JNCI: why is the risk of cancer generally higher in men than in women? The reason is that the key gene of Y chromosome is missing

February 2, 2020 / BIOON / -- a large number of studies have found that men are more likely to have cancer than women, but researchers do not know the reasons behind this difference Recently, a report was published in the International Journal of the National Cancer Institute In the previous study, scientists from institutes such as the global health research institute in Barcelona identified a key biological mechanism that can increase the risk of cancer in men, namely, the loss of function of sex specific genes on the Y chromosome Photo source: in the cc0 public domain article, researchers used data from 9000 individuals to study the gene function of Y chromosome in patients with various types of cancer The results show that the function loss of six key Y chromosome genes will increase the risk of cancer in various types of cells Recent studies have shown that y-staining, which is very important for gender differentiation, is lost in some male cells as the body ages Although researchers have previously found that the loss of Y-chromosome is related to the increased risk of cancer, they do not know the reasons behind it Researcher Alejandro Caceres said that the six Y chromosome genes are mainly involved in the regulation of cell cycle, and their dysfunction will lead to cancer What's more, these genes match a similar copy on the X chromosome If this is the case, the copy of the X chromosome will also mutate in the same cell, and the protection of these genes against cancer will be completely lost Understanding the biological differences between men and women in cancer is essential to understand the mechanism of cancer occurrence and to develop new individualized anti-cancer therapies The researchers point out that men are not only at higher risk of cancer than women, but also have worse prognosis In fact, these differences partly explain why men and their life expectancy are lower It is very important to identify the factors that make men more susceptible to cancer for improving their survival and quality of life Because of the different nature of work, men are more likely to be exposed to carcinogens, but because they are unlikely to consult doctors, they are more likely to be exposed to carcinogens The results of this study show that there may be an increased risk of cancer in men In fact, it seems that some of these factors can be found in the Y chromosome, which is unique for men According to the researchers, the inhibition of Y chromosome may be the result of the loss of chromosome function, which may be able to explain the previous research findings, or the results of the mechanism mediated by chemical deactivation of the same region; for example, specific environmental exposure, exposure to tobacco or other harmful substances may affect the function of the body's chromosome and induce the epigenetics of the chromosome The results of this study provide new ideas and hope for the development of new targeted cancer detection methods and specific male anti-cancer therapy Original sources: Alejandro C á Ceres, PhD, Aina Jene, MSC, Tonu Esko, PhD, et al Extreme down regulation of chromosome Y and cancer risk in men, JNCI (2020) doi: 10.1093/jnci/djz232