{"id":2930,"date":"2026-03-10T15:29:04","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T15:29:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americanvoiceofhealth.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/10\/tracking-mysteries-of-loss-of-y-chromosome-cancer\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T15:29:04","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T15:29:04","slug":"tracking-mysteries-of-loss-of-y-chromosome-cancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americanvoiceofhealth.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/10\/tracking-mysteries-of-loss-of-y-chromosome-cancer\/","title":{"rendered":"Tracking mysteries of loss of Y chromosome, cancer"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Esther Rheinbay and Luis Antonio Corchete S\u00e1nchez. <\/p>\n

Veasey Conway\/Harvard Staff Photographer<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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\n\t\t\tHealth\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\tTracking mysteries of loss of Y chromosome, cancer\t<\/h1>\n

\n\t\t\tResearch suggests it may explain higher incidence, severity of some disease in men\u00a0\t\t<\/p>\n

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\n\t\tSy Boles\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHarvard Staff Writer\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/address>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\n\t\t\t4 min read\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/header>\n

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The Y chromosome is among the smallest in the human body and carries the fewest genes. Researchers are paying renewed attention to its role in cancer \u2014 specifically, what happens when it vanishes. <\/p>\n

Women typically have two X chromosomes, and men an X and a Y. Men generally face a higher cancer risk<\/a> than women in most shared anatomy, with the biggest differences in bladder, gastric cardia, and larynx disease. Researchers think lifestyle factors, such as diet, exercise, and exposure to carcinogens, explain some of the disparity, but not all.<\/p>\n

Recent evidence suggests the disappearance of the Y chromosome in tumor cells may explain<\/a> some of the gender gap in some cancer types, like kidney cancer. Understanding the connection could eventually lead to new therapies.<\/p>\n

The gradual loss of the Y isn\u2019t unusual. By the time they\u2019re 70 years old, about 40 percent of men have lost at least some of the Y chromosome in their blood cells. In addition, the chromosome is frequently lost in tumors.<\/p>\n

The Y chromosome primarily carries genes that provide instructions for male sex differentiation and fertility. But it also carries some known to suppress tumor growth \u2014 a protective ability that is lost if those genes are damaged or destroyed.<\/p>\n

Luis Antonio Corchete S\u00e1nchez, a postdoctoral research fellow at the Krantz Family Center for Cancer Research at Mass General Brigham Cancer Institute and co-author of a recent review article<\/a> on the issue in the journal Trends in Cancer, likens Y-chromosome gene loss to library books sent through a paper shredder: \u201cYou\u2019ve lost those books forever; you can never recover that information,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Loss of the Y chromosome, or LOY, in tumors is a separate process from aging-related LOY, said Esther Rheinbay, Corchete S\u00e1nchez\u2019s co-author. About 30 percent of primary tumors in men harbor either complete or partial LOY. In papillary renal cell carcinoma, a type of kidney cancer, the rates may be as high as 80 percent. <\/p>\n

But the causality is far from clear. Scientists don\u2019t know whether LOY causes tumors to grow, or whether LOY and tumor growth both result from some third process. The answer may vary by type of cancer, or even by individual patient. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe know, at least in some tumor types, Y chromosome loss occurs very early in tumor evolution, but probably along with other alterations,\u201d said Rheinbay, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and principal investigator at the Krantz Family Center. \u201cOne thing we\u2019re trying to understand is: What\u2019s the order of events? Is [LOY] oncogenic on its own, or does it need collaborators? That\u2019s something we simply don\u2019t know yet.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time we find more insight into the loss of the Y chromosome, we find more questions and more potential research gaps,\u201d said Corchete S\u00e1nchez. <\/p>\n

Studies of people with less common chromosome patterns, like males with an extra X chromosome or females missing or partly missing an X chromosome, suggest that X chromosomes may offer some protection against solid tumors, while the presence of a Y chromosome is associated with greater cancer risk.<\/p>\n

But the little chromosome has proven frustratingly difficult to study.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Y chromosome is really rich in repetitive regions, so it\u2019s hard to decide where the signal is coming from,\u201d Rheinbay explained. \u201cTogether with the fact that it\u2019s small, and there are very few genes relevant for cancer, it\u2019s been deprioritized in analysis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rheinbay\u2019s team has been developing specialized tools to better define the status of the Y chromosome in cancer.<\/p>\n

The same peculiarities that make the Y chromosome hard to study also offer promising opportunities for new cancer therapies. <\/p>\n

\u201cLOY in cancer cells leads to this exposed X chromosome,\u201d Rheinbay said. \u201cBecause that doesn\u2019t happen in most other cells, there\u2019s a therapeutic window where we can potentially treat those cancer cells, and they will be way more sensitive to the drug than the normal cells with Y chromosome. That\u2019s what we want: a treatment that kills the cancer but doesn\u2019t hurt normal cells.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s exciting to venture into an area that has not been explored,\u201d added Rheinbay. \u201cAnd always thinking about the impact we could have on patient treatment makes it very exciting and very motivating.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Esther Rheinbay and Luis Antonio Corchete S\u00e1nchez. Veasey Conway\/Harvard Staff Photographer Health Tracking mysteries of loss of Y chromosome, cancer Research suggests it may explain higher incidence, severity of some disease in men\u00a0 Sy Boles Harvard Staff Writer February 26, 2026 4 min read The Y chromosome is among the smallest in the human body …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2931,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"loftocean_post_primary_category":0,"loftocean_post_format_gallery":"","loftocean_post_format_gallery_ids":"","loftocean_post_format_gallery_urls":"","loftocean_post_format_video_id":0,"loftocean_post_format_video_url":"","loftocean_post_format_video_type":"","loftocean_post_format_video":"","loftocean_post_format_audio_type":"","loftocean_post_format_audio_url":"","loftocean_post_format_audio_id":0,"loftocean_post_format_audio":"","loftocean-featured-post":"","loftocean-like-count":0,"loftocean-view-count":97,"tinysalt_single_post_intro_label":"","tinysalt_single_post_intro_description":"","tinysalt_hide_post_featured_image":"","tinysalt_post_featured_media_position":"","tinysalt_single_site_header_source":"","tinysalt_single_custom_site_header":"0","tinysalt_single_custom_sticky_site_header":"0","tinysalt_single_custom_sticky_site_header_style":"sticky-scroll-up","tinysalt_single_site_footer_source":"","tinysalt_single_custom_site_footer":"0","footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-staying-healthy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanvoiceofhealth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanvoiceofhealth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanvoiceofhealth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanvoiceofhealth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanvoiceofhealth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/americanvoiceofhealth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2930\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanvoiceofhealth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanvoiceofhealth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanvoiceofhealth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanvoiceofhealth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}