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April 9, 2002 |
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Genetic link between permanent hair dye and bladder cancer SAN FRANCISCO, April 9, 2002 (Cancer Digest) -- Certain women may be more susceptible to bladder cancer associated with the use of permanent hair dyes than other women, based on their genetic makeup, according to a study released today. Female study participants whose bodies could only slowly flush out carcinogens known as arylamines, which are an ingredient of hair dye, had a higher risk of bladder cancer than women whose bodies eliminated the carcinogens more quickly, the investigators reported The study's lead author Dr. Manuela Gago-Dominguez at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California presented the results at the American Association of Cancer Research's 93rd Annual Meeting today showing that the body's efficiency in removing such toxins depends on whether someone possesses the "fast" or "slow" version of certain key genes. "We believe these results provide further evidence supporting a causal association between permanent hair dye use and bladder cancer risk," said Gago-Dominguez in a press release. "They implicate the arylamines contained in hair dye solutions as the carcinogenic substances responsible for bladder cancer development in the users of these dyes," said Gago-Dominguez, who is a preventive medicine investigator at the Keck School and the Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center. Gago-Dominguez explained that small amounts of arylamines are absorbed through the skin during the use of hair dye. Certain protective enzymes made by the genes NAT1, NAT2 and CYP1A2 metabolize those arylamines, trying to render them harmless. The body expels the chemicals through urine, which passes through the bladder. The efficiency of these protective enzymes depends on genes that provide the blueprint for making the enzymes. The genes have variations that produce slightly more or less active enzymes. The research team looked at 159 female bladder cancer patients in Los Angeles and compared them to 164 similar, healthy women, analyzing their genetic makeup through blood and urine samples. They found that those women with a certain variation of a gene, called NAT2 "slow" phenotype, who used permanent hair dye exclusively had nearly triple the chance of bladder cancer as compared to the healthy women. |
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