This Ancient Chitrali Tribe is Resistant to Cancer: Study

Members of an ancient tribe in Chitral have developed strong resistance to cancer thanks to their DNA, researchers at the Abdul Wali Khan University (AWKU) have revealed.

The development comes at the end of a five-year-long study and at a time when the prevalence of risk factors for the disease in Chitral is extremely high.

According to the study, members of ‘Kho Tribe’ in Chitral have generated resistance to cancer due to their DNA and genome. As a result, they might be able to fight cancer. More research is required to determine if the tribe members are immune to the disease.

However, members of the Kho Tribe are equally vulnerable to contracting the disease as they live in an environment where cancer-causing factors are highly prevalent.

These are the revelations of the study published in the European Journal of Human Genetics. The study was launched in 2016 to investigate the genetic history of the Kho Tribe. It involved 116 members including men and women aged between 25 to 35 years.

The study was carried out in collaboration with Chinese, Italian, and Malaysian researchers. It has called for a large-scale study among members of the Kho Tribe to determine whether cancer is prevalent among them or they have developed resistance to the disease at a bigger scale.