A new study finds that wealthy people have a higher genetic risk of cancer than poorer people.
The new study, conducted at the University of Helsinki in Finland, looked at the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and a range of diseases.
Findings suggest that people who enjoy the privilege of high SES also have a higher genetic risk of breast, prostate and other cancers.
Conversely, experts say that less well-off people are genetically more susceptible to diabetes, arthritis, depression, alcoholism and lung cancer.
Research leader Dr Fiona Hagenbeek from the university's Finnish Institute of Molecular Medicine (FIMM) said the early results could lead to polygenic risk scores, which are used to measure disease risk based on genes, being added to screening protocols for some diseases.
“Understanding that the impact of polygenic scores on disease risk is context dependent could lead to more stratified screening protocols,” Dr Hagenbeek told Southwest News Service.
“For example, in the future, improved breast cancer screening protocols may allow women with higher genetic risk and higher levels of education to be screened earlier or more frequently than women with lower genetic risk or lower levels of education,” she said.
To conduct the study, Dr Hagenbeek and his team collected genomic, SES and health data on approximately 280,000 Finns aged between 35 and 80 years.
Previous studies have reportedly shown slight differences in risk similar to what the researchers found this time.
But the study is touted as the first to explore links between 19 diseases common in high-income countries.
“Most clinical risk prediction models include basic demographic information such as biological sex and age, and recognize that disease incidence differs between men and women and is age-dependent,” said Dr. Hagenbeek.
“Recognizing that this context is important when incorporating genetic information into medical care is an important first step.
“But now we can show that genetic prediction of disease risk also depends on an individual’s socioeconomic background.
“So while our genetic information remains constant throughout our lives, the impact of our genetics on disease risk changes as we get older and our circumstances change,” the doctor said.
The researchers said more research was needed to fully understand the association between specific jobs and disease risk, and that studies should also be conducted in lower-income countries.
“Our study focused only on people of European ancestry, and it will also be important in the future to see whether our observations about the interplay between socioeconomic status and genetic factors on disease risk also apply to people of mixed ancestry in high- and low-income countries,” Dr Hagenbeek emphasized.
“The whole purpose of incorporating genetic information into healthcare is to facilitate personalized medicine, so genetic information should not be treated as a 'one size fits all'.
“Rather, circumstances that modify genetic risk should be explored and taken into account when making disease predictions,” she said.
The findings will be presented Sunday at the European Society of Human Genetics' annual meeting in Berlin, Germany.
Conference chair Professor Alexandre Raymond of the University of Lausanne in Switzerland welcomed the findings.
“Assessing both genetic and environmental risks is essential to moving toward truly personalized health,” he said.
“We should commend our Finnish colleagues for their contribution in spearheading this effort.”
