SUNDAY, Jan. 22 (HealthDay News) -- Researchers acquire identified three new genomic regions they credit are linked with breast cancer that may alleviate explain why some women develop the sickness.

All three newly identified areas "be continent interesting genes that open up modern avenues for biological and clinical scrutiny," said researcher Douglas Easton, a professor of genetic epidemiology at the University of Cambridge in England.

Breast cancer is the ut~ common cancer among women, with hind part before 1 million new cases annually worldwide and added than 400,000 deaths a year.

Scientists conducting genome-expanded association studies -- research that looks at the clique between genetic factors and disease to pinpoint feasible causes -- had already identified 22 bosom cancer susceptibility loci. Locus is the physical location of a gene or DNA following on a chromosome.

"The three [newly identified] loci take the numeral of common susceptibility loci from 22 to 25," said Easton.

However, the three new susceptivity loci might explain only about 0.7 percent of the familial risks of heart cancer, bringing the total contribution to around 9 percent, the researchers said.

Michael Melner, according to principles program director for the American Cancer Society, before-mentioned this current research adds some of great weight new clues to existing evidence, no more than he agreed that the number of cases pleasing associated with these three variants is with appearance of truth low.

"So the total impact in stipulations of patients would be fairly dull," Melner said.

The study is published online Jan. 22 in Nature Genetics.

To get the new clues, Easton's team worked through genetic information on about 57,000 affections cancer patients and 58,000 healthful women obtained from two genome-ample association studies.

The investigators zeroed in in c~tinuance 72 different single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). A SNP -- pronounced "snap" -- is a change in which a choose base in the DNA differs from the prevailing base. The human genome has millions of SNPs, more linked with disease, while others are natural variations.

The researchers focused on three SNPs -- forward chromosomes 12p11, 12q24 and 21q21.

Easton's team set up that the variant on the 12p11 chromosome is linked through both estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer (which needs estrogen to grow) and estrogen receptor-negative affections cancer. The other two variants are excepting that linked with ER-positive cancers, they reported.

One of the newly identified variants is in one area with a gene that has a role in the growth of mammary glands and bones. Easton uttered it was already known that mammary gland unravelling in puberty is an important circle of time in terms of determining later cancer peril. "But these are the first sensitiveness genes to be shown to be involved in this process," he reported.

One of the other SNPs is in ~y area that can affect estrogen receptor signaling, the researchers fix.

Melner, noting some of the research is "fine tuning" of other moil, said in his view the strange understanding of the signaling pathways and their genetic links is the greatest in quantity important finding.

"When you delineate a footway, you bring up new potential targets toward therapy," he said. "The more targets you esteem, you open up the potential toward having multiple drugs and attacking a cancer greater quantity easily, without it becoming more resistant."

Overall, Melner added, the results draw a line under the complexity of the different mechanisms involved in thorax cancer development.

More information

For greater quantity about the genetics of breast cancer, survey the American Cancer Society.

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