Wealthy people ‘at greater risk of cancer’ than the rest of us: study

Rich people are genetically at greater risk of cancer than the poor, new research has revealed.

The new study — conducted at the University of Helsinki in Finland — examined the relationship between socio-economic status, or SES, and an array of diseases.

Those privileged to enjoy elevated SES, the findings suggested, are also at a heightened genetic risk for breast, prostate and other types of cancer.

Conversely, those less-affluent are genetically more susceptible to diabetes and arthritis, along with depression, alcoholism and lung cancer, the experts said.

Study leader Dr Fiona Hagenbeek, of the university’s Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM), said the initial results could lead to polygenic risk scores — used to measure risk of disease based on genetics — being added to screening protocols for some diseases.

“Understanding that the impact of polygenic scores on disease risk is context-dependent may lead to further stratified screening protocols,” Dr. Hagenbeek told South West News Service.

“For example, in the future, screening protocols for breast cancer may be adapted so that females with a high genetic risk and who are highly educated receive earlier or more frequent screening than females with lower genetic risk or less education,” she said.

To conduct the study, Dr. Hagenbeek’s team pulled genomics, SES and health data on about 280,000 Finns, aged 35 to 80.

Previous studies have reportedly shown the presence of some differences in risk, similar to what researchers found this time around.

This study, however, has been touted as the first to search for the link in a whopping 19 diseases common to high-earning countries.

“Most clinical risk prediction models include basic demographic information such as biological sex and age, recognizing that disease incidence differs between males and females, and is age-dependent, Dr. Hagenbeek said.

“Acknowledging that such context also matters when incorporating genetic information into healthcare is an important first step.

“But now, we can show that the genetic prediction of disease risk also depends on an individual’s socio-economic background.

“So while our genetic information does not change throughout our lifetime, the impact of genetics on disease risk changes as we age or change our circumstances,” the doctor said.

Researchers pointed out that further work can be done to fully understand the links between specific professions and disease risk. Studies should also be conducted in lower-income countries as well, they said.

“Our study focused solely on individuals of European ancestry, and it will also be important in the future to see whether our observations concerning the interplay of socio-economic status and genetics for disease risk are replicated in people of multiple ancestries in higher and lower-income countries,” Dr. Hagenbeek urged.

“As the overall aim of incorporating genetic information into healthcare is to facilitate personalized medicine, we should not treat genetic information as ‘one size fits all‘.

“Rather, we should investigate and then include the circumstances that modify genetic risk when carrying out disease prediction,” she said.

Study findings will be presented at the annual conference of the European Society of Human Genetics in Berlin, Germany, on Sunday.

Conference Chair Professor Alexandre Reymond of the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, welcomed the findings.

“To really move to personalized health it will be essential to gauge both genetic and environmental risks,” he said.

“We should commend our Finnish colleagues for their part in spearheading this effort.”