deCODE Discovery Sheds Light on Risk of the Most Common Form of Skin Cancer

Scientists at deCODE genetics (NASDAQ:DCGN) report the discovery of common versions of two single-letter variations in the human genome (SNPs) that confer risk of basal cell carcinoma (BCC), the most common cancer among people of European ancestry. Unlike the four sets of SNPs previously found by deCODE to confer risk of BCC and cutaneous melanoma, those reported are not linked to fair pigmentation traits that also make certain people prone to freckling and sunburn. These SNPs, both located on chromosome 1, may therefore provide new insight into an underlying biological mechanism causing BCC, independent of the impact of exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation in sunlight. Approximately 2%...

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