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SUTTON, England, Oct 12, 2006 (UPI via COMTEX) -- British researchers say women with mutations in a gene called BRIP1 have twice the normal risk of breast cancer.
Scientists at the Institute of Cancer Research in Sutton, England, say mutations in three genes -- BRCA1, BRCA2, and TP53 -- are known to greatly increase the chance of developing breast cancer over a lifetime.
Nazneen Rahman and colleagues screened 1,212 women with breast cancer who did not have mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2. They were screened for mutations in BRIP1.
The researchers found nine of those women had mutations in the BRIP1 gene, which most likely inactivates the BRIP1 protein.
The authors estimate BRIP1 mutations result in an approximately two-fold increase in the risk of breast cancer. They believe mutations in those so-called low-penetrance susceptibility genes likely only predispose to cancer in concert with other mutations and environmental factors and account for only a small fraction of the familial risk of breast cancer.
BRIP1 is involved in DNA repair, lending support to the idea that unrepaired DNA damage is a key trigger for breast cancer development.
The study appears in the journal Nature Genetics.
URL: www.upi.com Copyright 2006 by United Press International
