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Updated: Jul 12, 2026

Identifying the Effects of BRCA1 Mutations on Homologous Recombination using Cells that Express Endogenous Wild-type BRCA1
Published on: February 17, 2011
In search of the tumour-suppressor functions of BRCA1 and BRCA2
1The Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
Abstract:
Hereditary breast and ovarian cancer syndromes can be caused by loss-of-function germline mutations in one of two tumour-suppressor genes, BRCA1 and BRCA2 (ref. 1). Each gene product interacts with recombination/DNA repair proteins in pathways that participate in preserving intact chromosome structure. However, it is unclear to what extent such functions specifically suppress breast and ovarian cancer. Here we analyse what is known of BRCA gene function and highlight some unanswered questions in the field.
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