Genetic cause of stomach cancer

The breakthrough could benefit hundreds of people

Genetic screening could offer hope to families affected by an inherited form of stomach cancer, say scientists.

Researchers have found that a rare type of stomach cancer affecting 200 people in the UK each year is often caused by a particular faulty gene.

A Cancer Research UK team led by Dr Carlos Caldas, at Cambridge University, discovered it was possible to detect the damaged gene in a third of families with a history of the disease.

If we can screen for the damaged gene, those affected could have surgery to prevent the disease

Dr Carlos Caldas, Cambridge University

The scientists looked at 39 families with a history of stomach cancer from nine different countries, including the UK.

Eleven of these families were affected by a type of disease called hereditary diffuse gastric cancer (HDGC).

In four of the 11 families, patients had faulty versions of the E-cadherin gene, which helps cells bind together in tissues.

None of the patients with other forms of stomach cancer had the same defect.

Dr Caldas said: "People with a faulty E-cadherin gene have a 60-80% chance of developing stomach cancer at some stage of their life, with many getting it very young.

"It's not an easily treated disease and survival is very poor. But if we can screen for the damaged gene, those affected could have surgery to prevent the disease.

"This may be a difficult option to take, but it's preferable to having a very high chance of dying young from cancer."

Screening

Researchers estimate that about 200 people develop HDGC in the UK each year.

The majority of these will have the disease in their family, which means that they could easily be identified as being eligible for screening.

Dr Caldas said: "We know that the gene is damaged in about a third of HDGC families, but apparently in none with other forms of inherited stomach cancer.

"That makes it simpler to screen because you've got a self-selecting target group and a high chance of a positive test."

He now intends to extend his research to look at other genes that may increase the risk of stomach cancer.

Dr Caldas hopes that the success of his current work will encourage people with a family history of the disease to volunteer for large scale clinical studies.

Many of the same genes responsible for inherited cancers also go wrong within tumours in non-hereditary forms of the disease, which means that the new results could have wide-ranging implications.