Gene linked to poverty in women with breast cancer

SCIENTISTS have today announced that they have found a link between poverty and a rogue gene – which could explain why women from poor backgrounds are less likely to survive breast cancer.
By The Newsroom
Published 16th Feb 2010, 10:26 BST
Updated 16th Feb 2010, 10:26 BST

A study by University of Dundee researchers looked at the survival rates for the disease compared with patients' socio-economic status.

At the same time, they investigated occurrences of the p53 breast cancer mutation – a change which reduces the body's ability to suppress tumours.

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The study findings, published in the British Journal of Cancer, found women in the lowest socio-economic groups were "significantly more likely" to relapse and die from breast cancer compared with those who were more affluent.

It is thought that factors associated with poverty, such as smoking, drinking and unhealthy diets, could make the p53 mutation more likely to occur.

In healthy humans, the p53 protein, which suppresses cancer, is continually produced and degraded in the cell but if the gene becomes damaged, or mutates, then the body's ability to suppress tumours is severely reduced.

Dr Lee Baker said: "Deprivation alone doesn't cause breast cancer, but can affect prognosis when p53 is damaged as a result."