Yale scientists quantify factors that cause cancer

A team of researchers led by Yale University scientists have been able to quantify the factors that cause changes in the DNA to initiate cancer growth in tumors.

The paper, published in Molecular Biology and Evolution, provides insight over how much control humans have over developing cancer across time.

“We can now answer the question — to the best of our knowledge — ‘What is the underlying source of the key mutations that changed those cells to become a cancer instead of remaining normal tissue?’” said Jeffrey Townsend, professor at Yale School of Public Health.

He explained that by combining the knowledge of factors that cause specific mutations to alter the genome in tissues, with the study’s method that quantifies the contribution of each mutation to cancer, it was possible to assign a specific percentage of blame to known and unknown but identified factors in the emergence of cancer.