A microscopic image of prostate cancer. Researchers have found new genetic markers that flag a person's susceptibility to the disease, as well as breast and ovarian cancer.

A microscopic image of prostate cancer. Researchers have found new genetic markers that flag a person's susceptibility to the disease, as well as breast and ovarian cancer.

The largest gene-probing study ever done has fished out dozens of new genetic markers that flag a person's susceptibility to breast, ovarian and prostate cancer.

The 74 newly discovered genetic variants double the previously known number for these malignancies, all of which are driven by sex hormones.

Underscoring the sheer magnitude of the findings, they're contained in 15 scientific papers published simultaneously by five different journals. The Nature group of journals has collected them all here.

But while the discovery is a landmark in cancer genetics, knowing these susceptibility markers won't translate into much for patients for now.

The nearest hope is that the growing catalog of markers will allow researchers to fine-tune screening tests for these cancers. They might be able to identify which people to screen using existing tools such as mammography, PSA blood tests or ultrasound. And a patient's genetic profile could help determine what to do when a screening test comes back positive.

For instance, one paper suggests that if a woman's genes contain one of four newly discovered variants, she's at risk for a more aggressive type of breast cancer called ER-negative, which accounts for about one in four cases. So she might be advised to have earlier or more frequent mammograms.

But Douglas Easton of Cambridge University, an author of one new paper, cautions that there are "many hurdles" before these genetic signals can be incorporated into breast cancer screening. "If you're 40-years-old, I think it would be in your lifetime," Easton told reporters on a conference call. "It will take some time."

The same is true for men with prostate cancer, who are currently bedeviled by the ambiguities of a screening test called PSA. Right now, a test that finds an elevated PSA doesn't indicate if a man actually has prostate cancer, or whether it's a slow-growing or aggressive type.

Read the original:
Catalog Of Gene Markers For Some Cancers Doubles In Size

Comments are closed.