Identification of Candidate Breast Cancer Susceptibility Genes Using a cDNA Microarray/CGH Approach
Abstract
Familial breast cancer accounts for 15 to 35% of all breast cancers. Mutations in a number of genes are now known to cause susceptibility to breast cancer; the most notorious are the BRCAl and BRCA2 genes. However, it has become evident that not all (or even the majority) of familial breast cancer families can be attributed to mutations in BRCAl and BRCA2. In a recent study by the Breast Cancer Linkage Consortium, only one third of families with four or five cases of female breast cancer and no cases of ovarian cancer carry mutations in either BRCAl or BRCA2. Smaller familial clusters are much more common than families with large numbers of cases, suggesting that a substantial proportion of familial clustering is not accounted for by mutations in BRCAl and BRCA2; therefore, there is a great need to discover other genes that contribute to this disease. We hypothesize that a heterozygous deletion in constitutive DNA or a homozygous deletion in multiple tumors and tumor types from a cancer-prone family will represent a strong candidate cancer predisposing gene. To establish this proof of principle, we have successfully developed a fluorescent- based DNA microarray assay to identify deletions, as small as a single exon, in heterogeneous tumor DNA.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 01, 2002
- Accession Number
- ADA408112
Entities
People
- Andrew K. Godwin
Organizations
- Fox Chase Cancer Center