The Arizona Republic, among other outlets, is reporting on genetic research coming out of U.C. Berkeley and Phoenix-based Translational Genomics Research Institute.
The scientists claim they've found a gene variant that comes close to doubling the risk for developing follicular lymphoma (FL).
Published online in the science journal Nature Genetics, the conclusion was reached after examination of over 3,000 HIV-free DNA samples (since FL occurs in about one in ten HIV patients, future studies may involve HIV-positive patients) and looking for the single-letter difference among 3-billion based pairs of the human genome.
They found the mutation in the STG gene, also known as C6orf15.
What does this mean for people with FL right now? Not much. What does it mean for future generations? That their FL could be diagnosed earlier than it is now, and that certain drugs could be developed that could tackle the disease before it gets a chance to develop.
Either way, it's all a long ways off.
