There is great genetic variation in the way that individuals respond to mutations which predispose to cancer or other diseases. Discovering which genes can alter or modify biological processes that lead to tumor development is fundamental to our understanding of the etiology of all cancer types. Identification of these genes could help in cancer prognosis and design of therapeutic intervention.
Cancer affects one in three individuals.
We have used mouse models to identify regions of DNA that house these low penetrance genes. Preliminary work in the complementary region in humans on one such region has reveled a variation in a gene, Aurora2, that confers an increased risk for breast cancer. We would like to confirm this finding and extend our initial observation to look for increased risk with other cancer types including colon and skin. This variation may prove to have utility for therapeutic interventions as well as detection of individuals at increased risk of cancer or at increased risk of more aggressive cancers. The c-myc oncogene encodes a potent inducer of cell proliferation, but it is also a potent trigger of a contradictory apoptotic process.