By Henry J. Fishman, M.D.
ConsumerAffairs.com
February 2, 2006
Researchers have, for the first time, uncovered some genes which predispose to prostate cancer, according to an article in the journal Nature.
Researchers examined the biological activity of nearly 10,000 genes all at once -- a huge job. They compared the activity levels of healthy and cancerous tissue.
They found that large numbers of genes -- nearly 200 -- work together to predispose to prostate cancer, not just one or two.
Researchers have found the same pattern in other illnesses, like asthma, in which 12 genes work together to cause problems.
Unfortunately, more genes means more work in solving problems like cancer. Fixing a few genes is easy; fixing a few hundred is hard.
Still, thanks to this researcher we hope that, someday, doctors will be able to develop a blood test for prostate cancer that's better than the current one and possibly therapies to fix the genes and get ride of prostate cancer.
