A recent promising discovery has been made in relation to breast cancer. This is a gene that can limit the danger of being affected by this cancer. Indeed, changing the activity of a gene could have the positive effect of reducing the chances of having breast cancer. In the long term, this discovery could offer the possibility of designing a new drug for these ladies.
Know about breast cancer
According to Health Insurance, nearly 2,600 cases of breast cancer could be caused by smoking in women aged thirty and over. Practicing a sport regularly lowers the risk of having this cancer following menopause.
In 2018, the screening about sixty thousand breast cancers took place if we take into account the data of the INC (National Cancer Institute). Also this year, 12,146 deaths from breast cancer were counted (data signed by Santé Publique France).
The SULT1A1 gene
Thus, this discovery in relation to the SULT1A1 gene is more than promising. Among the risk factors there is age – about 80% des cancers breast cancer occur after the age of fifty. There are others such as smoking, poor diet and alcoholism.
There are also genetic predispositions. On this aspect, experts have made a discovery: modifying the activity of a gene could reduce the risk of having breast cancer. Their research appeared in the journal named “Communications Biology”.
The SULT1A1 gene would allow healthcare professionals to reduce the risk of breast cancer, especially if they have a BRCA1 gene mutation. Women with a BRCA1 gene and missing segments are the profiles most likely to be affected by breast cancer. We don’t know why right now.
Indeed, for breast and ovarian cancers, pathogenic variants pose significant concerns when they concern BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes. According to a study published five years ago in the specialized journal called JAMA, they increase the risk of having cancer by 70% for the breast and about 30% for the ovary. Therefore, during their research, the experts looked at 26,000 women who had mutations in these breast cancer genes, BRCA1 and BRCA2, and who presented a significant risk of being affected by this disease.
A new drug to reduce the dangers of breast cancer
Specialists have discovered that lower thresholds of the protein designed by another gene, named SULT1A1 and having an essential function in relation to the metabolism of carcinogens, reduce the risk of breast cancer, mainly in women with a BRCA1 gene mutation. and BRCA2. To reach this conclusion, the experts stopped theSULT1A1 gene activity in breast cells.
With this finding, the specialists continued their work to design a new drug that would stop the activity of the SULT1A1 gene in order to reduce the risks of having breast cancer, mainly for those ladies with a BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutation.
This discovery could be decisive. Currently, the risk reduction strategy for such cancer (for women with mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 breast cancer genes) is called mastectomy. However, this operation has serious physical and mental consequences.