A SNP That Affords Protection From Breast Cancer Identified

An international research collaboration led by UC San Francisco researchers has identified a genetic variant common in Latina women that protects against breast cancer.

The variant, a difference in just one of the 3 billion “letters” in the human genome known as a single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), originates from indigenous Americans and confers significant protection from breast cancer, particularly the more aggressive estrogen receptor—negative forms of the disease, which generally have a worse prognosis.

“The effect is quite significant,” said Elad Ziv, MD, professor of medicine and senior author of the study. “If you have one copy of this variant, which is the case for approximately 20% of US Latinas, you are about 40% less likely to have breast cancer. If you have 2 copies, which occurs in approximately 1% of the US Latina population, the reduction in risk is on the order of 80%.”

Link to the report: http://bit.ly/1yavsLN

Source: UCSF