Significant progress in locating a genetic marker responsible for over 10% of all colon cancer cases. This is according to preliminary data from a new study published today by scientists from the University of Michigan and Israel
Prof. Gadi Rennert, director of the Department of Community Medicine and Epidemiology at the Carmel Medical Center and the Faculty of Medicine at the Technion and advisor to the Cancer Society says that: "This is significant progress in locating genes related to colon cancer. If the results are proven in additional populations, in the future we will be able to identify a high-risk population using this test." .
The study lasted ten years with the participation of thousands of Israelis - Jews and Arabs, with the aim of examining the behavioral / environmental and genetic causes of the formation of colon cancer in the Israeli population. The researchers compared the genetic material of thousands of colon cancer patients and thousands of healthy people who served as a control group. The results of the study revealed new information in the search for genes that increase people's risk of colon cancer: it turns out that there is a link between genetic variation in a certain region on chromosome 8 and the risk of colon cancer.
People in whom the genetic marker in question was identified had a 23% higher probability of getting colon cancer compared to people without the marker. This genetic variation may be responsible for over ten percent of all colon cancer cases in Israel, where this disease is one of the leading malignancies. The marker is defined as the C allele at rs10505477. This finding is reported at the same time regarding a non-Israeli population by another group of researchers from Canada.
The article was published by a group of researchers from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, the Institute of Oncology in Catalonia, Spain and the National Cancer Control Center of Klalit Health Services, the Carmel Medical Center and the Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine at the Technion, headed by Prof. Rennert.
Prof. Rennert: "This is the first time that the entire genome has been scanned for the question of genetic factors for bowel cancer. Thousands of participants underwent tests of hundreds of thousands of genetic markers each. The research continues, in order to reproduce the results by other groups. If the results prove to be significant, we will be able to identify a population at risk high using this test."
In response to the study, the Cancer Society stated that: "The importance of research in targeting the risk groups for the disease and thus in the future will lead to better treatment and prevention of the disease among this group. The new study is added to the recommendations of the Cancer Society for the prevention of colon cancer, through the early detection tests recommended for the entire population, and maintaining A healthy lifestyle."
The article was published yesterday (8.7) in the online version of Cancer Biology and Therapy. More than 6000 people participated in this study funded by the US National Institutes of Health.
