Scientists from Baylor College of Medicine in the United States have determined that dysfunction of the TP53 gene may be the cause of cancer.
According to the Medical Xpress portal, as part of the study, specialists checked 10,225 tissue samples from 32 types of cancerous tumors and compared their DNA with 80 thousand mutations from a database that were collected over the past decades.
It turned out that the majority of patients with low survival rates had changes in the TP53 gene, which usually, when a cell is damaged, stops its division or even leads to its destruction.
Moreover, in 91% of the cases considered, defects were observed in both copies of TP53.
In addition, four more genes were discovered whose high activity in tumors was associated with the development of cancer, Gazeta.ru notes.
The study’s authors believe the findings could be key to developing new cancer treatments.
On September 6, it became known that Russian scientists have studied the behavior of a gene involved in the process of metastasis in breast cancer cells. They figured out how to “turn off” the work of this gene, and in the future they are going to create a targeted drug that will be safer than chemotherapy, since it will target the desired cells without damaging their healthy environment.
In the same month, the UK began testing a test that allows you to detect cancer before the first symptoms appear.