It has come to the knowledge that as a part of the collaborative effort of the eminent researchers of the American and Israeli institutions operating a 10-year study while involving thousands of Israeli Jews and Arabs, has generated an imperative new information in the search for the genes that make a person more likely to develop colon cancer.

According to the conglomerate of the internationally famed researchers and their institutions there has been an innovative finding of a considerable link between genetic variation in a single region of human chromosome 8 and the risk of colorectal cancer. It has been stated in this regard, that the link was found in accordance with detailed comparisons of genetic material from thousands of colon cancer patients and non-patients. The process also involved a steady process of evaluation of the prevalence of colon cancer among the immediate family members of colon cancer patients.

The chief reason behind the selection of the Israeli Jews and Arabs has been that these very men are prone to the generation of genes that duly make a person more prospective towards the development of colon cancer. Taken together, people who do posses the specific genetic variation, called a marker, were found to be 23 percent more likely to have colon cancer than the persons without the presence of marker. It has been estimated by the researchers that this single genetic variation may account for 14 percent of colorectal cancer cases in Israel, a region that has attained prominence in the recent years owing to the emergence of colon cancer as the leading cause of cancer deaths. The specific marker is called the C allele of rs10505477.

Apart from this there have been three other research teams that are reporting analogous findings through their intense efforts and are reported to find simultaneously their way to the same small area of chromosome 8, called 8q24, in the search for colon cancer genetic links. It is to be noted that since these studies have been performed for a considerable period among other populations around the world other than the Israeli Jew and Arabs, it indicates the highly influential presence of the genetic marker across other ethnic groups.

According to Dr. Stephen Gruber, M.D., and the eminent co-leader of the Michigan-Israeli team and also the first author of the new paper, the innovative conclusion is a prominent approach if it gets compared with the other discoveries hitherto in the genetics of prostate and breast cancer.

While speaking to this correspondent he said, "The same genetic region that predisposes to colon cancer has also recently been shown to be an important region predisposing to breast cancer and prostate cancer."   "The specific genetic cause for this joint susceptibility to three different cancers has not yet been discovered, but several groups are working to close in on the mechanism that might cause these cancers," he concluded.