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Gene Could Link Obesity, Colon Cancer
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Page: << Prev | 1 | 2 Brooks does not believe that the finding is definitive, however. "It supports some of the other work that has already been done, identifying this particular gene region with colorectal cancer," he said.
The finding does help clarify one element linking obesity and colon cancer, but "there is no clinical application to this finding in the immediate future," Brooks said. "I don't think we would alter any recommendation, other than encouraging people to maintain a healthy weight."
Dr. Georgia Wiesner, a cancer geneticist at University Hospitals' Case Medical Center in Cleveland, agreed.
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"I'd love to say that any time we find a new gene that identifies risk or alters risk we would be able to put that into a new drug treatment or at least identify people who are more at risk," Wiesner said. "But in this study, it might just tease out the pathogenesis of disease," she said.
It's already known that people who are obese have a higher risk for colon cancer, Wiesner said. "I don't know that telling somebody they might have a specific marker is really going to alter what they are going to do," she said. "It doesn't mean that these people don't need regular screening."
More information
For more on colon cancer, visit the American Cancer Society.
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Copyright © 2008 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.
Last updated 10/1/2008
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SOURCES: Boris Pasche, M.D., Ph.D., director, division of hematology and oncology, Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Alabama at Birmingham;
Durado Brooks, M.D., director, colon and prostate cancer prevention programs, American Cancer Society, Atlanta; Georgia Wiesner, M.D., cancer geneticist, University Hospitals' Case Medical Center, Cleveland; Oct. 1, 2008, Journal of the American Medical Association
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