It was on Wednesday that the scientists in Paris reported the first ever link between the deadly cancer disease and a type of genetic defect, known as copy number variation, which is characterized by the extra bits or missing DNA. Credit : thejakartaglobe This breakthrough came when the scientists were involved in the study of neuroblastome , a deadly paediatric disease that accounts for 15 percent of all cancer deaths especially among young children. Researches headed by John Maris of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia have discovers the fact that a CNV or Copy Number Variation on chromosome 1 can play a vital role in causing the disease, which strikes during infancy and is

often quite serious and fatal. The absence of DNA occurs within some group of genes in the development of our nervous system and this affects how much one of these genes with absence of DNA will be manufactured within both normal and cancerous cells. This was discovered by this study that this unique family of genes played a role in causing the disease neuroblastoma and Maris also confirmed this in a phone interview. Earlier Maris and others isolated another gene known as ALK that can give rise to a rare disease by itself.

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Scientist discover the first link between deadly cancer disease and missing DNA