Scientists "say they've discovered a major reason why women who inherit a mutated version of the gene BRCA1 run a high risk of breast cancer -- and that finding might aid the search for new treatments," according to a study published online in Nature Genetics.
Lead author Ramon Parsons, M.D., Ph.D., director of the breast cancer program at Columbia University Medical Center in New York, and colleagues, stated that another "gene, called PTEN, plays a key role." They said that there is "evidence that in breast cancers associated with a BRCA1 mutation, PTEN is often broken and doesn't get repaired," which "sets off a chemical cascade that leads to malignancy."
Dr. Parsons said that the "findings are exciting because ever since the link was established between BRCA1 and breast cancer more than 10 years ago, we have been frustrated by our lack of understanding about how mutations in this gene cause cancer." He now foresees "'a huge bolus of early clinical trials in the next couple of years' for PTEN drugs."
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