Aug 25 : Brisbane researchers have found that female sex hormone estrogen turns on a gene linked to breast cancer.

As part of the study, Professor Tom Gonda and colleagues at UQ’s Diamantina Institute for Cancer, Immunology and Metabolic Medicine studied a gene called MYB in isolated cancer cells grown in the laboratory.

MYB is found in about 70 percent of all breast cancers and is one of several dozen genes called oncogenes that promote cancer growth.

The study found that estrogen had the ability to switch this gene on, which was important for the growth of breast cancer cells.

“What’s important in breast cancer is the ability of estrogen to turn on MYB rather than there being a mutation in the gene itself,” Professor Gonda said.

Researchers believe that the study will help explain the link between breast cancer and high levels of estrogen.

The findings of the study were published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA. (ANI)