Researchers have detected genetic aberrations in healthy tissue of some patients with breast cancer that does not appear to have a genetic predisposition cancer. The discovery, published in the current issue of Science , could one day help scientists understand what causes tumors of non-hereditary breast, which represent about 0% of all cases, and to provide tips for breast cancer treatment.
a team led by the cancer researcher Helene Smith of the California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco looked like a specific type of genetic abnormality called loss of heterozygosity (LOH) - the disappearance an allele, or a copy of a gene of either parent - in samples of tissue adjacent to the tumors in 30 patients with breast cancer. They chose this anomaly, Smith said, because the deletion or inactivation of tumor suppressor genes is thought to contribute to many types of cancer, and LOH is a characteristic sign of a suppressor gene was lost.
The research was successful. Smith's team found LOH in samples of normal tissue from 30 patients, including six in which the same allele on chromosome 3 is missing - an indication that this region of the genome may be lacking a gene tumor suppressor important. "These results are very interesting," said Craig Allred pathologist at the University of Texas, San Antonio. "It is certainly a new twist to the search and scratch our heads a bit. We need to rethink some fundamental now that they have found abnormalities in the tissue previously considered normal. "
The origins of the LOH is a mystery." Since these genetic aberrations are not inherited, it look elsewhere causes, including diet, early exposure to radiation, pollutants or maybe the environment, "says Smith.
But whatever the cause of LOH, the discovery could have implications for breast cancer treatment, Smith said, "once the ball is, sampling the surrounding tissue during a lumpectomy could help identify women who have local recurrence of breast cancer and could indicate who would benefit from more aggressive treatment. "She adds, however, that before this approach can be tested in the clinic, much more work will be needed to establish the prognostic value of the results.
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