Scientists report racial differences in bowel cancer risk

This news item was added on 1st April 2008

A study in the journal Nature Genetics reveals that the risk of bowel cancer differs between people from different racial backgrounds, even if they carry the same bowel cancer gene.

Cancer Research UK scientists found that Europeans with a particular genetic marker were at increased risk of bowel cancer, but Japanese people with the same genetic marker were not.

Their study, which analysed the genetic make-up of more than 33,000 people, represents the first time a race-specific effect has been found for a genetic marker, according to Professor Malcolm Dunlop, lead author at the University of Edinburgh's Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine.

"It's an important step forward in our knowledge of the causes of bowel cancer, bringing us ever closer to a genetic test for those at high risk of the disease," he claimed.

Cancer Research UK's director of cancer information, Dr Lesley Walker, added: "Our understanding of the causes of bowel cancer is quickly increasing. We can now begin to explain some of the difference in rates of the disease between populations through specific genes."