Lifestyle can be even more important when the DNA is working against them, according to a study WebMD HealthDay News By Amy Norton Healt...
Lifestyle can be even more important when the DNA is working against them, according to a study
WebMD HealthDay News
By Amy Norton
HealthDay reporter
Thursday, 26 May 2016 (HealthDay News) - Women who carry the common genetic variants associated with breast cancer still reduce the risk of disease to a healthy lifestyle, a large new study.
In fact, the way of life to be especially useful for women with relatively high genetic risk of breast cancer, the researchers found.
"In these genetic risks are not written in stone," lead researcher Nilanjan Chatterjee said Professor at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore.
The study found that four lifestyle factors were key: Maintain a healthy weight; do not smoke; Limiting alcohol; and using hormone therapy not after menopause.
Researchers estimate that if all the white American women have done this, almost 30 percent of cases could be avoided by breast cancer. And most cancers would be avoided in women at increased risk because of family history, and variants of genes they carry.
The study did not include women with BRCA gene mutations that greatly increase the risk of breast and ovarian cancer.
Instead, it focuses on 92 genetic variants that would make individually only a small difference in the risk of breast cancer of a woman.
However, variants are much more common than BRCA mutations, Chatterjee said. And its effect has been added to the risk of breast cancer, he said.
One problem that has been the importance of lifestyle for women?
The answer: "The way of life can be used for a genetic low risk with high genetic risk even more important for women," he said.
The results were published online May 26 in the journal JAMA Oncology. The results are based on the records of more than 40,000 women for 24 genetic variants previously tested in relation to risk of breast cancer.
Chatterjee's team has created a "model" for predicting the risk of breast cancer of a woman with this genetic information, and other factors. These other factors, including those that can not be changed - such as a family history of breast cancer and the age of menstruation began - with the lifestyle.
The researchers then added another element to the mix: the impact of 68 different genetic variations that women are for not tested, estimated.
