Refining the role of BRCA1 in combating oxidative stress

The BRCA1 hereditary susceptibility gene has been studied in great depth, befitting its clear role in promoting basal type breast cancer and serous type ovarian (fallopian tube) cancer in women carrying germline mutations. The BRCA1 protein has long been implicated in maintaining genome integrity through DNA repair processes. However, a number of studies have demonstrated that BRCA1 is also involved in the response to oxidative stress. A recent paper by Gorrini and colleagues extends our mechanistic understanding of how BRCA1 regulates this pathway. The relative contribution of this activity in BRCA1-associated tumorigenesis and DNA damage response remains unknown.