New Gene Stops Some Cancers in their Tracks
A gene believed to play a major role in more than half of all breast cancers and a significant portion of other tumors has been identified by scientists.
This particular gene came to light after researchers noticed it was missing from tissues that had been removed from breast cancers for testing. The lack of the gene has also been implicated in half of all cases of colon and prostate cancer, and a quarter of ovarian and bladder tumors.
Paul Edwards, a molecular biologist at Cambridge University, claims this could be the most important cancer-suppressing gene discovery of the past 20 years. “This is a gene lost in a quarter to a half of common cancers, so it is clearly playing a really important role,” says Edwards.
Tissues from 54 breast tumors were examined by Edwards and his colleagues and they found part of chromosome 8 was missing in more than half of them. After cross-checking against the Human Genome Project they were able to identify a gene called NRG1 that was lost.
The discovery of NRG1 is thought to be the most significant step forward in the field since another gene, p53, was discovered in the 1970s and found to be implicated in cancers in the late 1980s. The gene was the first “tumor suppressor” gene found in cells and is known to be faulty or inactivated in many types of the disease.
Check out the entire story at zerocancer.org