Gene Mutation Affects Breast Cancer Survival Chance
Biotechnology News
Women with a specific gene mutation have a higher risk of dying from a type of breast cancer, said a study Tuesday that raised prospects of targeted drugs. Previous research had shown that the chances of surviving breast cancer after treatment were partly inherited. Now scientists link a variant in CCL20 -- a gene involved in immune response -- to a higher risk of death for women who have undergone chemotherapy for so-called oestrogen receptor negative (ER-) cancer. They looked at protein-coding changes in genes among women who had received chemotherapy for ER- cancer, a category that affects a minority of patients and is harder to treat than ER+ cancer.
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