Scientists announced a major breakthrough in the battle against breast cancer yesterday after discovering a faulty gene involved in half of all cases of the disease which kills 12,000 women in the UK every year.

The gene - called NRG1 - is also implicated in 50 per cent of bowel and prostate cancers and a quarter of cancers of the ovary and bladder.

Cancer charities hailed the find as a ‘major step forward’ and one of the most important developments in cancer gene research in the last 20 years.

Dr Paul Edwards, of the department of pathology at the University of Cambridge, who discovered the faulty gene, said it provided ‘vital information’ about how some cancers spread. The fault does not appear to be hereditary and is not passed on from parents to children.

On its own, the discovery is unlikely to lead to new types of drugs or treatments for cancers. But scientists hope it will give them a much greater understanding of how healthy cells turn bad and how some cancers can be stopped in their tracks.

NRG1 is a tumour suppressor gene. It regulates and controls cells and orders them to ‘commit suicide’ if their DNA becomes seriously damaged. If NRG1 is faulty, cells are more likely to divide uncontrollably and become cancerous.

Dr Edwards said: ‘I believe NRG1 could be the most important tumour suppressor gene discovery in the last 20 years as it gives us vital information about a new mechanism that causes breast cancer.’

The gene is found on chromosome 8 - one of the chains of DNA that house genes within a cell. Scientists have long known that part of chromosome 8 is missing in cancer cells.

Dr Edwards and colleagues specifically looked at breast cancer tumours but believe the gene is also linked to other cancers.

He said: ‘In every case that we looked at where a big chunk of chromosome 8 had been lost, at least part of the gene was lost. The gene was effectively ‘turned off’ in a lot of breast cancers.

‘If we have found the gene that is lost on chromosome 8 and we know that some other cancers also lose that bit of chromosome 8, then it is logical that it is the same gene.

‘We have got strong evidence that the gene is implicated in breast cancer but we have no reason to think it’s not the same for other cancers, including prostate and colon cancer.’

The latest research was published in the journal Oncogene and funded by Breast Cancer Campaign and Cancer Research UK.

Arlene Wilkie, of Breast Cancer Campaign, said: ‘This research is a major step forward in understanding the genetics of cancer.’

By David Derbyshire
dailymail.co.uk/