One variant of the DNA sequence located near a gene called FGFR3 increases the risk of developing bladder cancer, researchers from the Netherlands and Iceland report in the journal Nature Genetics.
Bladder cancer is the ninth most common type of cancer, according to statistics, it affects approximately 350000 people worldwide. The main risk factors are cigarette smoking and contact with carcinogens, although it is also known that genetic factors are not without effect.
Lambertus Kiemeney of Radboud University in Nijmegen and Kari Stefansson of deCODE Genetics in Reykjavik studied 4739 European bladder cancer patients and found that a sequence located next to the FGFR3 gene influences the risk of developing the disease. In addition, congenital or acquired mutations in the FGFR3 gene itself are often observed in bladder tumor cells. (PAP)