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Obesity Gene may Increase Risk of Deadly Skin Cancer

by Kathy Jones on Mar 5 2013 9:09 PM

 Obesity Gene may Increase Risk of Deadly Skin Cancer
Obesity could be a precursor to one of the deadliest forms of skin cancer after researchers at University of Leeds found that a gene that is linked with obesity also increase the risk of malignant melanoma.
The researchers analyzed the DNAs of more than 73,000 people, of whom over 13,000 were melanoma patients, and found that those who carried a modification in the FTO gene had a greater risk of developing melanoma compared to others.

“This is the first time, to our knowledge, that this major 
obesity gene, already linked to multiple illnesses, has been linked to melanoma. This raises the question whether future research will reveal that the gene has a role in even more diseases”, lead researcher Dr Mark Iles said.

The study has been published in the journal Nature Genetics.

Source-Medindia


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