Genetic links to breast cancer and early heart attack

Researchers working at the Breakthrough Tony Robins Breast Cancer Research Centre believe that it may one day be possible to take a 'genetic fingerprint' of all breast cancer tumours. This would mean that treatment can be directed specifically at individuals.

The scientists believe that by seeing which genes are activated or deactivated by chemotherapy, breast cancer tumours could be put into particular categories, enabling treatments to be tailored to the patient. Professor Alan Ashworth, director of the centre, said 'this process, the genetic equivalent of stamp collecting, will allow us to develop individualised therapies to treat the 38,000 cases of breast cancer diagnosed in the UK each year'.

Another report suggests that a genetic variation may be part of the reason why some people have heart attacks at an early age. Researchers from the Cleveland Clinic Foundation believe that they have found four genetic variations which either increase or decrease the risk of having a heart attack before middle age.

The researchers compared the genes of 350 people who had early onset heart disease with those of 400 who were unaffected. They found that there were four genes which regulate the protein thrombospondin. The protein is involved in blood clotting, blood vessel growth, and regulates the response of blood vessels to cholesterol. A variant of one of the genes, thrombospondin-, increased the risk of early heart attack by 89 per cent. But another gene variant, thrombospondin-2, was found to be linked to a 69 per cent decreased risk.

Professor Steve Humphries from University College London, said that the study 'may help us to identify more accurately those people who are at the highest risk of heart disease, and use our expensive drugs on them'.