Fifteen new breast cancer genetic risk 'hot-spots' revealed
2015-03-09
(Press-News.org) Scientists have discovered another 15 genetic 'hot-spots' that can increase a woman's risk of developing breast cancer, according to research published today (Monday) in Nature Genetics.
In a study funded by Cancer Research UK*, scientists compared tiny variations in the genetic make-up of more than 120,000 women of European ancestry, with and without breast cancer, and identified 15 new variations - called single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) - that are linked to a higher risk of the disease.
This new discovery means that a total of more than 90 SNPs associated with breast cancer have now been revealed through research.
On average, one in every eight women in the UK will develop breast cancer at some stage in their lives. The researchers estimate that about five per cent of women have enough genetic variations to double their risk of developing breast cancer - giving them a risk of approximately one in four. A much smaller group of women, around 0.7 per cent, have genetic variations that make them three times more likely to develop breast cancer, giving them a risk of around one in three. It's hoped that these genetic markers can be used to help identify high-risk women and could lead to improved cancer screening and prevention.
Study author Professor Doug Easton, professor of genetic epidemiology at the University of Cambridge, said: "Our study is another step towards untangling the breast cancer puzzle. As well as giving us more information about how and why a higher breast cancer risk can be inherited, the genetic markers we found can help us to target screening and cancer prevention measures at those women who need them the most.
"The next bit of solving the puzzle involves research to understand more about how genetic variations work to increase a woman's risk. And we're sure there are more of these variations still to be discovered."
The study was carried out by dozens of scientists across the world working together in the Breast Cancer Association Consortium**, part of the Collaborative Oncological Gene-environment Study. Each of the genetic variations, identified through this study and other research, is known to raise a woman's risk of breast cancer by a small amount - but some people have lots of these variations which add up to a more significantly increased risk.
Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer in the UK, with almost 50,000 women diagnosed every year. Death rates are falling as we learn more about the disease and how to diagnose and treat it, and around 78 per cent of people now live for at least 10 years after diagnosis.
Nell Barrie, senior science communications manager at Cancer Research UK, said: "We're gradually uncovering breast cancer's secrets at a genetic level and learning how best to tackle this disease which still claims far too many lives. This latest study adds more detail to our genetic map of breast cancer risk and could help to develop new ways to identify women most at risk so we can spot breast cancer earlier in the future."
INFORMATION:
For media enquiries contact the Cancer Research UK press office on 020 3469 8300 or, out of hours, on 07050 264 059.
Notes to editor:
* 'Genome-wide association analysis of more than 120,000 individuals identifies 15 new susceptibility loci for breast cancer' - Kryiaki Michailidou et al.
Funders of the study included Cancer Research UK, the European Union, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Ministry of Economic Development, Innovation and Export Trade of Quebec, and The National Institute of Health.
** Researchers were based at 170 institutions across the world, including the Centre for Cancer Genetic Epidemiology at the University of Cambridge.
About Cancer Research UK
Cancer Research UK is the world's leading cancer charity dedicated to saving lives through research.
Cancer Research UK's pioneering work into the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer has helped save millions of lives.
Cancer Research UK receives no government funding for its life-saving research. Every step it makes towards beating cancer relies on every pound donated.
Cancer Research UK has been at the heart of the progress that has already seen survival rates in the UK double in the last forty years.
Today, 2 in 4 people survive cancer for at least 10 years. Cancer Research UK's ambition is to accelerate progress so that 3 in 4 people will survive cancer within the next 20 years.
Cancer Research UK supports research into all aspects of cancer through the work of over 4,000 scientists, doctors and nurses.
Together with its partners and supporters, Cancer Research UK's vision is to bring forward the day when all cancers are cured.
For further information about Cancer Research UK's work or to find out how to support the charity, please call 0300 123 1022 or visit http://www.cancerresearchuk.org. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.
For more information on the Cross Cancer Out campaign, and ways the public can get involved, visit cruk.org/crosscancerout and join the conversation on twitter using #CrossCancerOut.
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2015-03-09
Kansas City, MO. -- All the cells in an organism carry the same instruction manual, the DNA, but different cells read and express different portions of it in order fulfill specific functions in the body. For example, nerve cells express genes that help them send messages to other nerve cells, whereas immune cells express genes that help them make antibodies.
In large part, this highly regulated process of gene expression is what makes us fully functioning, complex beings, rather than a blob of like-minded cells.
Despite its importance, researchers still do not completely ...
2015-03-09
PHILADELPHIA--Treating metastatic melanoma with a triple threat--including radiation therapy and two immunotherapies that target the CTLA4 and PD-1 pathways--could elicit an optimal response in more patients, one that will boost the immune system's attack on the disease, suggests a new study from a multidisciplinary team of researchers from Penn's Abramson Cancer Center published today in Nature.
The study, led by senior authors Andy J. Minn, MD, PhD, assistant professor of Radiation Oncology, Robert Vonderheide, MD, DPhil, the Hanna Wise Professor in Cancer Research, ...
2015-03-09
A collaborative effort between investigators at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University School of Medicine and Georgia Institute of Technology has led to the development of a non-invasive method to image simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) replication in real-time, in vivo.
This approach, which is reported today in Nature Methods' Advance Online Publication, is based on immune positron-emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) and allows for the capture of viral dynamics of SIV, the animal model of human HIV infection. This novel approach ...
2015-03-09
A new study of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), a blood cancer that primarily affects young children, has revealed that the disease has two distinct subtypes, and provides preliminary evidence that about 13 percent of ALL cases may be successfully treated with targeted drugs that have proved highly effective in the treatment of lymphomas in adults.
Usually emerging in children between 2 and 5 years of age, ALL occurs when the proliferation of white blood cells known as lymphocytes spirals out of control. The current standard of care for ALL employs high doses of chemotherapy ...
2015-03-09
A process that is too fast to be measured and analysed. Yet a group of international scientists did not lose heart and conceived a sort of highly sophisticated moviola film-editing system, which allowed them to observe - for the first time in a direct manner - an effect underlying high-temperature conductivity. The results of their work have been published in Nature Physics on Monday 9 March 2015.
Superconductors have properties that make them potentially very interesting for technology (examples of application include magnetic levitation trains). The road to a true application ...
2015-03-09
Narcoleptics suffer from bouts of sleepiness and sleep attacks, which impair their ability to function in daily life. But the precise cause of narcolepsy has long eluded scientists, and the cure for the devastating neurological disorder afflicting an estimated three million people worldwide -- and one in 3,000 Americans -- remains at bay.
A new study published in Pharmacological Research by the world's leading autoimmune disease expert, Tel Aviv University's Prof. Yehuda Shoenfeld, finds that narcolepsy bears the trademarks of a classic autoimmune disorder and should ...
2015-03-09
BOSTON, MA - Healthcare spending is at an all-time high in the U.S., yet young African-American men see little benefit, according to Boston Medical Center (BMC) researchers' Viewpoint commentary published in the current issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
The researchers note that black men have a life expectancy nearly five years less than white men. While heart disease and cancer contribute to this decreased life expectancy, homicide also plays a large role. From ages 1 to 14, homicide is either the second or third leading cause of death ...
2015-03-09
The extraordinary promise of quantum information processing -- solving problems that classical computers can't, perfectly secure communication -- depends on a phenomenon called "entanglement," in which the physical states of different quantum particles become interrelated. But entanglement is very fragile, and the difficulty of preserving it is a major obstacle to developing practical quantum information systems.
In a series of papers since 2008, members of the Optical and Quantum Communications Group at MIT's Research Laboratory of Electronics have argued that optical ...
2015-03-09
LINCOLN, NE - Turfgrass professionals have created seed mixes specifically blended to ensure disease and insect resistance, water use efficiency, and tolerance to traffic. For example, a commonly used mixture of kentucky bluegrass (KBG) and perennial ryegrass (PRG) seed offers advantages such as rapid germination and establishment and provides turf cover that can compete with weeds. A new study shows how initial composition of KBG:PRG in the seed mixture affects species composition over multiple years in the Midwest, and offers recommendations about seeding ratios for optimal ...
2015-03-09
ROCHESTER, Minn. -- Inhaled Nitric Oxide (iNO) is a drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration that is commonly used in term and near-term neonates who have severe respiratory failure caused by pulmonary hypertension. Over the last decade there have been multiple large studies trying to determine a clinical use for iNO in preterm neonates, but despite evidence of short-term benefit, this drug has not been shown to improve long-term outcomes in preemies. Still, the drug is commonly being used in this population, Mayo Clinic Children's Center and co-authors say in ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] Fifteen new breast cancer genetic risk 'hot-spots' revealed
