Cancer Research in Twins

Manel Esteller, director of the cancer epigenetics program at the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute, and a professor of genetics at the University of Barcelona, conducted research, along with a team, and found evidence that of epigenetic changes in sets of twins. The team studied identical twins, in which, one twin was at a risk for breast cancer, and the other was not. Because it is believed that breast cancer should be caused through genetics, and these twins are both genetically identical, they should both either be predisposed to breast cancer or not be.

However, in the study, the researchers found that each time one twin was at a risk for breast cancer and the other was not, the change was due to the fact that different chemical signals in the DNA were more present in one twin than the other.

Each of the twins who would eventually develop breast cancer had an increased amount of methylation in the DOK7 gene. After discovering the chemical changes in the twins, the research team is turning its attention to the DOK7 gene, what its purpose is, and different ways to alter it, in attempts to discover more about breast cancer.