Science / Medicine : Skin Cancer Gene Identified

Japanese researchers have identified the defective gene that causes one form of xeroderma pigmentosa, an inherited disease in which sufferers are unusually sensitive to sunlight and are prone to light-induced skin cancer. Although many people carry the defective gene, only about one in 250,000 actually develops the disease.

There are believed to be about eight genes that cause different forms of the disease. A team headed by Kiyoji Tanaka of Osaka University reported in the British journal Nature that they isolated the gene causing the most common form of the disease, known as XPAC. It causes about a quarter of all cases.

The defective gene, first isolated in mice and then in humans, is thought to be involved in the repair of deoxyribonucleic acid--DNA, the genetic blueprint of life--damaged by sunlight. Earlier this year, researchers identified the gene that causes a rarer form of xeroderma pigmentosa, and scientists are currently searching for the remaining genes.