Malaysian scientists develop tool that accurately predicts breast cancer risk in Asian women
When it comes to predicting the risk of developing breast cancer, Asian women have often been dealt the short straw. This is due to the fact that most cancer mutation prediction tools are designed with women of European descent in mind.
This makes accurate diagnosis a real difficulty for Asian women, with some of them eventually getting cancer later down the line without much time to take the necessary steps.
Changing that is a team of Malaysian scientists at Cancer Research Malaysia, who've developed a risk prediction tool that's specifically tailored towards Asian women, allowing them to more accurately gauge their genetic risk status.
71 percent accuracy.
Dubbed the Asian Genetic Risk Calculator (ARiCa), the tool looks at Breast Cancer 1 (BRCA1) and Breast Cancer 2 (BRCA2) genes to determine the risk of cancer. These genes are the most commonly affected in hereditary breast and ovarian cancer.
BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes produce proteins that help repair damaged DNA. They're often called 'tumor suppressor genes' because when damaged (by pathogens or mutations), cancer can develop – giving tumors the ability to grow and spread. That's what ARiCa looks for: Faulty BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes. And it does it with 71 percent accuracy, which is something hard to come by with other tests.
ARiCa gauges the likelihood of a woman being a BRCA carrier by looking at the age of onset breast cancer, their pathology information, and family history of cancer with a personalized 'score'. Read More...
