Gene Discovery to Identify Women with Cancer Risk

August 9, 2011 by THE INDEPENDENT in NEWS with 0 Comments

A single genetic fault in a gene that normally helps the body to repair its DNA increases a woman’s risk of ovarian cancer six-fold, a study has found.

Cancer research. Photo Credit: www.hospital.org.uk

One in every 11 women who carry the faulty gene is likely to develop ovarian cancer at some point in her life compared with a typical risk of about one in 70 for women in the general population, scientists said.

Cancer Research UK, the cancer charity that funded the study, said that the landmark discovery by British scientists is the most important breakthrough in understanding the genetics of ovarian cancer for more than a decade.

The research involved analysing the genomes of more than 900 families affected by hereditary breast and ovarian cancer to see if they carry any genetic faults that could account for their higher risk of developing the disease compared with the general population. About 6,500 women in the UK are diagnosed with ovarian cancer each year – the fifth most common cancer – and the scientists estimated that between 40 and 50 of these women are likely to carry faults in a DNA-repair gene known as RAD51D.

It is known that RAD51D is one of a number of genes that is involved with repairing DNA when it is damaged by, for instance, chemicals in the environment. If RAD51D is itself damaged, then it cannot repair DNA mutations that can lead to the cell becoming cancerous.

“Women with a fault in RAD51D gene have a one in 11 chance of developing ovarian cancer. At this level of risk, women may wish to consider having their ovaries removed after having children to prevent ovarian cancer occurring,” said Professor Nazneen Rahman of the Institute of Cancer Research in London.

The study, published in the journal Nature Genetics, suggests that drugs known as Parp inhibitors which were originally designed to treat breast, ovarian and prostate cancers triggered by faults in another gene, called BRCA1, may also be effective against RAD51D faults.

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