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Scientific Correspondence
Nature 398, 33-34 (4 March 1999) | doi:10.1038/17949
Using hair to screen for breast cancer
Veronica James1, John Kearsley2, Tom Irving3, Yoshiyuki Amemiya4 & David Cookson5
Abstract
We have studied hair using fibre X-ray diffraction studies with synchrotron radiation and find that hair from breast-cancer patients has a different intermolecular structure to hair from healthy subjects. These changes are seen in all samples of scalp and pubic hair taken from women diagnosed with breast cancer. All the hair samples from women who tested positive for a mutation of the BRCA1 gene, which is associated with a higher risk of breast cancer1, also show these changes. Because our results are so consistent, we propose that such hair analyses may be used as a simple, non-invasive screening method for breast cancer.
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