Research on the identification of new genetic markers that affect the risk for breast, ovarian, and prostate cancers received a substantial amount of coverage, particularly online and on one of last night's national news broadcasts. Many sources point out that the findings could potentially lead to better screening tests for these three cancers. Most sources also pointed out that the study's large size made the findings possible. On NBC Nightly News (3/27, story 2, 2:25, Williams, 7.86M), NBC's Chief Science Correspondent Robert Bazell said, "Ground-breaking studies of more than 200,000 people in some 200 labs around the world" have found new "gene variations known to affect risk for some of the deadliest cancers – breast, ovarian, and prostate. This new genetic information will lead to blood tests to determine how much a person is at risk and how serious the cancer might be."
The Los Angeles Times (3/28, Brown, 692K) reports, "The international project, known as the Collaborative Oncological Gene-environment Study, or COGS, nearly doubled the number of genetic markers known to be linked with the three cancers, scientists reported Wednesday." Researchers, "by examining hundreds of thousands of locations on the genome in 250,000 people with and without cancer," were "able to reveal more associations than smaller studies could. In addition to confirming many genetic markers that had already been found, scientists discovered 41 new regions linked with overall risk for breast cancer, three associated with overall risk for ovarian cancer and 23 tied to overall risk for prostate cancer."
The AP (3/28, Ritter) reports, "One analysis suggests that among men whose family history gives them roughly a 20 percent lifetime risk for prostate cancer, such genetic markers could identify those whose real risk is 60 percent." Additionally, "the markers...could make a difference for women with BRCA gene mutations, which puts them at high risk for breast cancer." The findings "were released in 13 reports in Nature Genetics, PLOS Genetics and other journals." The AP also points out that the NIH provided funding for the research.
On its website, CBS News (3/28, Castillo) reports, "The COGS researchers believe that the SNPs [single nucleotide polymorphisms] can make up 28 percent of the risk for familial breast cancer, 4 percent for ovarian cancer and 30 percent of the risk prostate cancer. The 1 percent of men with the most SNPs have a 50 percent increased risk for prostate cancer." Meanwhile, "the women who have a known genetic mutation called BRCA and many SNPs are 80 percent more likely to have breast cancer."
Bloomberg News (3/28, Kitamura) reports that "the new research increases understanding of genetic risk factors that are linked to more than half of all cancers, with the rest caused by lifestyle factors."
AFP (3/28) reports, "The researchers said further study is needed to allow scientists to translate these DNA telltales into tests for predicting cancer risk. A more distant goal is using the knowledge for better treatments."
The Boston Globe (3/28, Johnson, 250K) reports, "It remains unclear what people found to be at high risk should do, whether they should they get screened more frequently or at a younger age with mammograms or for a marker of prostate cancer called prostate specific antigen, or take other steps." However, "'what we don't know is, if your risk is over 50 percent of getting prostate cancer in your lifetime, we don't know if we should just PSA screen you, whether we should do a biopsy, whether we should do an MRI scan,' said" Rosalind Eeles, of the Institute of Cancer Research in the United Kingdom, "who led one of the papers, published in the journal Nature Genetics."
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