New Cancer genes identified

In a discovery that could lead to more targeted and effective treatments for certain lung and prostate cancers, researchers at the University of Virginia School of Medicine have identified two new cancer-causing gene mutations, mutations that may be particularly susceptible to cancer-fighting drugs already approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration. One of the gene mutations also may play a key role in early menopause.The discovery suggests that cancers with the newly discovered mutations in the MCM8 and MCM9 genes likely will respond extremely favorably to the same chemotherapy drugs that have already proven effective against breast cancers with the well-known BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutations.
Dutta's new research shows that the MCM8 and MCM9 genes produce proteins that play a critical role in homologous recombination, a method cells use to repair double-strand breaks in our DNA. Such breaks are thought to occur commonly, perhaps thousands of times in each cell's life -- but the vital repair proteins appear to be missing in cancers with MCM8 and MCM9 mutations. That defect could be the cancer cells' downfall, theoretically making them "superbly sensitive" to Cisplatin and other drugs already developed to battle BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations, said Dutta, chairman of UVA's Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics.