King, who grew up in Wilmette, was in town to push funding at the federal level for basic research as well as to promote efforts by the American Cancer society to Suyoung scientists. She is credited with observing in 1990 that some breast cancers occur in successive generations of families. Just Iast month, researchers located a genetic abnormality among Ashkenazi Jewish women that may greatly increase their chances of developing the cancer. She and others have raised concerns that insurance companies and employers could use test results to determine whether to issue a health policy or offer a job. Such research is worth pursuing given the possibility of predicting who will deveop what type of disease and how to defeat it before it kicks in, she said.
Costs are high, however.
Much of that money comes from the National Institutes for Health, which keeps established scientists such as herself in business but has left little room for a new crop of researchers, she said. The above article has been reprinted with permission from the Chicago Sun-Times. All rights are reserved by the Chicago Sun-Times. Articles may not be reprinted without the express permission of the Chicago Sun-Times.