Scientists unlock major risk factors for ovarian cancer in women

GHN News Staff -  Findings from 1,700 cases of women with ovarian cancer were studied, and researchers also looked at another 24,000 women in terms of genetic variants and uncovered the four major risk factors for ovarian cancer.

 The findings appear in Nature Genetics in an article authored by a Mayo Clinic researcher.

“In searching the genome, we came up with some surprises on chromosomes 2, 3, and 17,” says Ellen Goode, Ph.D., Mayo Clinic genetic epidemiologist and lead author. “While examining the usual suspects in a region on chromosome 8, we found that SNPs associated with ovarian cancer risk were located quite a distance away from those associated with risk of other cancers, which suggest that they may act through a different mechanism.” It was explained at a consortium of researchers how SNPs, single nucleotide polymorphisms, are common genetic variants associated, in this case, with cancer risk.

Certain genetic variants are at the heart of ovarian risk, according to these researchers.

What has also been found is that many of the genes in question carry mutations impacting both ovarian and breast cancer, increasing the risk for some women.