CHICAGO, Aug. 14 (UPI) -- U.S. medical scientists say they've discovered a genetic trait that is likely the most common cause of colorectal cancer that's been found.
Researchers at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine and colleagues say the genetic trait they discovered is present in 10 percent to 20 percent of patients with colorectal cancer. That, the scientists said, strongly suggests the trait is a major contributor to, and likely the most common cause of, colorectal cancer.
If a person inherits the trait -- which is dominant and clusters in families -- the scientists found the lifetime risk of developing colorectal cancer is 50 percent, compared with 6 percent for the general population.
"The reasonable expectation is this finding will save some lives," said Dr. Boris Pasche, lead author of the study. "We will be able to identify a larger number of individuals that are at risk of colorectal cancer and, in the long term, maybe decrease the cases of colorectal cancer and of people dying from it … "
The study that included Dr. Albert de la Chapelle, an Ohio State University professor of human cancer genetics, appears in the advanced on-line edition of the journal Science.
