Bowel Cancer Gene Located
Institute scientists have identified a common genetic variant that can increase a person's risk of developing bowel cancer. Their findings appear in a paper published in Nature Genetics.
Several genes are already known to contribute to bowel cancer risk. However, these are extremely rare among the population – only around one person in every 2,500 carries any of the known bowel cancer genes and they account for less than five per cent of bowel cancer cases arising annually. Around 35,000 new cases of bowel cancer are diagnosed in the UK each year and it is estimated that genetic risk contributes to around a third of cases. Professor Richard Houlston and colleagues studied the genetic make-up of more than 30,000 people in a hunt for genes that make up the rest of this risk. Around half of the participants were bowel cancer patients and half were healthy people.
A ‘whole genome search’ was carried out and pinpointed a gene that is faulty more often amongst bowel cancer patients than individuals without the disease. The gene's location was narrowed down within the genome to a region called 8q24. Scientists recently found that men who have the same genetic variant are at an increased risk of developing prostate cancer.
Professor Houlston, commented: "In addition to pinpointing a new colorectal cancer susceptibility gene the study shows how effective the emerging technologies are in searching for cancer genes. We hope to use this strategy will allow us further pinpoint genes which increase the risk of bowel cancer, which could lead to improvements in diagnosis and treatment of the disease."
Read more about Professor Houlston’s work in The Institute’s Annual Research Report 2006. His article Whole genome association studies in cancer genetics discusses the impact our ever-increasing knowledge of human genetics will have on the future diagnosis and treatment of cancers.
Find out more about Professor Houlston’s research
