Genotype For Growth Factor May Lessen Cancer Risk In Older Women.(transforming growth factor beta 1, breast cancer)

2001 JUL 26- (NewsRx Network) -- by Sonia Nichols, senior medical writer -- Scientists have identified a genotype in human genes that appears to lower the risk of breast cancer in women older than 65, according to a report by U.S. researchers.

Women with the genotype, labeled C/C, may produce more a of a growth factor that has been shown to inhibit early tumor formation in animal model studies, according to investigators in San Francisco, California, at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

Previous studies have shown transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta 1 may inhibit tumor processes in animals by limiting neovascular growth or causing apoptosis, a term for cellular suicide. Researchers believe the C/C genotype, related to an amino acid substitution on a specific portion of the coding sequence in human genes, causes the production of excess TGF-beta 1, which may explain the reduced risk of breast cancers in older women with the C/C genotype.

Using medical information and genotypic analysis derived from more than 3,000 Caucasian women 65 years or older recruited to participate in the Study of Osteoporotic Fractures research group, researchers studied possible links between genotype and breast cancer. The women were followed an average of 9.3 years for evidence of breast cancer development.

Elad Ziv and coworkers, Veterans Affairs Medical Center, reported genotypic markers had a significant bearing on a woman's risk for developing breast cancer in older age. Women with the morecommon T/T ...