One in a hundred people with Orkney heritage have gene increasing risk of cancer

Mutation likely to have come from a founder individual from the island who lived at least 250 years ago

One in a hundred people with Orkney heritage have a gene mutation that increases the risk of breast and ovarian cancer, according to a study.

Researchers spotted the gene variant repeatedly in women from the archipelago off the north-eastern coast of Scotland who had the cancers, and clinical genealogy showed that patients with the variant had family roots tracing back to the island of Westray.