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Updated: Feb 27, 2026

Modeling Breast Cancer via an Intraductal Injection of Cre-expressing Adenovirus into the Mouse Mammary Gland
Published on: June 7, 2019
An alternative model for (breast) cancer predisposition
Erik Teugels1, Sylvia De Brakeleer1
1Molecular Oncology, Faculteit Geneeskunde en Farmacie, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Laarbeeklaan 103, Brussel, 1090 Belgium.
Abstract:
While environmental factors can greatly increase cancer risk, it is clear that an individual's genetic constitution has strong impact on tumor formation. Hereby we present an alternative cancer predisposition model built on the assumption that efficiencies of DNA maintenance mechanisms in normal cells are similar but not identical for each person. Small variations in an individual's genetic constitution may result in slightly increased genomic instability and generate typical mutational signatures in normal cells. With recent and expected advances in the next-generation sequencing field, qualitative and quantitative establishment of such mutational signatures in normal tissue must become feasible, and may meanwhile provide a more accurate estimation of individual cancer risks, even in persons without familial antecedents. An additional advantage of this approach is that cancer risk assessment will not strictly rely on the individual's genetic identity, but will also consider other factors (e.g., environmental and age) that can affect genomic integrity.
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