Adiponectin gene associated with breast cancer risk

Cancer experts at Northwest Memorial Hospital recently reported that they found that the adiponectin gene mutation is likely to increase the risk of breast cancer in women, and it will become the third gene associated with breast cancer.

Virginia Kaklamani, an oncologist at Northwest Memorial Hospital, said the adiponectin gene regulates many metabolic processes. When some women are born, their adiponectin genes have different characteristics, which can change the function of genes, thus increasing the risk of breast cancer. This finding is consistent with previous studies that low levels of adiponectin in the body increase cancer risk. If confirmed by other ancillary studies, adiponectin will work with two other genes that have been identified, TGF-beta and CHEK2, to create a genetic testing model that will help clinicians more accurately predict the risk of breast cancer. 

Currently, clinicians can only rely on the diagnosis of epidemiological models to detect breast cancer. The most commonly used model is the "GAIL" model, which measures the risk of breast cancer in women by testing a variety of factors, including female age, menstrual onset age, menopausal age, first childbearing age, biopsy sections and family history. At present, gene diagnosis has been used to detect family history of breast cancer to identify whether breast cancer inheritance is associated with BRCA gene. However, most breast cancer patients diagnosed each year do not have a family history, which makes a large number of breast cancer cases unexplained and unpredictable.

"As far as we know, one in eight women suffer from breast cancer for uncertain reasons. They are likely to be genetically affected, and adiponectin gene is one of the possible inducing genes," Kaklamani said. By identifying which genes are associated with breast cancer, we can better predict risk and ultimately focus on cancer prevention. We hope that through further research, one day we can use genetic diagnosis to make all women know their risk of breast cancer in advance, and those with higher risk of breast cancer can take preventive measures together with their physiotherapists to achieve the best preventive effect. We are working in this direction.

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Cindy