A new genetic marker for breast cancer has been discovered, which shows that women with this particular DNA variation are 1.4 times more likely to develop breast cancer. While the increased likelihood isn't nearly as large as the BRCA genes, this is still a pretty big deal. The hope, of course, is that discovering a lot of these variations (all of which might not make a huge difference individually) could eventually lead us to a greater understanding of a person's true likelihood of developing breast cancer.
I especially enjoyed the interview with one of the investigators from this project on NPR Science Friday. One of the interesting themes of the interview was the difficulty doctors would have explaining this to patients, and why patients who have this particular variation wouldn't necessarily want to do anything about it (such as preventive surgery).
It's great that researchers continue to make progress in this area, but I imagine that one of the ongoing issues will be how best to communicate this information effectively to practicing physicians and their patients.
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