Scientists have discovered a gene that they say decreases the risk of
developing colon cancer. The finding is the result of a study looking
at genes associated with colon cancer risk. VOA's Jessica Berman
reports.
Researchers at Northwestern University in Chicago and
the University of Alabama were looking for biological markers, or
defective genes, they can use in a blood test to determine whether
someone is likely to develop colon cancer.
Investigators
conducted two studies involving 600 people with colon cancer
and 800 people without the disease.
Boris Pasche is
part of the team looking for defective genes or risk factors that
increase a person's likelihood of developing colon cancer.
"What we
have found is a region of a gene that is associated with colorectal
cancer risk," he said.
The gene produces a protein that
stimulates fat cells to manufacture a hormone called adiponectin.
Obesity has been linked to colon cancer.
While studies have
suggested that high blood levels of the hormone could predict who will
get colon cancer, this latest study for the first time links a specific
gene to colon cancer risk.
Researchers also found that a
variation of the adiponectin gene makes some people less likely to
develop the disease. "The degree of decreased risk was approximately
thirty percent decreased risk," he said.
Pasche says researchers
are optimistic they will be able to develop a test for colon cancer.
"It is our hope that we will be able to offer early screening to
individuals who are at risk so we will be able to keep this disease
from developing," he said.
The results of the study on colon cancer gene are published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
