SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA, 24 Jan. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The revista ‘New England Journal of Medicine’ published this week a international study in which they participated Galician researchers, in addition to 4,000 patients from the health areas of Vigo and Santiago de Compostela, and that has allowed to confirm nine genes that are “key” to predict breast cancer risk.
Specifically, they were part of this work Manuela Gago and Ángel Carracedo, from the Institute for Health Research of Santiago de Compostela (IDIS) – Galician Foundation of Genomic Medicine; y Esteban Castelao, from the Galicia Sur Health Research Institute. This team, as reported by IDIS in a statement, directs the Galician breast cancer consortium ‘Breogan’ (Breast Oncology Galicia Network), which has participated in this international study belonging to the group ‘Bridges (Breast Cancer Risk after Diagnostic Gene Sequencing).
The investigation has been carried out with a total of 113,000 women from around the world, 4,000 of them from the health areas of Santiago and Vigo: 2,000 diagnosed with breast cancer who have provided blood, urine and tumor tissue samples and another 2,000 disease-free patients, who provided their own blood and urine samples and their epidemiological data on risk factors.
The study has concluded that there are nine genes that are “the most useful, from a clinical point of view”, to include them in the breast cancer risk prediction tests, which allows “improve genetic counseling to patients and families”, rate the IDIS. Until recently, people with a family history of breast cancer had genetic tests that included a limited number of genes and, although new technologies made it possible to add new genes, there were still define “precisely” which were the main causes of the disease.
In this sense, the study in which Gago, Carracedo and Castelao have participated has confirmed how “major” genes ATM, BRCA1, BRCA2, CHEK2, PALB2, BARD1, RAD51C, RAD51D and TP53. Although the incidence of several of these genes was “already known beforehand”, the research has made it possible to identify the risk of others that “it was not so well established” or to establish this link “more solidly”, explains the IDIS.
