Progress on Cancer Research

BBC News - Three cancers share genetic link: A gene has been linked to at least three cancers in different tissues in the body, US researchers say.

Their findings, reported in the journal Science, showed a fifth of melanomas (skin cancer), Ewing's sarcomas (bone) and glioblastomas (brain) had a defective copy of the gene STAG2.

It controls the way genetic material is divided between cells.

A cancer charity said the study provided researchers with new ways of tackling the disease.

Human genetic information is bound up in 23 pairs of chromosomes. When a cell divides in two, there should be 23 pairs in each of the two cells produced.

However, this does not always happen. Too many or too few chromosomes - known as aneuploidy - is common in cancer.

Chromosomes to cancer

Researchers at the Georgetown University School of Medicine, Washington, have found a gene which controls that separation of genetic material.

Defective copies of STAG2 were found in 21% of Ewing's sarcoma tumours, 19% of glioblastoma and 19% of melanoma.

Professor Todd Waldman said: "In the cancers we studied, mutations in STAG2 appear to be a first step in the transformation of a normal cell into a cancer cell.

"We are now looking at whether STAG2 might be mutated in breast, colon, lung, and other common human cancers."