Rare HRAS alleles and susceptibility to human breast cancer

The suggestion that inherited rare alleles at the HRAS oncogene locus might be associated with susceptibility to breast cancer led us to test linkage of HRAS and the neighboring region of 11p15 to breast cancer susceptibility in 12 high-risk families. Linkage could be excluded within 17 cM of HRAS; the lod score for close linkage to HRAS was -19.9. In addition, rare HRAS alleles segregated independently of breast cancer in 8 families in which both occurred. Among unrelated breast cancer patients not selected for family history, rare HRAS alleles were slightly, but not significantly, more frequent than among controls (0.11 vs 0.04, P = 0.11). The HRAS region of 11p is not the site of a primary alteration leading to breast cancer.