Risk of Developing Certain Brain Tumors Caused by Genomic Variants

People who carry a “G” instead of an “A” at a specific spot in the sequence of their genetic code have about a six-fold higher risk of developing certain types of brain tumors, reports researchers at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF)and Mayo Clinic.

The study was jointly led by geneticists Margaret Wrensch, PhD, and John Wiencke, PhD, professors in the Department of Neurological Surgery at UCSF, and Robert Jenkins, MD, PhD, professor of Laboratory Medicine in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology and the Division of Laboratory Genetics at the Mayo Clinic. The findings, which appear in the Aug. 26, 2012, edition of the journal Nature Genetics, could help researchers identify those who are at risk of developing certain subtypes of gliomas, which account for about 4,600 of the 23,000 brain cancers that are newly diagnosed annually in the U.S. This information could lead to better surveillance, diagnosis and treatment. For more information, click here for the full release.