University of São Paulo: Study in Ribeirão Preto will identify people with higher and lower risk of having cancer
Brazilian researchers recruit 15,000 residents of Ribeirão Preto to study their susceptibility to cancer , that is, to identify a greater or lesser risk of developing the disease. The study is part of the National Support Program for Oncology Care (Pronon) and is carried out by the Faculty of Medicine of Ribeirão Preto (FMRP) of USP, by the Hospital das Clínicas da FMRP (HCFMRP), by the Foundation for Support to Teaching, Research and Assistance. (Faepa) and by the Municipality of Ribeirão Preto.
“It is necessary to improve cancer screening methods given the recent knowledge that people may have a higher or lower hereditary risk of developing cancer. Tracking is still performed in much the same way for everyone. Thus, individuals at higher risk of developing cancer may not be receiving all the necessary investment in prevention and those at lower risk, more than necessary”, explains Leandro Colli, who is a professor at FMRP, a medical oncologist and one of the coordinators of the project. .
The researchers are recruiting patients over 18 years of age who are followed up by the Family Health Teams in the Western District of Ribeirão Preto for blood collection. With the material, DNA genotyping will be carried out to understand the sum of hereditary factors, which are called polygenic score. In this way, the research may impact on precision prevention, that is, on specific prevention for each person, according to their genetic characteristics.
“In the future, these scores will make it possible to identify who are the people who need more intensive screening for cancer and at the same time people who need less tests, which will have a great impact on the rationalization of health resources, both public and private”, he concludes.
“It is necessary to improve cancer screening methods given the recent knowledge that people may have a higher or lower hereditary risk of developing cancer. Tracking is still performed in much the same way for everyone. Thus, individuals at higher risk of developing cancer may not be receiving all the necessary investment in prevention and those at lower risk, more than necessary”, explains Leandro Colli, who is a professor at FMRP, a medical oncologist and one of the coordinators of the project. .
The researchers are recruiting patients over 18 years of age who are followed up by the Family Health Teams in the Western District of Ribeirão Preto for blood collection. With the material, DNA genotyping will be carried out to understand the sum of hereditary factors, which are called polygenic score. In this way, the research may impact on precision prevention, that is, on specific prevention for each person, according to their genetic characteristics.
“We propose to use the clinical data from the excellent care of basic health centers paired with material collection for genotyping. At the end of three years, we will have a large clinical, epidemiological and molecular database to answer questions in oncology and even in other areas”, says Professor Dias.