Genetic sequencing different in hereditary breast cancers

The genetic code of two hereditary breast cancer tumors has recently made science news, as researchers discover that both of them looked entirely different.

Researchers from the Breakthrough Breast Cancer Research Centre at the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) found that breast cancers caused by a faulty BRCA1 gene have a completely different genetic makeup. The study also revealed results of three previously undiscovered breast cancer genes.

Professor Jorge Reis-Filho of the ICR said: "This research has big implications for how we treat hereditary breast cancer in the future.

"We often consider patients with a faulty BRCA gene as one group but our work shows that each tumour can look very different from each other genetically. Now we understand this, we can start to identify the best treatment strategies to save more lives of hereditary breast cancer patients."

BRCA1 germline mutations have a high risk of early-onset breast and ovarian cancer. The researchers tracked genetic mutations in ER negative and ER positive subjects, finding that there was a BRCA1 fault, and also that all other mutations were different.

Posted by Fiona Griffiths