A genetic test could help predict breast cancer many years before the disease is diagnosed, experts hope. Ultimately the findings, in the journal Cancer Research, could lead to a simple blood test to screen women, they say. The test looks for how genes are altered by environmental factors like alcohol and hormones - a process known as epigenetics.
One in five women is thought to have such a genetic "switch" that doubles breast cancer risk.
And they found a strong link between breast cancer risk and molecular modification of a single gene called ATM, which is found on white blood cells.
Baroness Delyth Morgan of the Breast Cancer Campaign, which funded the work, said: "By piecing together how this happens, we can look at ways of preventing the disease and detecting it earlier to give people the best possible chance of survival."
Laura Bell of Cancer Research UK said: "This study gives us a fascinating glimpse of the future and the promise that the emerging field of epigenetics holds. But it's too early to say exactly how these particular changes might affect our ability to detect who is likely to develop certain types of cancer.
"With further studies, scientists will increase our knowledge of how genetic switches like this interplay together to affect breast cancer risk, with the hope that one day this could lead to a blood test that could help predict a woman's chance of getting the disease."
Source: BBC News - Way to spot breast cancer years in advance
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