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© Oxford University Press 2006.
NEWS |
The Race for Ancestral Genetics in Clinical Trials
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
A seasoned cancer researcher would never set up a study in which all the ill patients were, say, Canadian, and all the healthy controls were Japanese. And yet cancer researchers risk making a similar mistake if they overlook genetic information that fleshes out what many of us like to think of as race or ethnicity, some experts say.
Fortunately, awareness of how ancestral genetics might contribute to risk of disease and drug response in people has risen over the last several years. Studies that look directly at the problem are on the rapid rise, and this increased interest has biotechnology companies lowering the cost of tests that determine genetic ancestry, thanks to a little competition. However, experts have yet to decide on how to genetically define ancestry, suggesting examining anywhere from a handful to hundreds of gene variants.
"We've gone from a very controversial and understudied issue 5 years ago,
Racial Tensions in Our Genes
A Cancer Confounder
Assessing Ancestry
Statistical Fixes