According to new research, the rich are genetically more likely than the poor to develop cancer.
The new study looked at the connection between a number of diseases and socioeconomic level, or SES, and was carried out at the University of Helsinki in Finland.
The results indicated that there is a genetic predisposition to breast, prostate, and other cancers in those who are fortunate enough to have elevated SES.
A doctor is holding the hand of a woman dressed in a hospital gown, signifying the higher cancer risk associated with affluence.
On the other hand, the experts noted that people who are less wealthy had a higher genetic predisposition to diabetes, arthritis, depression, alcoholism, and lung cancer.
The early findings, according to study leader Dr. Fiona Hagenbeek of the university’s Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM), may result in the addition of polygenic risk scores, which are used to calculate a disease’s genetic risk, to screening regimens for specific illnesses.
Dr. Hagenbeek told South West News Service, “Understanding that the impact of polygenic scores on disease risk is context-dependent may lead to further stratified screening protocols.”
“In the future, protocols for screening breast cancer might be modified to prioritize screening earlier or more frequently for women with higher genetic risk and higher levels of education compared to women with lower genetic risk and lower levels of education,” the spokesperson stated.
About 280,000 Finns, ages 35 to 80, had their genomes, SES, and health data collected for the study by Dr. Hagenbeek’s team.
Scholars have observed that prior study has indicated the existence of certain variations in risk, which is consistent with the current findings.
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However, this study has been hailed as the first to look for a connection in a staggering 19 diseases that are prevalent in high-income nations.
According to Dr. Hagenbeek, “the majority of clinical risk prediction models incorporate basic demographic data like biological sex and age, acknowledging that disease incidence varies between males and females and is age-dependent.”
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“A crucial first step in integrating genetic information into healthcare is realizing that this kind of context also matters.
However, we can now demonstrate that a person’s socioeconomic status has an impact on the genetic prediction of illness risk.
Thus, the doctor explained, “the impact of genetics on disease risk changes as we age or change our circumstances, even though our genetic information does not change throughout our lifetime.”
Researchers noted that more investigation is necessary to completely comprehend the connections between particular vocations and illness risk. They argued that research ought to be done in lower-income nations as well.
A recent study found a possible association between tattoos and lymphoma. “We only looked at people with European ancestry in our study, and it will be crucial to check in the future if our findings about the interaction between genetics and socioeconomic status for disease risk are also true for people with multiple ancestries in higher- and lower-income nations,” Dr. Hagenbeek urged.
“We shouldn’t treat genetic information as ‘one size fits all,’ as the ultimate goal of integrating genetic information into healthcare is to promote tailored medicine.
“Instead, when performing disease prediction, we should look into and then take into account the factors that modify genetic risk,” the speaker stated.
The results of the study will be presented on Sunday at the European Society of Human Genetics’ annual conference in Berlin, Germany.
The results were welcomed by conference chair Professor Alexandre Reymond of the University of Lausanne, Switzerland.
He stated, “It will be crucial to assess both genetic and environmental risks in order to truly move toward personalized health.”
“We ought to give our Finnish colleagues credit for leading this initiative.”