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“Finding these mutations in non-cancer conditions is largely uncharted territory,” he said. “It’s not just inflammation around endometrial tissue in the wrong place, it’s that there are genetic changes hardwired into the biology of the disorder.”

That finding raises the possibility of using some experimental cancer drugs for the chronic, non-cancer disease, said Anglesio, a scientist at the B.C. Cancer Research Centre.

A low percentage of cases of endometriosis are linked to a type of ovarian cancer, but the study showed that most of the tissue samples had mutations linked to cancer. Thus the study adds to the intrigue about a benign, or non-cancerous, condition that shares the same features and molecular makeup as cancerous growths that lead to tumours in other areas of the body.An editorial in the same issue of the medical journal says it may be that although there are DNA errors in endometriosis, they may not be numerous enough to cause cancer.

“This study does have wide implications beyond gynecologic oncology,” said co-author Dr. Paul Yong, referring to the possibility that mutations usually associated with cancer may not always be so menacing as to cause cancer. But scientists needs to learn more, through a bigger, longer study, about what puts the brakes on the mutations, especially if there are certain “micro-environments” that hinder the transformation of growths from being merely abnormal to becoming malignant.