Researchers say they''ve moved much closer to untangling the
genetic threads that raise a woman''s chance for
breast cancer. A set of studies published Sunday in the journals Nature and Nature
Genetics identified four new breast cancer susceptibility
genes, as well as several genetic markers, that are
associated with the
risk for the disease and that deserve further investigation, HealthDay news says. The findings may be the most important genetic discoveries relating to breast cancer genetics since the identification of the BRCA1 and BRCA 2 susceptibility mutations in 1994, experts say. "With these three reports, we''ve doubled or more the number of genes in which inherited variations are known to be associated with an increased risk of breast cancer. It''s a big quantum of new knowledge," said David Hunter, lead author of one of the papers and co-author on another. "What we hope will happen is that each of those genes or gene regions will lead us to better understand the mechanisms and biology behind breast cancer," he said. "And that with that better understanding, we''ll be able to develop improved means of prevention and treatment." Hunter is professor of cancer prevention at the Harvard School of Public Health and an epidemiologist with Brigham & Women''s Hospital, both in Boston. "These findings are really very exciting. Ever since BRCA 1 and BRCA 2, we have been looking for genes associated with breast cancer, and there haven''t been many identified," said Heather Spencer Feigelson, a co-author on one of the papers and strategic director of genetic epidemiology at the American Cancer Society in Atlanta. "These are three independent, genome-wide association studies coming out simultaneously that give us some new clues." The researchers also found five regions of DNA that were present more often in breast cancer patients, suggesting that elements in these regions might raise a woman''s risk. The technology used in the research only became available last year and is now being applied to a wide variety of diseases, including diabetes and prostate cancer. It will also continue to be applied to the genetics of breast cancer.
More summaries about the Big Leap in Breast Cancer Research