A research team at the Sahlgrenska Academy, in the faculty of health sciences at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, have identified the gene that causes a slow-growing but deadly form of glandular cancer known as adenoid cystic carcinoma. Known as a fusion gene - the newly discovered gene is formed when two healthy genes join together as a result of a chromosome change.

“Previously it was thought that fusion genes pretty much only caused leukaemia, but our group can now show that this type of cancer gene is also common in glandular cancer,” said Göran Stenman, who heads the research group at the Lundberg Laboratory for Cancer Research at the Sahlgrenska Academy.

The researchers also demonstrated that this fusion gene was found in 100% of these types of tumors, making a diagnosis via genetic testing highly promising.

“Now that we know what the cancer is down to, we can also develop new and more effective treatments for this often highly malignant and insidious form of cancer,” says professor Stenman. “One possibility might be to develop a drug that quite simply turns off this gene.”

For more information visit: http://www.sahlgrenska.gu.se/english/news_and_events/news/News_Detail//N...