New research finds common chemicals in cosmetics increase cancer risk

Reportedly, the chemicals are also found in everyday items such as car exhausts, smoke, alcohol, building materials, and furniture. They are capable of breaking down DNA repair mechanisms, which are responsible for preventing faults in human genes.

The research team was led by the university’s Medical Research Council Cancer unit director professor Ashok Venkitaraman. He identified the mechanism through which aldehyde exposure could promote cancer by using genetically-engineered human cells and cells from breast cancer patients carrying a faulty copy of the gene BRCA2.

The researchers found that exposure breaks down the body’s natural defence mechanisms, even in normal healthy cells. Patients with an inherited copy of faulty BRCA2 are sensitive to this damage.

Aldehydes are said to induce BRCA2 protein degradation, which leads to a decrease in the gene levels below the required amount for DNA repair and prevention of mutations.

Venkitaraman said: “Our study shows how chemicals to which we are increasingly exposed in our day-to-day lives may increase the risk of diseases like cancer.

“It also helps to explain why the faults in our stars, namely the faulty genes we are born with, could make some people particularly sensitive to the cancer-causing effects of these chemicals.

“An important implication of our work is that it may be aldehyde exposure that triggers cancer susceptibility in people who inherit one faulty copy of the BRCA2 gene. This may help us in future to prevent or treat cancer in such people.”

The study further reports that the new mechanism may also be responsible for cancer risk in people with a faulty ALDH2 gene, which is usually found in countries such as Japan, Korea, and China.