Higher rates of cancer-risk genes in people with congenital heart disease

Reuters Health - 26/11/2020 - People with congenital heart disease (CHD) have an increased frequency of damaging variants in cancer-risk genes, researchers report. "As more patients affected by congenital heart disease have been surviving to adulthood, it has become clear from studies performed by other clinical researchers that these patients face an increased risk of cancer at a younger age," Dr. Christine E. Seidman and Dr. Sarah U. Morton of Harvard Medical School, in Boston, told Reuters Health in a joint email. "Molecular discoveries have identified mutated genes that cause congenital heart disease and mutated genes that cause cancer, as well as recognition that some genes contribute to both conditions," they explained. "Our study asked the broader question - whether mutations in any gene found in patients with congenital heart disease could contribute to the increased risk of cancer." To address this question, the two researchers and their colleagues c...

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Posted on 26 November, 20204 December, 2020