Dr. MAHASTI SAGHATCHIAN – Genetics and breast cancer

THE TUMOR GENOME

The understanding of the genome has really been a revolution in all cancers and in particular in breast cancer. Cancer is a very complex disease where finally the genome of the cancer cell starts to have mutations, there are errors in the code that will determine the functioning of the cell.

This famous code is the genome. Basically, the cancer cell doesn’t have the right recipe and it starts to survive indefinitely and multiply. So, what really allows us to target the anomaly is to understand this genetic code, to understand what are the mutations, the anomalies in this genetic code, which make the cell go crazy and out of control, and then from that, we will develop targeted treatments that will either repair the anomalies, or take advantage of these anomalies to eliminate the cancerous cells…

So, we discovered the point of vulnerability of cancer cells thanks to the study and the advances that were made in biology on DNA, RNA and on the understanding of the human genome. This has allowed us to completely change the way cancer is handled and treated, and this goes on. We’re just at the beginning of this path.

THE HUMAN GENOME

You can have your genome mapped today and from that understand: here you are, taking into account the anomalies, you have a risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s… In fact, it is more complicated than that, first because our genome is evolving.

The genetic code that you have today in each of your cells changes because with time, there are mutations that can appear, and then it is very much subject to the environment; the environment will have an impact on your genome, your lifestyle, your diet and your health is not only dependent on your genome, your health is enormously dependent on your lifestyle: do you exercise? what do you subject yourself to environmentally? For example, why is smoking a risk factor for cancer? Because smoking will induce mutations, abnormalities in the genome of your lung cells and induce cancer.

So, the genome is not the key to everything, our health and our life are a combination of genome, environmental impact and evolution through time. So, even if we have our identity card, we are evolutionary objects.