New player in cancer risk
From Chicago, at a meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology
A newly discovered category of RNA could play an important role in cancer, researchers announced.
This new RNA type is distinct from microRNAs, snippets of genetic material that are also known to influence a person’s risk of developing tumors. The discovery presents an unexplored form of genetic involvement in cancer that could lead researchers to a better understanding of the disease, says George Calin of the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. The new, as-yet-unnamed RNAs “are involved in cancer to the same degree as microRNAs,” he says.