FRIDAY, Dec. 12 (HealthDay News) -- OncoVue -- a new genetic-based risk estimator -- may more accurately predict breast cancer risk than the more commonly used Gail Model, which assesses conventional risk factors such as alcohol use, according to research presented at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium held Dec. 10 to 14 in San Antonio, Texas.

Kathie Dalessandri, M.D., of the University of California San Francisco, and colleagues collected buccal cell DNA from 169 Marin County, Calif., women diagnosed with breast cancer between 1997 and 1999, and 177 healthy controls, and tested it for 22 single nucleotide polymorphisms in 19 genes.

Compared to the Gail Model, the researchers found that OncoVue was 2.4 times more accurate in distinguishing cases from controls and showed a 51 percent improvement in assigning elevated risk to cases.

"Within the next few years there is going to be a definite paradigm shift toward prevention by analysis of genetic material rather than traditional risk factors," Dalessandri said in a statement. "As these tests become more commonplace we will be able to more effectively target prevention and early intervention to those at highest risk."

This study was sponsored by InterGenetics Inc., of Oklahoma City.

Abstract #502
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