CINCINNATI, Sept. 22 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers say they've discovered cancer predisposition resulting from the presence of a specific gene variant shows a strong gender bias.
University of Cincinnati Professor Peter Stambrook, who led the study, said the gene CHEK2 is part of a DNA damage response pathway that can have an impact on whether cancers develop. A CHEK2 variant, is associated with increased risk of cancer.
"Women who carry this particular gene variant are predisposed to developing breast or ovarian cancer," Stambrook said, "while men have a higher risk of developing prostate cancer."
Stambrook's team produced a mouse model in which the CHEK2 gene was replaced by the variant. The scientists found the overwhelming majority of mice that developed cancer were female -- about 80 percent -- as opposed to slightly more than 15 percent for males. That, they said, contrasts sharply with the incidence of cancer in mice with the normal CHEK2 gene, in which male and female mice developed cancer to about the same extent, but at a much lower frequency.
Stambrook and colleagues from Wright State University and the National Institute of Public Health and the Environment in the Netherlands report their findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
