cancer works and in designing targeted therapeutics. We expect it will probably do the identical for endometriosis,” Lawrenson noted.

The outcomes of the study were encouraging and can allow other scientists to construct on this study’s success.

“We were in a position to discover the molecular differences between the foremost subtypes of endometriosis, including peritoneal disease [affecting the abdominal cavity] and ovarian endometrioma. This resource can now be utilized by researchers all throughout the world to review specific cell types that they concentrate on, which is able to hopefully result in more efficient and effective diagnosis and treatment for endometriosis patients,” Lawrence explained, as per the outlet. “It truly is a game-changer.”

Current treatments for the disease include surgical removal of cysts and lesions, pain relief and hormone therapies. These limited options have had variable levels of success. In certain cases, women may even must get their ovaries or uterus removed.

The Cedars-Sinai team is already making use of the map to review therapeutic targets in animal models.

Worryingly, diagnosis of the disease takes a median of seven to eight years generally, despite it being so common. On top of that, the covid-19 pandemic has had a disproportionate effect on women’s health, in line with a report from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. In accordance with the report, the pandemic increased difficulties for ladies with endometriosis by hampering the management of the disease and restricting access to the specialist treatment they needed.