Researchers identified 27 genes that could stop cancer

The discovery can save millions of lives, as the genes can halt the disease from developing

More than 2000 tumors of 12 different types have been analyzed in order to investigate the genes involved in the progressing of the malign disease.

The study was conducted by Dr. Jonas Demeulemeester from the Francis Crick Institute in the United Kingdom. The findings were published in the Nature Communications journal.

As tumors form when cells divide uncontrollably, tumor suppressor genes are factors that prevent cancer from breaking out.

Therefore, scientists have created a single nucleotide polymorphism analysis model in order to identify new tumor suppressor genes, by assessing 2.218 tumors resulted from breast, lung, colorectal, ovarian, and brain cancers.

The statistical model empowered the researchers to calculate the “DNA footprint” of tumor suppressor genes in order to make the difference between oncogene and non-oncogene gene mutations.

After completion of the tests, scientists have uncovered 43 tumor suppressing genes, from which 27 were new to the medical world.

As cancer genomics is a continuously developing area of medicine, the recent findings are expected to fuel information for future personalized treatments that could improve the quality of life of millions of patients, based on the genetic makeup of their tumors.