Scientists Link New Gene to Increased Breast Cancer Risk

Health officials have announced that a new gene is being linked to a major risk in breast cancer.

The study was released in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine and it highlights the PALB2 gene and how it makes breast cancer nine times more likely to develop.

During the study, scientists looked at about 362 women in families that have the PALB2 gene.

The scientists found that women, who carried PALB2 gene mutation, had a 35 percent higher risk of developing breast cancer by the time they become 70 years old. The team maintains that a strong family history of breast cancer was associated with cancer risk in these women.

The proportion of women who carry this gene mutation is small, so researchers believe that additional studies are required to tease out the various factors that increase cancer risk in these women.

PALB2 was first linked with breast cancer in 2007 and is known to interact with both – BRCA1 and BRCA2.

The research was funded by the European Research Council, Cancer Research UK and multiple other international sources.

“Since the BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations were discovered in the mid-90s, no other genes of similar importance have been found and the consensus in the scientific community if more exist we would have found them by now.

PALB2 is a potential candidate to be ‘BRCA3’. As mutations in this gene are uncommon, obtaining accurate risk figures is only possible through large international collaborations like this,” said Dr Marc Tischkowitz from the Department of Medical Genetics at the University of Cambridge, according to a news release.

Agencies/Canadajournal