Paris: Gene detectives said on Sunday they had
netted a clutch of tipoffs to help identify women with a
higher inherited risk of ovarian and breast cancer, dubbed
"silent killers" for the stealthy way they claim lives.
The work gathered experts from the United States, Europe,
Canada and Australia, who trawled through the genetic code of
tens of thousands of women, looking for single-letter changes
found among women with cancer but absent among women who were
otherwise healthy.
Their work was published online in the journal Nature
Genetics.
One study found telltale DNA on chromosomes 2, 3, 8, 17
and 19 that strongly indicated risk from serious ovarian
cancer, the term for the commonest and most aggressive form of
this disease.
Another paper found that a variation of DNA on Chromosome
19 amplified the risk of breast cancer associated with a
well-known culprit, a faulty copy of the BRCA1 gene, which is
located on Chromosome 17.
PTI