Researchers combine common genetic variants, other factors to improve breast cancer risk prediction

Recent large-scale genomic analyses have uncovered dozens of common genetic variants that are associated with breast cancer. Each variant, however, contributes only a tiny amount to a person’s overall risk of developing the disease. Now an international team of researchers has combined 77 of these common genetic variants into a single risk factor that can be used to improve the identification of women with an elevated risk of breast cancer. This factor, known as a polygenic risk score, was built from the genetic data of more than 67,000 women.

by via Latest Science News -- ScienceDaily