Gene link to higher rates of bowel cancer in men

Cancer Research UK Press Release

Scientists have shown for the first time that one of the sex chromosomes is involved in the development of a cancer that can afflict both genders, according to a Cancer Research UK-funded study in Nature Genetics1. The finding may help explain why men have higher rates of bowel cancer than women.
The international collaboration - led by The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), the University of Oxford and Edinburgh University – was searching for changes to the DNA code that increase the risk of bowel cancer. For the first time, the scientists identified an alteration on the x-chromosome, one of two chromosomes that determine gender.
The ‘faulty’ region on the x-chromosome is linked to lower levels of a gene called SHROOM2 that controls how cells develop and take shape. Mutations in this gene have previously been linked to cancer.

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