New Genetic Alterations Increase Bowel Cancer Risk
01 April 2008 – Scientists have identified two new genetic variants that increase a person’s risk of getting bowel cancer.
The results, combined with genetic variants found in previous studies, identified a group of people who are four times more likely to get bowel cancer. The significance of these results is that once a test has been developed, this group of people would be suitable for intensive screening for the disease. The teams carried out a 'whole genome search' to pinpoint the two genetic variants, which are located on chromosomes 10p14 and 8q23.3.
Professor Richard Houlston, joint lead researcher based at The Institute of Cancer Research, said: "This is an exciting development in our understanding of how bowel cancer develops. By pinpointing individuals at a significantly increased risk of the disease we can begin to develop techniques for targeting screening. Ultimately we hope to reduce the number of people dying of this disease.”
