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Mystery of breast cancer risk gene solved, 20 years after its discovery
More than 20 years after scientists revealed that mutations in the BRCA1 gene predispose women to breast cancer, Yale scientists have pinpointed the molecular mechanism that allows those mutations to wreak their havoc.
The findings, reported Oct. 4 in the journal Nature, will not only help researchers design drugs to combat breast and ovarian cancers, but also help identify women who are at high risk of developing them, the authors say.
“There have been about 14,000 papers written about BRCA1, and you would think we already know everything about the gene, but we don’t,” said senior author Patrick Sung, professor of molecular biophysics and biochemistry and of therapeutic radiology and member of the Yale Cancer Center.
