Mouse models for breast cancer susceptibility

Breast cancer is the most common form of malignancy in American women. Apart from age, a strong family history of breast cancer confers the highest known risk for neoplastic development by the various etiologic factors identified to date. Four genes have been identified (p53, BRCA1, BRCA2, ATM) that appear to confer substantial predispositions to human breast cancer. Gene targeting techniques have been used to create mice with specific defects in these genes. This review describes the status of these mice as models for breast cancer susceptibility and suggests future research directions which may increase our understanding of breast carcinogenesis.