Gene Variation Connected to Risk of Cervical Cancer, Researchers Say

Women whose DNA carries a particular variation in the gene for a cancer inhibitor called p53 have seven times the normal risk of contracting cervical cancer, British researchers report in today’s Nature. Researchers had previously known that cervical cancer is linked to infections by the human papillomavirus (HPV), but the new finding is the first to prove a genetic link. HPV blocks the activity of p53, which normally suppresses cellular proliferation, but the team found that one particular variation of the p53 gene, called p53Arg, was much more easily blocked.

Compiled by Times medical writer Thomas H. Maugh II