• Center on Health Equity & Access
  • Clinical
  • Health Care Cost
  • Health Care Delivery
  • Insurance
  • Policy
  • Technology
  • Value-Based Care

A SNP That Affords Protection From Breast Cancer Identified

Article

The study, published in the journal Nature Communications, identified the single nucleotide polymorphism near the coding region of the estrogen receptor ESR1 among Latina women.

An international research collaboration led by UC San Francisco researchers has identified a genetic variant common in Latina women that protects against breast cancer.

The variant, a difference in just one of the 3 billion “letters” in the human genome known as a single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), originates from indigenous Americans and confers significant protection from breast cancer, particularly the more aggressive estrogen receptor—negative forms of the disease, which generally have a worse prognosis.

“The effect is quite significant,” said Elad Ziv, MD, professor of medicine and senior author of the study. “If you have one copy of this variant, which is the case for approximately 20% of US Latinas, you are about 40% less likely to have breast cancer. If you have 2 copies, which occurs in approximately 1% of the US Latina population, the reduction in risk is on the order of 80%.”

Link to the report: http://bit.ly/1yavsLN

Source: UCSF

Related Videos
Jorge García, PharmD, MS, MBA, MHA, FACHE, FACCC
Screenshot of an interview with Shaun McKenzie, MD
Screenshot of an interview with Shaun McKenzie, MD
Screenshot of an interview with Rohan Garje, MD
Susan Escudier, MD, FACP
Sabarish Ayyappan, MD
Susan Escudier, MD, FACP
Screenshot of an interview with Evangelia Vlachou, MD
Screenshot of an interview with Barry Goy, MD
Related Content
© 2025 MJH Life Sciences
AJMC®
All rights reserved.