Gene switch important in cancer discovered
Scientists at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and the University of Helsinki in Finland have shown that the 'switches' that regulate the expression of genes play a major role in the development of cancer. In a study, published in Science, they have investigated a gene region that contains a particular single nucleotide variant associated with increased risk for developing colorectal and prostate cancers – and found that removing this region caused dramatic resistance to tumor formation.Genome-wide association studies have revealed genomic regions associated with more than 200 diseases,