An extensive study carried out by researchers in the United Kingdom has discovered the presence of five new genes linked to the development of breast cancer, which will help launch a new avenue of research and future personalized treatments to treat the disease
Specifically, the experts, led by Michael Stratton, director of the Sanger Institute in Cambridge (United Kingdom), have managed to draw up a list of the genes that cause these tumors when mutated. Thus, thanks to the sequencing of complete genomes – examining 3,000 million letters of the genetic code of 560 cases of breast cancer (four men and the rest women) they have identified up to 12 types of damage that can lead to mutations in the breast.
The analysis of these genomes revealed 93 sets of instructions or genes that, in the event of mutation, can cause tumors . Scientists are convinced that this is the definitive list of mutated cancer genes, showing the “signatures of mutations” in the genome that were associated with defective DNA repair and the function of the BRCA1 or BRCA2 tumor suppressor genes.
The five new genes identified are: MED23, FOXP1, MLLT4, XBP1 and ZFP36LT and, although the researchers do not know if these processes can be modified in the human body, they hope that the continuation of the study will help reduce the number of cancers in the world.
The study has been published in the journal Nature.
