Scientists decode DNA cancer clues
LONDON. March 29. KAZINFORM A national screening programme for prostate cancer could be introduced by the NHS following an international effort by more than 1,000 scientists to unravel the genetic causes of prostate, breast and ovarian cancer.
The study, the largest to look for the faulty DNA that drives the cancers, revealed scores of genetic markers that can identify people most likely to develop the diseases.
Doctors said a simple £5 saliva test based on the markers could give patients a personalised "risk profile" for the diseases and pave the way for individually tailored screening, with those most at risk having more regular health checks.
The findings have major implications for the treatment of prostate cancer. A test based on markers for the disease could identify men whose lifetime risk was 50%, nearly five times the national average, theguardian.co.uk reports.
Ros Eeles , professor of cancer genetics at the Institute of Cancer Research in London, described the results as "the single biggest leap forward" in understanding the genetics of the disease.
A screening service could be offered within five years, and would transform treatment for the most common cancer among British men. More than 40,000 men a year are diagnosed with prostate cancer in the UK, and nearly 11,000 die from the disease. If the disease is picked up early, the chance of survival is 95%, but that falls to 60% if the disease is spotted later.
Britain has never introduced a national prostate screening programme as existing tests are not precise enough. For every life saved by screening based on the common PSA blood test , 12 to 48 men would be treated unnecessarily for a disease that would never cause them problems.
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