Mouth cancer link to alcohol genes 25/05/2008
The risk of getting mouth cancer has been linked to genes and the rate at which they break down alcohol.
Hundreds of patients with cancers of the mouth, larynx and oesophagus in Europe and Central and South America, together with patients free of the disease, were studied by researchers at Aberdeen University.
Two genes involved in metabolising alcohol – a substance already known to be a risk factor for oral cancer – were focused on.
Those with a variant in the genes appeared to be less susceptible to the cancers because alcohol was broken down more quickly.
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