A new study concludes that if white women who carry common gene variants linked to breast cancer maintained key lifestyle factors, almost 30 percent of cases could be avoided. “Lifestyle factors may be even more important for women at higher genetic risk than for those at low genetic risk,” Chatterjee told UPI.com. Chatterjee and his team of researchers developed a model to predict a woman’s risk of breast cancer that compiled genetic information as well as family history of breast cancer, age menstruation began and lifestyle habit. The results were based on more than 40,000 women who tested positive for 24 gene variants previously linked to an increased risk of breast cancer. They also estimated the effects of 68 individual gene variants which the women were not tested for.

Source: Fox News May 27, 2016 07:26 UTC